Time to Hay

This time of year everywhere I turn machines are running. Cutting hay, raking, or baling the hay up.

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 down the road!)

Justin also really enjoyed haying too. 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. And when Justin would come home we would hay together. It was something we really enjoyed to do together.

And then the kids came along and we still would hay together. Bringing the kids along with us to encourage them to have the same love for it as us. My haying days were definitely shortened and not as frequent the more kids we had.