What The Hay

The Montana Hay Bale Trail was on the agenda today—when we told Nat we were going to look at a bunch of hay bales he said, “oh, that ought to be exciting for an old rancher.”  Jill planned this little expedition—hay bales are decorated, placed along the highway and droves of people (as in 7000 people) flood the tiny communities of Hobson, Utica and Windham to view the creations.  Competition is stiff, the viewers are given envelopes with which to vote and to leave a donation if they wish.  Vendors are set up in various places and the Utica Bar was doing a booming business—the lady serving us our dinner plate sized hamburgers said they usually serve over 500 people on this day every year.  The event is a fundraiser—this year it was for the library.

Jill & Terry provided the transportation—we along with Steve and Jeane piled into their crew cab pickup and headed up the road—the guys making wise cracks every time they saw a regular undecorated hay bale—“there’s a beautiful bale of hay, now can we go home?”  But they too had a great time—thanks Jill for coming up with this unusual outing!!

I will let the photos tell the rest of the story, each bale had a sign and I got most of the signs in the photos along with the bales.

Lined up going into town.

A long “yellow brick road” of square bales led from these characters to a castle made of large square bales.

This one was so cool, very well done!  Here’s a close up of the oxen--

Lot’s of Duck Dynasty ones.

We had a great time then it was back to Jill and Terry’s for birthday cake and ice cream—I am one spoiled birthday girl!!

Sunset on the East Boulder.

I am truly blessed with wonderful family and friends who have made this a simply great birthday!  Dinner last night with Sarge and Sarah was fantastic, today was just one of those special days spent in the company of great friends—a simply great birthday weekend indeed!