Oh cool, the only other loft I'd seen was from the 1870's and several feet higher, like a second story in a house. How did they get bales up there back then?
Pick 'em up off the hay wagon, toss 'em up. Guy on top grabs and stacks. Repeat until done. I've done this many more times than I care to remember. If you were big time, you had a PTO driven hay hiker (conveyor belt) that would take them from the ground to the loft.
How many hours are you allowed to drive at one time or is based on miles? Do you ever come up into Canada?
The sky cleared up today and is still clear right now. I tried to find it (comet) with binoculars but no luck. Moon is out and casting shadows once again.
In our area hay trolley/hoist were popular...hoist it up and then it was pulled through an open door riding on a trolley on steel rail hanging from the barns framing. They have bales in this pic, but loose hay was how it was done before balers were a thing. Check out this link for more pics, etc. Amish Horses: Making Hay (the old way)
We use one of these. Hand crank on the side brings it up or down. Electric motor turns the chain drive and drives the chain around. Teeth grab the bales and send them up and over the top. Cost us $900 a few years ago. Worth every penny. They come in different sizes. Ours will reach up to our loft, about 14’6” up, I guess. In the past we used one of the ones laying on the ground in same picture. Same concept but, no frame and wheels. Had to lift it up into place on top of hay wagon. Then work from top of pile of bales. A lot more work. And more dangerous. The one above allows you too stay one the ground and feed two guys up in the loft.
Yop. Very much solar charged. 1/2 hour before/after sun rise and sunset. 11’4” wide. signs, flags and lights.
Haven’t been to Canada in several years. I’m limited to daylight hours with oversized like this. Otherwise it’s an 11 hours driving in a 14 hour window daily with a limit of 70 hours in 8 days.
And now just think about putting up hay and straw before balers were made! Most was done similar to what lukem described. Then slings were invented and with the help of rope and pulleys the hay or straw was lifted. We had something similar for hay bales. The rig had forks you set and would hold 8 bales. Using the small tractor (John Deere H) we'd pull one rope which raised the hay. Then hooked on to another rope and pulled which took the hay to the back of the haymow where someone would trip it to release the hay. Then he would stack the hay while others repeated setting for the next load, etc. EDIT: Thanks to brenndatomu for his pictures. That was similar to ours.
Now I get the solar powered reference to the oversized load. Up our way, you would need a big sign on the front of the truck and maybe a Pilot car in front if it is two way lanes or behind if it is four lanes divided. If it is really wide, then you can only travel at night with a pilot car.
I plowed last night when it started to cool down before he freeze. Either going to get smooth ice with ruts or just rough ice that you can at least walk on without dying. We need another snowstorm unfortunately to make it good again.
