{"id":9872,"date":"2021-07-20T20:01:45","date_gmt":"2021-07-21T00:01:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=9872"},"modified":"2021-09-09T07:37:35","modified_gmt":"2021-09-09T11:37:35","slug":"episode-393-back-to-square-bails-did-you-notice-july-20-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=9872","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 393 BACK TO SQUARE BAILS…DID YOU NOTICE? JULY 20, 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"
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EPISODE 393    BACK TO SQUARE BAILS\u2026DID YOU NOTICE ?<\/div>\n

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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
july 20 2021<\/div>\n

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SUDDENLY MACHINES RATTLED THE SILENCE OF A COUNTRY ROAD<\/div>\n

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The nice thing about an empty road is the chance to look around as I\u2019m driving.  Today there was more action<\/div>\n
in the grain field than on the road\u2026so I slowed down, stopped, slipped into reverse and backed up<\/div>\n

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Something a little surprising was happening\u2026took me a few minutes to figure it out.<\/div>\n
SO I backed up and recorded the movement.  A whole lot of machinery\u2026new.   And<\/div>\n
operated by one man.<\/div>\n

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But that was not the point\u2026there was something else at work in my brain.<\/div>\n

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And it seemed I was not alone.   There was a white half ton truck nearby.  The driver must have been as fascinated<\/div>\n
as I was.  Too fascinated for he ended up in deep trouble as you will see at the end of this story.<\/div>\n

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Coming straight down the windrow of loose straw after the combine had got the good stuff\u2026winter wheat or barley.<\/div>\n

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Massey Ferguson tractor\u2026once made in Toronto but no longer so.<\/div>\n

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AHAH!  This is a new version of an old machine.   Back to square bails with a difference.   No need for a stacker\u2026one man\u2019s job<\/div>\n
is gone with this self stacker\u2026when the load is full it is plopped down in the field for a tractor with a front end pick up.<\/div>\n

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Years ago we were the loaders.  The bailer would shoot the bound bails at us and we had to stack them <\/div>\n
quickly on the wagon.   As I  remember there were three of us doing the job.  We had to move fast.  Occasionally someone<\/div>\n
would grab the bail by one string\u2026snap the twine and a shower of loose straw would wreck our system.  \u201cPush the bastard off\u2026I mean<\/div>\n
the broken bail\u2026not you guys.\u201d<\/div>\n

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The big round bailers are still working most fields.  Problem with them is storage\u2026wrapped in heavy plastic tarps\u2026.hundreds of <\/div>\n
these sheets of plastic.  Terrible waste.  \u201cWhy not store the round bails in the barns..most of which are empty?\u201d<\/div>\n

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Simple answer\u2026round bails roll\u2026.push out the barns support beams. And the round bails are hard to get in and out<\/div>\n
of Ontario bank barns.   Have you ever tried to lift a round bail?  Can\u2019t be done.  Square bails are human friendly \u2026can be lifted. Round bails are<\/div>\n
inhuman\u2026cannot be lifted.    <\/div>\n

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So the whole job of bailing straw can now be done by one man\u2026or woman.<\/div>\n

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Just a bit farther down the fifth line I met a guy who also must<\/div>\n
have been rubber necking his way north on this bright summer day.<\/div>\n
Seems he missed the road perhaps while watching the combine at work.<\/div>\n
But I do not know how he could miss the road\u2026just guessing he was rubber <\/div>\n
necking.<\/div>\n

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EPISODE 393    BACK TO SQUARE BAILS\u2026DID YOU NOTICE ? alan skeoch july 20 2021 SUDDENLY MACHINES RATTLED THE SILENCE OF A COUNTRY ROAD The nice thing about an empty road is the chance to look around as I\u2019m driving.  Today there was more action in the grain field than on the road\u2026so I slowed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9872\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}