Thanks for the replies, guys. It's nice to be reminded I'm not alone in experiencing first hand how ordinary things completely beyond our control (like humidity, or the lack thereof) make this "simple life" challenging, to say the least. Reading here makes me realize my troubles are often small in comparison, and to be thankful for what we have (and don't, like drought).
I did get 21 bales of a second cutting (short but really sweet) baled up from parts of 2 very small fields, but some of it by the hedgerow wasn't really cured enough. The bales were already heating as of last night and I ended up cutting some open and spreading it in the mow, plus feeding some out. The critters love it.
The field the picture was taken in had the potential of about 120+ bales (excluding the mud at the top), of which I got about 12 bales before the clouds rolled in and humidity came up fast in early evening. The grass really is too old and rank for good hay, but surprisingly, it seems to have dried down ok for as tall and thick as it was. BTW, got stuck again with the baler about 40' back of that picture - it looked firm enough, but the baler said otherwise.
The ground was so damp that I would bale a few, stop, then go around with the borrowed Kioti (sorry, I thought it was the other orange import) and put the bales in the loader bucket to take to the hay wagon just to get them off the ground. Didn't take but 2 trips to start 'mushing' the better of the two headlands, so ended up stopping every couple bales and loading them on the baler (IH 46) to get them out.
Here is the new hay elevator:
It sped up the single handed process considerably (load, lift, go up and unload), at least until the other half got free to lend a hand.
Too bad it has to go back.
The rain held off until this morning, but then the sky just opened up. By the time we get a stretch of hay weather again, it won't be worth putting up at all. Of course I could do like that fellow Old Tanker saw and bale water and all, just to get it off the field. :roll:
Just another problem to come up with a solution for. It keeps life interesting.