HayDay!

This year with the Midwest weather being odd, the UP is about one month behind normal. They've had a very cool summer so far.  With that said, this week has been Haying week.  Today is HayDay at Cold Comfort - when the final bailing is done on our field!  When a field is mowed, you need at least three days of dry weather to complete the haying process.  Once mowed, the field it is left to dry for about a day, then raked giving it another day to dry, then raked again.  If the weather holds out and the sun has been hot enough to completely dry the mowed hay, then and only then, is it bailed. If you bail damp hay, it will mold in the middle and ruin the hay.

Our neighbor, John Dunstan, mows our hay - for his use not ours - but that is another story.  Today he mows it for himself, someday we will either mow it for ourselves or have animals grazing on it.  Last fall John lost his barn to a 5-alarm fire.  It was a match to our barn in size.  He used to bail regular bails and store them in his barn.  Now that he has no barn in which to put his hay, he had to upgrade to round bails that can left in the field until needed.  

I should share with you - Keva loves to see round bails in fields so I thought I'd dedicate this post to hayday! 

Our field, raked the second time which arranges the hay to fit into the bailer

Tractor and octagonal bailer

 

I took this photo looking out my kitchen window.  We have over 20 bailes of hay we can see from the kitchen

 Thanks to our farm, John Dunstan and his mowing, many animals in this area will have wonderfully healthy food to sustain them this winter!  

Oh, John and his family will be having a barn raising very soon for their new barn (much smaller than the old one).  I will try to take photos and share that with all of you.