A Field Full of Horses Part 2

This is an addition to the story below, " A Field Full of Horses". We found that the horses must have been too excited about being out to do much damage to the hay. The hay was on a 39 acre piece of property on the road directly behind us. We found the hay intact but it needed moving..Leslie and Joshua took the truck and trailer over there and I met them with the tractor that I'd taken through the woods from the house..did I mention it was raining off and on?



I handed the tractor over to Joshua and he loaded the trailer with hay. When it was loaded they proceeded to pull out onto the road and take the hay to the heifers across the highway. I took the tractor, grabbed a bale of hay onto the fork and made my way back through the woods to put it out for Elroy & Co. down Lover's Lane. I got all the way through the woods ...almost. Unfortunately, I lost the bale of hay about 50 yards inside the woods in a curve around some trees. Had to go back in forward then as I'm staring at the hay trying to figure out what to do, the sky opens up. The rain inside the woods is more muted because of the trees stopping it's decent but it's still soaking me. I got off and pushed and prodded trying to turn that bale of hay over but even without all the rain that's soaked into it, it'd be too heavy ..all I managed to accomplish there was to get hay all over me...wet hay. There's a cable and hook wrapped around the front of the tractor on a bar Leslie welded on years ago. I get off and unwrap the cable. I don't know what it's made of but if that material starts shredding it's like glass...I've always been wary of using it. However, Leslie and Josh are way across the road stuck inside the pasture where they took the hay so they are no help. They call me to bring the tractor to pull them out but when I tell them I've lost the hay AND that it turned up on it's end (making it impossible to re-fork it) they decide to just unhook the trailer..I'm stuck looking at a bale of hay sitting on it's end in the woods..not doing Elroy & Co. any good and definitely blocking the 'road'. I wrap the unruly cable around the hay, get back on the tractor, back it up along the path, and it flips itself over..yea!!! I get off and it's a job and a half to unhook that cable that's gotten itself pulled tight..just happens it's in just the right spot (on the side) and not UNDER the bale..that has happened before.:-) Digging among the torn up hay trying to feel for the cable, I unhook it, rewrap the cable , all the while getting more and more soaked . Unfortunately, all that shaking of the hay--both when it dropped off the fork and when I tipped it over--left the strings broken and several layers flopped here and there. As I rehook the hay and start going back down the trail I leave about a fourth of it behind...but at least I got enough to feed the cows for the day. I meant to go back with the trailer behind the 4-wheeler and get the extra so it wouldn't go to waste but the day just got longer after that....