Hauling Hay & Kicking Ass

The feed in the pasture is getting low and winter is around the corner. Apparently that means it's time to start putting away hay. Dad called around and found the best place for me to go pick up a load. Not having a trailer to load it on or a truck that could pull it, I enlisted the help of my dear Grandpa Sullivan a.k.a. Mad Dog. More on him another time, he's a character and could have a website just about him.

50 bales of hay and $350 later, we head for home. While pulling into the field he guns it through the gate and tears my fencing off the post. Once he realizes what he's done, he shrugs and keeps on going. It's time to pick up The Boy from school so I tell him just to park it and I'll take care of it later. "You sure as hell will, I'm not going to do it for you". Thanks grandpa...

After picking The Boy up I came home to find three of the goats out for a walk. I get them herded back in the field and call it good for the day.

The next morning I go out to do my morning chores with The Boy in tow and The Babe in my arms and I hear a weird bellering noise. I go to where I have the hay stored and I find a nanny stuck between the trailer and the fence. By the looks of things, she's been there for awhile. She is pregnant, pissed, and I can't get her to budge. I find a safe spot to put The Babe down and start cutting the fence.

All of the sudden I hear screaming, growling, squawking, and crying. Cujo has found a loose chicken and is shaking the life out of it. I jump the fence, tell The Boy to stop screaming and run after the dog/chicken mess. To catch them I have to climb into the pen that holds Eddie, our male goat. We've had run-ins before - he gets randy and I get pissed. Anyway, while pulling the chicken out of Cujo's death-grip, Eddie starts to head for the open gate. I get there before he does but during all the commotion, the stuck goat becomes unstuck and another goat has made a break for it thru the cut fence.

I kick the dog then grab The Babe and tell The Boy to hurry up so that we can catch her before she gets to far. Well, let's just say, she's fast. I dump the kids off in the house and tell them not to move until I get back. I chase the stupid nanny up and down the driveway twice before I get her back in the pasture. I need to get the hay trailer unloaded so that I can restore order around this place.

I ask Sammi if she can watch The Babe and I get to work. I bring The Boy because I figure it might be useful to have someone that can run for help if I pass out or have a run-in with Eddie again...

I grab the first bale of hay - holy smokes, these things are heavy.
Second bale - maybe I should just wait for Ryan to get home.
Third bale - this is crazy.
Forth bale - I need to hire a farmhand. A really hot one...
Fifth bale - Yeah! I'm a tenth of the way done!

Forty bales later, my hands, arms, butt, legs, toes are quivering and not in a good way. I fix the fence and give the goats a little trash talking,

"If any of you fat pigs are stupid enough to get stuck, I'll leave you there as a lesson to the others."

The next day Ryan heads out to unload the remaining 10 bales of hay for me. When he comes back up to the house he asks me in all seriousness, "Did you really unload all that hay yourself or did you have someone come over?" After convincing him that I really did do it - all by myself - he gives me a cute half-grin and tells me he's impressed.