Bountiful Bales

Yesterday on the front page of the local paper a photo showed an aerial view of a farmer bailing hay. 

I did look over to the west in the photo and saw Cocolalla Lake, so I was wondering if the plan was to bail the hay into the lake or what.

Well, here in Selle, Harvey's crew baled hay yesterday.

Soon afterward, Harvey came with the bale wagon and moved our field's 2011 yield to a spot in front of the machine shed where, within the next couple of hours, Bill and Willie will have it stacked and covered with tarps.

The field harvest provided almost a winter's supply, but I'll buy a couple more tons of grass hay from Harvey and some lovely alfalfa from the Dahlbergs up north for good measure.

Looks like Heather's here for the winter, so I'll need that much to make sure the horses stay in good shape.

There's always a good feeling when the hay is stored safely under cover each year, almost the same as the relief when taxes are done.

Always unknowns, and when it gets harvested with no rain and put into storage, we can smile.

Like taxes, we pay for the service, but we still have a sense of satisfaction that the harvest came from our own ground. This year we even had about a dozen or so more bales than last, so that's good too.

Border Collies feel an extra zest when the hay gets cut and harvested too. Kiwi spends a lot of time watching the action, and she loves to go to the field whenever we do.

The dogs' playing field has literally expanded with the tall grass gone, and, of course, mice are easier to find in the fields.

The hay field will also serve as a nice fall pasture for the horses, and we can brush hog a pathway to the Lodgepole/God Tree. So far this year, new inductees have had to walk through tall grass to get there.

So, it's a good feeling this morning to know that one of the year's major worries is over and that it all turned out successful, thanks to Harvey and his crew of farming experts.