Aside from vegetables...

The last 2 weeks have been quite wet and not alot of activity out in the field, except for the occasional inspection to see if the vegetables need flotation devices to survive the rain!

In the meantime, we have been preparing for the haying season. We were hoping for an early cut in June to allow a possible second cut in late August but again, the rain has caused a delay. So while the showers were keeping things well watered, I puttered in the barn, preparing the old hay baler for this season, servicing the mower and rake but also took on a project of essential need.

Enter the hay wagon! It came to our farm as a old, rotten item, needing alot of care. The first order of business was to remove the rotted hay deck. It was so deteriorated, there were mushrooms and fungus growing on the cross beams! Using the chainsaw, we cut the decking apart and put the rotting wood right on the fire-pile. Not one piece of it was worth a second look. From there, we inspected the steel, the wheels and the steering gear. All seemed in good order, so we set it in the back yard laydown area for the winter. With a little research on the internet, this wagon would appear to be a Model 19 Farm Wagon, made by the New Holland Company.

So a few weeks ago, we pulled the wagon frame out of storage and got to work. Scrubbing down the frame for a fresh coat of red paint, cleaning the wheels for a complementing coat of yellow paint, the wagon started to look more appealing. The next step was to engineer the bunks and rails that support the hay deck. The bunks have adjustable brackets to accommodate a number of different configurations while the connecting bar between the axles allows for variation in length. We chose to set the bunk brackets at 4 feet apart and the axles at about 9 feet apart. This allowed us to build a 6 foot by 12 foot hay deck which will hold 20 bales per layer, possibly 4 layer high. Of course, we had to consider the weight of such a load of hay. With 80 bales at 50 pounds per, we are in the order of 2 tons of hay. When the wagon is connected behind the hay baler, the tractor is going to be taxed, pulling both items at the same time! The baler is in the order of 2500 pounds or about a ton and a quarter. So we will see how it all goes in the field. True to the term, we will be "field-testing" the equipment!

Back to the hay wagon, the rails on top of the bunks were made out of 2x8x12 all weather wood. We coated them with the same red paint as the frame to keep things looking uniform and fresh. We had to consider the front axle wheels and how they meet the rails; so some tracing of the top of the wheel surface was applied to the rails to do some trimming, ensuring the wheels never contact the rails during use. Once that was done, we applied an all weather wood deck, a rear rack to hold the load steady and sealed the cut ends of all the wood with stain, maximizing the wagon's weather resistance. So now it is ready to test. We will post the haying activity as it happens!