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Hay, that’s what we make (in the summer anyways)

It’s funny how maturity (a kind word for getting old, encroaching responsibilities, and all sorts of other changes shunned during the vigor of post college hedonism) changes what you get excited about. It wasn’t long ago that my bros and I cranked up the 50 Cent to race out the door every day searching Wyoming white smoke to leave contrails 20 plus feet long as it splashed over our shoulders. Will gravity ever cease to amaze and please?

At Green Wind Farm we milk about 25 Jerseys and maintain a youngstock herd of about 25 animals as well. Not to mention the two belgian draft horses that each eat about 40 pounds of hay per day in the winter. This adds up to a lot of dry hay which we put up ourselves.

Just last week I cranked up some Craig Morgan “International Harvester” as my wife and I got ready to leave our house in Burlington. A quality tune that brings to mind quality concepts like “Right to Farm Law”, “Have You Thanked Your
Farmer Today?”, “Don’t Complain About Farmers With Your Mouth Full of Food”, and “No Farms, No Food”.

We were hoping the weather would cooperate and we could assist (truth be told; Martha over 8 months pregnant picked strawberries for the freezer) my parents in baling the hay from an entire 12 acre field in a single day. We did it! Just under 1000 bales put into the barn. Almost 1/3 of our necessary hay for the winter.

The last 75 bales or so were baled in a light rain that had been looming to the west for hours. To avoid the possibility of starting a fire in the hayloft these bales were stacked on their sides with some space between them to be fed out prior to second cut hay which will probably go in the barn in late July.

The day was so successful I didn’t even have the energy to drink a second beer prior to bed. Almost like the good old days in the Tetons except meritorious efforts instead of hedonism gone up in smoke…

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