ÊHaying was a big job at the time of my growing years.Ê It was a big job that required preparation.Ê The whole family literally pitched in with the aim of getting hay under cover before it got too wet.

I've found there is one thing that will ensure rain in a dry year, most of the time.Ê That one thing is to mow you hay field.Ê It seems that no matter how dry the weather has been, newly mowed hay will attract rain.Ê Once on the ground, it is always a race to get the crop in before a thunderstorm comes over the hill from the west.

My haying experience began with helping move loose hay into our waiting hay mow.Ê Dry hay was pitched into a hay rack and brought to the end of the barn where a set of nasty looking, long, steel tined forks awaited.Ê They were dropped into the load, wrestled into place, a signal was given to the horse or tractor driver on the other end of the barn and up went a ball of hay.Ê Up, hit the rail and into the waiting mouth of the barn went fork after fork of hay.Ê As a kid, I was given the task of "tripping" the forks.Ê I did that by pulling on a small rope which released the load inside the barn.Ê I loved the feel of being jerked off the ground when the forks released their load.Ê I felt rather important.Ê

Later our farm and others moved to more mechanized forms of haying.Ê We purchased a baler and did custom baling for our neighbors.Ê I loved operating the baler and watching those suntanned young men tossing bales on the flat rack.Ê Somehow I didn't miss the exertion as they stacked the square bales six or seven levels high.Ê Good bale "stackers" were important in order to get the load back to the farm yard without losing bales on the way.ÊÊ I got my share of stacking at home where I relinquished the tractor seat to my Dad.Ê I think he got the same thrill out of watching me back there sweating in the mid-June sun.Ê

Today's haying faintly resembles those early days when manual labor moved the hay from field to barn.Ê Large, round bales now dot the countryside and one doesn't see many young people out there on the flat racks anymore.Ê Families are smaller and not many farmsteads hold the eight to twelve kids that they once did.Ê I swear some of our neighbors raised kids just to make hay.Ê I can't prove it, but I think its true.Ê

Even alfalfa fields are fewer in these parts.Ê Most farmers have gone away from raising livestock and now farm only grain.Ê I guess I can't blame them in finding a way to make a living that's easier on the spine.Ê I still suffer from lower back pain and I think I started the process tossing hay bales six high on a rolling rack being pulled by a Model A John Deere with no live power.Ê

It's haying time in these parts.Ê Roll down you windows as you pass by the newly mowed field and take a whiff of what a farm is really supposed to smell like.Ê There's no perfume so sweet.Ê And, I find it much more appealing knowing that I'm not the one that has to bring it in anymore.Ê

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See you next time.Ê Okay?