The Farmer & The Brunette: Tarping Silage (or What All Those Tires are Used For in Barnyards)

Silage season at The Farm is (almost) over!

The grass is in from the fields.
The machinery is being washed as I type.
The silo is partially tarped.

It's a good day around here. The Farmer even got to come in for lunch. Yes, he sat at the table and everything. And as a bonus...he got to take a nap. Naps are critical when you wake up at 3:30am EVERY DAY and during the three weeks of silage they go by the wayside. Needless to say, I have a comatose Farmer most every evening.

And in case you were worried, don't fret about our picnic lunches...they will resume once haying season begins.

In about a week.
(It never ends around here.)

In that week, though, we are going on a road trip! Woo hoo! More on that later...

On Wednesday The Farmer and SV, our neighbor-turned-frequent-farm-help, tarped the back (or is it the front?) of the silo. Besides being asked to "help" this year (more on that below) I hadn't really seen the silo being tarped, so the afternoon was fascinating to watch. Usually I just think of silage tarping day as "stinky day" because, yes, it stinks.

This is the silo. It is about three-quarters full.

The point of a silo is to compress all the grass to create "sauerkraut for cows".

They love sauerkraut.

So the sides are slanted, the grass is packed in tight, and there is a tarp that is hung on the back wall and comes over the top to seal in the silage so it can ferment. Fermenting = stinky.

To give some perspective on how big this silo is, check us out:

That's me, The Farmer, and SV. And the tractors.

Before we got started The Farmer had to unload the latest load from the field.

I'm sure he is annoyed all all the photo-taking at this point.

Or at least all the photo-taking of him.

But he's kinda cute. I like taking photos of him.

At the ready are the two trusty tractors which will compact the silage into the silo.

After the load is emptied, the wagon looks kinda cool on the inside.

The ladder-looking mechanism in the bottom of the wagon runs on a belt which pushes the silage out the back.

After the load is deposited at the silo it gets pushed and compacted up into the silo.

This tractor is the better "pusher"; the other one is the better "compactor". Hence, we have two. (The pusher tractor is actually rented from a neighbor.)

While the pushing/compacting is taking place the Farmer changes into rain gear.

He's gonna get wet.

And stinky.

Now for those tires...

Ever wonder why farms have stacks of them lying around?

They get stacked in the silo over the silage to hold things in place and get that fermentation process started. (Aren't you glad that mystery is solved?)

The Farmer and SV begin stacking the tires onto the pallet.

And my job?

I'm driving the SkidSteer!

But really my job is to not drop SV.

See that door up at the top of the silo? Yeah...we have to get the tires up there.

Don't worry...I am not taking these photos.

It is not safe to operate the SkidSteer and take photos.

Besides, the photos are not that interesting.

The view "up" at SV unloading.

The view straight ahead while the boom is hoisted in the air.

Oh. Whoops. I guess I'm taking photos while operating the SkidSteer.

After SV was safely on the ground (He actually hoisted himself up into the silo through the door, because, well, wouldn't you want to do that?) I went up into the silo to ~~help~~ take more photos.

The view from inside is kinda cool!

And look! The tires!

I threatened to take a video at this point because The Farmer and SV were doing a dance of sorts. The compacting-down-the-silage-with-your-feet dance.