I’m sure many of my farming friends will have a great laugh or at least a giggle at my expense with what I’m about to share with you. The buildings that we have here are all very old stone buildings very limited for storage of the modern big round bails of hay. So I must get in the small old fashioned square bales and get them up into the loft above the stables. For years when it is hay season I would have to build a scaffolding or borrow a trailer with enough height to get up to the high doors to unload and store my winters hay. This year my manual labor is going to be cut in half as I am going backwards to go forwards on our small farm. A friend found me an old hay elevator which he has reconditioned and fix up, it is now going again almost ready for use.
She has a very nice old, but will do the job, Briggs & Stratton motor. The nice thing about these old motors is that they go and go and if they stop they are really quite easy to repair. No computer technology to worry about just a hammer, wrench, spanner, screwdriver, a drop of oil or petrol in the right place and some common sense will keep her going or fix her.
There are all kinds of leavers, pulleys, tensioners, and bolts that help adjust for height these will all have to be learned as I go this hay season. I will make sure I’m wearing my hob nailed boots so my toes don’t get smacked if I pull the pulley the wrong way.