Cliff did not plan to put up any hay this year, because haying interferes with our motorcycle time. Haying has to be done on a weekend when it's sunny and dry: that's perfect motorcycle-riding weather. We were going to have Adam buy hay for his horses and store it in our barn, and I'd feed it out for him; we'd buy hay for our cow(s).
Unfortunately or fortunately, however you want to look at it, we've had record rainfall totals this year, and the grass has gone wild. It has to be mowed. The newly seeded pasture is so rank that even if Cliff cut it with the brush hog, the cut grass would kill out new growth.
So, on this perfect weekend when we could have taken a road trip, Cliff is haying.
Friday he mowed. I didn't get any pictures of that, for some reason.
Yesterday, he raked. I used one of the raking pictures for my new header. That Farmall H he's using was a restoration project one winter; grandson Arick, around ten years old at the time, worked side by side with his grandpa. Cliff had Arick's name put on it, and when he dies or moves to town, that tractor is Arick's. Cliff tries to use it occasionally, since it isn't good for any old equipment to sit idle all the time. (After seeing these pictures, I think I finally removed that fingerprint on the lens my son told me about days ago.)
Today he's bailing, using the Mahindra tractor that we're taking care of for the brother-in-law who moved to St. Louis. Cliff is an equal opportunity tractor-user. He's gotten rid of a lot of his collection, though. Last weekend he sold the John Deere 520 on Craigslist.
Cliff bought the old round baler for $500; new ones cost thousands. We could buy a lifetime supply of hay for less than the price of a new baler. There is a different kind of cost, though, to using aged farm machinery.
Every time a bale is done, Cliff has to stop the tractor, climb off, get up on the baler, and help it tie the baler twine around the hay bale: Every. Single. Time. Cliff's tried to make it work properly, but it just won't do it by itself the way it's supposed to. At times like these, I realize it's a good thing we only have a little over forty acres, with only about fifteen of it in grass.
So, how's YOUR weekend going? Are you getting any motorcycle riding in? Never mind, don't tell me.
Iris rested in the shade of a big bale of hay while Cliff toiled.
