Not the idiot bales or stupid blocks or the hundreds of names for the small square bales almost every farm kid has had to load onto a trailer and throw into a barn loft to be stacked. Been there, done that. (One can only hope someone has invented a bale picker for those by now.) The culprit was a 1,500 pound big round bale. Sitting right on top of the hill by our mail box. Not bothering anyone or anything. Just enjoying the sunshine and doing what large round bales do all day. Suddenly, one of my boys piped up with, “It looks like you could just give it a push, and it would roll down the hill.” Then the other one snickered, “I wonder if Dad would notice?” I swear I could see the flash of the bulb going off in their heads. Then came the “should we, could we, would we?”

Wait, wait, wait. Do not try this at home or in anyone else’s fields. Our property. Our bale. No buildings, equipment, other people, or animals around except us. Also, the field sloped into a valley like setting with a larger hill on the other side to prevent the bale from going anywhere. It would have to be launched out of a cannon to make it up that hill, and then some. 

We did some strategic planning before we decided to do it. Of course, we did it! Sadly, the bale did not get the same momentum as the one that got kicked out of the baler, rolled down the hill, and jumped a fence. Literally. I wish I had a video of that. I don’t think James ever noticed one of his bales was missing until we showed him the video. One excuse we cooked up (in case he was really upset) was that if we pushed them all into the center of the field, he would have less wear and tear on the tractor and truck when he hauled them home.

This year (2020) Dillon showed Dalton’s girlfriend what we meant by bale bowling. We were in the midst of moving the cow herd home, waiting for the chaos to start, hot, bored, and parked in a field full of bales. Surrounded with so much potential, opportunity and temptation; yes, we pushed a couple! LOL  We did forget about the fence that runs along the of the side of the field, but like I said the bales do not get enough momentum from us just pushing.

Trey got a taste of “playing” on the bales this fall. He is afraid of heights (two rungs up the ladder is his limit), but I guess not that afraid to climb up the bales and run along the stacks. Dang near gave me a heart attack when I saw him do this!)

I will never forget the year we had so much snow, it blew in straight up against a tall stack of bales. Then the temperature warmed up a bit and formed a crust along the top.  That snow made for best sledding and snowboarding hill ever. That was before Trey was born. Maybe one of these years it will happen again.  

1-29-2021