Wednesday, July 1

Farm Photos 7/1/09: A Day in the Hay


After two very long days, the first cutting of hay has finally been mowed, teddered (aka fluffed up), raked into windrows, and is ready to be baled.

Lots more photos below. . .


But it took two hours to make 10 bales with The Borrowed Green Beast




Thankfully our little old diesel tractor was up to the job—though you don't usually have to throw your hay into the baler.




That's Better




Sylvester Is in Charge of Haybale Security




I Start Loading While Joe Finishes Baling (Drive, Stop, Jump Out, Pick Up, Repeat)




Lucky Buddy Bear Cheers Me On from the Shade




Making the last bale (and the garage/shop/bakery kitchen/upstairs living quarters we really will move into someday—though for now the bread bakery project is on indefinite hold).




The Next Section of the Hayfield We'll Cut




Admiring My Stacking Job




You can't fall asleep yet—we still have two hours of daylight left to stack these bales in the haybarn and bring in 200 more from the field.




10:00 pm: Cleaning Out the Baler and Enjoying an Ice Cold Bottle of Homebrew

Ready to pick up a few more bales? You'll find links to plenty of past haying season photos here. Wondering what we'll do with all this hay? Feed it to the animals during the winter—and probably wish we had even more. Last year we went through over 800 bales.

© 2009 FarmgirlFare.com, the already cutting more hay today foodie farm blog (these photos are from Monday) where there's a definite advantage to being the official haying crew photographer—you have an excellent excuse for taking lots of breaks.

20 comments:

  1. Im coveting your hay. We are expecting more rain. Darn.
    Kelly

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  2. Love the pics...I can almost smell it and it is one of my favorite smells!

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  3. Just looking at this makes me tired and cranky. Good luck with the continuing Haying Saga . . .

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  4. Jeez, the next time I casually toss a flake of hay to my (boarded in the suburbs) horse, I will better appreciate how much work must have gone into producing it. Good luck with the rest of the haying.

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  5. My dad had a green beast, and I remember driving the tractor while he stacked the bales. He would also jump off the wagon run to get a section of hay I missed and would throw it in the bailer. When He drove the tractor and I would stack I barely had enough time to grab a bale and stack it, sometimes the bales would start to pile up at the front of the wagon. My dad is 80 and last week he was out there in this heat cutting and racking hay,..he is kind of stubborn.:)

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  6. There is nothing like the smell of hay, just love it. I am thankful that our baler kicks the bales right into the wagon. Keep up the good work!

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  7. When daughter's friend moved to a small farm, the family always invited the girls to come for a sleepover during haying season. The city girls thought it was a great adventure, and the farm family got some extra help! Tricky, but smart.

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  8. For what it's worth, New England farmers are jealous of your back-breaking haying work! We haven't gone more than a day without rain in over a month!

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  9. Wow, I sure appreciate your showing us the haying process. Being a city girl, I didn't know the first thing about it. I sure do like to know about all of the things you and other farmers do to provide me with all of the wonderful things I have. Thank you very much! I think we all should know more about where our food, wool, etc. comes from. I hope the rest of your haying goes well.

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  10. what will you do with all that hay??

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  11. You work very hard! You must be very strong and in very good shape. I love that you share your photos with us. I want to see more of that new house/bakery building please.

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  12. Seeing those pics and reading your story made me so envy. I live in the big city , sometimes i dream about escaping that noisy place and going to a cute lil farm like yours.. mmm

    lis

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  13. Hey there or should I say Hay There?

    Jumping in to say I found your blog last weekend in my searching for ideas/recipes for turnip soup. After reading a number of your soup recipes, I have to say we are soulmates of Soup! I was stunned to see your recipe for roasted red pepper tomato garbanzo soup with artichokes because I make almost the exact same thing - except I usually add a chopped bulb of fennel or two. :)

    I ended up with a nice sludgy turnip soup last weekend - onions, turnips, yellow split peas, a little spinach and some leftover diced tomatoes. All cooked up in some homemade vegetable broth. Yum.

    Thanks for your blog - I'm enjoying the farm tales along with the recipes.

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  14. Oh my brings back great memories of helping in the hay field when a much younger girl. My job was driving the "stacker team" back in the early 40's. I also drive the team running the raker which put he hay in rows to be picked up and taken to the stacker which threw the hay on top of the hay stack. Sometimes it was hauled to the barn an put in the hay loft. "The good ole days" of farming with horses. Do any of you remember those days? Probably not, as I am 81 years young. This was in Kansas.

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  15. You are living the dream!!! J.T @ Living Simply

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  16. I grew up on a dairy farm in MN and love the smell of fresh cut alfalfa......your pictures brought the sweet scent back to my brain.....

    I want to thank you for my mental vacation whenever I look at your pictures and read your thoughts......

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  17. Love your blog and all the great recipes! What a great perspective of life on a farm. Thanks for sharing your adventure!

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  18. Hi ....googled MO blogs and found you there. A fellow MO food blogger. So fun to see your hay baling progress. Nice sequence of photos and I love your sweet assistants. The canine kind. he he Its good to have company, no matter what the project may be. They always have something to say, when we listen.
    AmyRuth

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  19. This is just how we did hay a few years ago, 1 hay wagon, too many trips back and forth to the barn, kids all seem to disappear right at haying time, baler twine breaks etc. BUT I MISS IT SOOO MUCH. Thanks for bringing back memories. :) BTW, your supervisors look like they take their jobs seriously. :)

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December 2015 update: Hi! For some reason I can't figure out, Blogger hasn't been letting me leave comments on my own blog (!) for the last several months, so I've been unable to respond to your comments and questions. My apologies for any inconvenience! You're always welcome to email me: farmgirlfare AT gmail DOT com.

Hi! Thanks for visiting Farmgirl Fare and taking the time to write. While I'm not always able to reply to every comment, I receive and enjoy reading them all.

Your feedback is greatly appreciated, and I especially love hearing about your experiences with my recipes. Comments on older posts are always welcome!

Please note that I moderate comments, so if I'm away from the computer it may be a while before yours appears.

I try my best to answer all questions, though sometimes it takes me a few days. And sometimes, I'm sorry to say, they fall through the cracks, and for that I sincerely apologize.

I look forward to hearing from you and hope you enjoy your e-visits to our farm!