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Post by billhammond on Jan 10, 2020 17:11:31 GMT -5
I never met any farmers that lost their arms in balers, but I personally met a few snakes that did. It was never a welcome encounter. Usually it was when I was loading the little hay bales, 40 to 80 pounders, via a pop up loader onto a hay truck and usually they were dead. But we would occasionally need to walk through the fields and roll the bales onto the other side so they would dry out a bit before loading. I met some live ones there. They did not seem to like being halfway stuck in a bale. Just curious, how many arms does a snake have? |
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Post by drlj on Jan 10, 2020 17:18:30 GMT -5
I never met any farmers that lost their arms in balers, but I personally met a few snakes that did. It was never a welcome encounter. Usually it was when I was loading the little hay bales, 40 to 80 pounders, via a pop up loader onto a hay truck and usually they were dead. But we would occasionally need to walk through the fields and roll the bales onto the other side so they would dry out a bit before loading. I met some live ones there. They did not seem to like being halfway stuck in a bale. Just curious, how many arms does a snake have? Well, after being in the baler, none. |
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Post by Village Idiot on Jan 10, 2020 17:21:00 GMT -5
I assume where you were, David, that some of those snakes might have poisonous. Not in Iowa. Every now and then a bale would come up with a snake trying to wriggle out, but of course it couldn't because most if it was crushed except for the part sticking out. I always felt much worse for the bull snakes than I did the garter snakes, which what I'd see most of the time, because bull snakes are very cool snakes.
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Post by jdd2 on Jan 10, 2020 17:46:27 GMT -5
My experience w/alfalfa is that it was cut, raked, then raked again, then fed into the bailer, onto a wagon & into a barn. Never left in the field, either bales, or whatever you call those big rolls (w/plastic).
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Post by millring on Jan 10, 2020 18:01:38 GMT -5
If a starfish ever lost an arm to a baler it would just grow back.
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Post by howard lee on Jan 10, 2020 19:43:33 GMT -5
[Not Ready for] Prime Time Players
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Post by Village Idiot on Jan 10, 2020 21:15:30 GMT -5
My old college roommate grew up in Wheaton, Illinois. His older brother graduated with John Belushi. The class clown from Kindergarten on. His drug-laden fall is very sad.
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Post by david on Jan 10, 2020 21:53:57 GMT -5
I never met any farmers that lost their arms in balers, but I personally met a few snakes that did. It was never a welcome encounter. Usually it was when I was loading the little hay bales, 40 to 80 pounders, via a pop up loader onto a hay truck and usually they were dead. But we would occasionally need to walk through the fields and roll the bales onto the other side so they would dry out a bit before loading. I met some live ones there. They did not seem to like being halfway stuck in a bale. Just curious, how many arms does a snake have? No matter how mean the snake, it disarmed them. |
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Post by david on Jan 10, 2020 22:05:18 GMT -5
I assume where you were, David, that some of those snakes might have poisonous. Not in Iowa. Every now and then a bale would come up with a snake trying to wriggle out, but of course it couldn't because most if it was crushed except for the part sticking out. I always felt much worse for the bull snakes than I did the garter snakes, which what I'd see most of the time, because bull snakes are very cool snakes. I had my bale career in the Willamette Valley and it was grass hay, some rye grass straw and some wheat straw. All three of those are packed more loosely than alfalfa. I would see mostly garter snakes, but some bull snakes too. In the drier part of Oregon, (pretty much anywhere east of the Cascade Mountain Range) rattlesnakes are common. |
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Post by Village Idiot on Jan 10, 2020 22:45:18 GMT -5
No rattlesnakes around here. Timber rattlers maybe, but very scarce. The only one I saw was sunning itself on a path, and was only about four inches long. Interesting to look at, then I stepped over it and moved on.
I always felt sorry for garter snakes that get caught up in a baler, but really sorry for bull snakes. Those are cool snakes. They can get up to four feet long. I've always had an affinity for the them. I see them sunning themselves on the gravel road in the summer, and I pick them up so they don't get run over. I keep an old sock in the Jeep, I put them into that, they never put up a fuss. Then I deposit them at the grain bin so they can eat any mice or rats hanging around there.
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Post by epaul on Jan 10, 2020 23:01:08 GMT -5
"Ma,Ma! Something just grabbed Billy! One of those monster things. Threw it in a sack and roared off in one of those machines. A beat up one like you see sitting all by itself along the road all the time. You know, the kind Uncle Ralph likes to live in because they always have so many holes in them? Um... can I have Billy's stuff?"
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