[Carl Russell]

Well rinsed…. Just got in from tedding, and although it got pretty wet last evening, we have gone 24 hr without rain. Still had green clumps, with some bleaching, but mostly still looks good. It will all come down to whether we get wet tonight, and how the weather breaks tomorrow. I will ted and rake it tomorrow, and if all is good, bale it……. or leave it in the windrow until it dries out again….

Hanging in there, Carl

[Carl Russell]

I would not classify this area as lucky…. I am just pushing the envelope….. Rain did not hold off this afternoon… at least it will be well rinsed hay… if it ever dries….

Carl

[Carl Russell]

I usually don’t let my hay lay longer than 24 hours without doing something to it….. Ideally I mow, ted 3x, rake, then bale within 3 days.

Bottom line on this field is I want the baled feed from this cutting, or I would brush-hog it. I have found that grass cut with a sickle bar is still there under a second cut, clogging cutter bars, and coming up in the bales anyway. I cut this field to get hay, but I also couldn’t wait any longer… who knows, maybe a few days from now things would be better, but I went with intuition.

However, if it gets wet too often, or stays wet too long, I will bale it up for mulch because it is too heavy,and at this point will just complicate re-growth and second cut hay.

Brush-hogging will chop the heavy grass into smaller bits that get closer to the soil and break down faster…. like I said, if I didn’t want this feed, I would have rather just mulched it with the brush-hog…..

Anyway, I went out about 2 pm to ted hay that was mowed from 4-7pm last night and lightly rained on. It had wilted pretty well by 2, but had been too wet earlier. Thunder started about 20 minutes into the field, and by the last two rounds we were getting rained on….. I have made hay over many years, but that was a first… tedding hay in the rain.

It rained lightly for about an hour and then the sun came out hard and hot, fog set in now, but I’m sure we’ll have a bit more drying before the day is out. I will probably try to ted it twice tomorrow and wind-row it before dark to protect it from rain tomorrow night. Then if it is hay, I’ll roll the wind-rows a time or two during the heat on Sunday and bale it….

Can’t watch the sky when making hay….

[Carl Russell]

Mowed 2.5 acres of heavy hay last evening, with clouds darkening and thunder rolling around the hills. The skies unloaded on my last swathe, which the horses seemed to appreciate as it had been damn close 90° when I started at 4pm. Really only grazed us, and the sky is clear and the sun is hot this morning. Going to toss it over this afternoon, and see how long we can hold off the rain. At least my wife is always looking for mulch hay on her gardens, although I’d really hate to put all 125ish bales into that…. we’ll see, Carl

[Carl Russell]

I’m mowing this afternoon…. If good weather prevails we’ll be picking it up. Otherwise I’ll be letting it mulch back into the ground. Either way it’s going down, or we’ll lose any chance of a good later crop. Bed straw is in full bloom, grasses are still green, but definitely mature… luckily there is a good proportion of Timothy which has just barely matured.

Could cut this haze with an axe….. really doesn’t feel like hay, but I’m sick of waiting. It’s all going to depend on how Saturday turns out….

Carl

[Carl Russell]

Loading logs always seems to be a downer for folks, but spending a little bit of time and ingenuity allows for much more efficient and comfortable work for the team. Like Tom says, “Team Morale”, is a huge component of actually getting work done with animals. The old craft that is hardest to resurrect is not harnessing the power of the animals, rather understanding what we need to do to make the work more effective.

While I have never used a go-devil much, typically using a cart/arch, or the bobsled, the simplicity, versatility, and draft advantage make it one of the most effective tools for animal-powered logging for sure.

Carl

[Carl Russell]

Thanks Josh….

Carl

[Carl Russell]

Very nice Tim. I used that first method on my big cattle years ago…. I can’t remember where I found the diagram, but it was amazing how well it works.

Thanks for sharing. I was also interested in a general summary of the gathering.

Carl

[Carl Russell]

Very nice George…

Carl

[Carl Russell]

I think Billy points out the balance we all strive for…. Unfortunately, safety seems to be a function of the degree of risk you are willing to take.

I hitch my horses in a similar fashion to George when working in the woods. In fact, I don’t want to be too presumptuous, but he may have followed my example. However, I want to be clear, I do not take off bridles, nor give them any food…. this is purely a parking brake for when I am away from the cart cutting trees.

I could see doing something similar in other situations, as I did the other day when I needed to work on the baler, took a chain and “parked” the horses and cart to a tree in the shade of a hedge-row. My horses are conditioned to standing quietly when working in the cart, from hours in the woods waiting with hitches behind them, so I feel comfortable leaving them like this, although not entirely unsupervised…. I’m usually within easy sight, and check on them regularly.

I will admit I get the same feeling that was expressed by Jereon when I see horses without bridles still hitched to an implement…. truthfully it probably is not any less safe than what I just described, other than the distraction of the food, and having no way to control the heads in case of emergency.

That being said, if I am going to take off bridles, and if I am going to offer feed, then I always unhitch, unbridle, halter, and tie off.

Carl

[Carl Russell]

Recognizing that it requires a serious time commitment, most sites like this have at least one Moderator that acts as host, starting discussions, boosting posts, and generally creating a welcoming environment to inspire sharing.

It would also be the responsibility of such a person to make sure that the amenities like photo-sharing, links, and messaging are functioning to the liking of the participants, and acting as a go-to person for concerns and interests.

Without this, leaving it up to folks to read for themselves out-dated information, and to just decide on their own that the forum is not meeting their needs, will just lead to a ever-diminishing cycle.

Carl

[Carl Russell]

Yes, Bill we sheared a bolt the other day in double windrows, so in the clip you can see I made them more reasonable…. that way the horses can walk along comfortably…

George, I meant to say that we had hay in the field on Wednesday night, but didn’t have time, or energy to rake and/or bale that night….. then we chose to ted again Thursday morning to knock the dew off… probably added another 1/2 day for sure, but the weather was good enough to have more flexibility.

Carl

[Carl Russell]

Here is a clip of the baler in action….

[Carl Russell]

Here is a clip of the tedder and Timber…

[Carl Russell]

George, we mowed Monday night, then tedded Tuesday afternoon after the rain stopped and the sun got hot for a few hours. Then we tedded twice on Tuesday, and mowed another acre in between. Tedded both pieces yesterday, then raked and baled the first. Tedded and raked the second this AM, will bale in a few hours.

Basically Tuesday was a throw away day, we just tedded then because we were trying to keep up, but it got soaked pretty good from the rain. I cut on Monday even though I knew Tuesday was going to be wet, just to get the mowing out of the way before the weather broke in our favor. I’d much rather have green grass get rained on, then to have almost dry hay get wet, or sit through overcast.

I’m using a Nicholson GD fluffer/tedder behind my Barden Cart. It really does a pretty good job, provided there is hot sun to dry the hay.

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