Thursday, June 15

How To Ensure A Happy Haying Crew


You Don't Want To Be In This Photo

Putting up hay means extremely long days of very hard work under the blazing hot sun. In order for everyone to survive until the end of this exhausting experience, it is absolutely vital to have lots and lots of the following on hand (even if your haying crew consists of only one guy, one girl, and two quadrupeds):

--Ice Water
--Ice Coffee
--Ice Packs
--Ice Cold Homebrewed Beer
--And last but not least, Leftover Homemade Pizza



Happy Haying Crew Member

50 comments:

  1. Cary looks like a very pampered and happy haying crew member. She is just adorable and I love all your pictures and stories of her activities on the farm. You have certainly given her a great life.

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  2. That sounds like SO MUCH WORK!

    Your post reminds me of when my mom was moving into a new home. It was a new development of townhouses and only a few of them were completed. On moving day, several things in her unit were still undone, including the carpeting on the stairs.

    It was a hot hot day and my mom wisely bought a case of cold beer before asking a couple of the workmen over. Before we knew it there were 7 guys working on her place. They even tore a strip from the living room of one of the other units, to use on my mom's stairs :)

    Never underestimate the power of refreshment!

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  3. Wonderful Work on the blog. thank you for sharing. this is so refreshing. I have added you as a bookmark. Keep up the good work. Finally something to look foreward to on the web.

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  4. Congratulations on being a "Blogs of Note" on Blogger! I didn't understand how a sheep could participate in haying until I saw the picture of "The Inspector". Aha! Now it makes sense. Hope you get all your hay in. See you over on Garden Voices

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  5. Just passing through Susan, love it !

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  6. I absolutely love your blog!!! I am stuck here in Phoenix, AZ and being from Eastern Missouri myself I am now wanting to go home even more. Awesome landscape pictures!

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  7. Well Cary certainly looks content! Of course being an Inspector probably isn't as strenuous as being a Hay Putter Upper!

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  8. I have just discovered your blog, i can't wait to have more time to read it all.It's fascinating all the things that you do.Take care.Beatrice

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  9. I love the page, but I cant lie: I was holding out hope that this blog would open with images of farm girls. Largely, I should further say, because I thought the title was "Farmgirl Fire".

    But what I found was good also!

    (Alex, you dont know me, I wont bother you again, welcome to the blogger front page! The blogs of note list.)

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  10. Hey wow another farmer!!! I'm living on a farm in Scotland but I'm from America :-) Come see my blog!
    www.thewalledgarden.blogspot.com
    It'd be really cool to read each other's stories hehehe!
    My blog isn't as cool as yours though because I have no idea how to put pictures on the site. Drats!!
    I have two pet weather lambs (Sigured and Swayne), 300 head of cattle and 9 cats thus far. I'll be adding a Highland Pony soon!!!

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  11. What a lovely blog. I too am a farm lady, having been raised =lived on one all my life.Ours is a lot bigger however. I hope to add pics to my blog one day. We raise cattle, horses, and grain opereation. I've bookmarked this blog and shall return again.:) Its nice to see how others live their farm lives.

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  12. Your blog brought me back 45 years when I loaned myself out to pick up baled hay. $1.00 an hour. Very hard work for the money but it helped a teenager get his new clothes for school. I liked most farm work though. Honest work and you can see your results. You forgot one thing on your list ... no matter how hot it is, wear a long sleeve shirt.

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  13. How cute. I bet it is nice to have Cary around for moral support. I'm sure she couldn't be any trouble . . . such as leading you off to the mulberry tree. :)

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  14. I was just passing by and ended up bookmarking you. I'll be back to read more about farm life and view pictures of your adorable animals!

    Wonderful blog =^..^=

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  15. This Blog brought back many fond memories of when I was a Young Farm Boy. I always stated that if I had a penny for every bale of hay I handled I would have been wealthy at 21 years of age. I not only worked on my Dad's Farm with a New Holland Hayliner Model 68 in the 50s, but I worked on a Hobby Dairy Farm near Elgin, IL for 18 months and I was on the field crew. I spend two summers stacking hay bales on a wagon. Hard, but honest work. The owner of the Dairy Farm always insured that appropriate six-packs of cold beverages were available in a cooler in the Hay Field. A beer at the end of each wagon load of hay was indeed a refreshing moment. By the way, long sleeve shirts were required simply because sweat fanned by a breeze was a build in air conditioner. This was before I heard of skin cancer, so now that I am older I can gladly say that, although I was a fair skinned boy, I have not ever had a skin cancer problem. Again, Your Blog is simply great.

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  16. Nice field, nice sheep.

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  17. That's one the cutest pictures I've seen in your blog! I love it. Go Cary!

    When my big cat is feeling hot from the weather, we get a hand towel all soaking wet and rub it on him. We like to call this his big mummy tongue.

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  18. Hi Farmgirl! I found this blog of yours from the Blogs of Note thing on Blogger's home page and just fell in love.

    I'm actually the opposite of you, I grew up on a farm, and moved to Sacramento California for a change of life. It works! But reading your entries really takes me back and you're so thoughtful and funny!

    It's really a pleasure reading what you have to say. I put your link up on my blog because all my country friends would love to read your blog too I'll bet.

    Always,
    Jas...

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  19. Watch out! Cary might start wanting air conditioning.
    Thanks as always for the great photo and story.

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  20. The pictures are wonderful and great commentary to accompany the images. I love the rainbow especially...spectacular!



    www.bionicbuddha.com

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  21. Nice to see my native Missouri is still in order. As you can see, I've left it to pursue other things in the big city. Your blog certainly helps quell the home-sickness. Thanks.

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  22. Just nice to escape and look at your farm pics and read your blog. Nicely done.

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  23. Well this sure does take me back. Haven't hayed for maybe 35 years now, which means that the appropriate refreshing beverages that I got weren't even near beer! In my day, we got sweet tea with mint; a generation back they got [gack] vinegar water. And liked it!

    I love your blog. I wasn't ever more than a visiting farmhand -- helped out in other people's fields -- but I don't think I've done anything since that has left me feeling so right about how I spent my days. Farmers do the hardest work of any -- and the most rewarding. Bless you.

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  24. I can see I will be spending a lot of time here, reading about your adventures from the beginning. I was raised in the country and have just recently gotten back to rural life. Nothing big, only 6 acres, but I am looking forward to the day I can "retire" from the real life job and maybe grow a little vegetable garden. Love the pictures of your animals!

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  25. Hi, nice blog, i love the animals.

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  26. Loved your blog :)Keep up the good work:))))

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  27. HAY there!!

    ha ! ha ha ha!!! ha ha ha ha! ha!




    Hmm. I'm feeling a bit SHEEPISH now after that corny joke!

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  28. That's amazing! I have always dream of owning my own farm (like some sort of retirement home), despite living in the city all my life. And my friends (all city dwellers) have always laughed at me. Kudos to you for your guts! You make it look acheivable!

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  29. Where was your faithful gaggle of chickenz? Or is it a herd? Oh, I know... a peck of chickenz ! Har har....

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  30. I love your blog, and wandered through wholeheartedly. I'm from Tunisia, North Africa and I dream to shake by boots and get back to my roots, since my parents lived in the countryside. I need some more time to make the necessary money. Then I could end my life there farming and writing. I'm married and have 2 boys 9 and 13 years.
    All the best to you.

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  31. Hi susan,

    Nice, nice, very nice.

    Im bookmarking you, please keep sharing the breathtaking sights. Feel like spending time at your firm, but thats not to be, we are at far away Mumbai, India and will soon move to Manila for a three year assigment.

    Would be nice to see ur snaps also!

    Regards,

    V
    Ninjawannarock@blogspot.com

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  32. Hey, thanks for so beautiful
    pictures!

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  33. Such pictures actually help cool us down. I wish the entire world was so pretty and peacefull.
    May peace win!

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  34. I have just discovered your weblog.
    I like very much the pictures you show in.
    Once I was in California, but never in Missouri. All you show here seems to be so nice!. Wonderful country the U.S. of A!
    Greetings from Barcelona

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  35. This is something refreshing. Nice, very nice. Diff side of the busy city life.

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  36. It's nice to come here and relax.

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  37. This site is AWESOME!!!

    I was born and raised in the city, but the generations before me were all farmers. I think it's in my blood to want to go back to that lifestyle and these posts inspire me even more.

    I'm not saying I'm ready to jump into farming, but for right now suburban gardening is a happy medium for me.

    I'll be taking peeks of your progress from time to time. Congrats on such a cool blog.

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  38. i would like to have a farm life. but here in my country the weather is to hot. malaysian temperature is actually around 33 celcius degrees.

    watch out my blog, i write a story about super power persons. hope somebody can correct me about my grammars. since i am a malaysian, english a foreign and the second language that i learn.

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  39. I've really enjoyed stopping by your blog -
    Amy

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  40. Jeffie-Much though Whitey and I hate to admit it, that's pretty good..."a peck of chickenz."
    We provided-er-moral support for the haying.

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  41. Congratulations for your blog, the design is very cute and the contents are really interesting.

    I hope one day I will leave the city life as you.

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  42. I browsed your blog a few days ago and really liked it. While I didn't grow up on a farm, my aunt and uncle did and I would visit them for a week every summer. One year, they were haying while I was there and I helped while I was there. Man! picking up all those bails of hay and putting them in the barn sucked royally!

    I really enjoy your stories and especially your pictures. Keep it up!

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  43. As a farmgirl myself (in the east-of-you midwest!), I find your blog a treat, and the image of that hayfield too close to home! My hubby was out with the haying crew last night, and he can barely move this morning... LOLOL on having a lamb on your haying crew! I can't wait to show this to my BIL who raises Hampshires! :)

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  44. Having lived in rural Michigan, I do not miss baling season. My arms and legs were peppered with bloody pokes by angry straw; jumping into the swimming pool right after the chore was bittersweet.

    Oh! The chlorine!

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  45. wow, the photo I guess can be quite deceiving. It looks like a very peaceful place to be but yeah I can only imagine the hard work you have to put in to get that.

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  46. =o)

    Hubby decided several years ago that a hot tub was THE essential item for haying (even when it's 90 degrees outside!)

    We keep plenty of gatorade on hand and hubby and one son also need filter masks because of their hayfever. We usually have a crew of one man, two teen boys a whiny teen girl and me. We bought a pool this year so that will be what I head for. Our first cutting it was in the low 70's so we were spared the intense heat so far. We bale to feed beef cattle, goats and bunnies.

    Love the blog.

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  47. Funny that someone already mentioned the vinegar water--I remember it from the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. It was described as a great treat and I think she said that while drinking too much water would make you sick, you could drink all the vinegar water you wanted. It does sound a little gacky, but if I remember right, it was sweetened too, so I always imagined a nicely sweet-and-tart beverage. No ice-cubes though, and no ice-cold shower afterwards. Yeesh

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December 2015 update: Hi! For some reason I can't figure out, Blogger hasn't been letting me leave comments on my own blog (!) for the last several months, so I've been unable to respond to your comments and questions. My apologies for any inconvenience! You're always welcome to email me: farmgirlfare AT gmail DOT com.

Hi! Thanks for visiting Farmgirl Fare and taking the time to write. While I'm not always able to reply to every comment, I receive and enjoy reading them all.

Your feedback is greatly appreciated, and I especially love hearing about your experiences with my recipes. Comments on older posts are always welcome!

Please note that I moderate comments, so if I'm away from the computer it may be a while before yours appears.

I try my best to answer all questions, though sometimes it takes me a few days. And sometimes, I'm sorry to say, they fall through the cracks, and for that I sincerely apologize.

I look forward to hearing from you and hope you enjoy your e-visits to our farm!