Hay

Yesterday afternoon my friend who was going to cut hay for me called and said he was ready to cut my hay. I really should have had him help me I suppose. I was running the tedder fluffing up some very nice hay. It was totally green on the bottom of the windrow. The ground was so wet it was like putting the cut stems in a vase of water.

(Photo is a little over exposed)

I told him I no longer needed help. He wanted to chat, and I wanted to get done and so tedded and talked. I think the old M670 needs a muffler.
At four I got a call from our next door neighbor. They thought it was going to rain and needed help stacking 70 acres of Timothy hay.  So, I got the stacker out and turned on the A/C. No cold air. I thought about 70 acres and 80 degree temps with high humidity and how I was kind of annoyed and I decided 10 minutes to put the A/C gauges on would not be the end of the world.
I had pressure but still the clutch didn't turn. I shorted the high/low pressure switch terminals together. No power.
So I wiggled wires at the switch. Sparks!
The main power wire came off the switch. I plugged it back in and Cold Air.
I thought about telling my brother how he was one little clippy terminal thing away from cold air that long day he picked up loose bales for the other neighbor but he didn't look happy. He was having irrigation failures.
A 70 acre field with 4 ton to the acre hay and three balers looks very big at 5 p.m. The neighbor girl was stacking. Actually she is not the neighbor girl any longer. She is my age.
Her niece was running a baler. I wondered if the niece suspected that she could in fact end up running a stacker at age 40 something.
It's a lifestyle choice...
We finished at 10:45. I was not in very good form. I kept missing bales or knocking them over. I blew out a major hydraulic hose. I only picked up 20 stacks, which means 12 minute loads, deducting an hour for the hose failure. I used to be able to do better than that.
I was tired...