Flat Coyote

No, it's not a new band, although it might make a cool name.

Was moving some hay bales around in the hay barn this morning to make room for a 20 ton load we had coming in today. Lifted a stack of 3 bales and there was a flattened coyote sandwiched in between two bales. LOL! Looked like it had been in there for quite a while because it was all just bones and crusty skin. Dang thing cost me (2) 700 lb bales of hay, because I can't feed either of those two bales now. Oh well, we'll just use them for crimp grass when we seed next spring.

I was trying to figure out how heck he even got there, like WTH??? Then I remembered, last winter I had seen about a 3 foot gap between two stacks of bales. When we'd been unloading last year some bales got jammed between two stacks and I couldn't push them back any further. I didn't have time to worry about it then because the trucker was waiting on me to get him unloaded, so I just kept going. Later I just forgot about it. Then last winter we'd cleared out enough bales to shove the 3 ton stack back into the other stack behind it. In the meantime a coyote must have climbed up on top of the stack and then crawled down into the gap between the bales and had a cozy little house out of the weather with 9 foot walls of hay all around him...until one day **BOOM** his house wasn't so cozy anymore, and he got really skinny really fast.

I've seen coyotes on top of the stack previously, so I know they can get up there somehow. I guess they're looking for critters to eat or something.

Pretty surprising, then comical, seeing a flat coyote between two bales of hay. I've seen lots of other stuff get smooshed between bales before, but never a coyote.

Shortly afterwards our trucker showed up and we got him unloaded in record time this year. Unloaded 39,900 lbs of hay (57 bales) in about 45 minutes, (19) 2,100 lb. stacks (3) bales high off a 54' step-deck spread-axle trailer. He showed up at 9:30 and we had him back on the road at 10:15!
Pretty happy to have that job done. Got all our winter feed inside and stacked. Always a good feeling when you know you're covered for winter.

No gaps for flat coyotes this year! LOL!

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

The Roadrunner was involved somehow.

Guaranteed.

Was there any plans with an Acme label found?

a reply to: MykeNukem

LOLOL!! I'll bet you're right!

I didn't think to look for that! That's exactly something which would happen to Wiley Coyote too!!! LOL! Didn't even think of that!

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Did you try a bicycle pump? It works on cartoons.

Beep beep!

I suspect a plot contrived by a certain little piggy that built his house out of straw

a reply to: beyondknowledge

Nah, he had plenty of holes by the time I found him! Not much left to blow up.

Little Red Ridinghood could also be a suspect. A case of mistaken identity with a wolf.

originally posted by: MykeNukem
a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

The Roadrunner was involved somehow.

Guaranteed.

Was there any plans with an Acme label found?

LOL! Yep, Accidental Coyote Mashing Equipment!

originally posted by: beyondknowledge
Beep beep!

Beeped me to it.

originally posted by: MykeNukem
The Roadrunner was involved somehow.

"Roadrunner" is now the name of the loader/tractor/whatever used to push the bales together with.

originally posted by: Encia22

originally posted by: MykeNukem
a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

The Roadrunner was involved somehow.

Guaranteed.

Was there any plans with an Acme label found?

LOL! Yep, Accidental Coyote Mashing Equipment!

LOL! I didn't catch that at first.

ACME...LOL!

originally posted by: gb540

originally posted by: MykeNukem
The Roadrunner was involved somehow.

"Roadrunner" is now the name of the loader/tractor/whatever used to push the bales together with.

You know, maybe we just will name that ol' girl "Roadrunner"!!

That's actually not a bad idea. Not a bad idea at all.

That's a new one. We have plenty of family stories about baling hay and snakes getting caught up in the bales and working their way out madder than mad, but never any about squooshing wildlife between bales.

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk

originally posted by: gb540

originally posted by: MykeNukem
The Roadrunner was involved somehow.

"Roadrunner" is now the name of the loader/tractor/whatever used to push the bales together with.

You know, maybe we just will name that ol' girl "Roadrunner"!!

That's actually not a bad idea. Not a bad idea at all.

Lmao.

She earned it.

a reply to: ketsuko

First for me too. Not sure I'd really characterize a coyote as 'wildlife' though, more like a predator and nuisance. Opened up alfalfa bales several times with rattlers and bullsnakes inside, but this wasn't inside a bale, it was between two bales. I don't know if it got down in there and couldn't get out or what. When I closed up the gap last winter I did it because I didn't want one of our dogs jumping down in there. The ACD always jumps up on top of those bales if there's bale steps leading up there sniffing around (probably coyotes). I knew the shoulder surgery thing was coming up and figured I wouldn't be able to do it later so I just went out there and did it one day. Didn't hear anything, not that I would have heard it anyway inside the cab of the skid. It didn't suffer, those bales slammed shut pretty quick.