We start the new year with hay making

Friday 12.1.18

The New Year has begun and the hay is in the shed.  This year we have been very lucky and had lots of help to achieve this.   Last night was hot and muggy but Ben and indi and Bo, Simon and Ollie worked well after dark helping us.  The hay was baled just as the sun went down so we needed a team with the ute and a team loading the tractor and trailer.  The bales were very heavy and all I could manage was rolling them down the hills into rows for the others to pick up.

Ben was quite amazing throwing up bales with apparent ease but Indi looked beautiful in a long, light, cotton dress so I suppose he had someone to impress.   Edd brought in the last load with the tractor well after dark and I drove behind him trying to use my car headlights to gain him visibility, as the tractor lights don’t function.    Simon worked hard but there was also his beer, cold, and very desirable when most of the work was done.  We all sat round in the hay shed, hot, dusty but triumphant and the men demonstrated many of the ways a beer bottle can be opened with what ever is to hand.

Last week we got the hay from Ben’s parents place.  This was a daytime effort but we had Graeme and Bas and their ute and trailer, as well as our own, so it was all very civilised.    It was also a cool day so we got hay in for both parties with out too much stress.   We were very grateful, and took all the Healesville mob out for a meal as a thankyou.   This year it has all seemed like an event from the past where people all worked together to help each other with the aim of providing animal food for the year ahead.

Food is very plentiful just now.  Today Edd and I ate sweet corn, cucumber and lettuce for lunch and I have been talking bucket loads of zucchinis to Bo so she can make preserves for the restaurant.  The amazing thing is that the grass is still fairly green. Even the paddock we got hay from last night was green underneath.  Usually at this time of year everything is colourless and burnt crispy.

I wonder if this is part of the climate change experience.  We hear that America is having cold storms like we saw in the movie “the day after Tomorrow’ and California has killer mud slides where the winter fires removed all the vegetation.  We know all about this because we had a river through our property after the bush fires with black waves and it carried away whole trees.  Luckily our house was well clear of the danger.

The goats, not being prone to speculation, are loving the odd conditions.  They come home every night looking alarmingly round.  They are all beginning to look glossy in their new summer coats now that the cashmere undercoat and dry faded winter hair has dropped out.   Milk production is staying up but there is a reduction in the cheese yield that is normal for this time of year.  The tomatoes are large but still green, so I expect they will be the next glut I have to process.