HAYING TIME ON THE FARM

Hello neighbor. Glad you stopped by.

When summer rolls around on the farm, it was haying time.  The days are hot and muggy and the flies plentiful, but still the haying has to get done.  Since there are just the two of us girls and my sister is two years younger, guess who has to be the tomboy of the family.  The haying has to get done and someone has to help so I get elected to help Dad. The fields on our farm are that, just fields. No special work has been done to improve them such as watering them, done by God when He sends some rain. No planting of seeds or such. We take them as they are. Just hoping we can get enough to feed the cows through the winter.

The first step after looking at the sky to see if it is a good drying day, is to hitch up the ole struggle buggy (that's my term for the ole home made tractor) to the mowing machine.  This machine has two steel wheels and a springy metal seat.  I sit on the seat and control the mowing blade.  This blade has some sharp metal teeth that goes back and forth to cut the hay.  My job is important and I have to keep my eyes open for any rocks that the blade might hit.  If I see a rock I quickly life the blade so it will pass over the rock and then let go so it will drop down again on the other side. Gotta keep it going. Better not hit a rock or I might hear a few words from my Dad.  These old fields are thin on grass and hay and has some weeds, etc. But whatever comes along gets mowed down.  That's the morning job. Now it's drying time until late afternoon. Keeping an eye on the sky hoping no rain clouds show up when things might have to move in a hurry to beat the rain.

The next job is to change the mowing machine for the big rake.  This rake has tall thin wheels and big prongs on the back.  This time I sit in front of the machine but have to keep an eye behind me so I will know when to pull the cord that will raise up the prongs and drop the hay. Drop the cord - rake a little more - raise the prongs - drop the cord until we have the field all raked into long rows of hay.

Usually this will be done by supper time.  We always eat supper at 5:00 p.m.  The next chore is to grab the pitchforks and head out to the field and start putting the hay into piles. After the rows are all put into small piles Dad would hitch up the hay wagon and bring it  to the field . He would  pitch the hay piles up onto the hay wagon. This is where my sister gets to help with the haying.  We would both get up into the hay wagon and tramp down the hay as Dad pitched it on.  Sometimes Mom would come and help with pitching the hay onto the wagon. Now comes the fun part when we ride on the hay wagon up to the barn.

 Still not down with the haying job. Gotta get the hay off the wagon and up onto the hay loft.We had a big fork that ran on a track way up at the top of the barn. There was a notch at the top so that we could lower the fork to the hay on the wagon.  Dad would jamb the fork into the hay, pull up on the levers to hold the hay. Then he would hop on the struggle buggy and start to pull the rope as he drove slowly away. It was my job to make sure the fork went up and caught at the top to catch the track and move across the top of the barn. I would wave my hand to Dad and he'd stop and back up and pull the rope to drop the hay.  When I got big enough to drive the struggle buggy Dad took care of the other stuff. When he waved, I would stop and back up for the next load.

Well that load of hay was done. But there was always another field to do. Even after the hay was all in that was not the end of the haying job.  We would have to get upon the very top part of the loft and pitch the hay over and down into the big bay.  Another part of the hay job was one I did not like to do. We would have to go into the big bay and spread out the hay and  stir it around.  If  there was any dampish hay it had to be spread to dry.  A damp spot of hay can heat up and could cause a fire. So that was an important job but no fun in that hot, sweaty and itchy hay. But we had to have feed to get the cows through the winter. And that's how we did it on our farm.  I guess that is part of what made me a Simple Farm Girl.

Stop by again sometime and we'll have another little chat.