Haying Season

The other day I got a request from Mark to tell the story about Ramona falling out of a Tree. I wasn't there when that happened, so i called Ramona for the details, to make sure that the version I pass on would be correct.. But she denies it happened to her, but instead happened to our brother Cyril Dean McGaughey. He died in 1966 0r 67. I plan on writing about it, but it will have to wait until i talk to Marvin or Lyle, as one of them was the one that I think I got the story from.
Today's post will be about another event, I hope you will find interesting.


Haying Season

This was a typical summer haying season, for us on the Ranch.

During the summer starting in June.
We worked hard in cutting the fields surrounding our home, the orchards, and the top field where Marvin has his work shed, now. These fields were always done at the same time.
Dad would drive the tractor with a cycle on it, and cut the tall 2 or 2 1/2 foot grass. We kids had to follow the tractor around and around the field and pick out thistles and daisies and anything else that would not be good for the cows, and throw the stuff we found, over the fence. As we got closer to the middle of the field, we carried a gunny sack with us to put the thistles and daisies in which meant we had to carry, or drag that sack along until it was full, and then take it to the edge of the fence and empty it out on the other side. When the older kids was home one or two of the kids would follow the tractor, then next time around a couple others would go, giving us some time to rest. When all the boys had finally left the ranch, I follow the tractor all day long, by myself and did it all with no one to help.
After the grass was cut, Dad would let the hay dry for about a week. Then one of us kids, when we were tall enough to ride the big iron rake, would ride on the rake behind either the Little tan, Massey-Ferguson Tractor, or the big red Case Tractor. When everyone had left the ranch, I was the only one left to do this.
Dad would attach to one of the tractors, the hay rake with its big 3 foot iron wheels, and C curved Iron tongs, that spanned about 8- 10 foot across, and it had a big iron seat to sit on, with no padding and the seat rim was beveled so you could hang on to it. This was not an easy ride and the rake weighed about 1000 lbs and had no shocks, and it jerked as it hit gofer holes and dips in the fields.
On the first trip around the field, the tongs on the hay rake would gathered the hay and dad would holler out,"TRIP", and we would stomp on the lever to release the hay. Ever 50 feet or so we would stomp on the rake leaver, and make a row of hay.
We would ride around and around the field all day, and every time we would come to where the row was we would then trip the rake again. We only stopped to remove something or to adjust something on the tractor, but no breaks were even considered. You were on that rake until dad stopped and that was that. Dad would work from morning till milking time, or until the job was done. That is just the way it was, when you are farming, as you had to get it done before the rains.
Rain on dried hay, could ruin the crop, and cause it to mildew.

The hay was what we had to feed the cows with, when they came into the barn to be milked. One of the things you must do, is have a good supply of hay, as most of the time in the winter, the grass was so short that the cows really didn't have enough to eat and relied on the hay to get them through until spring.
We had milk cows and they were what we called, " hay burners".

After the hay was made into rows, then we had to take a pitch fork and a hand rake, and go out into the fields and put them up in "shocks". ( a shock was a jelly bean shaped mound of hay ). there is a right way to make a shock and a lazy way to do it. Dad always said I made the best shocks.
A good shock could be lifted with a pitch fork and toss onto the hay truck, in one try. In other words, when it was being lifted, it wouldn't fall apart.
Everyone, including mom would have to help with the "shocking". We could usually get it all done in about 1-2 days.
When the boys had all left the ranch, I and dad tried to do the "shocking" by ourselves, but it was way more than just the two of us could do, and there was always the threat of rain. So dad would go down town and tell the boys to come and help.
Usually we could count on Vern, Wendell, Cyril, and Lyle. When Marvin wasn't in the Army he would make it too. They would all get together and come, and so that was a real relief to me, and for at least 1-2 days, it was nice to have them all there again, and be working together, like old times.

The next step in haying, was to get the hay truck with its racks and one person would slowly drive, two people would toss the shocks on the truck (one on either side) and one person would be in the bed of the truck to load. The loader was sometimes, me. I was too short to toss the shocks over the racks of the truck, and the boys all fought for the right to drive the truck. When I was too young to do the loading, I was cleaning up after the shocks had been lifted onto the truck. which meant that when the shock was lifted onto the truck, I had to rake that spot clean where the shocks had been and that hay was also tossed onto the truck. If that shock wasn't made right, the raker had a lot of work to do to clean up the scattered hay.
This is why I learned to make the "shock", right!
After the truck was loaded as high as it could safely go, we would all ride on top of the hay to the barn. The truck was parked in back of the barn. We had a dairy fork, that was attached to the inside of the barn, on a long track. The fork was lowered to the hay on the truck and dad or one of the boys would set the fork into the loose hay as far down as it would go, and lock the levers on the side of the fork.
At the other end of the barn, we had a old flat bed ford truck, and we hooked a rope to the truck and backed it up the hill about 100 feet or so. the rope would pull the dairy fork up into the barn, with its load of hay. Dad would be inside the barn and when the hay had glided across the track, to where he wanted it dropped, he would yell out, "Whooowe". One of us kids would stand outside the barn and yell at the driver to stop the truck. Then one of us kids on the back of the barn would be holding a long rope attached to the dairy fork, and pull it really hard to trip the hay, so it would fall into the barn. This was repeated until the truck was empty, then back out into the field we would all go to get another load of hay for the barn.
Ever year at the end of the haying season, when that last load of hay was finally put in the barn, we would all take turns tying to climb the dairy rope to the top of the barn, which was about 80 foot high. You couldn't use anything except you hands and your feet. you couldn't put you feet on the barn to help you.. so it was a challenge. I think it took most of us several years to be able to accomplish this. I don't remember who all was finally able to do this but I was the only girl in the family that could.
There was a lot of pride in the family, if you were a hard worker. It was expected that you would work all day and into the evening with little or no breaks. We would take jars of water with us to drink, but wouldn't have anything to eat until we stopped for the day, which was usually after cow milking time.