Thread by @homemadeguitars

G, my beloved wife, has been helping me with the donks while I haul hay yesterday and today.
A half trained team is very difficult to manage if your attention is elsewhere, and I can't fork hay out of windrows and pay close attention to the team at the same time.

2. There will be no video, because G is a very private person. If I point a camera, still or video, at her she's gone.
But it's a *huge* help. All she has to do is stand by their heads with a bag of goodies, encourage them to behave, and reward desired behavior.

3. I absolutely cannot tell you how useful this is, how helpful, how much easier it makes my life.
Clara is at least as smart as a fifth grader, and about as mature. I can tie them up three directions at once and she can mess with me.
But when she acts up G says, "No!" sharply.

4. And when she stands like a lady she gets pets and goodies.
She's smart, like I said. She can figure this one out.
Missy is an angel. Clara's a sweetheart too, but so, so different.
Today after work.

Today after work some more. The Ol' Man supervising. He gets goodies too.

6. Yesterday and today were below 90° F, spotty clouds, some breaks from the brutal sun. With her helping, we cut down wasted time so much I can do a windrow in 2/3 the time as without her.
The girls walk, drive, turn, back, all that just fine. They have a low boredom threshold.

7. Standing is boring. All the trouble, almost always, starts with standing, refusing to stand, refusing to stop.
With G up there, whoa:stop=instant_goodie.
Believe me, this works better.

8. Handling loose hay is a whole different skill set. Bales are, lift, tote, put. But like today, I wanted some of the hay on the far side of the barn.
I always hated toting bales into this particular room. Our barn has uneven floors and is weird. I've never seen another like it.

9. What they did, back in 1908, was lay fieldstones in a perimeter rectangle. Then they built a frame of rough cut local hardwood 2x8s, a big square, and set it on the rocks.
That means you have to step over a threshold about mid-calf high on me to get in or out.

10. This bird is sitting on the threshold. I have to carry hay over this thing to get it into or out of the barn.

11. Let me tell you how pleasant it isn't to lug square bales in and out through these doorways.
Here's an outside view. You can't see the bird as well, but - this is the stepover. It's in every doorway.

12. The little bird, by the way, is a barn swallow. It fell from the nest as a nasty looking baby with no real feathers, just pinfeathers and skin. Its parents cared for it and fed it, and on the day of these vids it flew up and joined the flock. I watched it learn to fly.

13. Across the barn from this doorway is a partially enclosed room with a hardwood floor that supports a donkey comfortably.
It's another step up.
I used to carry bales into it for storage.
You pitch hay with a pitchfork. This may seem reasonable, but - nobody taught me. Learn.

14. Those stepovers ain't shit when you're pitching hay. Dump it outside, push it over to the door ...

15. Pitch it to where you want it.
Through doors, over thresholds, around corners - it's just like how you eat an elephant. One bite at a time.

16. The girls haul it up to the barn and back it in for unloading.
The hard part is the standing.

17. I added a rope looped across the open back, a 2 strand tailgate, and I can haul almost 1/4 more hay per trip.
This is technology to increase efficiency, by my terms.
Other people get a job, to get money, to buy gasoline. My job is gathering fuel and storing it. I like it.

18. I work about three hours a day on hay, and I do it often. Since donkeys don't need an overload of nutrients in their feed, as soon as I have a decent amount I'll slow down, and won't get really serious til about September, when it's cooling off.
This video (next) is December.

19. Making hay last December, before Clara started working. Missy & me.

20. So I'll just let the hayfields stand until September, then start mowing little strips every couple of days when it looks dry.
We can work through some rain. I'm gathering rained-on hay now, but since it's never compressed, it's easy to fluff dry.
And donkeys, honest, really,

21. Donkeys do not prosper on high energy high nutrient hay.
The thing about donkeys is, they are usually slow. That's why horses: donkeys are slow. They can move fast, but mostly they live this incredibly energy efficient life because they evolved in merciless desert.

22. As long as I fluff my hay immediately after a rain, so it air dries and doesn't mold, the donks are perfectly happy and ideally nourished on it.
The number one next priority is to get a device to enable the donkeys to pull the hay rake. Now the 8N pulls it.

23. The hay rake is two big spring steel wheels mounted at an angle to the direction of travel. Anything that makes it move will work it. It takes very little energy to move. The 8N doesn't feel it at all.

24. I need to make or buy a thing called a "forecart" that fits an animal on the power input side and a small tractor implement on the power output side. They make them for horses all over the place. Not that many people work donkeys. I'll get it done.

25. Probably go up to Jamesport and find out who's the making stuff person. Amish community. It's not that hard, but I'm old and don't want to get into a steel project that big.
Anyway -
Life in the slow lane.
Shower time.