Time to Hay
This time of year everywhere I turn machines are running. Cutting hay, raking, or baling the hay up. And I absolutely love it.
Like I had mentioned before I didn’t always grow up around cows and ranch life. My first exposure to it was when I was 12 my mom sent me to our relatives ranch here in Avon to hay for the summer. I was so nervous I didn't even know how to drive yet and was going to spend an entire summer on top of a tractor. Luckily before making the trek to Avon I got a quick 101 on driving.
The ranch I spent the summer on puts up loose hay. Loose hay means no bales they just pile the hay in big loaves that we call stacks. The crew consists of mowers, that cut the hay, one wheel rake, that rolls the hay into a windrow, some buck rakes, that pile the windrows into loads for the beaver slide, the beaver slide, which makes the big stacks and finally the dump rake, which cleans up after the buck rakes to make one last windrow the buck rake can pick up.
I spent 7 of the next 9 summers in Avon on the Graveley ranch helping put up the hay. I loved it. I loved the equipment, the work and the people. (Especially that boy up the road!)
Justin also really enjoyed haying. After we got married that first summer Justin was working in Alaska on a hitch schedule of three weeks on three weeks off. I was working for his brother Reece who has a custom cut hay business, Circle P Enterprises. And when Justin would come home we would hay together. It was something we really enjoyed to do together.
Deer Lodge, Rock Creek Ranch 2019
Working for Reece putting up hay was my first time around big equipment and balers. And a lot went wrong that first year. I broke sooo many things! I even caught the baler on fire and learned how to use a fire extinguisher… And yet Reece still had me come back the next year. I am thankful to be put out in the field any chance I get. Something about it is peaceful and it is satisfying to watch hay be put up.
And then the kids came along and we still would hay together. Bringing the kids along with us to encourage them to have that same love for it as us. My haying days were definitely shortened and not as frequent the more kids we had, but we would all go as much as we could. One day Justin had all five of us crammed into Reece’s big triple mower for an afternoon. The twins sat on the floor so content watching the hay lay down, Grant sleeping peacefully in his pack, while I got good quality time with Justin in the buddy seat. A memory I will hold close to my heart.
My goals for this summer is to get the older three boys into a machine this year for an afternoon to continue their love and interest in equipment and putting up hay. I hope to get into a tractor a few days to help Reece out as well. Listen to some audio books and watch the hay go up in round bales. Blessed to have amazing family members who let me live out these dreams.
