Sometimes it just never lets up!

LIving on a ranch, there's always something to do. This time of year it's haul and stack hay.

Yesterday, my back was hurting so bad I could barely walk. Today, I went on a 100 mile run for hay. I really didn't want to today, but I had to. The hay isn't going to haul itself.

Loaded down with 7 tons of hay, behind my 450 on a hundred mile run is hard. I don't care who you are, it's hard. Narrow roads, heavy truck, every bounce in the road is like an earthquake. Seven tons will beat you to death, on a bumpy county road!!.

It was a beautiful day; not much to complain about. Still the road was hard. Every crack in the road echoed through my back. 40, 50, 60, 70...mph and beyond. Lots of trucks hauling cattle...the other way. Must have passed 50 of them. Bouncing on the hot asphalt, up and down. Just rollin' down the road!. Normally the wife rides with me, but it's hard on your back. She stayed home today (bummer). She made a nice spaghetti dinner though, so it's all good.

We've sold lots of steers this year, and I'm glad, but there's never been an easy moment. The hay we buy, it's called "Teff". It's a very unusual hay, very hard to get and not grown very often. Because it's an annual, and requires irrigation, most who grow it use it as a rotational crop. I haul 10 bales at a time with one truck and 14 with the other. They weigh about 1,000 pounds a piece.

You have my sympathies.
I hauled hay as a teenager, the square bales, usually around 40 - 50 lbs each.. We had a 4 man crew, 1 driving, 1 stacking, 2 throwing up bales. You loaded in the field, drove to the barn, off loaded and stacked the hay, then back to the field. We usually averaged several hundred per day and our record was 1,300.
And if some of you don't think that's a lot of hay....try it.
Having a bad back and hours spent on rough roads deserves a cold beer and a hot bath.
And a massage, if you can sweet talk the wife in to it.

On another note...I was running down the road to the south and I saw a 'slow moving vehicle triangle'. I was rollin', uphill, turbo kicked in...and this "triangle" was coming up quick. I had a semi behind me, haulin' steers; he was loaded and rolling. I braked for about a half mile...this car was going SLOW!! (maybe 25 or so). It was a collector, in a 1935 Ford...really nice car.

I didn't realize he was going so slow....and had to brake pretty hard to slow down. Double lines on the left and nowhere to go! My trailer brakes were showing 600 F. The truck behind me, I could hear his engine brake as he downshifted! There was nowhere to go.

The guy in the antique car pulled over to the side (bless him), but we were on a double line up over a hill. Nowhere to pass. I downshifted about 6 gears and braked (trying to give my trailer brakes a rest). I thought the dude behind me was going to drive up on the back of my trailer!

The guy in the old car was just an older man and his son out having fun. The unfortunate part was the road was just this wide open country road in the middle of nowhere. When I came over the hill, I had some stripes on the road to pass. I passed. .... They were waving, nice bunch of guys. If they only knew the 55 tons of weight bearing down on them at speed today. Even my dog launched over the back seat into the front. Poor dude.

Took four miles to cool my brakes down below 800 F, my truck brakes were at 950F (and fading).

Kept the trailer behind me, and that's what counts, so it all ended well. I just felt bad for the dude behind me.

a reply to: DAVID64

The bales I haul are around 1,000 pounds a piece. I don't mess with the small bales anymore (that's a job for young men).

We haul large square bales. 8x4x4.

Sorrry, wish I could help. I am sooo stuck myself.
Mexico city here. I am American and it sucks bad, very bad. Can't get back; but happy here.

You know, there was a gal on here (ATS) earlier who said she was living vicariously through some of the threads here (mine included). I doubt she'll read this one, but sometimes it's not always as easy as it seems.

Sometimes (most times) it's up before daylight (3-4am) and back to bed after dark (8-9pm). The animals don't understand, they just want fed and watered. You get beat up, stepped on, pushed around and generally thumped on...then we have to go to "work"! LOL!!!

(momma's don't like you messing with their babies, bulls don't like anything, steers are feeling their oats); everybody wants to challenge you...and it's dark most often, they weigh 10x times more than me at (260lbs). They push, they shove, they pinch you in a gate...they balk, they want something, they itch. They're the best animals on earth, and I love them, but they're a force to be reckoned with!

Note: left the doors open on my truck once when we were loading some steers. Jack, our 2,600 bull decided to take a shortcut through the truck. He jumped in the passenger side and ran/stumbled through the drivers side. He totaled the truck! It was completely destroyed (bent the doors, tore the seats out, broke the windshield, tore the dash out, bent the steering column sideways...destroyed). Needless to say we didn't haul steers that day!!! I laughed when I found out I wasn't the first person that happened to. (that knucklehead probably did $25,000 in damage in about 20 seconds!!) Note to self: CLOSE THE DOORS!!!