Bend and Break

This has not been a good week to be an Ag-Bagger on EskDale Farms.

It all started on Monday, when our trusty old bagger engine decided it had had enough of life and blew a piston. (Or something. I'm not a mechanic, and I only understand about every third word when such things are being explained to me.) Now, I never thought I was particularly fond of this machine. After all, I've spent many, many, many hours standing next to it, the radiator fan gently tousling my hair (ha ha ha) and coating me in a thin layer of green dust. But now it's gone, and I find myself waxing nostalgic for the Good Ol' Days, when Old Craphole and I would just sit and talk about how the hay was jamming and she was being a difficult pile of doggie doodoo. Perhaps I'm going overboard. After all, a new engine has already been located and will (God willing) be installed next week. And all will be right with the world.

Anyhoo, back to my story. After the demise of the original bagger, we decided to pull out a bagger that the Bakers loaned us (apparently with the condition that if we ever returned it, relations between our two tribes would become exceptionally chilly) and give it a whirl. Well, this whirl became more of a deadly cyclone. Mechanical problems abounded, with the PTO constantly attempting to break free and fly with the birds, a ball bearing that no longer wanted to be spherical, and a chain that was always half a link from failure. Even better, this machine was incredibly slow. While we are usually able to do about five loads per hour, this bagger caused a precipitous decline in effeciency, and our rate dropped to TWO LOADS PER HOUR. And those were the good hours when we weren't trying to fix yet another mechanical failure. Sorry, I meant the good hour. As we neared completion on the bag, it became fairly clear that the machine wasn't going to last through another bag, so we began looking for another option.

Enter bagger #3. The kindly Bakers allowed us to borrow their 'backup machine', which is much the same design as the other bagger we have of theirs, only it works. Astonishing, eh? Or at least it worked. Turns out something was wrong with the U-joint on the PTO, which promptly became a steaming pile of metal pieces. Oopsy. On the plus side, when the joint is fixed and the bagger is once again operational, we will be able to resume a normal rate of 5+ loads per hour, because this bagger is much much faster.

Anyhoo, that's why I'm sitting here writing a blog post after 9:00, instead of driving my beautiful hay truck all over creation.  Hopefully we'll be able to go before all the hay turns to powder.

(Keane)