Hay Day 2023

In prior years, we got a call from our neighbor down the road that they were making hay.  We'd drive down there with the truck and trailer and load up hay in the field behind the baler.  Picking up in the field, the price is $6 per bale.  If you pick it up in the barn, they have more cost involved, so the price is $7 per bale.  Unfortunately, we were otherwise occupied, so we couldn't pick up on that day.

Benjamin came in and helped us.  I think he pitied us a little, ha ha.  Putting up hay is a big job.  We arrived at around 3 pm in the afternoon.  It was very hot!  All the square bales were stacked up in the barn.  We backed the trailer up right next to the pile and put on our gloves.  Time to get busy.                   

Our order was for 75 bales.  That's a good number for us.  We still have 12 bales left from last year.  We keep round bales out for them to eat free choice.  This good Bermuda hay is like candy for them.  We ration it.

Benjamin would bring me the bales and I would stack in the trailer.  When the trailer was full, we stacked in the back of the truck.  Before long, we had thrown the last bale up on top and were finished!  The little red truck was loaded down.  We drove the one and a half miles back to the house very slowly.  Some of the bales on the truck were balancing precariously and we didn't want to lose them.

Benjamin and the hay

We put the animals away in a different pasture so they wouldn't cause trouble while we put the hay in the barn.  I backed the truck and trailer next to the doors to the hay loft, put the rope and pulley on the 4x4 and Benjamin would hook the bungee cords to the twine on the hay bales and I would hoist each bale up to the loft one by one.

I have a loop on the end of the rope that I put on a nail and then I unhook the bale and slide it down the loft and stack the bales.  The wood floors are smooth from hay running over them year after year.

Here is a better look at the process from up in the loft looking down

Here is a look at the loft all full of hay.  It reminded me a little of the story of the ant that works all summer, so that in the winter, he's ready.  We're ready!  In the winter the grass will be dead, but we'll have some good quality hay put up so that the cows will have something to eat.  They'll need it too, as they'll be calving.

We were soaking wet with sweat, but looking out of the loft at the empty truck and trailer, it was a joyful sight.  Yet another hear of putting up hay was done!

Putting up hay is a wake up call, of sorts.  We'll be both turning 57 years old this year, Tricia in July and me in October.  We thank the Good Lord for the health to still be able to do this.  We do wonder, however, if the Lord tarries, how many more summers of putting up hay do we have left in us?  I guess Plan B is forgetting about square bales and just purchasing round bales.  We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.  For now, we'll cool off and relax.  We'll sleep good tonight!