Make it While the sun shines...with a hurricane on the horizon!!

[Applause] hey folks this is Josh Tony rich farmer welcome to the farm vlog today as you can see there's activity going on here on the farm so right now we've got our hay cut and it's on the ground and it's ready to rake and bale I use a V rake what's called a V rake we've already gone around the field about four laps with the V rake and I'll explain that a little bit later on in the video why we did that and why we're doing what we're doing but we're getting ready to hop on the baler here we've got a finished bailing what we raked up last night then we got a swap equipment over throw the rake back on the John Deere tractor run around rake this field up which probably takes somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 minutes after that we'll rehook the baler up make sure everything's lubricated and ready to rock and roll and we'll go ahead and finish bailing all this and just to add a little twist we're waiting on rain so we're supposed to have rain somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 o'clock it's about 1 o'clock now I got a roll the tractor is dead on empty this holds about 17 gallons of fuel and I failed to bring my funnel over here what we did last night was rake this up in a big hurry and try to get the first four rounds all bailed up so that we had room to get the V rake all the way around the field without having to raise it and lower it and raise it and lower it that's the time-consuming part of using a V rake 5 gallons it feels heavy so there's no breather on this fuel can so it's being an ultimate pain in the butt I've held it up here and I've only poured like a gallon of fuel out so kind of rocking it back and forth the pressure and depressurize it will get this thing full we'll get on the baler well first we'll walk around the baler and we'll show you how it all works this paint in the butt will be eliminated soon I've got a hundred gallon fuel tank that goes on the back of the pickup truck and we're gonna get that on mounted up but guys I just haven't had time or the manpower to get that thing mounted up cleaned out flushed out new filters and everything on it so I've just been so stinkin busy I haven't had time to do it and consequently I'm having to stand here like this this is ridiculous I need fuel on the farm and I need a good way to deliver it so look for that video to come pretty soon we bought a used hundred gallon fuel tank with tool box combo that we're gonna be mounting up to the silver truck ol silver ten minutes to four five gallons of fuel huh so let's talk a little bit about the hay baler here so the hay baler runs over what's called a windrow and you'll see out through the field here our wind rose that's what those rows are called and basically here's a wind row right here it's just dry hay that we run over there are little times or fingers underneath the baler that pick up the hay you can see right here they pick it up they draw it into here into this belt system this belt system rolls them up nice and tight and then spits them out the back here is a freshly bailed bail so the belt system spits them out the back I have a lever on the tractor I'll pull it this thing opens up like a clamshell it bit out comes a bale now while I'm using this equipment I use hearing protection but I also have to keep my ears open for any kind of strange sounds or anything out of the ordinary because a strange sound can save you money here on the farm so last night when I was bailing right before dark a bunch of hay got all bunched up right up underneath here and I couldn't get it outside to raise it up chalk it so it doesn't fall down on me and get all that hay out so in the middle of the dark I really couldn't see I have my cell phone it got dark on me just farm stuff farm drama I guess so we're gonna get on the tractor and start bailing alright guys we're heading out through the field here we're gonna get a little bit of hay bailed basically I've got two laps to run around this field and then I can unhook the baler and hook the rake up but you're getting ready to see that my plan does not go forward so it's a pretty day it feels beautiful when you first mode the smells are just awesome so I pulled up here on this second wind row and I wanted to show you how a bale kicks out the back so I've got a lever right beside me that I'll pull so right now I pulled the handle back for my bucket which is putting the tire on there so tying the string then I pull a handle back around my side and that opens the baler up now if you watch closely you'll see something I never knew when the baler gets ready to close those belts are hanging out the bottom and it kind of sucks them back in so you might have to go back and watch that a couple times to see it but that just reminds me to slow down when I'm closing my baler I didn't know about all that I lost my hat but as promised we'll talk about what we've got going so that's a beautiful nice four by five round bale here let's take over to the baler and talk to you a little bit about what we've got going here and how this all works pretty cool so what you're looking at is the back of the baler and right here are some little arms those two arms ride on the belts and tell something up front here mechanically that the bale is getting full or not so full so when you get to this red right here you better get that belt out of there you're gonna break your shear pin down here on your drive shaft or on your PTO shaft so that's how you know when it's time to kick the bail out now up above here are these two dudes and those two guys tell you whether the bail is getting heavy from this side or heavy on that side meaning there's more hay on one side of the veil than there is on the other side of the veil so pretty cool hay baler science the whole time you're running this machine you really got to be thinking listening paying attention to what's going on when you see a farmer out in the field baling hay there is a lot going on in that guy's head and it kind of becomes a routine kind of like brushing your teeth I don't know if you guys can see back there but we got some nasty clouds on the horizon I don't have what's called a Tedder and a Tedder would be something that I would take these wind rows and spread them back out after they get wet so I'm in a pinch here I've really what I've got to do is take the baler finish up what I've already got raked up and kind of make a judgment call whether I can get this all done or not so you may not get any drone footage at the end of this I've been busting my butt for several days here it's a lot of work but I just can't see letting this Bureau up and just fall over for the wintertime I don't really need the hay it's hard for me to sell hay around here I've got farmers around here that have been doing it for years that are selling these four by five almost 1,000 pound bales of hay they're selling them for 20 bucks man I can't compete with 20 bucks I've got tractors to pay for so the best thing for me to do is to Bale this hay and store it for when we do get cows and I won't have to worry about it I'll be able to throw it to the cows now one of these bales of hay will take my 15 goats and it'll last them for two weeks so we're probably going to have in the neighborhood of a hundred and ten extra bales of hay now something that's really a bugger here is that people out in Wyoming and people in Texas need hay people let her in drier areas that have had drought really need hay I don't need the hay I can't sell it and they can't get it for under 80 bucks a bale unbelievable let's get back on the tractor get this knocked out guys I need you to say the farmers prayer for me that those black clouds are not bringing rain here I know there's rain coming out of those clouds and they're probably less than five miles away let's see how it goes I got all the hay bales that's on the ground but we got a storm coming so it's raining there you can see the rain coming down it's raining there big time and that's headed right toward me so that's it that's it for today I I've got to get the equipment home we got to get the Gator back home camera equipment all that stuff keep your fingers crossed maybe maybe we'll just get hit with this little bit right here and it won't wet the hay down so much and we can get it done if not this is probably going to set us back since I don't have a Tedder to spread the hay back out and let it dry you really hate to let your hay sit on the ground like that because it'll develop mildew and mold I don't know I'm out of breath I've been running and bust my butt trying to get this done I'm having issues with a car dealership right now guys and it's kind of sucked up a lot of my day when I should have been out here Moen I'll tell you about that in a future vlog it's ridiculous gonna make hay not a sunshiny and the Sun just quit shining I'm out of here thanks a lot guys we'll catch you next time on the next vlog on the Stoney Ridge farm I appreciate you have 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