Rick Houser
My birthday is June 23 and I was always told that the day I was born Dad and the neighbors were baling hay. With each year it seemed we were always baling hay. This always brought the same response that I was born when they were baling hay. So it came as no surprise that hay season was and still remains the favorite event on our farm. As a matter of fact if we weren’t baling on our farm I was out helping a neighbor put his hay in. Yes, with June came hay and my birthday.

I must admit I was, and still am, fascinated by equipment and how gears, belts and pulleys all spin and turn in many ways but all cause the final result it was created for. This was such with the hay baler. I am talking about the baler that created a square tied bale and before the era of the big round bales. We would mow our hay and in two days of dry air and bright sun would be ready to make into a bale ready to be put in a barn for feeding the coming winter. In those days we didn’t own a baler so Dad would hire someone to come in and rake the hay into windrows and bale our hay for a price of so much per bale. For those who don’t know, a hay rake is designed to move cut hay by a reel with metal teeth that catch the hay and move it from right to left and in a spiral motion that creates a row of hay that stays in a consistent amount from one end of a field to the other. When a field is raked this way it creates to me a uniform sight and a field takes on a sight that I have always been glad to look at and see the harvest of a field before the baler does its’ job.

We almost always hired Walter Reichel to bale our hay, as he did almost all the custom work in our neighborhood. But one December day after loading a load of stripped tobacco to haul to the warehouse Walter suffered a heart attack and died. I was fourteen and had worked for this man and been around him for a long time and his passing really was a loss I had never suffered before. However as the winter moved along and I think in late spring I talked with Dad and expressed to him that without Walter to bale our hay it was the time for me to step up and buy a new baler and hay rake and bale our hay and pick up some custom baling to help pay for the equipment. I had worked my numbers and priced the costs of the equipment and was able to show dad on paper how this was going to be a good investment. He agreed and we went the next day to Harlow’s’ and I bought the hay rake and a Ford hay baler for the price I felt was good. That weekend it was delivered and placed in our barn. I was so excited about this big investment I took whoever I could get up to the barn to show it off.

When June rolled around I hooked up the mowing machine and cut down about seven acres of hay. Dad said since all was new (including me) I shouldn’t start with too much. So when the hay was ready to be baled I lined up a couple friends (the Marshall brothers) to load and haul and put the hay in the barn while I baled. Jerry Harlow, who was one of the owners of the stores where I bought it, came over and taught me how to run the baler. (I guess you could call it hay baling 101 class.) Having watched balers all my life Jerry had an eager student who learned quickly. My cousin Walt raked the hay and then ran the barn crew and I ran the baler. At this point I moved into a different category of farmer, I think. I was then called a man who would custom bale your hay for you, for a price of course. This was the first time I had earned money while steering the wheel and hiring the workers. This was a large obligation and responsibility for a boy only fourteen years old! But as they say I took to it like a duck takes to water! I wanted to be good at it and I enjoyed doing it and each year it was around or on my birthday. It, I guess, was meant to be.

With each year I increased the amount of hay I baled and stored at home for my livestock and to sell in the winter months to earn some extra money. Also with each year the word got around that I was available to custom bale and the volume also increased. Along with the hay, I baled a lot of wheat straw for bedding and sold a lot of it in the winter months. I want to take a moment here to explain that riding a tractor from mid-morning and into the late night was not as glamorous as it might sound. When the wind blew the wrong way I ate a lot of dust. With the constant rocking rhythm that the baler put the tractor into could cause a lot of driving standing up. A big plus I had over many farmers doing the same as me was I had a solid helper and we worked in great coordination to each other. This was my cousin Walt Houser. Walt would run the hay crews and delivered awesome results. He could and would rake hay as neatly as anyone I’ve ever seen and relieved me on the baler so I could relieve him some. We made a great team and caused us to be successful!

I did this up into the early 80s. I always thought, it is near my birthday so I better bale some hay. When the big round bales took over the lion’s share of baling the days of square baling moved to very little. At this time I learned that when June came around I didn’t have to bale hay and I could relax and enjoy my day in a different restful way. Today when I pass a field and see it raked up neatly and uniform and a square baler spitting out bales I watch and think back to a day when I ran that crew and now just smile and drive on by as I am going to my house and sit in the air conditioning instead. Miss it? No. Still like talking about it? You bet ya!

Rick Houser grew up on a farm near Moscow in Clermont County and loved to share stories about his youth and other topics. He may be reached at houser734@yahoo.com.