Making Hay While The Sun Shines

Michael was baling hay before lunch this morning and is still out on the tractor here at 8pm.  The rain has held off and that is a good thing but he is about to run out of dry hay—the hay needs to dry for about 48 hours before baling and he has caught up with what has dried a sufficient amount of time. 

The weeds had overtaken my pathetic excuse for a garden so weeding was first on my agenda today.  Then I decided to tackle some other weeds—one of the most prevalent noxious weeds in Montana is burdock—it forms huge burrs that have many, many seeds in each burr that attach to animals such as deer and  cattle spreading the weed far and wide.  Just outside the kitchen window behind this huge prickly bush I have been noticing a burdock plant developing seed pods.  I climbed up the hill above the weed with my shovel and was about to use my foot to push the shovel into the plant’s root when I lost my footing and fell down into the prickly bush and the burdock plant.  Couldn’t get up, couldn’t get out of the bush—squirmed around, turned the air blue and was finally able to free myself—GEEZ! 

And if that wasn’t enough work, I got out the weedeater.  By lunch time I was beat—hot and sweaty! 

As I have finished swathing the hay my job now is to take care of Michael—take him lots of water and ice cream fudge bars.  Take him oil and baling twine.  Emmi gets to go with me so that makes for one happy dog!

Finished Cutting

I was out on the swather by 10am this morning and Judy, here’s what a swather looks like:

You sit high up over the cutter apparatus and control the movement of the swather with a joy stick.  The cutter bar is 12 feet wide so this is one big machine.

Cutting went very well today and we finished cutting late this afternoon.  Michael started baling after lunch today too.  We are gonna get this hay finished!

 

It was a beautiful, cool day after last night’s thunderstorm.  This afternoon after Michael finished baling we took the convertible and went into town to get some more baling twine—we looked like the Beverly Hillbillies coming home with six boxes of baling twine strapped to the back of the little sports car!

Chicken fajitas' for dinner—first time I have really cooked since Rollie and Gina left, we’ve been eating sandwiches and stuff as we are so tired in the evening.

A shot of some of the hay we have cut—not a bad place to cut hay, beautiful views all around.

Hay Cutting Then Not Cutting

Every rancher’s problem—summer afternoon thunderstorms and we got a doozey this afternoon—the swather was running like a top, I was making great progress then about 2:30 the black clouds started rolling in, the wind picked up and it started to rain. Rats!!!

Michael finished over at Terry and Boo’s today and was also home about the time it started raining.

So, we are going to town—Michael needs a hydraulic hose, I have a customer quilt to deliver and we need a few groceries.

Emmi who has been home alone the last few days while I cut hay was so glad to see her Mom and Dad arrive home early this afternoon.  She has been a naughty girl—discovering bathroom trashcan kleenex and writing pens.  Home alone is not in Emmi’s vocabulary!

OK, the wild roses are blooming, why do we still have this:

Taken through the window of my 1959 VW.

Sun is out now as I finish the blog—go figure!!  Summer in Montana.

East Boulder Gathering

Today was a better hay cutting day—only plugged the swather once but it was a doozy!  Late this afternoon a thunderstorm blew in and we got a little rain shower—will have to wait until after lunch for the hay to be dry enough to cut.  I’ll try and take some photos tomorrow—the swather is so dusty and dirty I hate to have my camera with me. 

Last night we got an email from Mona and Mike asking everyone living on the East Boulder to a gathering at their place Thursday night.  We are always game for a chance to visit with friends and neighbors so off we went.  Michael beat me home today and was so sweet to have everything almost ready to go—all I had to do was shower and wash the hay dust off me.

Here are some photos from tonight, Mike and Mona have a beautiful home which they built themselves—one room of the house is an old log cabin which they moved from Big Timber to their home site.  Their children are very musically gifted—there are two pianos in the house—just a great spot for raising kids! 

Inside joke—this is an extremely unlikely pair to be discussing politics!

It was a great evening with friends—a wonderful summer day in Montana.

We Are Still Busy

For someone who is supposed to be retired my husband has sure gotten busy!  Today he headed over to Terry and Boo’s to start their driveway repairs—new culverts, etc.  Their driveway is fairly steep and washed out severely in late May when we had all the heavy rain.

A couple weeks ago some new neighbors Dave and Max approached Michael about cutting their hay.  Max is the niece of our neighbors Beth and Ed.  Since retiring last year Dave and Max have moved here and are helping Beth and Ed on their place. 

Our haying equipment is old and requires lots of maintenance—the hay is very, very thick.  I spent a large part of the afternoon climbing down out of the swather and unplugging the conditioner—I have aching muscles I didn’t know existed!  I was covered in grease and oil by the time I finished cutting the one pasture but I got it done—it is cut and will need to dry out before Michael can bale.  Michael was very relieved to see I had gotten the hay cut when he drove by on his way home.

Now does that look like the arm of someone who doesn’t go to town without makeup??  And I was questioning my sanity in wearing a white t-shirt, at least it was an old t-shirt!

My Mom and her husband Chuck are working in Yellowstone Park—Mom called me a little while ago to tell me a grizzly bear killed a man in the Park today.  He and his wife were hiking and came upon a grizzly sow with cubs.  YIKES!!! 

It was a warm day again today but not as warm as yesterday, last night was one of those rare nights in Montana when it was too warm to sleep. 

A Really Busy Day

We started the first day after our nice vacation at a dead run.  A walk first with Emmi then I filled the weed sprayer tank and took off to spray those pesky weeds that just seem to keep coming back.

Since all the rain we had in late May we haven’t moved the motorhome back into its normal spot for fear it would sink.  Michael decided to move the motorhome this morning and while he was moving it dumped the tanks. 

Michael fired up the swather and traveled a short distance up the road to cut the small patch of hay on our neighbor’s property.  The hay is very thick and damp this year making our old swather work very hard!  After lunch he finished that piece and we transferred the swather down the road to cut the much bigger piece of hay ground for our new neighbors Max and Dave.

I did multiple loads of laundry, mowed the grass, and made dinner for Joe, Tammy and their two sons, Patrick and Jeff.  We had hamburgers on the grill with potato salad.  The boys helped us finish off the chocolate ice cream and I took the rest of the cream cheese pound cake down to their house late yesterday—got to rid the house of all that fattening stuff. 

We had a very enjoyable evening with Joe, Tammy and the boys—Patrick will start his junior year at Colorado School of Mines this fall and Jeff will start college at Montana State University in Bozeman.  It will be nice to have Joe and Tammy here more often!

Our backyard is just beautiful this time of year.  The reddish plant to the right is a huge columbine with beautiful color. 

Off They Go

We took Rollie and Gina to Billings today to catch their flight back to Houston.  We had the most enjoyable time with them—there are people that come into your lives and touch your heart—Rollie and Gina are those kind of people.  They are so easy to be around and to talk to, helpful and sincere, just great friends.  We miss you both all ready.

Billings was a quiet town today on July 4 but we did find the local Sam’s Club store open so we could get some fruit since we will be on a mega diet starting tomorrow after all the food we ate this past week!! 

Retrieved Emmi at Nat’s and now we are home relaxing.  It is a warm July 4, in the lower 80’s and sunny.  Last evening’s thunderstorm gave us over a half inch of rain.

Happy July 4 to all our friends and family.