Today has been much longer than the hours say. Went to work at 6:30 and got off at 12. Very busy, plus in the 90's and humid, but not that hard a morning. Then I came home, took a 30 minute break, then went to cut more pasture for hay. I Only cut about an acre when one of my gearboxes on the discbine started smoking. This particular gearbox didn't get new bearings last year due to the stub shaft being frozen into the shaft. I just put new seals in it. This time a bearing failed and took out the seal. I had one new seal (dealer closed at noon) and saved all the good bearings from the major rebuild. I did get the seized shaft out, so then I could sneak inside with a small punch & drove the remainder of the bad bearing out. To pull the shaft completely would have required pulling the other seal, which would have prevented my doing a fast repair. So I drove on a used bearing and race, put in the new seal & put it all back together. I had to drop one end of the entire cutter bar to remove the end gearbox unit. Thankfully it was the end gearbox, otherwise I would have had to drop the entire cutterbar unit. Ended up mowing till 7:30 and got over 30 acres down. I need to finish the last 10 to 12 acres tomorrow after the grass dries. This is steep ground, so gotta be safe about it. Tomorrow is our 23rd wedding anniversary, so I'm taking her for a nice breakfast before finishing the cutting in the afternoon. I figure this will make 80 or more round bales, so I have a lot to do and only will have 5:30 till dark to do it with work & all. I haven't told Dad I'm cutting, as I really don't want him on these hills, plus raking will be on an open tractor, and it's too hot for him to do it.
50% chance of rain Tuesday through Friday, but it had to be cut. Being grass hay, rain won't hurt it that much anyway. I may have to group the bales in the field and put a battery powered fence charger around it to keep the heifers away from it till I have time to move them from the field. What I cut yesterday may be ready to take & roll tomorrow. I'm gonna try to get that smaller field rolled tomorrow, but there's only one of me, so it may not get done.