Final Hay crop is in!

Monday Dad was turning the hay to help it dry faster so it could be baled! Kai was here when I needed to check on Dad. We drove down the lane acrossed the street from the Jordan River Temple to the fields that my Dad still farms. Kai had brought a ball with him because he had played catch in the pasture on Saturday with Annie Travoto and assumed that we were going into the field to play catch!.
Dad had broken the chain on the "Fluffer" and we needed to return home for some replacement parts and the tools needed to fix it. (Hang in there, we are only getting started) Kyle and Amanda also came to help.
Tuesday we were able to bale the hay, but not until later in the afternoon because the dew was very heavy that morning and it took all day for the hay to be dry enough to bale.
Now we are at Wednesday! Everything is baled, at 10AM Dad said we would be hauling the hay today, Dad thought we had just about enough bales to make the sale of "Three Loads" Kyle had sold to a friend in South Jordan, So close we can deliver. "Wha hoo" But don't think it is over yet. Before we get started I noticed that one of the tires on the Bale Wagon was flat, Dad drove the tractor with the Bale Wagon in tow to the Tesoro for air, $1.50 in quarters later he was back to start again. Tenth bale, or once down and back up the length of the field, and the PTO (Power Take Off) simply fell apart while we, or should I say, while I was walking by it's side. (I walked the entire field by the side of the bale wagon to make sure the Bales didn't hangup.) So twenty minutes and very black greasey hands later we are once again "Hauling Hay".
69 bales and we are ready to deliver the first load. I followed Dad up 10400 South thru the construction and behind the street sweeper, atleast the long line of cars and trucks behind us couldn't blame us for being so slow, we could only go as fast as the "street sweeper" ahead of us. The stack stood up, didn't lose any, made a good strong stack. Delivery complete! Only two loads left.
On the second load, We were 10 bales shy of a full load out of the bottom field, so Dad pulled to the second field for last 10 bales. Another Flat Tire. I was very glad we had Dads' truck there. Back home for the Compressor, 10 minutes to let it fully charge, bathroom break and refill the water bottles. Back to the field. Pumped the tire full but discovered that the valve stem was broken and so we had a rather fast "slow leak". Plans were made to follow Dad West on 10400 South to Redwood then south to Les Schwab for a Tire repair. Although the young men there are great with the area farmers, never charging them for any repairs on "Farm Equipment", usually it will take awhile and this was no exception. So by now it is 4PM and the traffic is getting heavy. (For those of you keeping track of time, that is just a mere 6 hours since we started and we are only half way thru.) After a quick Jump Start for the Tractor, we are on our way again. We pull on to Redwood Rd. headed north to 10400 South to get back on track for the delivery of the second load. Yeh right, At the intersection of Redwood and 10400 the Tractor stalls and needs to be jumped again. I pull from behind the bale wagon to along side the tractor. (Into an area on the road that was painted to let you know not to use that lane during the current construction). The truck warning or caution Flashers are going, cars are being waved around us. The tractor gets jumped and slowly starts to roll back down the hill, oh dear no one is on the tractor because we were standing next to it. Trying to get it started by hot wiring it. I run to catch it and stand on the brake, but alas not before it hit the minivan behind it. Lucky for us it only rolled a few feet. Why would anyone pull within two feet of a loaded Bale Wagon, on a hill no less, especially when you could see that people were out of the vehicles working on the tractor pulling said Bale Wagon?
Because the damage was minor, we were able to move off the road into a parking lot close by. It only took 10 minutes for the Police officer to make an appearance, (we were within sight of the Police Station) so then after another 40 minutes with extreme rush traffic at it's best we are once again on our way to the delivery sight. Slowly we travel thru the construction zone again. It's going to get better. The Bale shute on the front side of the wagon has finally given it's last sigh and slowly lowering into the pickup position, which just happens to make the width of this specialized farm equipment wider than the alloted space in the construction lane. Translation, Dad is now knocking down Orange cones on a very regular basis. More than one flag person pointed and laughed. They are a strange bunch, but that will have to wait for another post.
On to the delivery site. With the bale shute down the gate is not wide enough. I was running as fast as I could from the truck to try and catch up before too much damage occured. But to no avail. One bent Bale Shute, one bent gate post and a very abrupt stop later, But I can say The unloading went very well, it lined up and stood up without any problems. Well we deserved having atleast that go right today didn't we.
A short conversation with the man accepting the delivery, We found a piece of baling twine and tied the pickup shute in the up or out of use position and on we go again.
Traffic is still very heavy but most people seem to know that the older farmers drive by seniority, in our neighborhood anyway.
As we pull off the road to make the turn into the field for the last load, Dad motions me to go home, he says he can get the last load and I should get ready to go with Jolyn to the "Taste of Home" cooking show. No Way I was leaving him at that point. He was not very happy with me, maybe we were both just a little tired and a lot hungry.
Jolyn pulled into the field right behind us. She said she would do two rows and we could alternate, this is a much easier plan that we usually implement when there are two or more helping. Sound like all is going well, but not yet!
The bale shute is released to the pickup position, tractor linedup on the row of bales and off we go. First baled gets stuck in the shute that was bent only slightly when we hit the gate but just enough to no allow the bale through to the table. Now We are on our way home to make repairs.
I called Kyle, explained the day to him, the same one you have just so patiently read about. He said he was on a job site but could be there in 45 minutes.
I took a Shower! Dad and Jolyn heated and straightened the pickup shute. Kyle arrived. Jolyn and I left for Richfield to spend the next 48 hours with Brian, Robyn, Shae and Wyatt. Attend the "Taste of Home" cooking demo and just chill. I talked with Don about two hours later, the hay is all delivered or in the barn. The final crop is completed for this year. The Swather is back against the back fence, key removed. The Baler is under the hay barn so we can repair the PTO that gave it's all just after the last bale. The Bale Wagon still has 12 bales but is in the out of use position for the next 6 or 8 months. This is the Story of the Third crop but don't worry if you happened to miss the first and second crop, it read just about the same, with the exception that I wasn't here for the stack to be unloaded and most of Second crop had to be restacked.
I truly Love my Dad, I would not trade the experiences I have while working by his side for anything, but sometimes I just have to vent.