Will, Christian, and Eric worked in 90 degree heat to get a small field of very tall Reed canary grass baled into square bales. Rain was in the forecast (which has now hit in force!) and there was no dinking around! Will waited till the last minute to rake it so it could dry as much as possible. Around the wet edges of the field, the hay was still green in spots. But to leave it any longer would cause it to get rained on for more than a week. So they baled it all. Most of the hay was excellent but about 35 bales were pretty heavy and damp in spots.
Damp hay can not go into the barn as it will heat up so much that it often bursts into flames! Will separated it as he loaded the hay onto the elevator to go into the barn. Dry in; damp, heavy out. In the end, with thunder rolling, they stacked the damp hay on the hay rack and covered it with a tarp. An hour later, rain began and it hasn’t been dry since.
We’re feeding that damp hay before it goes moldy and Will is hauling a lot down to the garden to use as mulch. We use that canary grass hay for mulch every year in place of straw, which we don’t have. Young canary grass hay doesn’t have seeds and it grows so lush that no weeds can live in it. Because of this, our garden isn’t planted with new weed and grass seed every year. And a thick layer keeps our garden relatively weed-free.
With all the heat we’ve been getting, the garden is growing like mad! But it has been dry so we’re really glad to get some rain, even though it’s slowing down the haying for the time being.
The blueberries are beginning to ripen so I hope we’ll begin picking pretty soon. We haven’t had a good blueberry year for a while so I’m anxious to put up some blueberry jam and canned berries for baked goods. — Jackie
I’m convinced that stacking bales on a wagon causes thunderstorms.
Haying is incredibly hard work!
You can certainly look at that stack with pride!
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