Tales from Mid Summer in West Virginia

Make Hay While the Sun Shines

This post is mainly for K & E & John A. Remember what the farm looked like when you were there? The grass around the house was a hayfield thanks in part to my bum arm, and a riding mower that wanted to stay on disabled list. Well, folks the scene you see above is now gone as you can tell from the picture to the left of the page.

But it was quite a job. First there was the cutting which meant that a job I normally do in about 45 minutes to an hour, consumed a good 3 hours. And when I was finished there was all this grass that had to be raked into piles so that the grass underneath would not be killed. And then we had to move the piles so there would be no brown patches on the yard. So, my trusty Baja to the rescue. I've always said it was "My Farm Vehicle." On this day, it lived up to its word.

Of course we (GrandMom helped) had to do all of this under the careful supervision of this year's edition of "the girls" (plus one "boy"). And they were very particular and several, particularly the calves thought they just had to provide close up direct supervision.

Thankfully however, we held them off. All told, I hauled 8 loads out and spread it out on the fields. Plus I carried the equivalent of another truckload out by hand (plus the stuff E and GrandMom had thrown out when they were there). And note, the picture of the grass in the truck above was the 1st load. By load # 8, the grass was piled higher than the cab.

But it was done. And the yard looked much better, albeit, it still has a way to go.