Worker Bees Minus the Wings, Et. Al.

Team Laurie and Shawn moving bales from the stack to the loader.

Lots of tractor trips in the storage process. 

Sefo, father of the triplets, came to help.  His job:  loading the lower elevator. 

My sister Barbara grabs bales and transfers them to the second elevator. 

The faces may be a little different today, but hay storage will continue at my sisters' farm. 

As we sat in the late afternoon shade at the Colburn farm yesterday, munching on fresh-baked brownies, Barbara and Laurie's worry level about getting hay in the barn had visibly subsided.

Two workers who originally could come yesterday only announced that they would like to help get that stack in the barn.  

So, they promised they'd come early again today and, with help from the rest of whatever crew shows up and Barbara and Laurie, would keep chipping away at that big stack of bales. 

Big relief, since it's a formidable challenge to find hay crews these days. When ya do, you feel very fortunate.

So, happily,  today the bales will keep moving from stack via tractor loader to outside elevator to second in-barn elevator to the in-barn stack. 

Our sister visit yesterday followed a busy day and a shower for me. Weed eating, picking beans and raspberries and moving sprinklers kept me hopping throughout the day.  

After taking the lawnmower to the barnyard and mowing down dead buttercup plants (a dusty business), I took my shower and decided the heat was too intense to finish up those final final touches on the fence painting project.

Thus, the drive over to my sisters'. 

As I told Bill and my sisters, yesterday's sweaty, dirty assault on grass and weeds would be my last major weed-eating project for the year. 

There's been a motive to all this intense work in the heat of summer.  My cousin Rich from Chicago will roll in later this week with his pickup and travel trailer. 

Rich has already been schooled on life at the Lovestead--- that he'll be staying out behind the barn near the manure pile but that the manure pile may have flowers by the time he arrives. 

Upon learning that information, Rich reminded me that he had been training for the Peace Corps in Ethiopia earlier this year, so he probably wouldn't mind a manure pile. 

Actually, by this time of the summer, my two piles look pretty good with flowers, tomatoes, corn, potatoes and one fast-growing pumpkin plant. 

Anyway, I'm in the final stages of "purtying up" the place for Rich's arrival.  Actually, I've just used Rich as an excuse to complete these projects.  

We always need motivators, right?

My main concern is that the beastly heat we're expecting for the next few days may minimize the beauty around here, as lawn and flowers are sure to take a beating. 

Whatever the case with visuals, there's something nostalgic about a visit from a Midwestern relative.  

Takes me back to the days when Mother and Harold were still alive and the relatives or Mother's college friends would announce months in advance their plans to come to Idaho for a visit. 

Prior to their visit, a flurry of activity occurred with house cleaning, baking and yard work. 

In those days, the visitors sometimes stayed two or three weeks as life on the farm would go on and Mother would cook up fabulous meals or we'd plan a few recreational treats like huckleberrying up in the watershed or taking off to Canada for a day's drive. 

We loved when the relatives came because, for the most part, once they arrived, life was comparatively laid back, and we could enjoy an extra dose of independence, disappearing to do our own thing while grown-ups enjoyed their visiting.  

With Rich's visit, I have the luxury of not having to worry about house cleaning cuz, with the Pandemic,  nobody comes inside our house. 

I am looking forward to plenty of visiting, learning more about our extended family and especially his chance to get to know more Idaho-grown cousins like Barbara and Laurie.  

Who knows, maybe they'll even get him on a horse!

Busy week ahead with some fun stuff ahead. Annie will be home too for some more remote work and mini-vacation activities.   

As we humans do our thing, all the critters will continue to tend to their respective jobs---herding turkeys, pollinating, and, of course, taking a few naps in the summer heat. 

Life is good and busy and productive.  Love it that way.

Happy Monday. Stay cool.  

Cecil and his fellow worker James, whom I usually see with a candy bag on Halloween.

My, how he has grown.

Cecil and James grab bales from in-barn elevator and stack. Yesterday  I noticed they had a little hay mow supervision from one of the resident "Meow's." 

Cecil has been a regular for the Tibbs hay hand crew.

Sefo