Monday, November 17, 2014

The miracle of baling twine

Anyone who's ever had hay bales on their property understands the wonders of baling twine as a universal fix-it tool on par with duct tape. I can't even begin to list the sheer numbers of things we've patched, fixed, or held together with the stuff.


So when readers Mike and Amy sent me the following, I laughed out loud and agreed.


This got me thinking: what's the weirdest thing you've ever fixed with baling twine? (When I asked Don to answer this, he thought for awhile and finally said, "I don't know. We fix everything with baling twine.")

28 comments:

  1. I once used it as drawer pulls on a dresser when I lost the hardware...

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  2. When my cousins and I were kids, we used a bunch of pieces of baling twine tied into a long rope (mistake #1), climbed a tree that had fallen across the creek so its top was caught in the trees on the other side, tied the twine to a branch so it made a single loop hanging down, and used it to swing ourselves otu over the snowmelt swollen creek (mistake #2). Multiple times (mistake #3). My cousin Brian was swinging when it broke - he fell into the creek, landing on his butt, where the water was about 30" deep. His jeans were soaked and his jacket was wet, but he got out of that creek so fast, his shirt under the jacket was still dry. Baling twine... the best toy ever.

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    1. Oh my gosh, thanks for sharing! Brought a smile to my face.

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    2. We buy square bales, and I always slide off the twine and wrap it neatly into a handful-size portions and stow them in the barn. Although we have only had our dairy goat herd for a year, I have an impressive amount of cords of twine stashed away. Can't wait to hear all of the suggestions!

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  3. Bailing wire was better. We always carried a folded up bundle in our back pocket along with a pair of pliers 'cause we never knew what we would run in to. Also, many cars and tractors were held together with bailing wire and duct tape. Bailing twine can't hold a candle to the wire.....besides, that stuff gets into sheep fleece, making it worth less.

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    1. If you can't fix something with bailing wire, duct tape, and WD-40 it probably is beyond fixing!

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  4. Bailing twine can't hold a candle to bailing twine. We fixed everything with that wire.

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  5. I used it as kid for, holding my britches up, across my shoulders to assist carrying 5 gal buckets of water or grain to my steers, to pull my sled back up the hill when sledding and a fish stringer when fishing just to name few...

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  6. Today at the grocery checkout. The ten pound package of carrots I was getting on sale popped and broke its plastic clip. For once I didn't have a twisty in my purse and was laughing with the lady behind us about things forever in your purse until you need it. Then we both stood agape as my husband pulled a handful of rope pieces out of a pocket and tied off the bag with a length of baling twine. Grocery checker didn't miss a beat, just whisked it through like that hank of twine belonged there, LOL!

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  7. what about coat hangers??

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  8. Bailing wire fixed everything including some outhouse's seat! (just needed to be careful how you sat down) the twine is OK but I really miss the wire.

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  9. I once made a Willie Nelson wig by making long braids out of bailing twine, held on my head by a bandana of course. HEEE larious!!

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  10. '65 chevy C-10 pickup...six cylinder....broke the fan belt and all i had was some bailing twine.....it got me the 6 miles into town.

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  11. We have a temporary chicken house that we made out of a chain link fence dog kennel. We needed to make a wind block for the chickens. I had some extra sheets of corrugated metal. So I drilled several holes in them and used bailing twine to tie it onto the chain link fencing. It's held for 2 months now.

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  12. My most recent use was to tie a couple of baskets of sunflower heads up in the greenhouse out of the way of 2 (silly!) hens who showed up with chicks last week. A very old use was my sons tying up GI Joes (the 4" ones, wish I could find them now) forts/hammocks/platforms in Christmas trees when they were little guys. My oldest grandson's first favorite book was A Big Ball of String, a great book from my birthyear 1958.
    Love the twine.
    Brenda

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  13. My elderly dad uses the orange twine on his luggage handle to be able to quickly identify his bags at the airport!

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  14. Friends of mine built a rope-making machine, and used it to make tow cables out of baling twine. They're huge, and don't fold up nicely like the nylon strap variety, but they have huge amounts of stretch, which means with a simple pickup they can pull vehicles out of places larger machinery can't reach. They speak fondly of having easily retrieved one unlucky car halfway down a steep ridge as most of the local sheriffs deputies, who had failed in their own attempts, looked on in wonder.

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  15. Patrice, how did you get that picture of my fence???

    lol

    A.McSp

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  16. I remember one hot summer day when baling hay my Dad's jeans belt broke. So, yes, you guessed it, he made a belt out of some baling twine and wore it the entire day. Rebekah

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  17. My mom once when it started snowing and we were trying to get home used bailing twine to wrap the tires on her car to get up a
    slick hill. She called it country style snow chains and it worked.
    Sue

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  18. Back in my hippie-dippy days I used to macrame with baling twine!

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  19. Used to make handy lead ropes when I needed one quick.

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  20. I actually use it to repair broken lengths of baling twine repairs that are starting to fail.

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  21. Shoe laces.

    Belts.

    Once limped a dragging muffler to the parts store, and then home. Don't ask me why it didn't melt.

    The trunk of my husband's car.

    Made a pea trellis.

    Used it for a garden fence one year.

    I'm pretty sure my sanity is currently held together with coffee, prayers, and baling twine.

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  22. Tie up the drain under the kitchen sink. 'Spose to be for just a day or two...still there:(

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  23. This quote came from an OLD rancher up near the Wyoming border, and it was wire, not twine.

    "There ain't nothing on a ranch that can't be fixed with bailing wire, duct tape, or a .30-.30 rifle."

    Triple negative-- how's that for good use of the language. LOL This old guy was colorful.

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  24. I learned to braid with it. It has been a belt, bucket handles, yokes to carry two buckets, fuel for the fire, reins and stirrups for my fence post horse, quick halters for our four horses, and a tie down for anything you can think of, including my bike bags at collage. My brother also braids it into stock whips.

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  25. Skip ropes, tow rope of the snowmobile and sled, clothes line, door/drawer pulls, fire starters for fire pit, used to replace wile on the back of picture frames, wrapped around mason jars and used as a vase, used as string for banners, shoelaces and belts, used as string for straight rows in the garden, braided and used to swing from one hay loft to the other. We were poor and you have no idea what kind of Christmas presents were made from repurposed twine. I guess you could say we were repurposing before repurposing was the thing to do.

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