A good friend of mine that lives up in Arkansas recently emailed to tell me that he read on the blog where we were putting up hay and it brought back a lot of childhood memories from when his Dad had cattle. He mentioned that they were baling hay up in Arkansas and what a beautiful sight it was to see fresh mown hay on hillsides being baled into round bales.
He's right. There's something about hay fields that is just downright nice to look at. I think it is the uniformity of it. Previously, it was a rough and tangle field of tall grass. All at once it is mowed close to the ground, raked up and baled, leaving the field looking like a putting green on a golf course.
Last week, I posted about The Hay Field in Front. We sat out on the front porch and watched as the neighbor baled hay. It was late afternoon and he was trying to get as much baled before the sun went down. The round bales were scattered across the field. A nice pastoral sight, to be sure.
The guy on that John Deere tractor was making things happen. "Gotta make hay while the sun shines." is a country quote meaning that you've got to work hard to get things done in any short window you can. As you can see, the sun was sinking quickly. I'm sure he was listening to some country music in his air conditioned tractor, comfortable and safely away from the heat and dust.
The very next day, he did finish up baling up all the hay in the field. I counted up 96 bales. He unhooked the baler and put hay forks on the front and back of the tractor and drove across the field time and again, stacking all the hay against the road. Then a truck and trailer showed up and he loaded all the hay on the trailer. The hay was then moved off site for storage or sale.
Everyone up and down the road is putting up hay. Cutting, raking, fluffing, baling. We haven't had rain in a few weeks and there's a tropical storm about to enter the Gulf. Gotta make hay while the sun shines.
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