That Time of Year

When the weather looks like this for five days in a row in the middle of June....

Every farmer in the area is doing some version of this.

Make hay while the sun shines.

2nd Cutting

First cutting was all made into baleage because it was so wet this year.  There was no cahnce at all to make dry hay early this year.  Those are the big "marshmallows" in the background -The Great Wall of Baleage.

About half the field was cut for 2nd cutting, the other half (on the right) will be grazed by the cows.

Beautiful, high-quality feed for the sheep this winter.

Too bad we can't harness some of this energy to help with the job, we sure could use it!

Farm Help

We made a small amount of second cutting hay this afternoon. 

Farm Buddy badly needs the hay, but the other goal was to test out the baler after it failed so badly a few weeks ago. 

It needs more work.

It took nearly 4 hours to bale 42 bales as the twine keeps getting jammed up in one of the knotters.  Very frustrating, especially given the amount of repair work that has gone into this machine in the past year.

Fortunately, my trusty helper came out to lend a hand and moral support.  You can always count on a Border Collie...

We had unloading help as well...

This little lamb is getting extra goodies recently as she is not growing as well as her big brothers who keep pushing her away from the milk bar.  She is one of the set of triplets born this Spring.  The bottle-fed lamb (Lamby-Loo) has gotten so big that he is now, not only expecting his bottle, but stealing all his sister's milk as well.  We've never had problems with triplets in the past, but this ewe is not able to keep up with the demand of three babies.  You can really see the size difference between her and the lamb directly behind her.  That little bruiser is Flora, she certainly isn't missing any meals.

"Don't worry foolish humans, we'll have this unloaded lickety-split!"

"See, what's the big deal?  Haying is easy." *burp*

And when the "help" gets a little too unruly, its a Border Collie to the rescue again!

The Things You Need To Know

The things you need to have or know for hay making, in no particular order:

• Light colored, loose fitting and tough clothing.  
• In regards to clothing, there is no such thing as too old or too decrepit.  There is also no such thing as fashion.
• A plan
• An ability to revise, alter or  completely abandon said plan at a moments notice.
• A sense of humor.  This is especially important for anyone possessing a Y chromosome.  I'm not picking on you guys, but this is by far the one thing most often lacking, especially when the plan falls apart.
• The plan always falls apart.
• No matter how hard you try, you can't control everything.
• Things will go wrong.
• Equipment will break.
• The weather dictates and rules everything.
• It is not helpful to swear or scream at the help.
• It is sometimes helpful to swear at equipment, just don't get them confused and be sure to see above re. sense of humor and adaptability. 
• A decent pair of leather gloves.
• An acceptance of the fact that if you are the unfortunate possessor of cleavage, you will come home with a great deal of hay in that cleavage.
• Never tuck your shirt in.  If you do, any hay not captured by said cleavage and accompanying undergarments will be funneled directly into one's underwear.
• A hat and ample sunscreen.
• The sunscreen will insure that even more hay will stick to your body.
• You will be blowing hay dust out of your nose for the foreseeable future.
• Drink as much water as you can.  It still won't be enough.
• Dunking one's head in the water trough is perfectly acceptable.  The cows won't mind.
• You can agonize, scrutinize, revise, debate, argue and change your mind about when to cut the hay as much as you want, but once it is cut, there is no going back.  You are committed.

The hay is all cut.

We thought we would be baling some of it today, but it just wasn't ready so it is going in tomorrow.   Tuesday is going to be the really big hay day.  Just in case anyone out there is contemplating starting their own farm and would like to gain some experience in this most crucial aspect of farm life or if anyone would like to experience the joy of hay making, feel free to stop by (just as long as you are ready to work:).  Here is what's on offer:

• Hard labor in the full sun of the hottest weather of the year.
• Itchy hay in unmentionable places.
• Good company.
• Bug bites.
• The satisfaction and reward that comes with having hay in the barn.
• Sunburn and/or heat prostration.
• Good food when the work is done.
• Dehydration.
• A bra full of hay (if applicable).
• The intense, almost transcendent bliss of going home to a cool shower at the end of a very long, hard, hot, anxious, hopefully rewarding day.

Let the Stress Begin

I've heard from a number of people that the pictures in my last post about trailer loading didn't come through.  I think I know what the problem is and how to fix it, but I haven't the time (or the patience more likely) to deal with it at the moment so I just took it down for now.  There are a number of other technical troubles that need to be sorted out first. 

My car is making funny noises, trembling, shaking, shimmying and in general feeling as though it is going to fall apart.  It is getting dropped off at the repair shop tomorrow, hopefully before the wheels fall off. 

After what feels like 40 days and 40 nights of nonstop rain, heat and humidity (our county has had 12-16 inches of rain in the last 4 weeks), the weather has made a change and, if it holds, we are going to be making hay not only for my critters, but at Riding Buddy's place as well.  Of course, we are already having some mechanical troubles and the weather forecast just changed from sunny and hot to a 40% chance of showers tomorrow.  Let the hay stress begin.

"Stress, what stress?  The hay is in the net, we eat the hay, more hay gets put in the net, we eat the hay...life is good."

Sunday Stills (with a haymaking twist)

This week's Sunday Stills challenge was historic sites or monuments.  Since we were making hay this week, I initially thought that I would probably end up skipping this challenge.  I got to thinking about it though and, really, what could possibly be more historic than making hay on an old farm (built around 1870) in what was once, long ago a thriving community.  The few farms still struggling to survive in an area that was once all working farmland are the best historical sites I can think of for a tiny upstate hamlet barely holding onto existence.

Making hay is one of the truest, most universal cornerstones of all human society.  It's the making and storing of feed so that our farms can survive, so that we can survive.  However, in our ever more urbanized culture, many people don't seem to realize that this is still one of the most crucial aspects of keeping our world fed.  Gone are the days when a barn full of hay is what guaranteed that our workforce, livelihood and transportation survived the winter....

or ensured that we would have clothing to wear....

but it is still the the lifeblood of any farm, very literally the difference between life and death (not to mention the continued survival and happiness of our beloved donkeys and horses as well).

We have been extraordinarily lucky the past couple of years to have the help an incredible group of friends who have taken time out of their own very busy lives to come together to help us put our hay in. 

It is a hot, exhausting, dirty job demanding extreme, prolonged physical effort.  In years past, it has often been just Farm Buddy and I doing this job ourselves, with only the occasional bit of help coming our way.  Doing the job as we did this time, with a group of fun, intelligent, hard workers along with the best four days of hay weather we've ever had made the job into a pleasure rather than a trial, as it so often can be.

We must have racked up some really good hay karma somewhere along the way for this batch of hay. We had been getting worried as the weather was being impossible for so long.  We normally average about 2.5 inches of rain in the month of June.  This year, by June 15 we had had almost 10 inches and the specter of flooding was growing.  It is always better to have a wet year than a dry one, as last year proved (because of the drought last year, this same patch of ground produced half the number of bales it did yesterday), but there are limits. 

We were even luckier this time because Riding Buddy's mother, who is world-class chef, made a feast for all of us at the end of the day.  It is hard to describe just how great it is to come in at the end of a hay day to find that someone else has done the cooking.  That is a luxury we have never known before, but we sure could get used to that in a hurry! 

Through a complicated barter deal with a nearby dairy farm, we make three kinds of hay here; baleage, dry round bales and the small square bales pictured above.  The last are all made with Farm Buddy's ancient, but (mostly) functional equipment, half of which was designed to be pulled with horses.   The neighbor farm does all of our mowing, round bales and baleage.

The modern round baler gobbles up hay at an amazing rate...

rolls it up tight, wraps it in plastic netting, spits it out.... 

and goes on gobbling.  And if you're wondering why we don't have our own equipment like this, it's because just these two pieces represent about $50,000.  Add in the tedder, rake, bale wrapper...The mind boggles.

A couple of weeks ago they made 45 balages.  This week we put in 842 square bales and 6 dry round bales.  The next time we have dry weather, we'll be doing it all again.  We wouldn't want anybody going hungry around here after all.

Done!

We finished putting in the rest of the first cutting hay today.  We had planned on doing it in two days because there was a ton of hay left, at least a 1000 bales.  However, the dammed weather forecast changed and that 20% chance of showers/thunder storms could mean the difference between a barn full of beautiful hay and complete catastrophe.  We worked like crazy and put in about 600 regular square bales, unloading the last truck in the dark.  We had the neighboring farmer round bale the rest.  A little different from the original plan, but that's farming.  Plans never last.  Adaptability is the only way to survive. 

The really good part is that we are DONE.  Hallelujah, Thank the Lord, Amen, we are DONE with the hardest part of haying for this year.  Everybody gets to eat well this winter.  Knowing that the barn is full of good hay is one of the most satisfying things there is.  Oh, we'll still put in second cutting (if we actually get some rain now that is.  If we don't get rain, we may really be done for the year), but second cutting is relatively easy.  The really hard part is done.

A huge THANK YOU  here to our wonderful hay crew.  A group of very good friends who take time out of their own very busy lives to help fill the barn.  We couldn't have done it without you.  All of these guys will be very grateful come winter...

How To Spend a Saturday

Can you guess how we spent the day...

World Champion Women's Hay Loading Team...

 
Baler Operator Extraordinaire...

Only one little mishap...

 

 

We put in 500-600 bales (we lost count) and then sat down to a scrumptious feast prepared by another friend.  I forgot to take pictures of that part though, we were all too busy devouring it:) It can be summed up in one word...Yum!

Special thanks to all of our hay crew.  We couldn't have done it without you!