Problem solving at its finest

Every year about this time I do the hay dance. This consists of me fretting over whether the bales in the shop will last till the new hay is cut and brought in. With no word on when cutting is happening and four measly little bales of prairie hay left I decided to go get hay yesterday. I found a farmer selling large round bales and I hopped into the truck and ventured out to pick one up. Now if you aren't familiar with round bales of hay I will give you a little lesson (whether you want to know or not). Round bales come in different sizes. In the past when I've needed extra hay I usually bought from a man who baled smaller round bales, normally in the 600-800 pound range. One of these fit nicely in the back of the truck and rolled easily out of it when I returned home. With this in mind you'll understand my shock at what I found at the farmers place yesterday. Apparently they make bigger round bales too. It was about the size of a small mobile home and when asked how large it was the farmer said about 1200 pounds. He also made sure to inform me that I'd need a couple of strong men to get it out of the back of the truck. He also said "You don't need to be helping since you're pregnant". Yeah he really said that. I'm pretty sure I remember reading that in the pregnancy books "....at 8 months pregnant it is best to stay away from hard manual labor such as moving 1200 pounds bales of hay....."

Anyways, I get it home finally. I do believe it was the biggest load my poor truck has ever held (or ever should hold) in it's eleven years. I felt bad and kept reassuring the truck we would be home soon and the behemoth that was in its bed would be out. I failed to realize that when the farmer said I'd need two strong men, I'd actually need two strong men. I kinda thought my one really strong man would be enough.

So I back up to the horse pen, the horses in the mean time are eying this thing like they died and went to heaven. Sean comes out and we stand around looking at it trying to figure out how to move it. Even though it looks like it should roll (it's not called a round bale for nothing folks) it doesn't.



First Sean decides to do the easiest looking approach of climbing behind the cab of the truck and pushing really hard.



After not budging it an inch he reconsiders and grabs a hay hook. Then he tries the second approach. This approach consists of him hooking it high and trying to use his man strength to pull it out. This approach made me wonder about my husbands sanity since it would easily roll out and squish him like a pancake. Seriously it would kill him if it rolled on him.



The third approach, although I didn't get a picture, was entertaining at least. It consisted of backing the truck up really fast and slamming on the brakes thus causing the bale to roll out. In theory this could have worked if we were on a hard surface, not grass. The lush grass made the truck slide every time the brakes were applied. Also, it's probably good this one didn't work as it could have been disastrous if it did work. Just think of a 1200 pound rolling object, it could have taken out part of the shop or fencing if it got going in the wrong direction.
At this point I decided to go inside and make dinner, I made sure to look out the window every few minutes to make sure it hadn't squished my husband. Sean tried several more ideas including a floor jack on its side, a lever made from a big deck board and even considered jacking up the front of the truck but decided against that one. In the end all the pulling and pushing caused it to move enough to allow Sean to wedge his body behind the cab of the truck and he was able to roll the giant thing out after a whole lot of grunting and sweating and a possible hernia.



Needless to say there will be no more giant bales of hay brought home unless we magically acquire a skid steer or large tractor or become friends with several large burly men.