This summer Michael wanted to have someone cut, or “hay”, the lower acreage. This would do a much cleaner job of cutting and removing the grass clippings from the field than the brush-cutter on our tractor, which leaves the cut grass laying on the ground. He thought he would be able to find someone who would do it and their payment would be all the hay. We found someone in town that was willing to mow and remove the hay.
We waited until July 16th so that any of the birds that make their nests in the grass would be long gone and not disturbed.
The guy showed up with his swather and backed down the narrow road to the field. There were a couple of close calls but he did a good job getting it done.
It took him a couple of hours to mow the whole thing.
Almost done.
All done. Now he let it lay there for a while to dry out.
After about ten days he came back with a baler and turned it all into bales of hay. He had a total of ten six foot high round bales of hay.
Prior to him coming back I got some pictures of Joshua and Nicholas by one of the bales.
He waited another ten days or so before he came back to load the bales and take them away.
Personally I think this would be called a “Lazy Man’s Load”. I should know, I’m the queen of Lazy Man’s Loads.
He damaged two of our apple trees trying to get down the driveway. I didn’t care too much about the Red Delicious branch that was torn off but I was a little upset about the large Jonathan branch that was torn off.
It is nice to have it done. It is a lot cleaner since he cuts closer to the ground and bales all of it . It also removes any weeds that were cut, so over time the field will become more healthy too.
It is nice to have a project done that we didn’t have to pay for or do. Hmmm, what else can we do this way?
Have a great day,
Karen
Wow – what a big project Karen. Those are some massive hay bales. Great pics with the boys. Guess it was worth it to have him come, broken limbs and all. But that would have really irritated me. So I guess you were not needing to keep the hay? I would have thought you might have needed it for your animals. Glad it’s done and hope you find more timesavers.
Glad it is done. It looks so nice with the new grass growing.
Hay grown in the Willamette Valley is deficient of important minerals (especially for goats).
We have to buy our hay and we always buy hay that is grown in Eastern Oregon which has better soil.
Some year, we may offer half the hay for payment to do the mowing. The other half we can sell because it is fine for cows and horses.
Just need to wait until we can get a better grasp on the whole farm life thing.
Enjoy your day,
Karen