On Friday afternoon, I thought of one of Aesop's fables entitled the Ant and the Grasshopper that I used to read as a boy. It taught of the virtues of hard work and expending effort now to plan for needs in the future. I think that story is a good one. The reason I was thinking of that fable was our task for the afternoon - picking up hay!
Right now, despite the heat and lack of rainfall, the cows and goats still have grass to eat. That could quickly change if we don't get rain soon. As insurance, I stopped mowing a portion of the yard so we will have some extra grass if the pasture peters out. Putting in hard work now and planning now for the winter when there is no grass is always the smart play.
We have purchase hay from the same family down the road for a decade and a half now, and I got a call from out neighbor down the road that they'd be baling hay. If we show up and pick up bales behind the baler, the price per bale is $8. If we pick it up from their barn after they collected it, the price is $9 per bale. I told her we'd be picking up behind the baler. They asked if we could be there shortly after lunch.
I checked the air in the tires of the old trailer. I was doing the math on it, and I think my grandpa bought that thing in 1976, so it's 50 years old! I also killed a couple of big wasp nests inside the trailer with some gas. We hooked up the truck and drove a mile and a half down the road. We drove down the long driveway and directly into the pasture. They were busy baling. The American Flag on the back of the baler was a nice touch. God Bless America!
The hay had been cut and fluffed the previous day and today the baler was working, leaving square bales lying all over the field.
Tricia is the driver. Her job description is to drive between the rows of hay and stop when the bales are lined up with the back of the trailer.
The rows are pretty close together so she has to be watchful.
When she stops, my job is to lift the bales into the trailer, stacking them up high and tight. As I lift each bale I holler the current count of bales and Tricia repeats, so we keep accurate count.
It didn't take long before the trailer was full. Then we started loading up the truck. When we had 75 bales in, we called it a day. The old truck had quite a load and I didn't want to risk breaking the springs.
We paid our neighbors (75 bales @ $8 per bale = $600) and visited with them for a bit. We started off buying the hay from the Grandpa long ago. He's passed away and now the daughter and grandson run the operation. I told Danielle that her Daddy would be proud of them, keeping the family tradition going. When we pulled out, the center part of the field was wide open. It once was filled with square bales. Now they're loaded up and heading a mile and a half east where we'll unload them.
That was hot, hard work, but the fun isn't done yet. Our young men, Russ and Benjamin, volunteered to help us get the bales stored away in the hayloft in the barn. This is old-fashioned, manual work! We have a pulley and a rope on a 4x4. The rope has a bungee cord on it. Tricia and Russ unload the hay bales from the truck and trailer and hook them to the bungee cord.
Benjamin and I are up in the loft. Benjamin pulls the hay up by tugging on the rope. Each bale weighs around 50 pounds. I guess I'll stop right here and tell you how good God is. You are looking at a miracle. Two years ago Benjamin broke his back and both bones in both legs. He has titanium rods in both legs and in his back. Yet here he is, doing work that lots of people can't do. Praise God from Whom all blessings flow!!
We counted the bales, reminding each other when 25% of the bales were in the barn and so on and so forth. When we finished up, we drank cold water and cooled off. It always feels good to have this behind us.
The hay is in the barn! There is something to be said about the satisfaction you get in having family together, working toward a common goal with good teamwork and completing the job. The hay will sit here until December probably before we start feeding hay to the animals. The ant works all summer in the fields gathering food for the winter months. The grasshopper, on the other hand, sings and fiddles and dances all summer and makes fun of the ant for working. But winter is coming. We remind ourselves that we want to be like the ant and not the grasshopper.
Once the job is done, the ant also has the satisfaction of seeing a beautiful view looking out the opened doors of the hayloft at the top of the barn.
If the Good Lord is willing, we'll be doing the same thing next year at this same time.
