Saturday Farm Photos: Guess What We're Doing?

The Empty Trailer Awaits

Putting up hay! In October. With a nearly dead tractor. During a freaky fall heat wave (a few mornings ago we had frost and the woodstove going, and today it's 86° in the shade). More details and photos hopefully soon—maybe even of our new haybarn you still haven't seen. But for now I've got to go help load up that trailer with 200+ 310 bales before it's pitch dark in less than two and a half hours.

We usually do this in late spring or early summer (when it stays light later):

6/28/05: Last of the Hay Bales - We Start Cutting Today

6/29/05: It's Best to Cut Hay on a Hot Sunny Day

8/31/05: Each Bale is Handled Four or Five Times Between Field and Barn

6/11/06: Cary and the Nanny Bear Take a Haying Break

6/13/06: Not a Hay Bale in Sight—It's a Beautiful Thing

6/15/06: How To Ensure a Happy Haying Crew (the leftover homemade Italian sausage pizza is waiting in the fridge!)

7/14/07: In the hay. Be Back soon.

6/19/08: Back in the Hay Days (Already?)

6/27/08: Antique Haying Equipment

6/29/08: Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'

7/1/09: A Day in the Hay

7/4/09: Our Hard Working Hay Stacking Supervisors

5/29/10: In the Circle of Hay

5/31/10: Bringing in the First Hay

6/6/10: Back in the Hay

© Copyright 2010 FarmgirlFare.com, the out of season foodie farm blog where I'm still in a lot of pain from those early July Copperhead snake bites (which, along with all the other simultaneous excitement, turned everything around here upside down before we'd finished haying), so I'm going to be driving the truck this afternoon while Joe loads all the bales in the field onto the trailer. I told him it feels like cheating. He told me I still only get to drive the truck. And help unload and stack the bales in the barn of course. Wish us luck!