We found out Saturday afternoon that our long awaited truck load of hay was gong to be heading our way. We have been trying to get this load for nearly a month now. First it was trying to find hay, then it was trying to get it hauled and delivered. Now, with the unsettled weather coming in we were, like most of the others in our situation, getting a bit nervous about not having the hay in the barn.

The hay hauler had called at 8:30 pm Saturday night to say he was loaded and going to arrive around 7:00 am Sunday. Wow! Well... maybe! To unload a truckload of hay, we usually have a gizmo they call a "hay squeeze" to unload. It has forks that smash the hay all together and they lift it off the truck and put it in the barn. Well, we didn't have a squeeze available on such short notice so we had to get a bit creative.

Luckily, or not... these are bigger bales than most people are used to seeing. These are 4x4x8 bales that weigh about 2000 pounds each. Don't think I am going to be able to help move them around much, but luckily we had some tractors and some wonderful operators available to put it all together. We put some rinky dink forks on a tractor and tried to lift the bales - that didn't work as we kept breaking the strings that hold them together. Then we went to stabbing the bale with one tractor and pushing on the other side with another tractor. WooHoo! it worked! All of the bales of hay are now in the barn, and winter can now come.

I think we are ready now on this Sunday afternoon.