Hauling Hay and Feeding Cattle -

Swathing hay (cutting hay) to be baled

The one thing I did not like about hauling hay was the fact that during the winter we would have to take it back out of the barn and load it on the pickup and take it to the cattle, typically when it was cold and wet.

Carl McConaghy feeding cattle, mostly Herefords (polled or not?)

This is Carl McConaghy, feeding in 1993. Notice...no one is driving the pickup....you should remember that. Put it in compound, jump out and onto the back of the pickup, cut and drop the hay. Jump out and run to catch the pickup...before you run into a gully, or pond, etc. (by Sue McConaghy, wife of Neal).  If you don't know compound is first gear and back then automatic transmissions were relatively new and expensive.  Air conditioning was a fan or water cooler.  Just clarifying.


Now Carl went to school with my mom, Opal Olson, and they graduated from Grainola High School. Just thought you ought to know that.  He always had a fiddle on the wall in the house which his father played.  Now Carl was known for calling a square dance.  That probably sounds strange but if you have never square danced you should try it and when you do you will figure out what "calling a square dance" means.  Just a little more information on Carl and Aladyne.  Their ranch was name the Wilamarie and most of the time there are signs which tell you that but one exception I know of will be another story.  They raised four children who were always causing a camotion, just kidding, Neal, Glen, Marvin and Carla.  Neal lives with Sue, we think they are married (just kidding - they are) live in Grainola west across the creek.  Glen lives with Deborah Himbury (the mean old typewriting teacher and home economics teacher - just kidding - who could not like her), Marvin I think is in Kansas and Carla, we will figure that out.

As you will notice today I am sharing what some of the folks wrote in regard to Hauling Hay.


Virginia wrote: "My brother Steve hauled for the Jacques and my oldest brother Gary hauled for the McConaghy's. I always remember the guys who hauled hay always looks like their arms had been mauled by a tiger-----hmmmmm must of been a Shidler Tiger lol" 

Steve Chrisco

Marcus wrote: "Gary, do I ever remember the days of hauling hay! Mostly with Harv Harrington and Larry Stephenson. Worked for Paul Jones. Remember the long hauls from Dewy and K.S. Adams ranch to the place in Foraker. Remember stopping for a Coke with peanuts poured in." 

Mark Whitt

Jim Hathcoat Jim wrote: "Three cents a bale, stacked in the barn, and all the ice water you could drink. Twenty to twenty-five bales at a time on the back of a 1/2 ton pickup. Now that will incentivize most anyone to get off their lazy rear-ends and find a better way of making a living. Flying airplanes for 38 years worked for me." Now Jim summed it up pretty good on what you learn from hauling hay:

•  go find a good job
• go to school
•  

Thanks for your time,
gary@thepioneerman.com