Raking technique

I have a 9' rotary rake, total working width is 13'. I set the curtain to almost full width and it's almost the width of my square baler pick up.

 

First question is my windrows in first cutting are almost too big when I double them up and I have to move at a turtle's pace and/or a lot of hay gets kicked out the side. I'd like to just rake them into single windrows and pick up the speed, but rake is left hand delivery. What pattern do you rake in order to rake single rows? If you run down a row, when you turn around to come back you'll be doubling the row up, unless I go round and round.

 

Second question is ends of the field; I still haven't figured out a good way to do this. What I"m going to try next time is start on edge of field and rake back and forth, leaving myself enough room on the ends to turn around with rake raised. Then rake the headlands very last so those rows don't get disfigured on my turns. Is there a better way to do it?

Raking technique