Grease Gun Season

Grace Vanderzande | Jun 08, 2016

To spend all day in hay fields surrounded by trees, with the possible sightings of abundant wildlife makes this farm girl happy. The season, where I get to bale hay is now in full swing. Haying season requires many steps that have to be completed. Each step needs to be finished, long before you actually get to the fun part, of driving in circles with your own thoughts, and to enjoy the view.

“I am not going to brag here”. In my experience if someone starts with that line you know they are indeed going to brag about something. I am no different.

Over the years, there have not been too many jobs that I have not tried to do myself, and for the most part accomplished here on the farm. Being stubborn and determined has served me well in what needs to be done, in all seasons. I had even figured out how to easily hook up that tricky PTO (power take-off) shaft on the baler, turning it just right, and then how to slide it onto the PTO of the tractor. I should tell you that unfortunately my arms do not have the strength they used to. This means, that today holding that heavy PTO shaft up and getting it into place is not something I can accomplish. My husband (fondly known as My Hero) had the solution.

He now leaves our round baler hooked up to the same tractor (Little Red), all season. This came about after the poor guy had to listen to my whiny complaints over and over. He has always found a solution to my problems and frustrations.

Fuel up the tractor and load the twine into the twine box, these jobs I can still handle without a problem. There is however still one job that continues to frustrate me. It is like I have a mental block, and will never accomplish, this seemingly easy to everyone else job.

There are so many grease fittings on haying equipment, the round baler, the tractor, the rake and especially the discbine. All combined, they seem to have hundreds of those little fittings just waiting for attention. That is probably an exaggeration but when you are exhausted, have to beat the weather, and are in a hurry it certainly feels that way.

My father-in-law used to say grease is cheaper than replacing a broken part. He was absolutely right. I grease religiously every morning before I head out to bale hay. There have been fires from the friction of metal on metal, so greasing moving parts would be extremely important, and never to be forgotten.

Now that we have established that greasing machinery is not the problem, I am going to admit the problem. I cannot for the life of me reload a grease gun. It always turns into some horrible scene, where big gobs of blue grease end up on my boots, my shirt and most times in my hair and on my face. An empty grease gun in my world is my biggest fear. This simple task, I have concluded is a skill I will never, ever accomplish. Those emergency phone calls to My Hero at his day job explaining (possibly whining) that the grease gun he had forgotten about was now empty, and I could not possibly finish greasing was something I was not proud of. He would try his best to walk me through the process. Ultimately, the call would end with him telling me where in the barn was another loaded grease gun.

Like I said, he always finds a solution. This would be where countless auction sales came into play. We now own about a dozen grease guns. Just about now, I am probably using one that had been lined up waiting, all loaded by a man who knows exactly what keeps this farm girl happy.

Grace Vanderzande is a Napanee area farmer, a writer, and a blogger @ www.buttonsthoughts.ca. Contact her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.