Several Months Catchup

This is supposed to be a blog that gets something at least every two weeks if not twice a week. However if you are a follower and read my musings you know I have not been too faithful to my original thoughts. It is almost the New Year, Christmas is past and I do not know where the time has gone.

The last time I wrote we were in Colorado and trying to get our motorhome fixed. We left there and traveled south through New Mexico. We watched and chased the train in Durango and visited Mesa verde a while. We made a stop for a few days at Calrlsbad Caverns and did some touring. We delayed there for longer than we intended because there were storms passing right across our route and we could not figure any real urgent reason to hurry. From there we took several days to cross Texas and get to Mission.

It did not seem that there was any time to catch up on the things which I had put aside to do later. We went out to dinner or lunch with friends a couple times. I think that we only played cards once in three months. It did not take long to get back to helping people with their computer problem. It really funny at times. There may be a person that chases after me with their golf cart or catch me in the hall or come to the door. Many times I do not know their names. Usually I recognize their face and some times I know their first name, but frequently I do not know their last name. The fact is that it is not necessary to know both of their names to help them or enjoy their company while dancing or leading a computer session. I feel ashamed at times that I do not know them but I have never been good with names. There is another problem with the women. They wear their name tags in the middle of their chests. It is a bit awkward to look at their chest and appear to be reading their names.

Last year the activity director came to me and asked if I would take the pictures of the new people that came into the park. I figured it was something that I could do and contribute to the quality of the life here at Bentsen Grove. People like to go to the picture board and see who live where and what they look like. Also there is a case to display pictures of activities that go on in the park. There is always something going on, a Halloween party, a cantata, a craft show, an art show, a dog show, Christmas dinner. I don't try to put up pictures of every thing but whenever something special happens. It is not hard to forget how many pictures I put up.

I get other requests too. A couple here had their 60th wedding anniversary and I was asked to come take pictures of them before they went out to dinner. A neighbor needed a CD with some music that he only had on cassette, could I do that? Of course. There are some other people that want to get music off cassettes before they go bad. They will be back after the New Year. One of the line dance instructors asked me to go buy a boom box for her. Then one of the computers in the activity office developed the Blue Screen of Death frequently. Could I go buy a computer for them. Installation was a trick. During the short time between crashes I was able to get their files backed up to a thumb drive. 157 files that were less than one gig. The problem was they were in Microsoft Works. That is an old file type. Open Office would not open them and it is supposed to open any Microsoft file. Also the current Microsoft programs would not open them either. Finally one of the residents that was helping here found a copy of a older version of Microsoft that would open the files. It took a while but we got something the office could use. Then the problem was the printer. It was so old that there was no software available on the Internet. A slightly newer printer was found and installed so they are back in business.

I was also asked to find out information about flat screen monitors. I think people trust me more than they perhaps should. I just do the best I can and that is likely more than they can do. I have even had a neighbor that asked me to advise her as to what she should get in a laptop computer. She even asked me to have it delivered to my address because she was not going to be gone. I wasn't home when it came but my neighbor took delivery and delivered it to the lady that bought it. Then that evening I helped her set it up.

There is a newspaper that is published here in the park every two weeks during the regular season. Carl the editor has lung cancer and is not expected to live much longer. He was the leader of the “Kitchen Band” for years. He has gotten another person to replace him in that duty. Bonnie asked me if I would take the position. I considered it for several days and went over to talk to his wife. I only said that Bonnie had asked me, she instantly handed me a CD with the information needed to publish the Mirror.
So I guess that was when I accepted the job. Thus far I don't have much to put in the paper, but before the year ends I hope to have enough articles to put into the paper. (A day later I have enough articles to start more pages. Oh have I got things to learn.)

While Carl was working on the last issue of the Mirror the mother board of his computer failed. I was asked to help if I could. I called a friend to forewarn him that I would be asking for his help. As it turned out Corrine found a tower that he could use but the information that was needed on the hard drive of the failed computer. Corrine, John and I got the hard drive out of the tower. I put it into a hard drive backup unit I had. It worked well on John's computer so it should work on another computer. Wrong! It would not bring up the files. I brought the backup home, opened the files, converted it and saved it to a thumb drive. The files still would not open with the computer. Then Carl's wife said she had a laptop and the files worked just fine. Thus Carl was able to put out his last issue of the Mirror.

Tomorrow is New Years Eve and we are planning to go a long way away from home to ring in the New Year. From our door to our destination is about thirty foot. That is far enough to go for us. For most years in Wheatridge we just went next door to bring in the New Year with good friends. It is a tradition that seems good to me.

I have written of a time when I was quite young. When I wrote this I tried to remember the actual facts. When I read it now just how accurate those young eyes were. A few years ago I visited the barn and it was actually a rather small barn.

LOADING HAY
a mans job

I could not have been over ten years old, quite likely less, when I did the first real job of a man that really helped with the job of putting up hay. Cecil Dunn, our neighbor to the east and south, was putting up baled hay in his big barn. The barn had been set up to store loose hay with the aid of horsepower. The barn was a typical Dutch gable roof with an extended overhang of probably five-foot on the north side of the barn. This overhanging roof extension was over a door that would swing open downwards, revealing an opening of about six-foot square, plus an angled area that went up to the peak of the roof. There must have been a rope and pulley at the peak of the roof to raise and lower the door, but I don’t remember for sure. At the top of the opening and across the inside top of the barn from the tip of the overhang to the farthest back wall, ran a trolley track. Attached to the track was a grappling hook that could be released and drop down to the ground or wagon load of hay on a rope. There were two steel bars or hooks or forks that would reach into the hay so that a large load could be lifted into the barn.

The rope that was attached to the hooks ran to the back of the barn along the trolley track and over a wooden pulley fixed to the track very close to the back wall. The rope went down to the floor of the barn, around another wooden pulley fastened about 6 or 8 inches from the floor. Then it went across the floor of the barn and through another set of doors at ground level to the outside. When the rope was outside the barn it had to go under a wagon load of hay that would be positioned under the overhanging roof section. Originally the rope would be attached to a single horse or perhaps a team of horses, but in this case to the draw bar of Cecil’s ford tractor

Since there were no horses available, I had the privilege of driving a Ford tractor to provide the horse power. Dads John Deere tractor would not work for this job very well. Dad’s John Deere tractor had a front end that was designed to work well in fields that were planted in rows. The front end had two small tires right in the middle. The full front end was not over 18 inches wide. Cecil Dunn had a Ford tractor with front end more like that of an automobile in that the tires were spaced as wide as the rear wheels. This difference in front end configuration made the Ford the right tractor to do the job that the John Deere just was not suited to do.

That day four people were working to store the hay which was in bales instead of loose in the barn. Dad was working on the wagon to stack the bales for as was needed to lift with the hoist, and I am sure that he was also outside so that he could keep an eye on me, to be sure that things were done properly and to aid if needed. Cecil Dunn and Harry Schaefer were inside the barn doing the final storage of the bales once they were inside. And the fourth was me driving the tractor and pulling the return rope. Actually it could be said that Cecil’s wife, Jo Beth, was an important part of the crew because she made sure that we were well fed and had plenty of water.

To start the operation of loading the hay Dad would place two bales flat on the wagon with a third bale centered on top of those. He would pick up the hooks and place them on top the third bale, then shove the two forks or prongs on each side into the lower bales. He would signal me to start driving away from the wagon pulling the rope that was running all the way through the barn. When the slack came out of the rope it would start to lift the three bales up toward the overhanging trolley track. The hooks with the bales would hit the trolley, and somehow there was a catch that would release the wheels and the whole assembly would start rolling into the barn along the trolley track. I remember being warned that if I caused the hooks to hit the trolley too fast and too hard that it might tear the mechanism apart and even cause people working below to be injured by falling bales. To be sure the throttle on the tractor was not set much higher than an idle, at least until I learned to control the speed without danger.

As the trolley rolled into the barn it carried the bales to the location they were being stored. When it reached the desired location someone inside the barn would holler and Dad would pull a trip rope, the weight of the bales would cause the prongs would pull out of the bales and they would fall to the floor of the barn. When a haymow was empty the first bales might fall as much as 20 foot. There was a danger that the bales might break apart if they fell too far and fell on a hard surface. So first a platform of the first bales was built inside the barn to cushion the falling bales and to lessen the height that the bales fell. Later on it was not necessary to build the platform of bales because the effective floor was high enough to prevent bale breakage. Once the bales had fallen to the floor the two men, Cecil and Harry would drag them to the storage location and stack them.

When Dad heard the yell from inside he would pull the trip rope, and if necessary signal me. I would stop the tractor, shift into reverse, and back up close to the hay wagon. It was this backing up that required the wide spaced front wheels on a tractor. The one inch rope would trail from the drawbar on the back of the tractor, between the rear wheels under the motor and out through the front wheels. With a tricycle front end like the John Deere was equipped with the front wheels would have simply driven on top the rope and broke it or at least damaged it. I suppose that a team of horses would have been driven in a circle back to the starting point.

When I had backed the tractor close to the wagon, I put it into neutral, jumped off and grabbed the trip rope. I would pull the hooks along the trolley to the end of the track outside the barn. Dad would be stacking another set of three bales to be picked up by the hooks. If he was ready I would pull the trolley against the end of the track, that would release the hooks to descend down and start the whole operation again.

As I remember, each wagon load of hay was between 100 and 120 bales. We would have at least two loads of hay at each session, so the hooks were lowered and lifted between 70 and 80 times. I don’t remember how tired I got, but I am sure that it was quite a job for a small lad. Somehow I do remember that it was a job that I was proud to do. I am sure that I must have received praise for a job well done, although no words come to mind that might have been said. The fact is that just having the privilege of driving the Ford tractor was enough to make me happy to do the work.

There were several things about the Ford Tractor that I liked. The first thing about it was the fenders; it had some. The John Deere had them available as an option of some sort but Dad did not have any. Over the years I have only seen a couple John Deere tractors with finders, at least not on the older tractors. On the Ford a person could sit on the fenders instead of standing on the frame. Another thing was the drawbar. On the Ford it was three foot long with a hole every three inches or so, and it could be lowered or raised hydraulically. There were a few times that I remember the tongue weight of a piece of equipment being heavy enough that we had to get a jack to raise it high enough to put on the drawbar. I think that on the Ford there was equipment that utilized that hydraulic feature to adjust the height of the towed implements.