There are many many beautiful times of the year, and summer and haying season is one of them. The spring rains help the grass to grow, and this year it grew and grew and grew. Tim has been cutting hay for the last couple of weeks, first you cut, then you rake, then you bale. Over and over again.
This was the week to cut the hay as seen from our patio. On Monday he was up here with his tractor, cutting the hay, then letting it lay over night. On Tuesday he was up here raking the hay into the furrows, or rows, getting it ready for baler. Yesterday was the day to bale, and on our farm he uses the big round baler.
He also does several hundred square bales for customers who buy for their horses, etc. He has customers coming from several nearby states. He is one busy somebody.
Tim cuts hay on about 4-5 different surrounding farms, as he, as of right now, has over 140 beef cows to feed, along with the livestock belonging to his customers.
It is a hot job, and can be very dusty - the dust coming from the dried grass. Sometimes, if the grass if very very dry, you just see a cloud of dust.
The grass was exceptionally tall this year, and Tim believes he will have the most bales from our farm that he has ever had. The cows will eat well this winter.
Here is Tim with his big tractor and the round baler, beginning the process of baling the hay. You can see one of the bales in the background.
I wonder sometimes, how he keeps from getting dizzy, the going around and around and back and forth, over and over again.
But somehow he seems to keep his sanity. You can see the corn in the right side of the picture, this fall that will also be harvested to feed the cows.
Later this week he will bring his flat-bed trailer up here and park it. He will have a fork lift on the front of the tractor, and will drive up to each bale and shove the forks into the middle of the bale, lift it up, and drop it on the trailer. He can haul about 5 bales at a time.
In just a few days you will see the fields beginning to turn green again as the second cutting of hay begins to grow. Later this fall he will go through the same process again.
The cycle of life goes on, regardless of what else is happening. The sad thing is that farming as a way of life is disappearing rapidly in our area. There are not too many actual farmers left. And then what? It is something I really don't want to think about.
It is sad to drive around and see farms either growing up abandoned, or being divided up and houses being built. I guess that is called progress, but is it really? Are we progressing or regressing? Good question.
Perhaps you have an answer. I don't. Think about it, wonder about it, but is there an answer. I just don't think there is.
In the meantime, enjoy what you have and God Bless.
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