I collected the second alfalfa bale from an office associate's field
today haiving promised my grandson a ride. If anything, it was
heavier than the previous one - I'd guess 1800 lb or so. I had
difficulty even winching it off the ground on a two speed winch -
spike.
On the country road, I was holding 30 mph or less, when it started
s****ing then dropped. There was an unpleasant sense of 'deja vue'
because this spike had dropped a bale on that stretch of road a year
or two earlier when I had first bought it.
This time, the welds holding the hitch column to the axle had parted.
Though the traffic on this road only amounts to 5 or 10 trucks an
hour, within a minute or two an F-150 truck driver stopped to ask if
he could help. He had exactly the tools to roll the bale off the
highway, and he promised to come back in a half hour after doing a
neighbor a favor (installing an air conditioner for a migrant from
Hawaii !!). A few minutes later, the Blair police car came by to ask
if we needed help - but we were already on-track for recovery.
And soon, there he was - with a hay fork. Then another truck stopped
to help him, and they loaded up the pieces of my spike,
and the bale, and drove it towards the ranch.
Before too long, one of his hay fork trailer tires had failed -
he had noticed it was a little low on air - a no no on a heavy bale
trans****ter. He drove the shredded tire on the grass verge, and
dropped off the bale at the closest field gate on the ranch.
Then he promised to reweld the spike trailer for me.
He was quite offended when I wanted to help with his costs -
he favored pay-forward.
We got to the ranch, and rode two horses round, not much the
worse for wear. Hats off to Kim Johnston of Blair, who was my
rescuer. What an honor to be in the presence of angels!
Brian W
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