One of our favorite things when it comes to helping Bryan and Amber is throwing hay. They have well over one hundred animals, and they all need many bales of hay everyday throughout the winter. So, one of the major tasks is filling the recently re-roofed barn with hay.
Once the hay is ready, it is cut down with a horse-drawn mower and left to dry on the ground. Later, the horse-drawn hay rake gathers it up and flips it over into long, snaky rows for more drying. At this point, diesel takes over because bailing and transporting wagons of hay exceed the ability and resources of Bryan and Amber's budding horse farming.
When the hay wagons arrive at the barn, it is positioned next to the open door, and the hay elevator is tucked up under the wagon doorway. Rich usually climbs up into the wagon and with a hay hook starts wresting the bales through the door and flops them onto the moving chain. The others gather on the top of vast stack of hay bales and wait for the bales to slowly and loudly clank their way up the elevator. More wrestling and dragging gets the bales into their final resting place to wait for a cold, icy winter day.
The work is hot, sweaty, and itchy. However, it is incredibly satisfying, sort of like cutting and stacking firewood. At the end of the day, you can see what you have done. There is physical and visually proof of a day's work.
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