It was often well passed suppertime when he finished the job. It was a long process as the chair often swung in the wind. Ole then went to work cutting the bailing wire from between Babe's teeth with a wire cutter. Once in position, Babe would open his cavernous mouth and moo " Ahhhhh". Ole would sit in a chair that was tied at one end of the rope and the three strong lumberjacks would slowly lower Ole down Babe's Nose. Once a week, Big Ole and three of Paul's strongest lumberjacks had to climb a rope hand over hand up to the top of Babes back and then hiked up babe's neck to the top of his head. Needless to say, Big Ole always had trouble catching Babe when it time to clean his teeth. Babe often became ornery when he had to stand still for so long and he missed lunch. The wire was very uncomfortable for Babe and he hated the having the wire removed. One of the problems Ole encountered was that the wire used to bail the hay kept getting stuck between Babe's teeth.
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Now Big Ole, Paul's blacksmith was in charge of keeping Babe properly shoed and healthy. The bailing twine that is used today had not as yet been invented. Back then, most farmers used bailing wire to hold the bales together. Babe was so strong, he could pull the bends out of a crooked river, straighten a windy road, pull a whole section of woods down to the river and even move mountains if needed.īabe also had an appetite that rivaled his strength and when working hard often consumed a hundred bales of hay each day. But Babe was not your ordinary ox, he was so big, he measured 42 and 1/2 axe handles and a plug of tobacco from tip to tip of his mammoth set of horns. Many people know of Paul Buynan the Legendary Logger and Babe his big blue ox. But I have discovered the fire towers original purpose was much different. Many people think that the Pequot Fire Tower that sits high a top the hill just East of town was built by the DNR so foresters could watch the surrounding area for forest fires.