Hauling Hay

"If it weren't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all, gloom, dispare and agony on me." Hear the hilly billy twang, no, well maybe you aren't from around here, the United States that is. If you were, you'd know that for many of us rural folks, this silly song has an annoying habit of popping into our heads when trouble comes knocking. It never fails to bring a smile to my lips for in all honesty, I have never had a bad day but I've had some powerful challenging moments.  It never fails for when I count my blessings at the end of the day they always far out weigh the troubles. 

So as I tell this tale of woe, sing along and smile because though things have continue to be challenging today. (I won't tell you what I accidental did to the lawn mower.) more has gone right.

See this beautiful load of hay?  It and three other loads are safely tucked in but getting it there was an adventure I'd just as soon not repeat for it wore on our nerves and gouged a whole in our savings.

Maybe I'd best just tell you the story. The day before we started hauling, the diesel price shot up and I noticed the tread on one of the trailer tires peeling off. The diesel prices I couldn't change but as for the tire I considered it a blessing I saw it before we started out and  Kirk could fix it at home.

It wasn't our last tire to say bye bye for on the way back from South Dakota, farm country, we had another tire peel. We felt lucky we had this new dilly bopper for it made changing the tire easier. It's for trailers and with the two tires on one side close together you just pull up onto this with the good tire and the other is elevated for changing. I'd just bought this last week before we left thinking it would be handy. I didn't expect to use it so much in so little time.

Home again, we bought another tire and off we went  for our second load. Yup, you've got the story by now, another tire shred. All set up to change it with our handy dandy helper and Kirk grabbed the brand new spare and discovered it had little air in it. (If it weren't for bad luck we'd have no luck at all, gloom despair and agony on me.) Kirk figured it would get us to the next truck stop just a short distance and so off we limp.

Hoping that putting in some more air would get us to the next town, Kirk attempted the feat and was met with a loud hiss. Nope, not a bad tire, a cracked rim this time though of course we also had a bad tire. Abandoning the trailer, we headed off thirty miles away to buy a rim AND a new tire. 

We decided to stop for a short while and grab a Quizno's sandwich to celebrate. Not our gloom and woes silly, our anniversary for it was Saturday 33 years before that we were married. No time to reminisce, we had nearly five tons of hay waiting our return so back again we went on that now, very familiar road.

The final day of hauling Kirk went by himself and you got it, a flat. But whoo hoo, it was only a flat. No shredded tire this time. He managed to pick up a screw somewhere and it impaled one of the brand new tires.  

Yup, hi ho, hi ho, it's off to get a flat fixed I go. No more trips for hay let's shout hurray hi ho, hi ho.

Have you noticed, when the going gets tough, I start singing?  I'm not allowed to curse so what's a girl to do?

We did learn a powerful lesson about tires for the others were in pretty good shape when we left. We began looking at the rating on the tires and we had D range and it became apparent with the increased weight of hauling round bales instead of small squares that we needed E range with the increased load capacity. Lessons learned the hard way can be so powerful and well, expensive.

Thank you all for your well wishes, I am feeling a bit better. Probably all that sleep traveling back and forth for hay. Pour hubby, I just couldn't stay awake.  

Glad to hear that it isn't just me who thinks faded and half worn out jeans are not a good buy.   

How about hay prices, what are they in your area?