# Don't kids haul hay anymore?



## randywa (Jun 26, 2011)

I've given up trying to find help putting up hay this year. Our last cutting was going to be around 2000 bales. I got to the point of offering $.20 per bale, each, using my truck, trailer, loaders, and elevators. That's $200.00 each and no takers. Girlfriends and softball were the most common reasons. It took 2 days, but the wife and I and a son-in-law (who I may never hear from again) got it done.


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## hunter-27 (Jun 26, 2011)

Today's youth are spoiled brats.


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## keithlong (Jun 26, 2011)

Randy,
I know your pain, I was raised on a dairy farm, we milked an average of 100 cows a day. We had to put up our own feed, including lots of hay and grain. I put many a bale of hay in a barn loft for.02 cents a bale during my high school days. It was hay hauling that bought me my first car and my classring. My first car cost me 100.00 and my classring ( which I still wear today) cost me 123.00. I later was contracted to haul hay for a neighbor. When he asked me about hauling in his hay, I gladly said yes and he went to bailing it up. I went to hire some help, and only got 2 young men to help. The next day neighbor calls up and said that he had 2000 bales on the ground and that was only half of it. We ended up hauling 4000 bales of hay for him, and he paid me .25 cents a bale and I split it equally with the 2 young men. They really enjoyed the payday. But sadly today, kids wont work like we had to do.


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## RustySplinters (Jun 26, 2011)

If i may -- I've hauled hay before and would gladly do it for .20 a bale!  It's hard work but that makes money.  I gotta rep for my gen somehow!


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## Displaced Canadian (Jun 26, 2011)

WHAT Your supposed to get paid to bale and stack hay. We did over 5000 bales a year not including straw and my Dad never paid us kids a dime. Hot summers, hard work, and some of the best times of my life. My brother was the elevator and I was the stacker And people wonder why country boys are tough.


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## Haynie (Jun 27, 2011)

Hay is work but at least you weren't bored. I weeded bean fields when we went back to Illinois. Work is a foreign concept or bad word to many young people. Oh they want the big bucks but don't want to work for it.


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## AKPenTurner (Jun 27, 2011)

I'd work for you!

I live in a small town and am still looking for work...


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## el_d (Jun 27, 2011)

Kids nowadays don't really need the money. Mom and Pops get them what they need and ALOT of what they want.....


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## mrburls (Jun 27, 2011)

Been there and done that. Started when 12 on a relitives family farm to just help out but seemed to get a call for help all the time. 

Then I met my wife at about age 16 when we were dating and guess what her father had a farm and all he did was bail hay and sell it to the Phila. race track. Even when she went off to college he called me for help. Never really got paid and did'nt care but the big pay off was when we got married he gave us a huge down payment on a house. And now at age 50 it was only a few years ago when we moved to Texas the hay bailing stopped. Can't imagine how many hay bails I moved over all those years. 
It's dirty,hot, sweaty hard work. 

Keith "mrburls"


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## Phunky_2003 (Jun 27, 2011)

Displaced Canadian said:


> WHAT Your supposed to get paid to bale and stack hay. We did over 5000 bales a year not including straw and my Dad never paid us kids a dime. Hot summers, hard work, and some of the best times of my life. My brother was the elevator and I was the stacker And people wonder why country boys are tough.



I worked on that same farm growing up.  Heck there wasn't even an option on being paid.  Only days we had off were Sundays.


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## SGM Retired (Jun 27, 2011)

I understand the issue at hand. Last year I could not find anyone to my partner and I. With that said this year I sold all my hay equipment and don't regret it. The other added reason was people would try to talk you out of the $3.50 per bale!  I told them then go to the feed store and pay $5.50-$6.50 a bale. So, I'm now just managing my berry farm and working bee's.


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## NewLondon88 (Jun 27, 2011)

..not unless 'there's an App for that .."


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## bkersten (Jun 27, 2011)

randywa said:


> I've given up trying to find help putting up hay this year. Our last cutting was going to be around 2000 bales. I got to the point of offering $.20 per bale, each, using my truck, trailer, loaders, and elevators. That's $200.00 each and no takers. Girlfriends and softball were the most common reasons. It took 2 days, but the wife and I and a son-in-law (who I may never hear from again) got it done.


 
We have an 2 intersection standers here in Gettysburg that would have laughed at this figure.  They make more beging in 5-8 hrs and brag about
it when they to to stores for something - eats,smokes,beer, and drugs. These 2 always bring out a wad of cash in the several hundreds, and park blocks from their standing spot with a decent vehicle to remain unseen.

I use to help my grandfather do his fields in the early 60s and enjoyed it. Helped made us who we are today.


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## randywa (Jun 27, 2011)

The first time I can remember helping haul the hay, I think I was around 7 or 8. Dad had an old McCormick baler that had a manual release, and made the small round bales, about 18" dia. and about 3' long. Dad and my uncle stacked them on a '49 Chevy pickup while I steered. The truck stalled on a hill, and before I could get it going again, I had thrown most of a load back down the hill. I thought my sister was going to be an only child.


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## witz1976 (Jun 27, 2011)

I use to help my neighbor all time on his farm. I have no clue how many bails we would toss around, but I got $50 a day and was happy with that.  What totally sucked was how itchy and cut up I was at the end of the end.  But I would do it again in a heartbeat.


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## TellicoTurning (Jun 27, 2011)

Never did much hay myself... once up in Kansas for about a month just before I joined the navy I helped out when my step father broke his arm... he was hired as a farm hand on a big wheat farm and was in a car accident on the way to the job.... as a kid, my dad was a cotton farmer, so I got to haul a cotton sack up and down the rows a few times... wasn't quite big enough to pull a 6 yard sack and fortunately the folks separated and I got to leave the farm in my early teens.... I found city jobs after that.


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## sbwertz (Jun 27, 2011)

Last time I put up hay was about 8 years ago in OK.  We were visiting friends who raise Belgian Drafts and they were putting up hay.  Ramona and I got the job of stacking it in the loft because the roof was too low for the guys to stand up (too low for us, too, so we wore our riding helmets!)  We got the job done...not bad for a bunch of 60+ old duffers!


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## renowb (Jun 27, 2011)

I can remember when I was a kid picking cotton!


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## Smitty37 (Jun 27, 2011)

*Hmmmm*

We only put up about 1200 bales a year but then we were just "fun" farmers and I worked about 50 hours a week (my average work week for about 25 of the 32 years on that job) at IBM.  We had 6 kids, most of them pretty small at the time, and they all helped.  We believed that work built character. 

They all turned out to be "keepers" so I guess we were right about that.


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## DurocShark (Jun 27, 2011)

I'd come do it for you...

My hardest job was when I was a grunt for a roofing company. I spent a summer hauling piles of roofing tile up a ladder. All summer. 100+ pound stacks of tile. Skinny little 16 year old kid. In So Cal. In summer. For minimum wage.

It actually wasn't that bad. Hard work, but it felt good too, ya know? 

Then the owner of the company turned out to have a thing for little boys. One ruptured testicle (on him, not me) and I no longer was hauling tile up ladders.


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## Rick_G (Jun 27, 2011)

Used to go work for an uncle when I was young, driving tractor and moving hay at 10 or so this was fun. Never got paid for the hard stuff but he did pay us a nickel for every mouse we killed.  Had to save the tails for proof.  Between my brother and I, I think we made a couple dollars that week.  He didn't think we would do it, a couple city boys but we wern't sqeamish at all.  A few years later we moved to the outskirts of a small town and I went to work for the farmer across the road from us. Spent the summer doing all the jobs you can't get kids to do today for a dollar a day.  I think I would have killed for .20 a bale.


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## nativewooder (Jun 27, 2011)

Don't know that I would put all the blame on the kids today, as we are one of the most permissive societies in the world,  and that's the fault of the parents and grandparents.:wink:


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## jskeen (Jun 27, 2011)

I'd love to know the age spread on the people who responded to this thread, just for kicks.  I put up square bales every summer from the time I was tall enough to sit on a sack of creep feed in the truck and see over the dash, till I enlisted in the USAF.  That old 63 chevy truck would idle up and down any hill on my grandparents farm, and my uncle would stand on the front bumper and adjust the carb to set the speed.  My instructions were pretty clear, "if you hear somebody hollering, turn it hard right and circle till somebody that can reach the brake pedal catches up with you".  Once I got big enough to toss a bale 10 feet high, my uncle would buy me a brand new pair of Wells Lamont "white mules" at the start of every season.  As far as I know, that and several weeks of the best food in the world was all the payment I ever got (or expected).  First cold beer I ever drank got pulled up out of the well in a wooden bucket and handed to me after a day of stacking bales the summer after I turned 16.  Lone star, in a steel can with a removable pull tab. 

Couple of years after I left, they bought a round baler and the whole family slowly stopped getting together every summer after that.  After my last Great Uncle died I spent a few months racking my brain trying to figure out how to take the place over, but by then it was pretty much impossible to earn a living on a family cattle farm in Texas, unless you were independently wealthy or already retired.  Ended up selling the place to a Pilot with American Airlines as a hobby farm.  One of the few times I ever saw my dad cry.


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## Smitty37 (Jun 27, 2011)

*Old enough*

Well I'm old enough that when I was a kid the only hay making I ever did was not with a baler....pitched it on to a wagon drawn by a team consisting of one horse and one jackass.  Pitched it off in the barn a big fork lowered from the peak of the roof was used to pick it up and deposit it then it was spread by hand.  We kids pitched in and did it because we thought it was fun, usually got paid a couple of cookies and a glass of milk by the farm wife.  That was during and just after WWII when most of the men were off to war and people relied on teenagers and even younger kids for a lot of things.


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## Texatdurango (Jun 27, 2011)

nativewooder said:


> Don't know that I would put all the blame on the kids today, as we are one of the most permissive societies in the world, and that's the fault of the parents and grandparents.:wink:


 
Here here!

A few days ago I was in the local Pizza Hut waiting on a take out order when I noticed a copule kids playing arcade games over in the corner.  They ran out of money and went back to their table for more.  I didn't hear the conversation but good ole mom pulled out a $10 bill and handed it to them so they could continue.

These were not little kids either, I'm guessing they were 14 or 15 and it sure looked like a "normal" transaction to me as if they do it all the time.

Yep, why work when you have your own personal ATM machine at your disposal!

I was never around hay country but spent many a day schlepping around a beat up ole mower, a tank of gas, rake and a pair of grass clippers all over the neighborhood in hopes of finding a lawn to mow hoping to make $.75 or $1 for the front and back.

You never see that anymore either, the kids are too busy texting their friends on their $200 cell phones!


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## sbwertz (Jun 27, 2011)

Smitty37 said:


> Well I'm old enough that when I was a kid the only hay making I ever did was not with a baler....pitched it on to a wagon drawn by a team consisting of one horse and one jackass. Pitched it off in the barn a big fork lowered from the peak of the roof was used to pick it up and deposit it then it was spread by hand. We kids pitched in and did it because we thought it was fun, usually got paid a couple of cookies and a glass of milk by the farm wife. That was during and just after WWII when most of the men were off to war and people relied on teenagers and even younger kids for a lot of things.


 
Oh, my yes!  And there was a rope hung from the rafters where you could swing out and land in the piled hay!  (but don't fall down through the holes over the mangers.)  The horses knew just what to do, and would give you the fishy eye if you didn't keep up and they had to stop and wait on you LOL.


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## sbwertz (Jun 27, 2011)

jskeen said:


> I'd love to know the age spread on the people who responded to this thread, just for kicks. I put up square bales every summer from the time I was tall enough to sit on a sack of creep feed in the truck and see over the dash .


 

Well, I'm 68, and I know what "creep feed" is!


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## sbwertz (Jun 27, 2011)

One day my girlfriend and I were watching the high school boys bucking bales (picking them up off the ground and tossing them on to a wagon).  The baler had killed a bullsnake, and I found it.  The devil made me do it....I tossed it up on the middle of the wagon and those boys scattered like chickens.  Glad I can run fast :biggrin:.


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## youthinthewild (Jun 27, 2011)

If you were closer i have some fatherless youth that would bale all you have.WORK is not a bad four letter word to them i promise.


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## Rick P (Jun 27, 2011)

My Friend John Leased his land to some folks from outside who wanted desperately to live the farm life. His two boys hadn't done hay before so I and John's regular hand went by to show them the ropes. Jacob and I put aside our own work to help out and none of us got paid............btw I was also older than the rest of the crews total age!


Them city boys dropped about 30 pounds last summer and there folks say they have more confidance than ever.


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## workinforwood (Jun 27, 2011)

Damn, how many people is it that get $200 ea? Regardless of that..I'd have got on a line, heck I'd even be the guy up in the top of the mow if need be for that money. When I was a kid my grandpa only paid me $6 an hr. We'd move a heck of a lot more bales than that in a day, with time left to grab a pitch fork and shovel the nasty pigs.


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## titan2 (Jun 27, 2011)

I picked cotton in La with my cousins while I was in the 2nd grade. I also hoed orange trees out in the orange groves in Fl for a .05 a tree....all you needed was a good hoe (I had one) and a file to keep it sharp plus the ability to keep count.....the owner came back and counted (no double counting), step brother helped on some of my trees and counted them for himself.........we were paid at the end of the day.

Know what? I wanted to do it and and you got up close and personal to a lot of trees for a few bucks.....but, if you wanted money, you had to go out and work for it....there were no hand outs!

Didn't get paid by my dad for my work on the farm, chicken coop or in the aviary (raised parakeets....abt 500 of them).

Kept busy and out of trouble.........


Barney


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## Smitty37 (Jun 27, 2011)

*Loaned my kids my lawn mower*

We had a lawn tractor a push mower, and a weed eater... I let my kids borrow them...their gas and their time and they mowed lawns in the neighborhood.  One neighborhood owner had my kids pass his lawn down from older to younger for 10 years, as one left for college the next one picked up his lawn.  

I had two farmers getting together one summer so they could both schedule a much deserved vacation and have my daughters look after things while they were gone.  Trusted my teenaged girls with the care, milking and feeding of 70 and 75 cows respectively for two weeks each while they were gone.

Haying time, my kids were always in demand.  The farmers knew that they would work as long and as hard as it took to get the job done.

They didn't get out of their chores at home either unless they could talk a younger sister into doing them. (usually for an outrageous fee).


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## Scotty (Jun 27, 2011)

I know some teens who put up hay all summer.  Not all kids are lazy.  I suspect, in reading some of these stories, that there were lazy teens in many of your neighborhoods, too.  Many of these young guys and gals end up in the military.  We all need a little hard work and direction at times.


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## randywa (Jun 27, 2011)

My neighbor suggested that next time I sell tickets to my Fat Farm. Lose weight or your money back. I may have been going at this all wrong.


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## ohiococonut (Jun 27, 2011)

I live in a rural area so a lot of the young men and women work on farms. The kids in the nearby city just want hand outs from mom and dad.

When I was younger I used to deliver news papers on my bike at O dark hundred then get ready for shcool. After school I would mow lawns with an old reel push mower for $2. I hated the yards with dogs because the reel would always flip the poop at me. Each of us kids all had chores to do at home too but we'd switch each week. One of my older brothers hated to do dishes so when his week came up I could always count on another .50 a day :biggrin:

Working and growing up were a way of life back then and things sure have changed.


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## Rob73 (Jun 27, 2011)

Kids do labor these days... that's funny.


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## Rick P (Jun 27, 2011)

People keep bashing "Kids these days".........well I know more than a few that bust there balls making money for college and are all around good kids. My 18 year old nephew is in his second year of college, works part time and is a major player in the youth branch of the Masons. He is about average in this regard with is friends. Jacob, My friend John's farm hand, has been working his way through college and works a part time job during the school year. My nieces all work on a farm, do well in school and have outside jobs.......frankly if your kid and his freinds are lazy, well take a look in the mirror! I for one know some great kids, with strong work ethics. Some of you are on the edge of bigotry with the brush your using to condemn all of our youth!

It was pulling eye teeth for farmers to get help in the 70's and 80's and that hasn't changed! Fact is the average human will always pick the easy route and always has.


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## GoodTurns (Jun 27, 2011)

My kid had his summer job all lined up...counselor at an 8 week summer camp.  At the last minute, the owner realized he had far fewer kids coming to camp this year and Jeremy was the "new guy" so he got dropped.  Since then (4 weeks) he has applied for at least a dozen jobs and offered himself for several volunteer positions....nada.  He is heading to college this fall and is worried about not making a contribution, he's willing to work, just nothing available.  He has become VERY productive around the house since he is unable to find anything.  My wife and I have not had to do dishes, laundry or ironing plus he takes care of all of the mowing/yard work.  While it's not a full time (or paying) position, he is doing everything he can to work.  While I am disappointed that he has not found a "real job", I am encouraged by the fact that he IS contributing.  He did prepare for a summer job, just got caught up in the whole economy cycle we are in.


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## Texatdurango (Jun 27, 2011)

Rick P said:


> People keep bashing "Kids these days"...... I for one know some great kids, with strong work ethics. Some of you are on the edge of bigotry with the brush your using to condemn all of our youth!.......


 
Oh get off your high horse, no one is CONDEMMING ALL OF OUR YOUTH!  We are simply giving examples of what we see everyday.  Of course there are good kids BUT there are a LOT of lazy ones still depending on their parents well into their late teens and early twenties who wouldn't likft a finger on a days work involving manual labor! 

Bigotry... me... nah, keep those remarks to yourself!  We raised a wonderful daughter who went to college, became a teacher and has given us two wonderful grand daughters.


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## wolftat (Jun 27, 2011)

Try contacting the local courthourt. There are plenty of people looking to pay their fines any way they can instead of doing public service work.


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## wolftat (Jun 27, 2011)

randywa said:


> I've given up trying to find help putting up hay this year. Our last cutting was going to be around 2000 bales. I got to the point of offering $.20 per bale, each, using my truck, trailer, loaders, and elevators. That's $200.00 each and no takers. Girlfriends and softball were the most common reasons. It took 2 days, but the wife and I and a son-in-law (who I may never hear from again) got it done.


 The way I do math, that comes to $400 each not $200 each.


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## bitshird (Jun 27, 2011)

We used to load and stack Alfalfa bales for .05 a piece I'm not sure what kind of hay your cutting but we would have been wealthy at .20 a bale just to stack it. We had to walk/run alongside the trailer behind the tractor and throw the bales up to the trailer then stack it in the barn.for a lousy nickle a bale. If I weren't almost 67 with a torn up shoulder and disintegrating hip I'd nearly do it for the fun.


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## wolftat (Jun 27, 2011)

bitshird said:


> We used to load and stack Alfalfa bales for .05 a piece I'm not sure what kind of hay your cutting but we would have been wealthy at .20 a bale just to stack it. We had to walk/run alongside the trailer behind the tractor and throw the bales up to the trailer then stack it in the barn.for a lousy nickle a bale. If I weren't almost 67 with a torn up shoulder and disintegrating hip I'd nearly do it for the fun.


 Now that I would pay to watch...LOL


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## DavePowers (Jun 27, 2011)

If you had land to hunt you could trade letting someone hunt for work done over the year. If a person is willing to work in there spare time putting up hay and other chores then he is probably responsible. If he is not reliable and doesn't show up half the time then he doesn't get to hunt.

Wish I was lived near you. 2-3 cuttings and I would have a new bow.

Dave


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## Smitty37 (Jun 27, 2011)

*Times change don't they*

$.20 each a bale to load and stack....from the early 70s to mid 80s there were years when I sold hay for $.60 a bale. We did trefoil & timothy because we had horses as well as cows and I didn't like alfalfa for horse hay...not quite dry enough and you could get mold...cows didn't care but it could give horses colic.


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## dogcatcher (Jun 27, 2011)

My grandpa and dad had row binders, none of those fancy bailing machines.  Stacking shocks, then letting them dry in the shocks in the field.  A month or so later came hauling it to the barn.  This way you got to handle it twice.  I preferred picking cotton, it doesn't make you itch and paid the same, nothing.


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## ed4copies (Jun 27, 2011)

Yeah, I threw bales for my teen years--in exchange for learning to ride jumpers.

Did poor calculating when I bought 3 thoroughbreds in the late 1980's.  One mare just died last Fall.  So, I was feeding a single horse for a couple years.  With no storage facility, I was buying "bagged hay" at the local Farm&Fleet store.  Each bag was 50 pounds, and I bought 5 at a time.  One bag was placed in the basket, the others beneath.  More than once the nice young MAN at the Cash register would ask ME, "Can you take that out of the basket, sir?"  To which, I started to reply, "Yes, I can, I got it INTO the basket and I'm 60 years old!"  You, on the other hand are in your 20's --CAN YOU get it out of the basket??"  NOT ONE DID!!!  They brought the scanner around and left it in the basket.

I then rolled them to the car and removed them, loaded into the car and went home.

I wonder WHAT they will be able to lift when THEY are 60!!!


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## lwalden (Jun 27, 2011)

Dang, I hate red clover. Heavy, dusty, doesn't pack tight, more apt to bust open, and itches like crazy when you're covered in the dust. Early to mid 70's in south east Kansas, I was part of several different hay hauling crews. Generally made up of someone older who owned the truck, and 2 kids in their teens. Truck would carry 100 bales, and the crew would get $.25 a bale, or $25 for a load of 100. The older guy would keep $.15, based on a nickle for the truck, a nickle for gas, and a nickle for him as driver. While I wouldn't consider it to have been highly competitive, everyone knew which crews did the best work, from turnaround time getting a load picked up in the fields to neatly and tightly stacked in the loft or hay shed (though not to tightly- which could supposedly contribute to spontaneous combustion), to working the longest days. A good crew could get a load of 100 bales out of the field and stacked on the truck, transported and restacked at the barn, and back in the field for the next load in under an hour, and that was allowing 10 minutes travel time. $5 an hour, or a little more when we were really hustling, was some pretty good wages for a kid in rural Kansas. And 12 - 14 hours, making the best use of sunlight, was pretty common. The best part of that, though, was knowing you had a full day of work already lined up because you had a reputation as being a good crew and folks asked for you in advance, instead of being one of the groups that would meet at the co-op early in the morning, waiting to hear if someone needed them because their other arrangments had fallen through. While one of the harder (physically) jobs I've ever had, it was still fun, and think it helped build character. Red clover, though, I don't miss at all....


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## Smitty37 (Jun 27, 2011)

*Cut down*



ed4copies said:


> Yeah, I threw bales for my teen years--in exchange for learning to ride jumpers.
> 
> Did poor calculating when I bought 3 thoroughbreds in the late 1980's. One mare just died last Fall. So, I was feeding a single horse for a couple years. With no storage facility, I was buying "bagged hay" at the local Farm&Fleet store. Each bag was 50 pounds, and I bought 5 at a time. One bag was placed in the basket, the others beneath. More than once the nice young MAN at the Cash register would ask ME, "Can you take that out of the basket, sir?" To which, I started to reply, "Yes, I can, I got it INTO the basket and I'm 60 years old!" You, on the other hand are in your 20's --CAN YOU get it out of the basket??" NOT ONE DID!!! They brought the scanner around and left it in the basket.
> 
> ...


 
When I was still in my early 50s and buying feed in 100 pound bags I'd stand two up on the tailgate of my pickup truck (yes there was a gun rack in the rear window) get one on each shoulder and walk away with them.  Now I can manage 1 40 pound bag of bird seed----if the truck (which no longer has a gun rack) isn't parked too far from the door.  I spose that's what happens to a lot of folks in the years between the 50s and 70s.  I even let the store employees carry it out now when they offer (which is often --- nice folks here in Delaware).


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## tim self (Jun 27, 2011)

I remember getting .02 a bail bucking.  (not for Dad though)  One year he decided to plant 500lb of potatoes.  We dug taters for a week!  Pay, forget it, I had a roof over my head and food to eat!


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## sbwertz (Jun 27, 2011)

ed4copies said:


> Yeah, I threw bales for my teen years--in exchange for learning to ride jumpers. !


 
Just lost my last hunter in Feb...aneurysm.  He was 10 years old.  I am 68 and can still pick up, carry, and dump an 80 lb bag of alfalfa pellets.  I have trouble with big alfalfa bales, but I can drag 'em!  

I bred, raised, trained and showed draft cross hunters for almost 15 years.  Before that it was TB hunters.  Now I have no more horses, but still spend every weekend teaching 4H kids to jump horses.


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## sbwertz (Jun 27, 2011)

lwalden said:


> Dang, I hate red clover. Heavy, dusty, doesn't pack tight, more apt to bust open, and itches like crazy when you're covered in the dust. Early to mid 70's in south east Kansas,  ....


 
Are you familiar with the Flint Hills near Emporia?  I spent my teenage years working on a 22,000 acre cattle ranch in the flint hills.  Spent every summer from June to Sept. riding and working cattle on my uncle's ranch.  What a way to grow up!


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## lwalden (Jun 28, 2011)

sbwertz said:


> lwalden said:
> 
> 
> > Dang, I hate red clover. Heavy, dusty, doesn't pack tight, more apt to bust open, and itches like crazy when you're covered in the dust. Early to mid 70's in south east Kansas,  ....
> ...



Only from later years, driving through from Wichita to Topeka. Before moving to Texas in the fall of '76, spent most of my time growing up in Cherokee county, which borders both Oklahoma, and Missouri. Still have most of my family in and around Columbus or Joplin.


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## Displaced Canadian (Jun 28, 2011)

I'm in my late 30's International 706 pulling a John Deere 24T baler that never seemed to miss a tie. I liked when we pulled the trailer behind the baler because you could handle the bales one less time. My sister drove the tractor and seemed to always stop the tractor just when you had a 65 lb. bale overhead and only one foot on the deck and would laugh when you fell over backwards. My Dad says that I'm one of the youngest people alive who knows what a stooker is and knows how to stack it.


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## Displaced Canadian (Jun 28, 2011)

Now that none of us kids are home Dad does round bales and moves them with a front end loader. When we ask him why he waited until we left to get it and for that matter a riding lawn mower he just smiles.


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## Smitty37 (Jun 28, 2011)

*Had one*



Displaced Canadian said:


> I'm in my late 30's International 706 pulling a John Deere 24T baler that never seemed to miss a tie. I liked when we pulled the trailer behind the baler because you could handle the bales one less time. My sister drove the tractor and seemed to always stop the tractor just when you had a 65 lb. bale overhead and only one foot on the deck and would laugh when you fell over backwards. My Dad says that I'm one of the youngest people alive who knows what a stooker is and knows how to stack it.


 
I had a JD 24T baler in my baling days.  Good machine.  Also had a New Holland haybine, and an IH Tedder pulled them all behind an IH 340 Tractor.


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## Parson (Jun 28, 2011)

hunter-27 said:


> Today's youth are spoiled brats.



Interestingly enough, my grandfather said this about kids he knew in the 40s! "Today" is a moving target. Every generation thinks the younger kids are lazy and shiftless.

Frankly, kids can make a lot more money behind a computer or in the comfort of an air conditioned store or office. They're not stupid. If there was no comfortable way to make a buck, they'd be sweating for it if they needed the money badly enough.

When I did hard work as a kid, it was because I had no choice in the matter. It was do the work my parents told me to do or I'd get punished and it was always painful in more than one way. No money or choices involved.


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## Wooden Affairs (Jun 28, 2011)

I am still a young buck in Texas. We hauled hay when I was younger but my Grandpa stopped and went to just round bales instead of both. I am teaching my kids to work but things are not the same as it used to be. I was chewed out for making my kids carry groceries. I get dirty looks for making my kids walk in a store. Standards are not the same.


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## wolftat (Jun 28, 2011)

My 17 year old step son just learned that he is going to be painting the house this summer since he is too lazy to get a job and was stupid enough to get his lisence suspended. He actually had the nerve to ask me how much he was going to get paid. I put his pay in writing and he was happy with the number, then I put down some more numbers, such as his food bill, his laundry bill, his electric bill, his gas bill, his phone bill, his cable tv bill, his car insurance bill, and his water bill and at the end of all that, he will only owe me about 4 grand after painting the house twice a year forever. He stopped asking to get paid for painting after that and went back to his video game, good move since that will be disappearing soon until the house is painted to my satisfaction.


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## Smitty37 (Jun 28, 2011)

*True*



Parson said:


> hunter-27 said:
> 
> 
> > Today's youth are spoiled brats.
> ...


 
That's because they are -- unless the parents make specific efforts to make them work every generation wants more things for less effort and with an occasional hiccup they usually wind up getting it.  
 
I wanted and got more than my parents even though we were poor, we were not as poor as their parents and even though I was expected to do my chores with out compensation, I didn't have as many chores as my parents.  
 
My kids wanted and got more than I did, even though we worked very hard to instill a good work ethic and good work habits in them.  
 
My grand children want (and expect) more than their parents, with no work expected of them at all.  Not even picking up their own toys off the floor - they walk on them and if they break one, so what, they'll get a new one.


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## Rick_G (Jun 28, 2011)

wolftat said:


> My 17 year old step son just learned that he is going to be painting the house this summer since he is too lazy to get a job and was stupid enough to get his lisence suspended. He actually had the nerve to ask me how much he was going to get paid. I put his pay in writing and he was happy with the number, then I put down some more numbers, such as his food bill, his laundry bill, his electric bill, his gas bill, his phone bill, his cable tv bill, his car insurance bill, and his water bill and at the end of all that, he will only owe me about 4 grand after painting the house twice a year forever. He stopped asking to get paid for painting after that and went back to his video game, good move since that will be disappearing soon until the house is painted to my satisfaction.



When he's done with yours send him my way.  Since mine is mostly brick I'll let him off easy and only charge him $500 to do mine.:biggrin:

We have a car show here every summer with around 1500 cars each year.  The youth group at the church spend 3 days during and after the show cleaning up the garbage.  They get paid around a grand and spend it on sleeping bags and other supplies that get sent to a mission for homeless kids in Toronto. A lot of the kids this stuff goes to are homeless because it's actually safer than being at home with their so called parents.
Same group from the church go out a couple times a year and do yard work etc. for a lot of the elderly in town.  They don't charge but will take a donation that gets used for other mission work.  
Oh, I'm in a small village of 900 and a 45 minute drive to the nearest city.  Moved here from Oshawa about 8 years ago and find a totally different attitude among the youth.  Got 4 grandchildren all city kids.  The youngest is 9 and I'm seeing a totally different attitude with her about work around the house now that dad is home all the time instead of away with his job 6 or 7 weeks at a time.  My daughter has 3 the two oldest 18 and 20 would starve to death if they didn't have mommy to look after them, the other seems to have a little more on the ball wouldn't even have a clue which end of a paintbrush to hold.


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## airrat (Jun 28, 2011)

Growing up we didn't bail our own hay.  But to save money we would go and pick up the bails from the field ourselves, several trips a day to fill the truck and trailer.   Everyday at 4 am we were up to bottle feed up to 40 baby calves in time to be at practice by 6:15 am.  All for room and board.  Jeeze my parents were so mean


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## Smitty37 (Jun 28, 2011)

airrat said:


> Growing up we didn't bail our own hay. But to save money we would go and pick up the bails from the field ourselves, several trips a day to fill the truck and trailer. Everyday at 4 am we were up to bottle feed up to 40 baby calves in time to be at practice by 6:15 am. All for room and board. Jeeze my parents were so mean


 
We didn't bottle feed ours but we did have to teach them to drink from a pail.  We bought 3 day old bull dairy calves from the livestock auction, had them cut and raised them as steers...The most we raised at one time was 21 though, usually about 10 or 12 a year.


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## jskeen (Jun 29, 2011)

wolftat said:


> My 17 year old step son just learned that he is going to be painting the house this summer since he is too lazy to get a job and was stupid enough to get his lisence suspended. He actually had the nerve to ask me how much he was going to get paid. I put his pay in writing and he was happy with the number, then I put down some more numbers, such as his food bill, his laundry bill, his electric bill, his gas bill, his phone bill, his cable tv bill, his car insurance bill, and his water bill and at the end of all that, he will only owe me about 4 grand after painting the house twice a year forever. He stopped asking to get paid for painting after that and went back to his video game, good move since that will be disappearing soon until the house is painted to my satisfaction.



Don't forget to have him polish the brightwork!  Good practice for when he gets his turn at paradise island.


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## sbwertz (Jun 29, 2011)

Smitty37 said:


> airrat said:
> 
> 
> > Growing up we didn't bail our own hay. But to save money we would go and pick up the bails from the field ourselves, several trips a day to fill the truck and trailer. Everyday at 4 am we were up to bottle feed up to 40 baby calves in time to be at practice by 6:15 am. All for room and board. Jeeze my parents were so mean
> ...


 
We had buckets with a big rubber teat on the bottom.


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## NewLondon88 (Jun 29, 2011)

jskeen said:


> Don't forget to have him polish the brightwork!  Good practice for when he gets his turn at paradise island.



LOL .. in no time at all, he'll be telling people to wash their hands before
they touch the doorknob.. :tongue:


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## Haynie (Jun 29, 2011)

Hauled over 10,000 lbs of scrap to the junk yard at 5 cents a pound, and I am not even close to being finished with that one storage unit.  Told a couple kids I would split the money with them if they helped, When they saw it was all engine blocks and heads they wanted more or just just said no.  Yeah, it was 103 yesterday and about the same Monday.  They were short sited though.  I have 4 more units and those are mostly aluminum at 36 cents a pound and copper wire, if stripped at 50 to 65 cents a pound.  It might take me longer to get it done but I get all the money and the exercise.  Both of which I need.


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## whd507 (Aug 22, 2011)

next time, try these two ideas, contact local Youth Pastors. youth groups are always in need of fundraisers, and a decent sized youth group will have a few good size boys who are up to it. Second Baptist in Springfield, or any similar sized church will certainly have more than enough volunteers.

the second is like the first. High school Football coaches/boosters are also on the lookout for fundraisers, plus this is a hell of a workout to boot.

either way, you might want to lower the price a little so you can afford to feed them during the day,

Good luck


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## randywa (Aug 22, 2011)

My brother is a Co. Deputy and works the courtroom also. He says to check with the court clerks. In his county there is a list of people waiting to do their community service. The judge loans them out pretty regular.


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