fortymile: 2014

Saturday, November 1, 2014

Fast Time Strikes Again

My ancestors who were subject to Daylight Savings Time detested it. They were all farmers and farmers work on sun time. They started work when the sun rose and stopped when the sun set. My great grandfather Matthew L. and my grandfather Earl would set the clock at the farm using a table giving time of sunrise for each day of the year. That was the first task in the morning. In those days there could be as many as 40 people working on the farm in the summer. The virtue of sun time is that the apex of the sun's travel is always 12 noon. No one had watches then, but at this latitude it was easy to tell when it was noon. You faced north standing straight up. If you could place your foot on the shadow of your head, it was noon and time to go home for dinner. Dinner was at noon. Even my father hated "fast time" because he would lose an extra hour of work if he had an evening meeting. The railroads were the culprits. They needed uniform time to keep trains and people on schedule. All towns followed it. But out in the country, who cared! But I live in town now, and will spend way too much time taking all the clocks in house and vehicles off fast time tomorrow.

Virgin River Falls

Monday, September 22, 2014

Fall Is here

Even fall is late this year. It arrives about 10:30 PM today. Bobby Higgins and Mike Young started harvesting soybeans last Saturday in Oak Run Township. There is a bit of speculation that Bobby's call was an extra inducement to Mike. Our soybeans won't be started until the first of next month. Everything was late this year on the Rea farm.

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Sunday, August 10, 2014

Mt Rainiar Ten Years Ago

Fall is Coming

Making Hay

Making hay is one of the earliest memories I have of the farm. Hay was essential for feeding the animals through the winter months. It was the basic winter feed for the horses and the cattle... both beef cattle and the milking cows. This was one of the most important summer activities on the farm.

When we first moved back to the farm in 1946, the Moorman road was still a gravel road. That summer i road on the hay wagon in the field just north and west of the Turkey Run bridge. Francie Holland farms it now. At that time we did not bale hay, it was stored loose in the haymow of the barns. The haymow being the second floor of any barn we had. The hay was mowed, dried in the sun and then raked into windrow. The hay wagon had no sides but did have two vertical wooden posts at the back to keep the lose hay from falling off the back A hay walker was hitched to the back of the wagon. The hay walker would pick the hay up and 'walk' it up an inclined plane to about 12 feet above the wagon bed where it would fall onto the wagon. Men on the wagon would use pitch forks to distribute it evenly on the wagon. This was very hot, dirty work, with all that dried hay falling onto the wagon.

When the wagon was full, it would be pulled to the barn to be unloaded. There an elaborate mechanism of ropes, tracks, pullys and 'knives' was used to lift the hay off the wagon, lift it into the mow and deposit it is strategic spots in the mow. First the set of 4 knives (curved pieces of metal approximately 4 feet long) was lowered to the wagon and they were set to grasp a clump of hay that weighed perhaps 150 pounds. Once that was set, a tractor or team of horses would list the hay by pulling a rope until it was lifted to a track fixed to the topmost beam in the barn roof. At that point the entire assembly would unlock, allowing it to be moved along the track freely using another guide rope. When the hay was positioned properly, a trip rope was pulled which collapsed the knives and dropped the hay to the floor where more men with pitchforks distributed it evenly. This was an amazing mechanical device that saved a lot of labor in filling the various barns on the farm.

There were a total of 9 barns that I remember. The barn at Wilson's is the one I remember the loose hay apparatus being used. There was also a large barn at Ed Browns house, at the home place, and at Shorty Valentines house. There was also the sheep barn, the cattle barn, the colt barn and the milking barn at the home place. There were smaller barns at Tommy Byrd's house and at Mart's old place. This gives a good indication of how much haying was done at one time at the farm.

The first hay baler was a Case model that required two men to ride on the baler itself to tie the bales. There was no automatic mechanism to tie the bale. A bale is a compressed, rectangular package of hay that weighs from 50 to 100 pounds. While either twine or wire can be used, my father would only use wire. You could make the bales heavier that way. A twine tied bale usually weighs 60 pounds, while a wire bale weighs significantly more. The actual weight depends on the dryness of the hay, but 80 pounds was the usual weight of our bales.

Everyone detested that Case baler and when My father gave the men a choice of a new truck for hauling grain and livestock or a new, automatic baler in 1950, the reaction was unanimous... new baler. This required only three men to operate, one to drive the tractor and two to load the wagon. There were usually 5 layers of bales on the wagon with a 6th level of single bales that put in the middle that helped tie the two haves together.

Hay season started in June, after school was out and planting was done. It would last until wheat harvest started in the middle of July. It is long, exhausting work that never seems to end. Loading the wagons is the better work as you are moving and there is a bit of breeze. Unloading the wagons is the really hot work. The temperature in the haymow can be 110 degrees, it is dusty and there is not a breath of air to be found. You quickly begin to yearn for rain for a respite. While you are working you continually scan the sky for signs of rain. Much of the time you are disappointed! There is one condition of the sky that looks like sure rain, but the rain never comes. When doing hay, you quickly learn to recognize this teaser.

Technology has marched on and hay is now formed into large rolls that can only be manipulated by machinery. In the US the rolls are either 900 pounds or 500 pounds. A very small piece of machinery picks up the hay and compresses it into a roll. When complete, it is wrapped in a strong plastic mesh and the tractor driver backs the machine up and when it is pulled forward again, the roll is disgourged and the next bale is begun. Only one person is needed to process the hay. Later the rolls are moved with special loaders that pick these up one at a time. They are often stored in a row at the edge of a feedlot, covered in white plastic to keep the rain off.

In Europe, the rolls are smaller, weighing approximately 300 pounds. The same techniques are used for processing straw. StrawIn any event they cannot be moved by muscle power now. The haying process is solitary occupation now.

Blackstar

A horse is freedom on four legs, a magic carpet ride for a kid! At first I just rode on the farm. But as I grew, so did my boundaries. London, Newport and cousin Rick’s house near Kioseville. I was not the only kid with a horse and we would go camping with our horses. The trick was to hobble the horses so they could not stray too far. I once woke up to see Blackstar’s rear end hanging over my head! On one of these trips I shot a duck on the wing with a 22. That and field corn was our dinner. My horse riding days lasted until I could drive a car. Blackstar was given to my cousins on the farm next to ours. She was struck by lightening while standing under a tree during a storm. What a sweet horse she was!