wrote:
On Tue, 27 Oct 2015 13:19:14 -0700, Califbill billnews wrote:

John H. wrote:
On Tue, 27 Oct 2015 10:02:56 -0700 (PDT), Tim wrote:

My summer jobs were stacking mostly 80 lb alphalfa hay bales on a wagon
and into a barn from sun up to sundown. Start at 6:30am to about 9pm. 6 days a week.

Usually 80-90 degrees in the direct sun and 120+ in the barn while
breathing straw and hay dust all day.

Baling and stacking hay was often a multi-family job. I really enjoyed the dinners
with two or three families, usually a huge mess of fried chichen with the goodies.
Then back to work 'til the sun went down.
--

Ban idiots, not guns!


I was pretty young when I helped my uncle hay. I drug the bales in to
position on the trailer. Could not toss them up high enough. Hard work.

My mother's family were watermen on the lower Chesapeake (a little
south of Harry). I saw them tonging oysters and running crab pots but
I never had the urge to do that for a living or even an odd job.


My uncle was a dairy man, and grandparents were egg ranchers. Learned
early on, was not a life I wanted.

Keyser Söze wrote:
On 10/27/15 7:01 PM, wrote:
On Tue, 27 Oct 2015 13:19:14 -0700, Califbill billnews wrote:

John H. wrote:
On Tue, 27 Oct 2015 10:02:56 -0700 (PDT), Tim wrote:

My summer jobs were stacking mostly 80 lb alphalfa hay bales on a wagon
and into a barn from sun up to sundown. Start at 6:30am to about 9pm. 6 days a week.

Usually 80-90 degrees in the direct sun and 120+ in the barn while
breathing straw and hay dust all day.

Baling and stacking hay was often a multi-family job. I really enjoyed the dinners
with two or three families, usually a huge mess of fried chichen with the goodies.
Then back to work 'til the sun went down.
--

Ban idiots, not guns!


I was pretty young when I helped my uncle hay. I drug the bales in to
position on the trailer. Could not toss them up high enough. Hard work.

My mother's family were watermen on the lower Chesapeake (a little
south of Harry). I saw them tonging oysters and running crab pots but
I never had the urge to do that for a living or even an odd job.


I haven't seen anyone tonging oysters for a couple of years, though I
know it is still being done. The crabbers, of course, are everywhere.
Both are tough ways to make a living.

We buy softshells at least once a week from a reliable guy with a
refrigerator truck and a roadside electrical outlet in the parking lot
of a liquor store. Nice softshells run $3 to $4 each. Don't like banging
crabs with mallets for the little bit of meat they contain.


Our Dungeness crabs have lots of meat, so worth banging. Couple times I
had soft shell crabs, did not impress me.

wrote:
On Tue, 27 Oct 2015 16:57:11 -0400,
wrote:

On Tue, 27 Oct 2015 13:19:14 -0700, Califbill billnews wrote:

John H. wrote:
On Tue, 27 Oct 2015 10:02:56 -0700 (PDT), Tim wrote:

My summer jobs were stacking mostly 80 lb alphalfa hay bales on a wagon
and into a barn from sun up to sundown. Start at 6:30am to about 9pm. 6 days a week.

Usually 80-90 degrees in the direct sun and 120+ in the barn while
breathing straw and hay dust all day.

Baling and stacking hay was often a multi-family job. I really enjoyed the dinners
with two or three families, usually a huge mess of fried chichen with the goodies.
Then back to work 'til the sun went down.
--

Ban idiots, not guns!


I was pretty young when I helped my uncle hay. I drug the bales in to
position on the trailer. Could not toss them up high enough. Hard work.

===

Apparently technology has changed hay bailing a lot. When we drive
through farm country these days I see large round bundles that are
moved around with fork lifts. I'm not sure if they are still tied up
with bailing twine or not. Apparently they don't get stored in barns
either. Most often we see them in the fields with tarps over them.

They have a little square machine that bales these up. I may have a
picture somewhere but they were all over the Dakotas. They are tied
with twine (maybe poly). The farmers have a feeder station that will
take a whole roll at a time. I have seen then in pole barns or, like
you say, more often just out in the field under a tarp.
We did watch one "big old boy" roll one of these up to a feeder and
muscle it in himself when we were in Montana. He was a cowboy on a 4
wheeler.


We still see the small bales at times, but not as common as old days.
Either the big rolls, and they keep better food value if stored covered,
and the large rolls.

On Tue, 27 Oct 2015 17:04:55 -0400, Keyser Söze
wrote:

Oh, and the new
outboards in their crate boxes, up to about 100 hp in those days, were
stacked two and three high along the side of the main showroom, and had
to be grunted up or down.

I grunted this one around for a few days

http://gfretwell.com/ftp/new%20motor.jpg

On 10/27/2015 5:18 PM, John H. wrote:
On Tuesday, October 27, 2015 at 3:05:40 PM UTC-4, True North wrote:
One of my tougher jobs was struggling with 400 pound cubes of rubber....trying to drag them out from under the wings of a cargo ships hold and hook up to the winch for offloading. A number of the full time longshoreman disappeared....leaving a few of the reliable guys and a handful of us hired from the bullpen to do the work.

Don, my last comment to you was totally uncalled for. I apologize.

And I apologize for what I was thinking.

On Tue, 27 Oct 2015 19:11:00 -0400, Keyser Söze
wrote:

I haven't seen anyone tonging oysters for a couple of years, though I
know it is still being done. The crabbers, of course, are everywhere.
Both are tough ways to make a living.

===

We see guys tonging for oysters on Long Island Sound's south shore
when we're up that way late in the season. They are usually in small
skiffs with a square sail rigged from a pole. Apparently the sail
helps to resist the force of the tonging and keeps the boat from
moving. It looks like very hard work but there must be money in it
based on the number we see.

On Tue, 27 Oct 2015 19:11:00 -0400, Keyser Söze
wrote:


My mother's family were watermen on the lower Chesapeake (a little
south of Harry). I saw them tonging oysters and running crab pots but
I never had the urge to do that for a living or even an odd job.


I haven't seen anyone tonging oysters for a couple of years, though I
know it is still being done. The crabbers, of course, are everywhere.
Both are tough ways to make a living.

Oysters are generally tonged when it is really too cold to watch ;-)


We buy softshells at least once a week from a reliable guy with a
refrigerator truck and a roadside electrical outlet in the parking lot
of a liquor store. Nice softshells run $3 to $4 each. Don't like banging
crabs with mallets for the little bit of meat they contain.

The people who owned the marina before my niece bought used to float
out softshells but it is a game of constant observation.
They pick out the "peelers" from the pots and put them in float boxes,
watching them constantly and snatching them out as soon as they molt.
Then they got packed in wet grass and sold.

I am not really a soft shell fan. I don't mind picking hard crabs tho.
It is really more of a social event than a meal. I always want a
burger or something afterwards.
A lot is in learning the trick. First off, there is no "banging". You
do it all with a dull paring knife. Some use a short piece of sawed
off broom stick to get the knife going but I never do.

I was in a "crab house" in Treasure Island once and drew a crowd,
showing everyone how to pick a crab, including the owners.
I learned the trick from my grand parents as they did from theirs.

On 10/27/2015 7:30 PM, wrote:
On Tue, 27 Oct 2015 16:57:11 -0400,
wrote:

On Tue, 27 Oct 2015 13:19:14 -0700, Califbill billnews wrote:

John H. wrote:
On Tue, 27 Oct 2015 10:02:56 -0700 (PDT), Tim wrote:

My summer jobs were stacking mostly 80 lb alphalfa hay bales on a wagon
and into a barn from sun up to sundown. Start at 6:30am to about 9pm. 6 days a week.

Usually 80-90 degrees in the direct sun and 120+ in the barn while
breathing straw and hay dust all day.

Baling and stacking hay was often a multi-family job. I really enjoyed the dinners
with two or three families, usually a huge mess of fried chichen with the goodies.
Then back to work 'til the sun went down.
--

Ban idiots, not guns!


I was pretty young when I helped my uncle hay. I drug the bales in to
position on the trailer. Could not toss them up high enough. Hard work.

===

Apparently technology has changed hay bailing a lot. When we drive
through farm country these days I see large round bundles that are
moved around with fork lifts. I'm not sure if they are still tied up
with bailing twine or not. Apparently they don't get stored in barns
either. Most often we see them in the fields with tarps over them.

They have a little square machine that bales these up. I may have a
picture somewhere but they were all over the Dakotas. They are tied
with twine (maybe poly). The farmers have a feeder station that will
take a whole roll at a time. I have seen then in pole barns or, like
you say, more often just out in the field under a tarp.
We did watch one "big old boy" roll one of these up to a feeder and
muscle it in himself when we were in Montana. He was a cowboy on a 4
wheeler.



The hay bales Mrs.E gets are about 3-4 feet long by about 2 feet high
and 2 feet wide. They are basically a series of "flakes", compressed
and held together as a bale with twine. Each flake is about 6 inches wide.

They are easily managed by one person but tossing a hundred of them
up into the hay storage loft could be a bitch. When she orders a
bunch of it to be delivered, they show up with a trailer full of bales
and use a motorized belt conveyor device that goes up to the barn loft
doors.

On Tue, 27 Oct 2015 16:32:33 -0700, Califbill billnews wrote:


Our Dungeness crabs have lots of meat, so worth banging. Couple times I
had soft shell crabs, did not impress me.

I picked one out down in the market in San Francisco once. It is OK
but not as much flavor as a real Chesapeake blue crab.
The crabs down here are not as good. It probably has to do with the
fact that then never hibernate. The best crabs are right before the
first molt of the early summer.

On soft shells, freshness is a big deal. Frozen ones will not be as
good. Usually they are lightly sauteed in butter with a tiny pinch of
old bay. Don't over cook them. On your coast they may have been
steamed before they were shipped.

On 10/27/2015 7:36 PM, Califbill wrote:
wrote:
On Tue, 27 Oct 2015 16:57:11 -0400,
wrote:

On Tue, 27 Oct 2015 13:19:14 -0700, Califbill billnews wrote:

John H. wrote:
On Tue, 27 Oct 2015 10:02:56 -0700 (PDT), Tim wrote:

My summer jobs were stacking mostly 80 lb alphalfa hay bales on a wagon
and into a barn from sun up to sundown. Start at 6:30am to about 9pm. 6 days a week.

Usually 80-90 degrees in the direct sun and 120+ in the barn while
breathing straw and hay dust all day.

Baling and stacking hay was often a multi-family job. I really enjoyed the dinners
with two or three families, usually a huge mess of fried chichen with the goodies.
Then back to work 'til the sun went down.
--

Ban idiots, not guns!


I was pretty young when I helped my uncle hay. I drug the bales in to
position on the trailer. Could not toss them up high enough. Hard work.

===

Apparently technology has changed hay bailing a lot. When we drive
through farm country these days I see large round bundles that are
moved around with fork lifts. I'm not sure if they are still tied up
with bailing twine or not. Apparently they don't get stored in barns
either. Most often we see them in the fields with tarps over them.

They have a little square machine that bales these up. I may have a
picture somewhere but they were all over the Dakotas. They are tied
with twine (maybe poly). The farmers have a feeder station that will
take a whole roll at a time. I have seen then in pole barns or, like
you say, more often just out in the field under a tarp.
We did watch one "big old boy" roll one of these up to a feeder and
muscle it in himself when we were in Montana. He was a cowboy on a 4
wheeler.



We still see the small bales at times, but not as common as old days.
Either the big rolls, and they keep better food value if stored covered,
and the large rolls.


Problem with hay is that it can rot quickly, even if covered and kept
dry. It depends on how much of it you go through. A large farm
probably goes through as many of those big rolls as my wife's
two horses go through the smaller, rectangular bales in the same
time period. I think she goes through about a full bale a day.