Fire!!

What a weekend!
It was the weekend that will forever be known as 
"the weekend that Tin Lizzy (our 1953 Ford tractor) went up in smoke".
as well as a patch of our hay field.

Let me start at the beginning of the story....

We have had several weeks without rain.
Our hay field had grown to about 10 inches since its last cutting.
Fearing that it would dry out and the hay would be lost,
we decided to cut the hay and bale it this weekend.

I started on Friday afternoon with a tractor like this (borrowed from our dairy farmer neighbor).

Slightly intimidated by its size and all those buttons and levers,
I climbed aboard with the haybine in tow.
Gaining confidence with each pass of the field, I increased my speed
and turned up the radio (yes, this tractor has a radio!)
Round and round I went...
and 4 hours later the hay was laying drying in the field.

Becky decided that she would do the raking on Tin Lizzy Saturday.
While she traversed the field, raking the hay into neat rows,
Hubbs and I decided to rest a bit on the front porch, reading (sleeping).
We awoke to the sound of the phone ringing in the house, but did not answer it in time.
Then, my cell phone (in my pocket) went off.
It was Becky....calling from the hay field.
"Tin Lizzy is on fire!" she said. "Bring water, I am afraid the hayfield will catch!"

We jumped out of our chairs and ran to the gator.
Off to the barn to fill up buckets, we sped down the lane.
When we arrived at the hayfield, we found our dear old tractor's tires engulfed in flames.
The fire had broken out around the area of the brake....beneath the driver's seat.
Becky was unharmed, but Ole Liz's tires were toast
and the paint had burnt from her body.

We put out the fire on Liz
and extinguished the burning hay.
Then our neighbor towed Liz out of the hayfield.


With another borrowed tractor, we finished the raking.


And by the end of Sunday had all the hay stowed in the barns.


Becky's horses enjoyed the process,
as we carried bale after bale to the elevator
to be stowed upstairs.


Believe it or not,
with two new tires and a little work
(and a bit of paint)
Ole Tin Lizzy should be back to work in no time.
After all, we need her to pull the manure spreader and the brush hog.
We have a newer John Deere that mows and has a bucket.
Yes, no farm is complete without at least two tractors, it seems!

All I can say is "Never a dull moment!"

Comments

JudiB said…
Wow..thank heavens everyone is ok. We were into a dry spell here also and so worried about fire. Good to hear you got the hay in and repairs are possible.
We just got an early morning storm and hopefully will see a little more rain today..but the rest of the week in the 90's.
Take care..Judi B.
andrea said…
Yikes!!
A baler caught fire on our road last weekend .. everybody was ok then too but it's so scary - glad you are all ok :)
Unknown said…
Wow, so glad no one got hurt and you saved the field! Fires this time of year are murder. Had a small one here one year, I never saw anything get out of hand so fast! I was totally amazed.

What a way to start the week! Can't get worse..knock on wood!
I'm glad Becky is ok. Have a great week. Stay safe. I wish I could send you some rain! We have way too much....dawn
This N That said…
You must have been on my mind yesterday..I was driving past dried up hay fields with the thermometer on my car registering 90...I thought to myself...This weather is only appreciated by farmers who need to cut and bale hay...and there you were..I hope Lizzy recovers without too many scars.
Teresa said…
Goodness! Way too much excitement. Glad nobody was hurt and Lizzie will be back to herself eventually.
Unknown said…
I'm glad y'all didn't have more loss than you did. This is the very reason why we've held out. All it takes is a rock spun out from under one of the tires. We did finally get over 4" of rain within a couple days this past week. Now we're waiting for it to dry a bit, before trying to cut.
Ginny said…
Glad Becky was unharmed and it sounds like Ole Tin Lizzy just needs a fixing up!!
countrynmore said…
Wow! What an experience you had. I hope that you get Ole Tin Lizzy up and running soon. I have a friend that has names for all of her equipment. She even has loppers that she has named Cindy Lopper lol.
Cynthia R. said…
On my sister's place before she bought it the neighbor behind her had it leased. One day he was mowing and his tractor caught fire. Being a long ways back to his house and the stock tank close by he just drove it into the tank. It saved his tractor with very little damage. We laugh about it now although it's really scary when it happens. Glad to hear you had little damage and no one got hurt.
Enjoy reading your site. Lot of beautiful animals and lovely farm.
Thank heavens Becky was ok and old Tin Lizzy will live to see another hay field! What a scare that would have been especially when you were all relaxed on the deck...geez. I'm glad everything worked out ok and you didn't loose much hay. I wonder if the newer tractors would have survived so well...they sure don't make them like they used to. Enjoy your day!
Maura :)