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Hay Bales

Reader Contribution by Mel Boone
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I woke up Monday morning to the first snow of 2018 here in northeast Missouri. Even though there was snowfall on Christmas eve, that had pretty much melted away. Monday morning there was another one inch of the powdery white stuff for myself and the dogs to walk through.

It was mornings like that when I seem to daydream about baling hay out on the farm. If my memory serves me well, the Massey Ferguson 285 diesel would be used in cutting the hay. Sometimes the the Massey Ferguson 165 was used, but most of the time grandpa would use the 285. Not that one was better than the other, but on a good day, grandma would follow right behind him raking the hay. Since grandma was shorter, it was easier for her to reach the pedals on the 165. If both were not needed in the field at the same time, it really didn’t matter to them which tractor went to the field first.

When it came to baling, the 285 diesel was used. Most of the time, the hay was put up in big round bales. I remember many times playing on those bales and I’m betting I’m not the only adult that has childhood memories of that. My grandparents used to have a dog named Sasha that loved those round bales too. After grandpa had those round bales set end to end in rows, Sasha would jump on top of the bales and run back and forth on them.

For a few years, square bales were made on the 13 acres across from the farmhouse. I don’t remember how many years that was done, but it was a lot of work to pick up those bales, load them onto a trailer and then unload them into the barn. The barn cats however, loved those square bales in the winter time.

Photo by Getty Images/Binnerstam