Relative Something

I sure understand now, the old saying about making hay while the sun shines. The hay-making in these parts is happening all around us now that we are experiencing dryer days. Finally, even our field has been cut. Unlike last year, when our neighbor came over with horses pulling a sickle-bar mower, this time is was done with tractor power.

With our friend, George, too busy getting his own fields cut and baled, we went with a second option that took advantage of proximity. The fields next door to our south are rented out, and we sent word that we would like ours cut when the person comes to do those. Now a 3rd-person connection, I only know him by his first name, Ed.

The hitch here is that this guy only makes round bales. I don’t have the right setup to move those behemoths with my tractor, so they are no good to us. I have a couple of days to try to locate someone who has time and can make small bales. If I’m unsuccessful, we’ll have him go ahead and round bale our field and we’ll hope the neighbor with cows will take them off our hands.

Our need for the hay from our field —which is far from top quality horse hay, due to the ratio of weeds to desirable grasses— is greatly reduced since we connected with a local grower who makes small bales. We can afford to let hay cut from our field go to someone else. The most important thing for us is just getting it cut to encourage grass growth and discourage weeds.

How organic of us!

Speaking of our local grower, I made three trips to his place yesterday, hauling a whopping 120 bales. As a result of some weird law of physics, the bales get heavier as you lift more and more of them.

The days of hay-making are keeping me busy as ever right now. When our shed is filled with bales, it is going to seem like I suddenly have a lot less to do around here.

…Until I think about the woodshed roof laying on the ground.

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