Friday Farm Fun- Haying and Gulls

We went to Princeton on Saturday and my hubby raked the outside rounds, then the rest on Sunday. Monday, early morning, the neighbor came to bale the hay, and we began hauling it off using the backhoe with a big fork on the front of the loader and the gooseneck trailer and the one ton truck.

Tink pouting because she didn't get to ride in the backhoe

The gulls following the baler

Tink and I drove the truck and trailer out to the field then pulled it down through the rows of bales as my hubby used the backhoe to stack the 800 lb  4' x 8' bales in twos then set them on the trailer. When we had 18 on the trailer I drove it back to the stack yard and hubby then unloaded the bales and we'd return to the field. We did this for 158 bales.


While sitting in the field waiting to get loaded, I enjoyed watching the gulls, yes, gulls in Eastern Oregon, as they swooped down around the tractor and baler. It turns out they were after the mice that get injured. The gulls eat them. They would also follow the backhoe and swoop down close to the truck eyeballing Tink and I as we waited.

In my hubby's hurry to start water on the oats and peas he seeded the last trip to Princeton, he managed to get a couple rows of hay wet. So that had to dry out and be turned, then he used our small baler to bale that up on Tuesday. We went out with a tractor and wagon and picked those up by hand. When we'd roll a bale over, a mouse would scurry out from under. Boots and Tink had a blast chasing the mice and catching them. They'd kill the mouse and hurry to the next bale being lifted. And in our wake, here came the seagulls. They swooped down, picking up the mice the dogs maimed.

Raven that has decided to claim last year's hay

It's strange to see gulls and terns swooping around hay fields in the middle of sagebrush and sand, but with the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge not far from us, we have a plethora of unique bird sightings.