[mitchmaine]

well said carl. regionally we are all up against the same hay gods and we each win and lose some of the battles. its easy to put wonderful hay in the barn when the sun is shining and weather is in our favor. its much harder, but more important I think, in a poor year to put up as much hay regardless of quality as possible. cause all the neighbors are in the same boat, and in mid winter, there is always something that can be done with any kind of hay. we all have sold some pretty iffy hay to others trying to get through the winter, and its good for all concerned. beats feeding them snowballs. clean out the barn in the spring and wait for beautiful june hay to come in but take what you get and try not to take it personal cause everyone lives under the same cloud.

[mitchmaine]

hey Geoff,
curious about your weather out there and haymaking. what is your typical summer rainfall? do you rely on winter snowfall for the water for your crop? is irrigation out? interested in anything you might say on making hay on the high plains. eastern Washington, right? the Palouse?

[mitchmaine]

hey donn,
seems like the more sophisticated that our tools get, the less accurate the weather prediction is.
I don’t know why that is. I used to work for this old fisherman. he always knew what the weather was going to do. I watched him do it for eight years and he was always right. not that it mattered, cause we fished every day no matter what it was doing. I can’t seem to do it. sorry about your hay. I have a batch down and good weather predicted til weds. penny asked if I was going to mow this morning but I think i’m going to take it one cut at a time. we bale this lot tomorrow and who knows what tomorrow will bring. good luck there.
mitch

[mitchmaine]

hey ed,
the second crop is coming along fine here. only its down underneath the first crop.
noaa says fair weather Friday on. good luck!

[mitchmaine]

we seem to be socked in under the jet stream, bringing our weather up from the gulf, instead of central Canada. don’t think we have it as bad as you folk in Vermont by the sound, but its been rain or chance of showers for two weeks now. and hot and humid half of that.
we had a run of this a few years ago where we made hay twice in july and had to make what we could in august of not very pretty hay. I have finally made it down to, and am feeding out that very hay. it don’t look too good, but the horses eat a bale each every day, along with pulling grass each night. thought I was finally getting rid of that hay, and now it looks like i’m going to replace it with the same stuff. darn.

[mitchmaine]

they called the 9 bar loader a greencrop loader around here. never saw or heard anyone using them that way, and they weren’t that common here either, but there nwere lots of hayloaders around. the kicker wagon is a great idea for building a load. super.

[mitchmaine]

you can have my tedder donn. dumped two acres beautyiful hay yesterday, the most glorious day god ever created. pure joy. north dry wind with the smell of freshcut grass. then i hauled the tedder out of the treeline and it had a flat tire. ok. so four hours later still trying. i pulled the tedder till the tire broke down, pulled the tube patched it and put it back together and it went down. so i tried doing it the right way and the greatest minds in our town have yet to come up with a solution for pulling the wheel noff this tedder. every mechanic within ten miles gotr the story and came running. now its a thing and we are re assembling this morning to either fix it or blow it up for scrap. and we still have to deal with the baler

[mitchmaine]

hi donn,
i really like your sliding pole idea. i have two separate pole for each cart that are not interchangeable and you can probably imagine that mix-up.
anyways i’m doing the math here, trying to keep the short pole short enough to load hay from a chute off the tail end of the baler, and keep the extension long enough to give the horses room in front of the wagon AND have two feet of overlap. something has to give here, i’m considering lengthening out the bale chute which is do-able. could you measure out each section of pole ends for a starter. it could help me out. thanks bud

[mitchmaine]

I think we are fighting the same beast, mike. The grand banks and browns and georges pushes the gulf stream way to the eastward. The water in the gulf of maine is 34 degrees summer and winter and good for codfish only. The prevailing winds whip out over the gulf, load up with moisture and bring it back and dump it on us year round. The only thing you can count on is that whatever the weatherman says will not happen. That you can take to the bank, but it still leaves us with too many options, and in the end its still just a crapshoot. I got too good at selling hay this winter, so now my horses are eating hay you wouldn’t buy for mulch. Ha! You goota love it, right? Thanks for the note.

[mitchmaine]

hey geoff, still waiting for dry ground here. had it a few days ago, but not enough drying time before saturdays 1.6″, yesterdays 1.8 and todays half inch. too much water. it’ll be a week or ten days till we can get on our heavy clay, and then we need three northwest days to make it. alot to ask for it seems, but it happens when its ready. good luck with your haying. do you have wheat in? i got a chance to drill an acre and a half of oats and this rain is actually helping them. best wishes, mitch

[mitchmaine]

hey ed,
grass looking good here. but the ground is still holding a lot of water, and if i went through the swales a couple times it would be a mud run.
we look due east of conway and maybe middlebury in vermont. if you get over this way stop in for sure. it’d be great to talk.

mitch

[mitchmaine]

hey ed,
we are probably pretty close to east west of each other? and may have similar weather. we are on the 44th parallel. although i bet you are higher altitude. we are kinda coastal here, about thirty miles on a straight line off the water between the androscoggin and kennebec, at about 300 feet. in summer when the land heats up and the wind switches and comes off the water, they call it the one o’clock breeze and it can be helpful making hay but a devil when it comes` to raking. lots of hay devils. when you can hear the train whistle from here, it means you have about 24 hours tops to get your hay made and in before a good rain, but the trains are just about gone along with my haymakin’ abilities. weather settles by early july, and thats our best chance. good luck with it bud.
mitch

[mitchmaine]

11 days of the last two weeks have been rain or showers. six inches or so by now. standing water so it will be a stretch before we can lay any down. even with a tedder, it takes three good days in june (maine) to make proper hay with dry ground under neath, so i try and keep enough hay in the barn to go through til 4th of july. i love june hay and so do the horses after their winter diet. if i can’t make any, i still knock some down and pitch it in green to them. by the third week in june i’m itching to get going. good luck out there this summer, its going to be the best one ever.
mitch

[mitchmaine]

let us know how you like the plow, and see if you can “see” a walking plow in there somewhere. thanks geoff. oh, i found a couple walking gang plows too. just a gang without a seat to me.

[mitchmaine]

hey geoff,

found a picture of a p.&o. walking plow with a conversion kit attached. two wheels with adjustable levers and a seat. still had the wooden handles in the rear. also, a set of small adjustable wheels for the front of a walking plow, the disadvantage being you couldn’t lay the plow over. you had to pick the point up and carry it to the ground.

nothing around here like that.

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