First Bales In
June 16th, 2008 by Northern Farmer A little bit ago I brought in a load of the first bales of the year to be made around this farm and I guess that means that the long ordeal is done with! The hay was made perfectly, good green bales, perfectly dried and nutritious. I did a bit of everything today from cutting hay, to raking it, to baling and hauling some in. A well rounded day for sure!
Of course this does make a fella a bit tired out, all that job switching and running around but its all worth it when the ground is good and moist and the hayfields are thick and tall. There’s so much going on around here in our lives that I wouldn’t even know where to begin so I won’t. Ok, just a bit of todays adventures which have mostly been covered already. Did I mentioned we butchered a cow this morning too? Yup, a beautiful big beef cow that is a proponent of zero population growth got the bullet today and will make quite a few hundred pounds of great ground beef for four different customers. That girl had some meat on her and sure was good looking now that she lost her winter coat the last couple of weeks, lost all that winter shag and was slick and black. Plus there quite a few more steers to butcher this summer but that doesn’t seem to be much of a problem selling them to private parties.
In this busy season its hard to get all worked up about too much. I’m so thankful that I know its impossible to get it across in writing. Maybe this is all over with, the multi year disasters. I pray that it is. But the amazing thing is how things have changed for the better even when faced with such daunting odds the last three years. God does take care of His people even when it looks like He doesn’t even see it. That’s in our eyes, thinking He doesn’t see or care, but He does very much and I ain’t going to short change Him on Praise for all of this either! I praised Him through the rough times and now the praise sure ain’t going to be forgotten now that an abundance is in front of us.
Glory to God! Them oldtimers knew how to praise Him and so will we! They had some tough lives but they were a happy people because of a simple faith. I was thinking about that this afternoon, how we can complicate stuff until religion is just a dreadful thing. But it wasn’t meant to be that way, ever. Only man does that to fellow man. I was thinking about how we are supposed to be like children, not some high minded critters that are looking for every excuse to be miserable. Darn it, like in my last post, if a person wants to beller out a few songs while working in the fields, why not? Why can’t a person just go to work around the farm and be happier than a pig in mud instead of worrying about what the next moment brings? Plus we are “commanded” not to worry so that makes it a sin when we do. Now I know I’m a pretty big sinner, but I wouldn’t mind getting rid of that sin forever and just be happy with what we do and what we got. The wolves can be chewing on the door, trying to get in and make life miserable, those wolves I’m talking about are the pressures of modern society. Heck, we ain’t supposed to be conformed to this world so why worry about it. Let em chew, but they ain’t gonna get in if we don’t let em. That heavenly protection on that door is pretty strong if a person just has faith in God like we’re supposed to!
So tomorrow we’ll see what all happens around here. Get more done Lord willing. Wednesday evening is church and I don’t give a hoot how much work is in front of me, we’ll pack up and go to our little country church and give thanks. Cause I didn’t make that hay grow so beautifully, He did. Don’t pay to get all high minded and figure it was me. I’m just harvesting it. We probably get laughed at by some folks living like this and going to a little country church and all, but I can testify that it is the best life that anyone could ever hope for on this side of the River Jordan.
June 16th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
Tom,
How long does that hay take to dry down in the field? How do you know when it’s not to humid and not to dry?
June 17th, 2008 at 5:28 am
Don,
Tough one to explain, easy for me to figure when I’m there in the field. When I cut hay I don’t put it in a windrow. It will usually be ready for me to bale on the second drying day, not counting the day it was cut. Most of the time when the weather is stable I can count on baling on that day because it dries like clockwork for us. It even held to schedule with the temps only in the low seventies for a high. I can smell when its dry, or just pick it up and feel it. It doesn’t get to dry here because when its ready it gets baled. The only time I ever had it get to dry was many years ago when it was in the 90s with a wind and that stuff got so dry the cattle didn’t want to eat it. I should say it got baked, but that was the only time I can ever remember that happening.
June 17th, 2008 at 9:44 am
Do you have to let one side dry and then turn it over and let the other side dry?
June 17th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
Hi Tom
Great post, glad things are going good aint God wonderful! I think it’s sad that man in his finite wisdom can take something so simple as our relationship with our Lord and Savior and turn it into something so complicated under the guise of religion. God has laid out the plan for us, all we have to do is trust Him. He’s given us the instruction Book but we dont take the time to read the instructions. were so caught up in the world that everyone wants it condensed to a sunday morning feel good session. I feel sorry for the people that are searching for the answer but religion isn’t giving it to them. The old timers had it right simply put your Faith in the Lord. Sorry to ramble on
May God keep blessing you
James
June 17th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Evening Don,
Basically that’s the way we do it short and simple. Its spread out when its cut and then I come with a V-rake and put two swaths together into a windrow. Its all fluffed up then and dries out rather quickly at that point. I’m planning on having the daughter take some pictures of the whole process these next couple week and if we do get that done I’ll post them on my picture blog, hopefully in the proper order so you can see the job start to finish. I’ll let every one know if and when we get that done.
Hey James,
My feelings exactly! You know, sometimes I wished more church folks would read the Bible, they might be surprised to say the least. Today out in the field I was just looking around while working, looking at God’s creation all around me and just plain enjoyed it like the Bible say, like a child. There ain’t one thing out there that’s to my credit. I was watching the birds, the deer, and all sorts of butterflies and it was just flat out amazing me. All the different wild flowers and plants. Then I got to thinking how caught up in the world society wants us to be. Enjoyment consists of buying “stuff” to make us happy. Throw away stuff that will suck out any hopes for any kind of prosperous life that God had planned for us since the beginning. Then society wants us to buy more and more stuff we don’t need in the least. Churches compound the problems and get a person so screwed up under the “guise of religion” no wonder we are in the mess we are in. Folks can say what they want, but I’ll follow the old paths. Trust in the Lord for everything. Now don’t think I’m some super saint or something. Its a journey, a life long one. I stumble more than most, but always pick myself back up and race for the prize.
Hmm, I’d better not, too tired but I could really fly on this! In studying faith, more like the history of faith in this country I finally figured out when everything started going down the tubes. It ain’t denominational, theological or anything like that. It was when we as a society started thinking we were pretty smart with all the new inventions and public education and a host of other things that tore our eyes off of God. I’ll get into that someday, it might make stiff necked religious folks unhappy, but there’s nothing truer than how religion went down the tubes in the last one hundred and fifty years. No denomination is innocent in this, plus kick in the ultra modern “feel good” religion and we have us a big mess. But I’d better save that for when I’m more up to snuff than tonight! It might get things smoking and I want to be more available when I post something like that.
God Bless!!
June 17th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
Hey Tom
I agree whole heartedly. Society leads us down the wrong path. The Bible tells us ” the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boastings of what he has annd does comes not from the Father but from the world. the world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.” I think we need to lead be example putting our trust in the Lord and not in the things of the world.
God Bless
James