New Shoes and Red Paint!

Age and youth look upon life from the opposite ends of a telescope;

to the one it is exceedingly long,

to the other exceedingly short.

                              Henry Ward Beecher

               

This whole not-farming while playing the waiting game thing is exhausting, yes you heard me right I now find I am snuggled in my bed most nights by 9:30 sleeping soundly, I am pretty sure those late nights of my youth are gone forever and I am if to be truthful OK with that for the most part.

We have been waiting for the weekly scattered showers, or in our case heavy rains to leave this area so we can cut the thick plentiful hay which is now over my head in some of the fields. Our cows push against the page wire fence that borders the laneway to reach and pull off the tops of the now flowered Brome grass. I watch Annie who is shorter than the rest slip her head through the wire and grasp hold of a mouthful and pull, munch munch. I should have known she being a little spoiled would certainly have been that child caught taking that cookie from the cookie jar. Resourcefulness has been part of her whole life.

This is so different from last year when at this time we were done our first cut of hay and were so proud of ourselves while waiting for the second cut, the one that never came. We somehow managed to get the bale counter to reach 400 bales and were very grateful for that but that came very close to not making it through our harsh winter, we were lucky.  We are hoping to cut and bale much more this year so as not to worry and have to sell more cows than we really want to again. The hay is plentiful this year but getting it off will be this year’s challenge. In farming there always seems to be a different challenge year to year.

My Hero has been busying himself primping and preening (something my Grandma used to say) the equipment, and getting ready for those long days that will come quickly and that mad rush to cut and bale which I know will involve long days and late nights. Those relaxing nights of sleeping and enjoying pleasant dreams to be replaced by tossing and turning while worrying about if we can get it all done before the weather changes again and those aching stiff muscles that will surely be back.

Reading some of my Blog Posts of late it probably appears to you that all we do around here is go to auctions and watch Netflix and sometimes it seems to us to be the case too but this is one of the perks of being a mature farmer. That moment in our lives where finally realizing there is something to be said about not constantly working and taking advantage of those slow moments and finally being able to spend time together and knowing that this is as important for the two of us as much or probably more than that hard work that is so important to the running of this farm.

That being said there has been a lot of work going on in between those raindrops. A lot of work and a lot of hard earned money now flowing out, this has always been an expensive season for us. New shoes meaning five custom made pairs costing $600 for the disc bine. New teeth $6 a piece for the hay rake and more to come depending on how rough the hay fields are we have replaced eight now. A new coat of Fire Red paint to protect the hay wagon so the rust will not ruin it, My Hero informs me that we need more paint as he never finished spraying the bottom of it and it is looking good. The air conditioner on my tractor has quit again something that seems to happen every year, this bill will approach $1000 or more, a luxury you may be thinking but if you can imagine working in a glass enclosed box for sometimes six hours a day in the sweltering heat that is eventually coming, it is not a luxury it is a necessity.

Well the forecast is calling for sunny hot humid days for this weekend so there may be a possibility we will need that baler twine at $39 a bale, and that diesel fuel that cost $1.24 a liter, there will be no sleeping now while worrying about the hay laying in rows in the field waiting to dry and hoping those scattered showers stay away. There will be no watching Netflix unless of course we put it on to relax after a day of haying and fall asleep watching it completely exhausted and snoring in the lazy boy. There will be no going to auctions for a little while unless this forecast is wrong again.

New shoes and red paint indeed, this is what my days have been reduced too and I would not change a thing. I am off again with a very long list of things to pick up in town. Let the haying begin.

Later