Let's just say there was a miscommunication between Jack and I, and he gave away all the hay I planned to use for calving! It was his anyway, but it did make me scramble a bit. So I called my trusted buddy Doug Carr, who fixed us up with some prairie grass in Gillette that he didn't use this winter. Thanks, pal.
So I grabbed Jim's gooseneck trailer and headed for Campbell County to haul a couple loads home.
Doug was already loading his trailer when I got there. Impressive set up.
That's a pretty easy 20,000lbs payload. Doug straps the bottom but not the top.
Our trailer had rails that tipped the bales in. It is set up to haul the bales round-side out, but we needed it this way to unload.
Two rows of five on bottom and four on top. We just tightened it down with one rope across the top.
Then headed for Buffalo. I was pretty nervous about pulling this big of load with White Horse, but I didn't have much of a choice.
She did good all the way to Johnson County. Never got out of third gear, but also never had to grab first, even crawling out from the Powder River.
Safe and sound at Jack's place to unload.
I figured one way or another we could get them off with the skid-steer.
Actually, it didn't work well at all. The forks won't penetrate a bale worth a darn. So we stabbed what we could and pushed the rest off so Doug could get back to work.
I just left my trailer and came back the next day with a set of spears. Worked great.
The ones on end, just stab up top.
And curl up as you back away and let loader down.
Then pick it up and go.
Unloading off the top was a breeze too.
Money.
That's a good sight once again. We were down to one bale. With a little a bit of weather this week, I was uneasy not having plenty of hay sitting around. Special thanks to Doug for bailing me out and to Jack for keeping life interesting. Ranching would be no fun if it didn't present challenges. On to the next one.
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