I drove the tractor, I rode the hayrack and stacked, I unloaded, I stacked in the barn, I did it all for several different farmers throughout my teens and early 20s. Some paid well, and fed you well and brought jugs of koolaid. Some didn't treat you very well. Only thing all the jobs had in common was a dunk in the gravel pit with the rest of the crew at the end of the day. Great rope swing.

Put up hay, picked strawberries, raised tobacco… all fun stuff. I’ve always wondered how many pounds of strawberries you had to pick to actually have 100# in the boxes at the end of the day.

I never did any haying but I cut split and stacked firewood, Cut and dragged brush, Mowed and weed whacked yards etc. Another thing I did in high-school once I got my driver's license was collect scrap metal. At the beginning of the Obama Administration the whole cash for clunkers thing was going on and scrap iron prices were sky high. Over $300 a ton for #1 iron prepared and over $4 a lb for copper. I hit every backroad and trash dumps and old cellar holes, and people I was doing work for would give me junk metal from there yards. I thought I was rich but I don't think I care to work that hard again! I think my labor rate I charged was $7 an hour.

I stacked hay on a friends farm in the 70’s. The dirtiest was standing between a thrashing machine and a bailing machine. Old belt driven thrashing machine pitch forking straw into the bailing machine, maybe not the safest thing for a teenager. Then go up to the pond to bathe. Always ate good after.

Hayed all summer growing up.

We had a sawmill. I was chief off bearer from about ten. Started picking rock and haying when I was fourteen. Until then I got most of my spending money trapping gophers. Had one neighbor that never hired me for haying, but would when he bought a semi load to help unload it. Didn't pay as well as the other neighbors, but it was worth it. He had a daughter a year younger than me, and she always wore jean shorts and a tank top. Made throwing bales a little difficult. I kept getting distracted.

Spent a lot of time on the wagon stacking bales as they came off the baler 125 bales per wagon minimum of 8 to 10 wagons per day 6 days a week, sun up to sun down unless rain forecast for next day then worked until fields were empty. Sundays off,

Around here usually can't start baleing until late morning or early afternoon. Have to wait until the dew burns off, and sometimes have to turn it over first.

I hayed once. I was hot, my friend said sure take your shirt off...its been 24 ish years and I can still remember the suck

hay hun ya been there done that damm hot in the hayloft above the barn

Baled plenty of hay as a kid. Also picked rocks.

My grandpa had a dairy farm, and I got to help out in the haying. My uncle, who is three months younger than I am, and I would take turns on the hay wagon. I would toss the small rectangular bales onto the wagon and he'd stack, then we'd switch on the next load. Grandpa would be driving the tractor. At the barn, we would again take turns. One of us would throw the bales onto the elevator, and the other would stack in the haymow. The best part was when we were done for the day, grandpa would retrieve an ice cold bottle of Budweiser from the milk cooler for my uncle and I to split. We were eleven at the time.

Lots of questions.
Did the boss have a kicker or did you ride the wagon and have to stack the bales?
Were they the little 45-50 pounders or the 70-80pound New Holland bales?
Did you have to stack them cut side up?
Was the boss able to detect the alcohol on your breath so that he could put you up in the peak of the haymow to make you pay for your indiscretions?

Nothin finer than tippin back a coupla poudahs after a hay choppin, eh?

Milking might be a better question.
It takes some dedication to do that.
I've been married over 30 years, but I can't say that I performed what was expected of me at least twice a day every day.

I don't know what a kicker is, but we grasped the two lines of twine and chucked them on to the wagon. The Buds came after the work for the day was done.

Drove tractor while my Dad stacked bales on the wagon. Then at the barn, I put bales on the elevator while he stacked them in the barn.

Probably started when I was 13 or 14. Well before I got an actual drivers license

Brings back great memories.

1000 a day stacked at home was the goal. Usually lifted onto truck stack level with tractor but I do remember my Dad pitchforking bales up over the side of the truck. Probably 9 or 10 when I started. Stack in truck, drive home, unload and stack. 140 bales per load. 35,000 bales eats up a lot of hot summer days. Did that until end of high school.

Hauled hay a bunch. But that was gravy compared to cutting and hanging tobacco. I helped neighbors who raised around 30 acres. Didn’t have Mexican on every corner back then. I would hang top tier because no one liked to climb. Yes you didn’t handle as many sticks but had to dodge the wasps. Really got good if you were a man short. Had to hang tier you stood on and one above your head. More you hung hotter it got because you cut off air flow.
Ones that raise tobacco now hang lot of it outside with plastic canopies over it. Around here anyway

This area was known as the burley belt for decades

my kids didn't Hay

everything is big round or rectangular and everything is moved with the bake forks on the skid loader.

for my kids firewood was their hay , it wasn't hot it was cold.

definitely not the same work but something about manual labor early that shapes kids to be better workers

got them started splitting wood around 10, lots of stacking

it is the heat ever day we only use the oil furnace as backup to hold on the overnights when it is cold.
haven't even had the furnace on since January with this mild winter once we were out of the sub zero stuff for a couple weeks.