Hay!

This past week I've experienced some more "joys" of farming. On Tuesday Andrew, Jackie, Elliot, and I all went over to the Holdren's (people who go to church at the academy) to get some hay. Now when I say "some" I mean around... oh 150-200 bales I think. I was the idiot who forgot to grab a pair of jeans and other shoes so I got the privilege of doing hay in capris and flip flops (my legs got a ton of scratches and a few slivers but the rest of me was good). We first loaded the back of Andrew's truck with some hay that was already on a wagon... that was the easy part. We then went out to the field and rode on the trailer that was hooked to the tractor. When there was a good amount of bales on the trailer we unhooked it and started loading our trailer and the dump truck (we borrowed it from the academy). After we finished that, Andrew headed home with the load for us while Elliot and I drove back to the school (about 60 of the bales are for the horses there). Elliot was in the dump truck and he backed that into the barn before jumping in the chariot (the academy's van) with me to head back to the field. We then started stacking the Holdren's trailer. We didn't finish that though because he said it was getting too wet.

I drove Elliot and Jackie to their house to pick up their swimming suits, stopped by faculty row to pick up Joel, went to Jason's to pick up supper (pizza and wings), and then went home to unload the truck and trailer and stack it in the hayloft. Kim kicked the bales off the trailer and truck while Jackie and I loaded them onto the hay elevator and then all the guys stacked them in the loft.

After getting everything taken care of outside we headed inside for some supper (it was now around 10:15pm). After eating we all changed and jumped in the pool for a while. It felt pretty good after a long evening moving hay bales. After swimming, changing, and chatting a bit, we all changed and Jackie, Elliot, and Joel headed back and we headed for bed... around midnight.

Wednesday we were going to go back and get some more but it had rained... and hailed pretty hard and it would've just been me and Andrew so we didn't get anymore that day.

So, on Thursday we went back to the Holdren's. This time everything was on the trailer and we just had to move it onto the truck and our trailer. It probably took less then an hour with Joel, Elliot, and Jackie helping us again. And this time I had the proper attire on although it probably didn't matter a whole lot. We got about 100 bales on that trip. Unloading at home took a bit longer... there was only Andrew, Kim, and I to do it. Kim and I started to unload the trailer and Andrew was stacking in the loft. Shortly after Kim went up to help in the loft and I finished unloading the trailer before Kim came back down. It was a hot and humid day and we were all sweaty and too hot to eat so we jumped in the pool for a little bit to cool down before doing anything else. I only ended up with black and blues from this trip... I hit my knee pretty hard on the trailer and then I have some bruises on my thighs... about 3 each which I think is from unloading and then pushing the bales onto the elevator. I'm told we have to do it again but I'm not looking forward to it.