Make Hay While The Sun Shines’ – John Heywood, English Playwright 1546
As I briefly scanned the horizon last month, while driving through Cedar or into fair Ladysmith, I noted that the field marshmallows were popping up everywhere. And who would have thought that a playwright, and sometime musician/composer would have coined the prime rule when it comes to mak’in hay? Not I.
Since we ‘bought the farm’ in 2004 this time of the season has always stressed me out to the max. Harvesting the early fruits and veggies is great for the spirit, but that hay!
Depending on folks is one thing but depending on Mother Nature and her elements, well there’s the rub; one of the rubs anyway. Every year it’s different and timing is everything – when the pasture is ripe n’ ready, is it going to be hot and dry, cool and wet, a bit of both…kind of a crapshoot. That Mother, unpredictable and not seeming to care about your feelings one bit.
With each new year comes new challenges, new learning experiences. And this year is no exception. For those who are not familiar with hay production I’ve gleaned a few essentials: you need at least a good week of hot dry temperatures for starters, for cutting (mowing), fluffing (tedding), rowing (raking), and baling (the only correct term I knew in the beginning!)
It’s not just getting our two wee fields cut at the right time either. It is coordinating the ‘studly farmhands’. Those with allergies need not apply. Those who can walk the fields in the scorching heat, lifting 40 lbs. into a pick-up, garbed in long sleeved shirt and pants, then unloading and stacking into the barn, we want you. For years Laurie and I with a few dedicated wonderful friends did the task. But over the years things have evolved, age creeps up on you (and your dedicated friends) in what seems like a blink (wink) of an eye.
I’ve never done change well but my 10 foot fall, with accompanying fractures, taught me real quick how to embrace change more positively and this year’s hay harvest proved just that. I have the most excellent hayman – a kind, energetic, generous family man.
He was here at exactly the right time, did 3 of the 4 stages and was about to do the final baling when his square baler bit the big one. His round baler was in tip-top shape but I’ve never worked with round bales, my barns were set for square ones, I knew how many flakes my horses and sheep needed, my farmhands were all set to rock n’ roll, and then it happened once again…change challenge!
I must be truly evolving because the first thing after my initial ‘but I always had square bales’ moment, was this thought that I’d just have to see what these round bales would be like. My two young (and exceedingly strong) farmhands, Eddie and Tristan, were not needed for lifting bales. Gord my Hayman’s machines would bring in the goods. My young bucks spent their time reorganizing my hay loft and hay barn to accommodate this new jumbo-sized experimental harvest. And you know what? I hardly felt any worry.
Except when I looked at the beautiful rounds in the hay loft I noticed the light of day shining through the ceiling in several spots. That cedar roof is pushing 60 years old and each shake would make excellent kindling! And we’re in the midst of a nerve-wracking fire season to boot. Change, you bet. I already have been looking at a metal roof replacement. Cha-ching cha-ching.
But now – time to harvest more of those apples & another round of juicing.
Jackie Moad.
World Traveler.
Environmentalist.
Organic Farmer.
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