We have hay!

Last spring we ran out of hay before first cutting and had to scramble to find a truckload or two. So this past fall we bought a BUNCH o' hay! We have enough hay to make it into third cutting - late in the season.

It's a good thing too because this spring has been so wet and rainy that no one could cut their hay fields. It was never dry enough to drive the heavy machinery out in the fields to cut the hay, let alone dry enough for the hay to lay in pretty rows drying out enough to be baled. Wet hay ='s mold.

Everyone was talking about hay. A lot of folks were running out of hay from the previous season and getting a bit panicky about what they'd feed their critters. ('cept us cuz I overstocked on hay!) People needed to cut hay. Everyone was watching the weather to decide when to cut hay.

Our hay supplier, Ellie, cut hay. A lot of people cut hay. The weather was supposed to be 90's and sunny for a full week. As I drove around, everywhere you looked, there were beautiful rows of drying hay. There were hay equipment trucks all over the roads - stackers, balers, cutters.... everyone was in hay day frenzy.

There is truth to the saying, "You gotta make hay while the sun shines"!

That very night we had a freakish thunderstorm that made everyone feel like we were on the planet Mars. It was continuous lightening and a steady, sonorous rumbling of thunder in the skies. The skies were purple and green and pink. The rain poured down for 2 straight hours. Every weatherman on the local news stations said how this storm cell appeared out of nowhere. I thought about all those pretty hay fields getting drenched.

There was nothing to do but turn all the lights off in the house and watch Mother Nature's light show. I thought that this is what it must be like to be Jennifer Aniston with the paparazzi hot on her heels... flash after flash after flash.

I called Ellie the next day and she was on the very edge of the storm.. her ground was dry. She hadn't gone out into the hay field yet but we were all keeping our fingers crossed. A lot of hay fields were not so lucky. A lot of hay was lost - completely drenched in the field.

Guess what?

Her kid showed up with a flat bed trailer loaded full of hay to stack our hay shed full o' hay, glorious hay. We love Ellie's hay and we love her boy for bringing it and stacking it for us cuz I tell ya, loading and unloading and stacking hay really sucks. It's best left for those young, strappin' strong farm boys!