Rookies

By the end of the day, we had one really flat tire and more than two tons of baled hay that is too wet.

The excitement of the hay baler working was too much!  Thanks to friend Tom (see him sitting on the wagon in picture #1) who came down to show Mike how to work the thing and help him through some of the troubles one might expect from a rather old piece of machinery.  Soon, Mike had me baling hay and he was merrily picking up the bales with the bale wagon, with me passing by in the field, spitting out bales one row after another.

And then, he had to move some bales and noticed they were heavy. 

And then, we realized we had many, many bales of too-wet hay.  Ugh.

This haying stuff ain't for the rookies!!  It will slowly mold, or worse yet, get hot and burn.  Yikes!!  Not sure what to do with this wet hay, but it is certainly a learning moment. 

We  hang our heads.

Here are some pictures of the bale wagon - a slick device that picks up a bale, moves it, stacks it, and fills up the wagon so one then can tip the whole thing up on end and have a nice 5-pile tall stack of hay.  Slick, indeed.  And now out of service with a flat tire.  Oh, also, it has a leaky hydraulic pump - a mere $1200 bill on that repair.  Farming ain't cheap either!!

I am working this July 4th and town is jam packed with people, cars, motorcycles, and bicycles.  Not sure what will be next or where it will be but hanging out in my office seems like a good choice!  For the weekend - more hay making!  Mike is cutting the last of the field and thankfully, this is a very good year for alfalfa - our error cuts into the profits, but there is still a bunch left in the field (thank goodness!).  It is a beautiful time in the area with all the hay coming down and rows forming. 

One of the best things about our piece of property is the irrigation ditch that runs through the land giving us water for irrigation.  With it, there are mosquitoes (when the wind finally quits blowing!), but that we can live with!  We were told these are some of the oldest water rights in the valley! Very nice, indeed!

I have a new feature in my garden at work (give me bare ground and I will plant you a garden - which is how this garden came to fruition years ago!).  This is a sink pedestal from our local ReStore.  It was sinkless and $20 and I knew exactly what I wanted it to be next!!  Found the lovely blue "gazing ball" for half off during a recent shopping spree.  It glows in the dark - how cool is that???  Although, I have not witness this yet!  This garden feature is so neat, it's just a matter of time before it gets moved, thinks me!

 I have some kind of fungi in my Hoback garden.  It's on the rhubarb leaves and has gotten into the broccoli, darn it!  Anyone have any ideas on how to get rid of the stuff??   

 My perennial flower garden on the east side of the greenhouse is so pretty in the morning!  Look at these colors! 

 This is an iris which was given to me as a gift, bulbs and root only.  I had no idea how lovely a flower it would give me year after year - thank you Marcia for this beauty!