We needed to move a round bale out for the horses this afternoon. I was kind of excited because it would be the first practical use of my new quick attach hay spear for my front loader on my Mahindra 3616. I had two choices: Go around the back of the barn where it's sloped or go through the front lawn and two gates. I chose the slope which ended up being a big mistake. That little tractor will lift and move the bale just fine, but I just had to learn the hard way that a slope is deadly. I had enough foresight to keep it low and it's a good thing. The tractor started going over and, according to my wife who was behind me, my left rear wheel was about a foot and a half off the ground. I had no choice but to back the spear out and watch in dismay as the 700 pound bale rolled down the gully. I was muttering colorful phrases as I watched it bounce off one tree, then another, then another and finally come to rest against the fence half way down the hill right in the bottom of the gully. Both sides of this gully are really steep. I thought maybe my quad would push it up the hill. Yeah, right. My quad tried to climb right over it. After standing there looking at this bale for a while, I had an epiphany! I could get a rope, tie off to a tree at the top of the gully, run the rope under the bale and back up the hill to the hitch on my quad to pull it up the hill. It took three stages, but it worked and I managed to bring the tractor down, spear the bale and back up the ridge and go around front. While we were setting the bale up, I stepped in a hole and twisted my left ankle. After I treated anyone listening to a demonstration of just how colorful my vocabulary can be under the right circumstances, we finished fastening the hay ring around the bale and I went to take the tractor back to the shed. I got off the tractor to open the gate and stepped on a stupid stick and twisted my right ankle. I figured I'd said enough at that point and just limped over to the front wheel of the tractor, sat down and thought about just how bad this evolution had been. It dawned on me that: 1. The tractor didn't roll over. 2. I did get the bale out of the gully and up the hill. 3. I got to impress my wife with my "outside the box" thinking. (yeah, right) 4. I've always been blessed with ankles that could flex to 90 degrees with no damage, so I'm okay. It hurts when it happens and for a while afterwards, but I've never sprained an ankle. So, as I said, I'm not sure if this was an unlucky afternoon or a lucky one.
Oye rolling the tractor. Twisting your ankle isn't so bad for running, just swim a bit to take some of the stress off if it hurts. Your cardio will shoot up, just dont wear fins.
No, I'm okay. It's really weird, but I've twisted my ankles so bad that my ankle bone hit the ground hard enough to scrape the skin and I still didn't get a sprain. I'm not sure how my ankles are put together but they flex like you wouldn't believe, and it's a blessing.
Well, if I'd cough up the $300 to put liquid ballast in the tires it would probably be fine. I just can't do it right now.
I LOL'd at your story. So, overall it must have been lucky. At least that's the yardstick I'm going by. I have funky uber-flexy ankles too. I can't ice skate, too much work trying to keep the ankles straight. :D
I'm sure it would be, but to store them I need to stack a second row. I may still get a spear for the back so I can put one on the back to counter-balance the load. Right now I'm just using my box blade as back ballast. Still, I'm staying off that stupid hill with round bales from now on.
I've never tried to ice skate, so I wouldn't know how that would work. Back when I used to run a buddy of mine and I were nearing the end of a run and I stepped on uneven pavement while moving at about a 7 minute mile pace. My right foot buckled and the outside of my ankle hit the concrete and scraped the skin off. I fell, rolled, skinning my right knee in the process, popped back up to my feet and ran the rest of the way. He was right behind me and couldn't believe I hadn't broken my ankle. I guess we're just lucky.
You must have several horses on a small piece of land if you're still feeding hay? I think I can stand on the porch and watch the grass in my yard grow!
Close. We have two horses on two acres, but quite a bit of that is taken up by the house and woods. We have to feed hay year-round.
