Hay bale repair ~ a tutorial

You're looking at this picture thinking, "Awww, cute little bunny rabbit, how sweet."

I'm looking at it thinking, "You evil s.o.b."

You heard me.

This bunny and his extended family wreak havoc in my hay barn. 

I don't mind them grabbing a little snack now and then. 

There's a drought and I completely understand their need to eat.

But do they have to chew through the twine that holds the bales together? Grrrrrrr...

Over the weekend, I went out to the hay barn to assess my supply. I planned to restack last season's bales to make room for 

one more load of this season's hay. But before I could do anything, I had to restring all the bales the bunnies broke.

I came prepared with miles of extra twine and used every last bit of it undoing the damage.

I don't know if there's a proper way to restring a bale of hay, but here is how I do it:

If you're lucky, you'll be able to find each end of the broken piece of twine. 

Take a spare piece of twine and tie it to one of the ends of the broken piece with a square knot.

You know, one of those right over left, left over right, anybody-can-tie-it square knots.

Voila.

Now take the other end of your spare piece of twine and tie a loop at the end of it with another square knot.

Then thread the unlooped end through the loop! Easy-peasy.

Now pull the twine through the loop as tight as you can. 

This will involve much cursing, sweating, pushing and pulling, and wishing you had somebody around to help you, etc.

Crisscross the new piece of twine over the string that the rabbits didn't chew through and tie a whole bunch of any kind of knots you want – 

whatever it takes to hold the two strings together in the middle and make a handle that will allow you 

to gently pick up the bale and move it to its final destination.

Here's one more tip that might help you out in a jam, like when you lose your knife in the haystack.
Did you know you can cut open a bale of hay using a piece of twine? True story.

Take a spare piece of twine and run it perpendicular under the twine that's holding the bale together.

Pull each end up and start sawing away. The friction will break the twine around the bale in a couple of seconds.

Once I had all my hay restrung and restacked, the real challenge began – running the gauntlet to the feed room. 

At least the guards were all wearing their fly masks and I didn't have that to worry about.