Saturday, June 25, 2011

Making Hay, Part 3

Be sure to read Making Hay Part 1 and Part 2!

We had some special overnight guests during the haying session ~

Our special Percheron horse guests!
It was good to have horses in the front pasture again.  After a good, cool nights rest the horses were ready for the new day to begin.  I was even able to help brush them down before harnessing ~ what a treat!


The next set of pictures was taken in the afternoon at the Burnham Farm side of our property, to the east of where our house is.  I tried to get a picture of the horses with the Round House in the background but never did.  The barn does a pretty good job of filling in though ~



This picture was taken from our daughters yard, it's next to one of the hay fields

I was kind of sad when the horses went home, I miss having them sometimes.  I know that Bill does and he spent a lot of time outside watching these four work while they were here.  I hope they come again!

The final hay field at the Burnham Farm.  This is made into square bales, over 1,000 bales from this small field alone!
On the last day, after all of the hay was baled, it started to rain.  Some of the wagons were still in the field but only got slightly damp.  Ours came into the barn fifteen minutes after the rain started, so we threw the top bales off to the side, spaced apart so air could get to them.


It's beautiful hay, our thanks to the farmer who makes it for us now!  On Fathers Day our son-in-law, our boy Alex and our eight year old grandson unloaded the wagon and stacked the bales in the west mow, ready for winter feeding.  I couldn't help but think how blessed we are.  We don't take that for granted, believe me!  I keep thinking about friends I know of who didn't have luck getting their hay up this spring - we have been there ourselves before and will be again sometime I'm sure.  It is the way of farming.

I first started writing these hay posts in early June.  I finally started getting them posted on the first day of summer, LOL!  It's been raining for the past four days, but I'm glad to say that the sun is out in full force this morning and with the moisture in the ground and this good sunshine we look forward to the hay fields growing in preparation for a second cutting of hay.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Awesome pictures! I am glad you got all your haying done. It is so neat that you do it with horses. I would love to get together soon! Things will start to slow down the next couple of weeks. The remodel project is finally coming to an end, and that has really consumed me the last 10 weeks!

Lona said...

Loved reading the posts about the hay, Cary, and especially loved the photos! What a life--filled with work and wonder...