First Christmas Present

The Kaiser turned up yesterday with our 1st (and probably only) Christmas present and what a present it was. Franz (Project Manager) and Markus (Technical Director) designed, searched around for secondhand material, cut, welded & flexed us a round bale lifter/transporter.
For quite some time Franz has been trying to find a solution for my haylage bale transport. Up until now have used the front loader muck heap spears which are too thick but worse I have to have a heavy load on the back to give me traction and allow steering (no servo). The bales are so heavy they would lift the rear wheels on ice & snow. Another disadvantage the whole package was about 10 meters long making manoeuvering a challenge.
With the new device I can use it to collect bales from the fields after they are wrapped & bring them home without damaging the plastic wrapping. Up until now Franz has always done this for us with a similar device rented from another farmer but it's time consuming exactly then when time is precious (harvest time).
Then in winter can collect them from the storage area regardless of snow/ice and bring them in to the stable. And as the whole "train" is more compact, it takes up much less precious covered parking area.

Well it worked perfectly - and was even able to load the bale on a 40cm high trolley and tip the bale upright without any need for a helping hand. Genial in German - brilliant in English.
All the parts are 2nd-hand - the thick round tubes were from a pig farms silo tank feed tubes, the H steel was unearthed from somewhere & Markus welded the whole thing together having learnt this at agricultural college. I owe it to them to give the whole thing a good lick of paint when the weather is warmer.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH FRANZ & MARKUS for such a wonderful & useful present. One could not wish for better friends & (near) neighbours!

(PS Despite the Johne Deere getting close to 50, the lamp in the photo is not a tuning accessory - it's part of the garden lighting!)