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.

Making Hay, Part 1

If you're involved in raising livestock in any way, then you know that of course you have to feed them.  And if you live where there is winter weather, then part of the year that will mean feeding hay (grasses cut, cured and put up for animal feed). 

You either purchase your hay or you produce it yourself.  Sometimes that includes not just raising the crop on your farm but also having the equipment and manpower needed to cut the hay; rake the hay (turn it over and let the sunshine cure it till dry); make the hay into bales to store through the winter (either big round bales or small square bales); wagons to haul the hay and then a barn or shed to store it until needed.  Equipment can be tractors and machines, like in the picture below (that's quite an array of mechanical horsepower parked in our front yard!) ~

or the original horsepower (draft animals) and implements ~

Four Percheron horses at the hitching post, getting ready for noon break

Sometimes you have a combination of both!  That was the case for the 2011 hay season at our farm, and what a joy this was. 

Here at Serenity Farms the majority of our farm is pasture land for seasonal grazing and hay ground, with some acreage rented out for row crops (usually corn and soybeans, sometimes wheat or spelts)  As a farm raising livestock, haying time is pretty intense!  And it doesn't end with just getting the hay put up in the barn, there are also decisions like "how much" to put up.  You want to be sure you have enough to last through the winter months and just like everything else on the farm that is related to weather, how early winter comes and how long it lasts until  you can get animals back out on spring pasture will effect that decision.  I am pretty obsessive about how much hay we have in the barn for winter - I always want to much!  This year, we cut it pretty close - here is what the hay mow looked like when we first started turning the sheep out on grass ~

The spelt straw (golden yellow on the left of the photo is in good order) but the hay (bright green to the right) was cutting it pretty close - only about 25 bales left at the start of grass season!  Whew, I was stressing a bit ;)

Hay has been a part of my life as long as I can remember, and even the parts that I can't ((grin)).  I grew up in a haying family, and even when Mom and Dad didn't have a farm my grandparents and uncles did, and Dad worked with them.  I married into a haying family - my husband had this farm already set up for hay production when I came along ;)  We don't have our own equipment anymore for various reasons (health and circumstance) but we do have the hay ground and now it's put up "on shares" - where a farmer who does have the equipment makes all of the hay and we get our portion as part of the rent of the land.

Trust me, this does not take the stress of hay season away completely, LOL!

I'd like to share a few photos with you of the first cutting hay making (there will be a second cutting, and hopefully even a third) and I hope you enjoy them, and maybe  understand and appreciate that this isn't just a group of serene, pastoral farm photos but a glimpse of the toil and sweat and hard, hard work in some of the most extreme weather that farmers go through to produce a good crop.  The other key ingredient is the weather, and God is in charge of that.  Some years we get it made just right, some years not.  We have had our share of both, and are grateful that this year it was perfect.

I'll do this in three parts, mostly with pictures and not so many words, so it will be easier for you to view.  This is Part 1.

His first horse ~

Thanks to a collaborative effort between his Mama and his Alaska Aunt, we once again have a saddle horse here at Serenity Farms.

Getting Familiar ~


First Lessons ~



Still grinning, and looking with amazement at the tracks he and his horse made in the sand ~


Isn't that smile, from a shy little boy with a big heart, worth it all?


What an inspired idea his Mama had! Here's to all the life lessons and joys that can only be learned from time with your horse ~

Picture of an October Past...

Just a quick note to let my friends know that I am still around, here on the farm ;)

This picture is from a few Octobers-ago, the last fall that Bill was still able to drive horses. Fall is a more difficult time for him, emotionally. His favorite time of year and the time he spent so many, many hours on the lines behind a team. I am seldom at the kitchen sink, doing dishes, that I don't think of him driving up into the yard looking for a cup of coffee and calling me out to take a ride with him and share the progress of whoever he happened to be training at the time. He is an amazing man to me, who copes so well! Still, I catch a look on his face when he sits on the porch looking towards the brightly colored woods. We take walks and rides in the car, but it isn't the same you know...just a few days ago he was outside in his motorized wheelchair and I was working in the garden. He didn't know I was so close, and I heard him down at the fence, talking outloud to "Sam" - his horse equivalent of a partner, the grey mare who helped him start and train numerous young horses. I couldn't stop the tears in my eyes or the lump in my throat.

I'll be back soon with more regular posts...till then, enjoy every moment you can of our glorious Autumn days....