But then the call comes:
"Baling at noon"
"How many?"
"600"
" I'll take 250"
And hay season has begun. Hay is made when the sun shines....for at least three days....with no rain...and lots of heat. We used to bale our own hay but are buying hay out of the field now. The old adage says "you lose money buying hay and you lose money making hay". Some day we'll find the right mix.
Away I go to gather bales. Hay is often sold one of four ways- in the field, off the wagon, out of the barn, and delivered (those are in order from cheapest to most expensive). Frugality being my faith, we get it from the field. When I am lucky I have help to drive the truck and we stack them on our flatbed trailer. When I am really lucky, the hay guy says he has some off the wagon for field prices. Park by the wagon and throw it on. Sweetness.
The fun isn't over yet though. You now need to put it into the hay mow. I'm not sure where the "mow" word came from but I have a suspicion that it is a combination of pained moaning and the word "OWW". While it is a frigid 97 outside, it is quite possibly 137 in the hay loft. Today Karen is feeding bales from the trailer to the hay elevator and as she suffers in the sun, I wonder if all the sweat pouring off of me like Niagara Falls would suffice as mineral for the sheep. The trailer has a pretty specific pattern I stack on. The hay mow is irregular in every way, and as such, starts with a great weave making the most of the space and sturdy all the way up till the second row when the flow of bales becomes faster than my cooked brain and they just get wadded into the voids, like a giant Jenga tower. Meanwhile, I am aware that farmers are much tougher than any coal miner Black Lung is nothing compared to Hay Lung.
Despite my complaints, I love haying. I've been doing it since I was 12 and any year I haven't done it I have missed it. There is no better smell than a barn full of fresh hay. And the satisfaction of knowing that no matter how bad the winter is, our animals will be fat and happy. Besides that, the health benefits are immense. I quit smoking the year that I was convinced I was the youngest person to ever have a heart attack while tossing bales. I drink plenty of fluids and the toning my body gets is better than any gym can offer. Always looking for a helper so feel free to let me know if you want that same great feeling.......
