Hay Day (Part 1)

This is going to be a post that has two parts.  Have you ever started watching a TV show and you look at your watch with about 5 minutes left to go and say to yourself, "How are they going to solve this mystery in 5 minutes?"  And then the words, To Be Continued... flashes across the bottom of the screen.  Tricia experienced this the other day with a Matlock show on the inspiration channel.  She said, "I wish I would've known it was a two part show.  I wouldn't had invested an hour of my time on it."  Well, because of old Matlock, I'm telling you up-front, this is a 'two-parter.'

At this point we have plenty of grass in the pasture.  The problem for the cows is the heat.  The cows lay up in the shade all day.  Like clockwork, they wait for the slightest sliver of shade to appear and then they go wait in it until the long shadows of the afternoon allow them to graze in the shade-filled pasture in relative comfort.  They'll eat in the late afternoon and early morning and when there is a full moon - they'll eat at night.  

Daisy in the shadows

Although we have plenty of grass right now, like the fable of the ant and the grasshopper, we must be like the ant and prepare for the late fall and winter when there will be no grass.  If we fiddle around now, come winter, there will be no hay.  So that means we need to be putting up some bales of hay now.  We have a neighbor down the road that bales some good bermuda hay that the cows have given two hooves up approval rating to.  The neighbor's daughter called us up the other day and let us know that he was baling and was wondering if we were interested in purchasing our usual amount.

We told him that we'd like 90 bales.  90 square bales is the maximum amount that we can store up in the loft of our barn.  He gives us a special price if he doesn't have to touch it.  That makes good sense.  He bales it and leaves it in the field where it drops off the baler and me and the boys go pick it up.  I told the neighbor's daughter that we' be there as soon as I got off work the next day.  So the next day we arrived.  I always think that a field of fresh mowed hay is one of the prettiest sights there is. 


90 bales of hay in the field

Since we're in the middle of the field, Benjamin drives and Russ and I stack the bales of hay in the bed of Russ' truck.  Benjamin's job is to drive very slowly between the rows of hay.  Child labor laws?  Check.  Underage driving?  Check.  Two strikes against me right there.

Getting instructions from big brother

Once we get a full truckload, we head back to the house and unload it and come back for more.  We originally started putting 18 bales per load, but discovered that we could stack differently and get 22 bales on the truck. 

Truckload of Hay

Benjamin did a good job of driving and Russ did a good job stacking the hay.  Russ works during the day at a plant nursery in town and wasn't exactly fired up about being in the hot sun this afternoon, but he was a good sport and we got the job done.


Let's bring this load home

Russ rode up on top of the bales on the way home.  It is only a half mile down a black-top road to our house.  When Benjamin pulled into the driveway with Russ perched up on top of the hay, Tricia was just heading out to the barn to milk Rosie and I could tell immediately by the look on Tricia's face that she was not pleased with yours truly.  It was one of those looks of concern coupled with one of those "What are you thinking, Kyle?" looks that I get from time to time.  We were being very safe, though. 


Hay man

On the second trip Russ drove.  We had the Tacoma weighted down.  The sun was beginning to dip in the horizon.

Wide Load

As we got home we stacked it in the driveway.  I had checked the weather forecast and there was no chance of rain.  We wanted to split the work in half since we began the job after I got home from work at about 6 o'clock.  Normally, we pick up the hay and hoist it all up into the hay loft in the barn on one day, but we normally pick up the hay on a weekend when I'm off.  If we tried that tonight, we'd run out of daylight.  

Backing, Unpacking, and Stacking

Benjamin and Russ helped to stack it crossways, "tying the hay together" to ensure that the bales don't fall down.  We took an opportunity to get some ice cold water each trip home.  Loading hay is a hot job.

Bales of hay in the driveway

While we were unloading the hay, we were under close supervision.  Our every move was inspected with scrutiny.  I'm not talking about Tricia.  See if you can see the USDA Hay Inspector in the photo below.

An interested observer

One additional thing about loading hay, a shower never felt so good.  Not only are you hot, not only is your back hurting, but you have hay seeds, dust and pieces of hay that are all over you, making you itch like crazy.  Anyone who's moved hay before knows exactly what I'm talking about.

Messing with hay is an ITCHY job!

So I'm going to go take a cool shower right now and tomorrow we'll meet up and finish the job.

To Be Continued...