Hay

I find it amazing that we have been able to cut and bale hay on our property. If you had told me a year ago that we would be baling hay by now, I would have thought you were crazy. Our fields were full of weeds and mesquite trees, not to mention the trash and old farm equipment. But thanks to the hard work of Guv'nor and others, one field has been cleaned up enough to let the grass grow.

Part of our deal with Neighbor to graze his cows included having some of our fields mowed. He made arrangements with his friends who have all the equipment. They came one day and cut the grass. The equipment cuts the grass and lays it neatly on the ground. Then the next day they came and raked it into neat rows with one tractor and followed with another tractor that rolled the bales.

The whole process was new to us and we found ourselves just standing and watching as the equipment did all the work. We ended up with 28 bales. The hay isn't good enough to sell yet, but Neighbor's cows should like it anyway.

I was a bit sad to see all the wild flowers go.

This tractor cut the grass.

The rake attachment.

I thought the rake was very artistic.

This tractor pulled the rake equipment.

The raking gathered up the grass and made a nice row.

This tractor pulled the baling equipment.

The baling equipment compresses the grass, rolls it and pushes it out. It looked like a chicken laying an egg.

Each round bale was about 6 feet high and wrapped in plastic mesh.

Such a typical rural field dotted with bales of hay. This time last year it was full of mesquite trees.

We even managed to get 7 bales of hay from the field in front of the house.

More bales of hay.