“Making hay while the sun shines” is a phrase that means taking advantage of opportunities while you have them. If you’ve ever made hay, literally, you know that that phrase is true. You need perfectly dry weather so it doesn’t mold after you bale, but not so hot that the hay bleaches. you watch the weather to know when to cut, then you watch the weather for several days ofter, turning the hay, and hoping to bale before a heavy dew or even a quick rain ruins your hard work. Here I am with friends Toni and Ben as they bale the hay in the horse pasture.

Here Eva is, a few years ago, helping out. Eva is a hard worker, and baling hay is hard work. 

You have to work quick to pick the bales off the ramp and stack them on the hay rack. And, each bale can weigh over 50 pounds. The heavier the better! (Except when you’re stacking them.)

The farm brings a lot of other work as well. Spring is the busiest time. Everything is growing. It’s time to put in the garden…

…and the mowing is constant. We have a lot of grass to mow. Here, Sylvia is taking care of the job, but it’s a job I actually like a lot. There is a zen to mowing. It’s my favorite.

I like the riding mower, but mowing with the tractor is fun too, once you get the hang of it. 

In addition to spring cleaning and mowing, there is always something that needs repairing. This is a picture of a hole I made in “Lil Ben” our rowboat. I made the hole….mowing. So I had to repair it. It’s a fine, and rare, day when nothing is broken at the farm.

In general, I like working at the farm. I come from hard working stock. This is my mother picking peas on her family farm in Wisconsin. Spring is coming, we’ll be opening up Soul Farm and the work will be starting up again. Another season of making hay.