60-year-old rancher "Janice" insists on stacking hay bales like a Jenga tower, they collapse on her and she gets saved by the stockfeed delivery driver: 'Glad one of us knows what they’re doing'

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Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor
Sep 6, 2025 10:00 AM EDT

After decades working on the ranch, you'd think you'd know a thing or two about hay bale stacking, but even the seasoned ranch hand fumbles the hay bale delivery every now and then. The man in this next story complies with a tough ol' rancher woman's demands and becomes the hero to pull her out from under her own mistakes… 20 hay bales-worth of mistakes.

Coming to the rescue after a tower of precarious hay bales collapses, the stockfeed delivery guy wonders how he got in this mess. Earlier on that scorching 90-degree day, he set off on his usual delivery route, knowing he'd be stopping by ol' Janice's house later with her usual 60 bales of hay. By 6 am, his bandana was already drenched in sweat and his boots good n' dusty, so he knew today was going to be one for the books. So when Janice demanded he stack the hay bales vertically, like a wobbly Jenga tower, he didn't have it in him to argue. 

But when everything came crashing down, crushing Janice in the process, this cowboy went into rescue mode, without as much as one, "I told you so."

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  • Cheezburger Image 10550285568
    via Alex Potemkin

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • "You will stack the hay how I want it stacked!"

    I used to work for and manage a rural stockfeed supply shop that delivered hard feed and hay to many of the local hobby farms.
    via LordDarkfall
  • During the earlier year or two of my time there, there was a lady who after some time we came to a solid understanding that she can be a "prickly b" and we have since laughed about this incident.
    via LordDarkfall
  • For the sake of keeping her identity safe, let's call her Janice for this tale.
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  • Now this gal is somewhere in her mid 60s and has quite the boomer attitude when it comes to doing things.
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  • That fun old shtick of "I've been doing this since you were in nappies, so do it how I tell you."
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  • Well, this one fine summer, in the middle of a drought, she ordered a large batch of hay. 60 bales.
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  • I drive out in the truck and I know I'm gonna get a good work out putting these babies in her shed because the truck can't get close to her shed.
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  • Not a cloud in the sky to stop that sun beating down my neck as I unloaded the truck.
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  • 33°C which is somewhere in the 90°F for you freedom unit loving readers.
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  • I start stacking the hay in her shed in a formation something like this: |==| Then the next layer: =||= so as the hay bales will interlock kind of like brick work and not fall over.
    via LordDarkfall
  • Each layer being 6 bales. Two stacks, five high. 60 bales.
    via LordDarkfall
  • If you need a bit more explanation on that... well I don't quite know what to tell you. Sorry.
    via LordDarkfall
  • I also didn't quite know what to tell old Janice when she came running up.
    via LordDarkfall
  • "You're stacking it all wrong!" She tells me, "you'll never fit it all in the shed."
    via LordDarkfall
  • As I try to explain my plan she talks over me, and begins to gruffly comment something about "uppity young sh s who think they know everything."
    via LordDarkfall
  • She pulls apart my stack and begins to stack the hay all in the same lines, looking something like this: ===
    via LordDarkfall
  • I already see the problem. Stacking 5 bales high like this is going to see a whole stack fall down whoever goes to get hay from the top of it.
    via LordDarkfall
  • It's dangerous. It's stupid. It's not safe.
    via LordDarkfall
  • Cue malicious compliance.
    via LordDarkfall
  • I stack the hay just like she wanted me to. And I notice the stack is very close to someone screaming JENGA!
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  • I tell her, she can put the final bale up.
    via LordDarkfall
  • "No, I'll feed this one out tonight." She says.
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  • Happy that I stacked it her way, she waves good bye, I get in my truck. I start the engine.
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  • "Ohhhh F !" | hear from the hay shed.
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  • I swivel my head and there lay poor old Janice, under 10 bales of hay that somehow fell on top of her.
    via LordDarkfall
  • I promptly unbury her. I call my boss. "Yeah I'm gonna have to re-stack all this hay."
    via LordDarkfall
  • My boss: "she just won't learn her lesson..."
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  • This time, as I restack the hay, I explain why I stacked it the way I did.
    via LordDarkfall
  • And while she rolled her shoulder, wincing at the pain caused by her own stupidity she says to me: "glad one of us knows what they're doing."
    via LordDarkfall
  • YoloMcSwags Kudos to her for admitting her stupidity!
    via YoloMcSwags
  • Bubbly-Course413. I don't believe this, idiots don't learn from their mistakes, you just didn't do it right!
    via Bubbly-Course413
  • Lylac_Krazy For curiosity's sake, do you get tipped for a delivery like that? Seems to me thats quite a bit of work, done 3 times over for just base pay
    via Lylac_Krazy

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Tags

ranchers hay collapse farmers property farm jenga blue collar bale stockfeed delivery
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