More hay making

“Ah, that I were free again!
Free as when I rode that day,
where the barefoot maiden raked the hay”

~ John Greenleaf Whittier quotes (American Writer, 1807-1892)

Our winters last for the most part of the year.
That means, we only have a short summer to make enough food
to feed the animals through the long winter months.
Summer time is a scramble to get all the feed made.

Our days consist of either cutting, raking or baling.
We check the weather forecasts every few hours.

we have breaks from haying only when it rains or
when the forecast predicts a lot of rain in the coming days.
The days are long and dusty.
This year has been especially challenging.
The old proverb says " make hay when the sun shines"
however this year has been a challenge.
It has been raining so often you do not get a chance to make decent hay.
It seems likes most of the hay in this country got a good washing..

So, when things look good, we go out and cut..

Driving round after round,

your mind starts to play "mind games".
The mental arithmetic gets going:

"if the mower is about 11 feet wide,
and the field is 160 acres,
how many rounds is that?"

Here are some  other thoughts while mowing a 160acre field:
" what do non ranching people do in the summer?"
"oh look, that coyote caught a mouse"
" I wonder, is it going to rain?"
"I am going to time each round"

"Oh my goodness, it takes 25 minutes for one round.."

These thoughts actually get tedious after about 8 hours,
I have found the best approach is to clear the mind and go with the flow.

Sometimes, you need to take a break to smell the flowers..

Clover hay

The view out the front  window..

The back window is not much better..

The view once the window was fully opened..

A visitor waiting for a mouse.

Endless fields.

After cutting, we rake..

and then we bale

The goal, the end result..

We do it for them..

New day, new field..

Have a great monday,
I will be cutting today,
and tomorrow,
raking the next and
baling after that..