Problems

Ah, the life on a farm!  It certainly is one of excitement.  Nothing is ever boring, and something always goes wrong.  Guaranteed. 

It's like a predator.  Once one sneaky critter realizes it can stick around and cause problems, word gets around, and more start coming.  It could be just a small little detail, but it often leads up to a whole chain of predators, er, problems (or problems in the form of actual predators).

An example from over this past winter is proof enough. 

Situation:  The horses need to eat something.
Problem:  It is mid-winter, and all the grass is dead.
Solution:  Feed them hay.

Problem:  Because of the bad hay year, our hay farmer doesn't have a lot of square bales.
Another problem:  We're running out of the load of square bales we were able to buy.
Solution:  A local friend gives us the number of a guy with nice round bales.

Problem:  We have never done round bales before.
Solution:  We'll figure it out.  Can't be that much harder that square bales, right?

Admittance:  We were wrong.

Situation:  We have one round bale in the bed of the truck, and four more on the flat-bed trailer.
Problem:  We don't have a place to store such big bales of hay. 
Another Problem:  It's starting to rain.
Solution:  Park beside long driveway and cover the hay with a tarp.

Restatement of Previous Problem:  The horses are still hungry.

Situation:  We need to move these huge round bales from the trailer to the pasture so the horses can eat them.
Problem:  These things weigh a good couple hundred pounds.  We're not picking them up and moving them anywhere.
Solution:  Buy a hay spike for the tractor at the farm store.

Current Plan:  Drive the tractor to the garage, attach hay spike, carry round bale to pasture.

Problem:  The battery for the tractor is dead.  We're not driving it anywhere.
Another problem:  There is no light in the basement, so we can't see the battery well enough to remove it.
Solution:  A chicken heat lamp from the chick stuff in the basement.  Plug it in, and light!

Problem:  There's no light bulb in the heat lamp.
Solution:  Run panicking around the property searching in every single place we store farm stuff, looking for a light bulb.  It is finally found with the home supply stuff in the basement right beside the tractor.

Problem:  The light bulb does not fit the heat lamp socket.
Solution:  Remove the broken shards of previous light bulb from the lamp socket; replace with new, complete and working one.

Problem:  Acid from the battery is spilling on pants, burning holes in the jeans. 
Solution:  Remain completely clueless of situation until bedtime, and casually prepare to remove battery with a socket set. 

Problem:  Socket set is at the shop.
Solution:  Gather number of siblings, drive to shop, and grab socket set and the battery charger. 

Brief Victory:  Remove battery, and charge it.

Situation:  The tractor is now in working order and is at the garage so we can put on the hay spike.
Problem:  There is no place to install the hay spike.
Solution:  Drill a hole in the bucket.

Problem:  The drill is at the shop.
Solution:  Everyone piles into the truck and drives off to get the drill.

Problem:  There is not a drill bit the correct size for the needed hole.
Solution:  Ransack the garage, looking for something close to the correct size, until I find the perfect one hiding in a pile of chains and other old historic stuff from my father's grandpa.

Situation:  The hay spike is finally on the tractor, and now we're going to pick up the first round bale and take it to the barn on the gator.
Problem:  The hay spike will not penetrate the tightly packed bales.
Solution:  Spray cooking spray on the spike. 
Statement of Defense:  That's what the guy we bought the bales from told us to do in the event of spike not penetrating.

Problem:  The spray is not working.
Solution:  John will push on one side, Father and the tractor on the other, and we'll eventually get it on.

Mathematical Equation:  Because John < Round Bale, and Tractor > John what you end up with is a -John.
Solution:  We decide to forget being perfect, and accept a round bale half-mounted on the hay spike.

Current Plan:  Hurriedly transport round bale from tractor spike to back of gator so we can drive to pasture without dropping said hay bale.

Problem:  The gator battery is also dead.
Solution:  Dump the round bale in the truck bed to drive around to the barn, as we've had enough problems for the day.

Problem:  The round bale is right at the weight limit for the tractor.
End result:  Barely make it to the truck, dump the round bale in the bed, drop it off at the barn.
Complete end result:  Happy horses, and a number of tired humans who never want to see a round bale again.

For the record, we now have a better, more efficient, way of handling round bales.  But our first experience with them was obviously not the best.  :)  Hope you enjoyed!