I have a definite love/hate relationship with hay day. I love the way that a large group of people work together to get a very large job accomplished. Many hands make light work – I have quoted that before. Nothing makes square bales easy, but more people does make the job a bit more tolerable. It’s a shame we couldn’t cut hay in – say – 50 degree weather! Nope, gotta be 90 and full sunshine! Still, after months and months without a dry three day stretch, the farmers in our area were all buzzing about trying to get the hay in before the rain came again! We did more than 300 bales on Saturday, and another 100 on Sunday! Good family, good friends, lots of cooperation and disgustingly hot weather!
Getting the baler up and running 
junior work crew
hard workers 
Acres of Grace barn about to be filled up 
everybody working hard
Inchworms are cool! 
loading the hay elevator – THANK GOD for the person who shared the elevator! 
Getting that work done
Andrea’s barn all filled up!
Our barn starting to look much better! 
These are some GOOD friends!
My mother is always the “behind the scenes, don’t take my picture” person who keeps the workers well fed, the kids settled when the “fun” part of hay has become a little too much like work, and the home fires burning. Andrea (sister) and I have a running joke/competition to see who get’s mom as the “wife” on a given project weekend! You won’t see her in a photo, but trust me, she is working hard and keeping us all a lot happier!
I have had the chance to enjoy the grandkids this week a few times, just hanging out in a low-key, relaxing, play around the house, sort of way. It was nice!
breaking beans, which I then proceeded to burn 
play room picnic 
Eva’s help line
We are not making much head way on the list of goat duties because cows are a pain in my tush! One steer with pink eye is a minor pain. We did manage to get his shot given despite the lack of cow handling equipment. Seven steers with pink eye is just more than I can deal with right now. We managed to get 5 treated. The other two tore up one gate, one cattle panel, knocked a couple gates off the pins in the barn and have eluded us now for days. I’m not sure how we are going to get them taken care of just yet, but we are still working on the (insert a long string of Christian almost curse words here) problem. Farmer man keeps reminding me that they are babies. I say they are toddlers! Anyone who has taken a toddler for immunizations . . . but they are 400 pounds! Handling equipment is coming soon to this farm, or cows are going back to the market!
toddlers 
why can’t they make stuff for me to put in their feed? 
the calm before the big messy escape
On a brighter note, we have a new lawnmower and tractor decisions are still in process. I’m not sure which tractor is right for us at the moment, but I’m sure that the neighbors and I are all much happier that we have a functional lawn mower!
One thing is for sure, there is never a dull moment around here!
brandnewfarmers 