More Fourth Cutting Fun

The haybine made it through fourth cutting, but the baler has been struggling.  Yesterday, my help didn't make it out, so I was driving the tractor, then stopping, and stacking the bales when one was about to fall off of the wagon.  About halfway through the field, the wagon bounced up and got hung up on the chute.  When I turned, the chute got broken.  So I welded that up last night (very ugly weld), and tried again today, so I could beat the rain.  About 25 bales in, the yoke holding the U-joint on the drive shaft let loose.  Meanwhile, all the bouncing across the field made the bale stack unsteady.  First, I ran the baler home, and took off the broken parts.  While I was there, one of the neighbors whose house butts up to my field came down and told me that if I ever needed somebody to drive the tractor, her husband would be happy to do it.  Then when I hauled the wagon down the road to the other farm, I saw a baleI lost the day before about a mile and a half from home, and about 300 yards later, I lost a bale off of my wagon.  So I stopped, and started walking up the road to retrieve the two bales.  A neighbor from about a mile away, whom I'd never met before, stopped and asked if I needed any help.  I told them no, that I just had to pick up a couple of bales.  They went on, and I kept walking.  Then I heard a door behind me, and saw that they had stopped at the second bale and thrown it on the trunk of their car.  Then I heard the whine of the transmission as they drove in reverse to get back to me.  They got there, the guy had me load the second bale on top of the first one, then he drove me back to the wagon and helped me carry the bales around to load up.  There are a lot of good people out there, even if you aren't looking for help.