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Amen Bob Amen Just wait till you get down here I am sure you will fit in just fine. Some people are born Texan others of us just got here as quick as we could. It has been my observation that even some of the Texans are not Redneck and some have to taught how to be one. Some of them kicking and screaming.
Redman
You still got baling wire? Where I grew up that went away over 40 years ago. Baler twine through leather gloves was bad enough. Dating ourselves aren't we? My father always kept a coil of #9 wire hanging in the shop. Kept a bale of baler twine there, too. Both came in real handy quite often. Way better than plastic zip strips or duct tape! Hose clamps sounds like the right stuff, though, just be careful not to crush your injector tube. Adding that handle is a real good idea, whether you continue to wear gloves or not. FWIW there is hightemp duct tape available in most hardware stores that sell chimney sections, made to stand up to the kind of heat you are dealing with. I can't remember the price - not cheap - but you might want to compare it with the hose clamps. Once it takes a cook though it is permanent.Quote:
Originally Posted by pondhopper
Sure I still got bailing wire . we still make square bales In OK. Not as many as once but the farm and ranch still carries it . Can't do the duct tape . Won't never come of and it gets nasty .Yes sir there are a few of us getting a little long in the tooth . I don't mind much . You go along saying wish I was 16 , 18, 20 , 45 , Then you go a while and you hit a time when your just glad to see the sun come up . Finally the time comes when you just hope your depends are on straight and don't bunch up .
I remember when we quit putting up loose hay, we went right to twine tied square bales. There were some wire ties for the oats straw from before that. We were always able to put all our hay and straw under a roof. The big barn had ground to rail of 40', and could hold 10,000 bales, the cow barn somewhat less, and then the hog barn got straw in the overhead. That got real wicked in the peak, if it was hot at all. When I was a jonker I spent more time on the rack behind the baler than up on the stack; got pretty good with a hook in those days :). We never really did all that much really, just what was needed for the stock on the place. My old man never sold a bale, straw or hay, IIRC, and never had to buy any either.
The smell of fresh cut alfalfa is about as sweet as it gets, too. Oats dust and straw is just about all the way on the other end of the spectrum.
I'd still like to haul a few ton of square bales for old time sake . Love the smell of alfalfa ,ain't hauling the itchy stuff . When you're sweaty it sticks every open place it can . Won't be shoveling any more oats into bins either breathed all that I'm going to . And . Then I may be getting old but I'd still like to go back and chase a few more farmers daughters . Was a couple I wish I'd'a took that load of rock salt in the tail for . I had a fowl disease then . It was called being CHICKEN.
There is an art to making high quality alfalfa hay. We got taught by the neighbor who baled for us when we switched from loose to square bales. He was a dairy man and the hay had to be just so or he wouldn't feed it to his cows, still green in color, with the leaves still on the stem, but dry enough not to burst into flames. Too dry and he would actually stop baling just as quick as if it were too wet. If the baler is throwing a cloud of leaves, it was too dry for him. He made sure of his own crop and that system worked well for us, too. We scheduled together while he did our baling.
There is going to be some chaff, of course, but oats straw is far sharper and a whole lot dirtier than alfalfa handled correctly.
It went right on the rack behind the baler, too, and then right to the stack or into the barn. That is a matter of timing first in cutting at early bloom, before the stems get too coarse, then conditioning the newly cut hay (crimping) so that it dries quickly and then in baling promptly. His system worked to cut 18 or 20 acres one morning and have it all baled up and in storage by the end of the next afternoon most times, a matter of careful timing, pretty much like all cropping is anyway and enough of a crew to do it all at once as well.
I never had all that much respect for round bales, but square bales those worked out real well, especially if they went into a barn, which I guess a lot of farmers don't do anymore. Back then it was easier to assemble a work crew, too, since the farms were smaller and there were more available hands to hire into a crew or to trade labor with. I guess times change.
Gloves??? Lol I tried them once.... Like sucking a nipple through a wool sweater... I just take a break when my injector gets too hot. Good idea, I might do the same... Gotta find an old thermos around here... And I'm in Va and currently have bailing wire in the bed of my chevy lol not a self proclaimed redneck, however anyone north of the Maryland line would probably call me one.
You sound like a guy I'd like . If I'm not mistaken they still sell those replacement handles for a Stanley thermos .
The handle off an old tea pot could probably be made to work, too. Just hit a couple of garage or estate sales next weekend. Shouldn't cost more than a little gas and a few cents for the 'raw materials'. You never know just what kind of treasure you might find at one of those things and generally for pennies on the dollar. Or maybe just a quick trip to the local Sally Boys or Goodwill.Quote:
Originally Posted by pondhopper
It sounds to me like there is a cottage industry potential for making attachable heat proof handles for those injectors.
Baling wire always reminds me of back in the days before they combined corn, when it was picked in the ear and cribbed to dry down. Every local area had its itinerant corn sheller. The one around where I grew up carried a rat terrier on the passenger seat and his tool box consisted of a ball pein hammer, an oversized pair of pliers and baling wire. When he could no longer get baling wire to hold together his shelling truck, he quit shelling and got a job as a local town marshall. That forced him to sober up a bit, too, since his shelling office was a local tavern. That enabled him to get to the volunteer fire station first when the siren went off. He always claimed one needed to be half in the tank to drive the tanker truck. Nobody else agreed with him, but that assured that the volunteers got to the station real fast. They trained pretty hard and were a real good crew for all that the town only ever had less than 250 people.