Haying was a big deal this year on Second Wind Farm. For the past 9 years, since we started the farm we have been buying hay from another farmer.
Ben stepped out on a limb, bought used equipment and went for it! We always wanted the control over the timing for our management plans, so we could fertilize, and put the hay down when we want so that it dovetailed with our grazing.
It was a good decision, I still can’t believe we did it. It has been so rewarding so far. The last few days in this nasty yucky season we call fall, Ben and Levi keep coming in from feeding bales now and tell me how beautiful the hay is, and the satisfaction they feel that we produced it off of this farm!! It’s so special.
Beyond all the satisfaction of producing the hay, I am most proud we all have worked together with this. How it strengthened our bond and identity as SWF farm workers.
Everyone knows haying is work—but when until you actually do it, from fertilizer to storage you don’t have a clue!!
Day one of 2021 Haying Ben popped the bales out of the back of the loud and clanky baler and they were littered all over the field. He told me it was my job to collect them I was the “bale trailer driver”
—-WHAAT…I thought when I saw the equipment and the steepness of the field, etc. Oh gosh, how will this work? But it did sure enough.
Ben consolidated the bales to a couple of piles, I then had to drive this bulky weird trailer up a steep driveway—where I couldn’t see over the hood of the truck.
Once I could see over the hood again I was to maneuver the trailer close to the piles—which was harder then it looked! Back forward, over circle. Oh man, the patience Ben must have had to have with my trailer backing.
Then, Ben used the bale grabbers on the tractor to pick up bales and place them on the trailer—then I was off again, the trailer driver—with the loaded trailer funky trailer to the place where we were wrapping and storing them over by our run in shed—Ben, the tractor man followed me, unloaded the bales and then wrapped and stacked them!!
Who would have known there were all those steps. I think I originally thought the baler popped out these big bales—-wrapped and they somehow grew legs and transported themselves to big stacks!!
But wait, I forgot to tell you about my sappy haying moment of Day 1 of haying. My favorite part of the first day I ever hayed on SWF was when I arrived at the field for duty with the trailer.
I fell out of the truck in a heap and was overtaken by the sweet smell of the hay. I opened the truck doors and the kids and dogs hopped out and proceeded to frolic and jump all over the bales!!! Of course I took pictures.
Picturesque.
The second time I helped out. I was a “bale wrapper operator”, suddenly I found my self in a complete sweat in the cab of the non air-conditioned Case tractor in the blazing sun at 95 degree temps for 4 hours. It was so hot the wrap kept melting on us!!
The kids were all in camps—Levi usually did this job—and so Ben and I took over one hot June afternoon.
Gosh—I’ve never been so hot, or made so many mistakes. it was so cool though to see work being done right in front of me. The bale wrapper is amazing, it makes all sorts of noises and spins the bales so that the wrap is pulled out and placed around the bales, very cool.
The over riding memory for me however, beyond my own amazement of my “JOBS” was how the boys—Levi and Reno could and did perform!
Levi was always helping every step of the way, from working on the equipment, driving the equipment—when appropriate—and wrapping, transporting—every part. Now Reno, well at 11 yrs old…. He wasn’t quite ready—-until the day Ben taught him to wrap bales. It was like a miracle.
He got it immediately. When Ben came home and told me he could do it himself I didn’t really believe it. I had that job a week ago and I thought it was pretty involved….”What, I said, Reno can do it?” “Yep" Ben said. “He sat on my lap and then figured it all out from watching me.”
Reno’s new skills and independence with those skills would come to the test in the not so distant future.
There was a haying day when Ben—the man in charge was injured. He’s ok, don’t worry.
He left the farm in a hurry, gave me a wave and a cryptic report of the goings on as he headed to get some medical care and said, “the boys are finishing the hay tonight, go check on them, farmer Kent will be there.”
—-WWWaat I thought, OK, I thought, Kent, Levi and I will be doing the work— and Reno will watch Eden. That will work.
So, Eden and I packed our snacks and went off, a pit in my belly as I worried about everything.
Well, what I found when I arrived in the hay filed was a completely professional scene.
This is the part where the Young Halley boys really worked together.
Reno was running the wrapper which means, like I did, he was in the tractor cab. The tractor is stationary in neutral running a special attachment, you’re not driving the tractor, but moving 2 levers in the right timing, in the right direction and watching the number of wraps you have put on until you reach the magic number. Then you have to pop another lever to remove the bale from the wrapper.
It’s not all that easy—Levi in the skid steer, picking up and moving the finished bales to the wrapper and then stacking them up. Which takes a lot of concentration and finess.
Levi and Reno stepped right up and wrapped and stacked 25 bales by themselves, hot and starving from a long day of work. No questions asked, no help needed. I am still in shock.
Now of course they had expert instruction and we did have another trained adult on hand to take over if needed— Eden, Casey and I just watched, me smiling ear to ear.
The performance was amazing. And to think our cattle will be munching that hay that grew here, was harvested here—by us and baled and wrapped by 2 brothers. Pretty great!
That’s it for this blog. Take care and enjoy the holiday season. Toodles, Amy