We’ve had a pretty easy winter this year. But by mid-February we’re over it! And last night while we wanted to tuck in early and watch a movie with the kids, we bundled up, faced the horrific winds and blowing snow to bring a load of wrapped bales of hay from our home farm to the barn just down the road.
Because we don’t have shelter here this winter (see up in smoke post last April) all of our cows are at the barn down the road. Each week we (and by we I mean Jason and our 11 year old son, Henry) drive the skid steer down the road, out back of our 30 acres along with a truck or tractor with hay wagon in tow to load the bales of hay on and take the load down the road. We use that wagon to put 1-2 round bales of hay out each day to feed our cows. It’s a lot of work and time on a ‘normal’ winter day. But yesterday was SO windy, we only had one bale left to feed and needed to get that load down to the barn before dark.
Well in case you didn’t know, it’s totally ice under the snow around here, like an ice rink to just walk on!
I should also insert here that while loading the first bale Jason broke the spear that picks the bales up, so he had to drive the skid steer all the way back to the barn down the road, get some pallet forks and drive back down the road, to the back of our 30 acre property to start loading the bales….AGAIN. This process alone took him an hour and he has nothing done yet…..
Ok so now Jason has the loaded hay wagon hooked up to the tractor, driving it up our slight incline of a hill from the front field up to our house so he can go down the road and finally feed the cows (it’s now 6:30 at night and he started about 4:30 and still hasn’t fed one animal yet). Well remember it’s like an ice rink? The small tractor he was using wasn’t heavy enough to pull the wagon on pure ice up the hill, the hay wagon pulled the tractor back. He safely got the wagon unhooked and it rolled back into a section of brush. He attempted to hook a chain to the wagon tongue and pull but it just wasn’t working.
Henry thankfully went ahead of Jason to get the skid steer to the barn down the road.
I bundled up and walked back there to tell him he needed to be done for the night (farmers don’t just quit ya know). We had one bale at the barn that we could split to feed all the animals. In the morning he could get the bigger tractor, pull the hay wagon full of bales up the hill and get the rest of the hay to the cows. And let me tell you I did absolutely no work and was frozen from the wind whipping in my face. I drove down in my car, with heated seats, to pick up Henry. But first we helped a little by feeding the calves and goat.
Jason finally got home and in the house for the night just before 8pm. He was tired. He was cold. And he was hungry! But he didn’t complain, he listened to the kids tell him and show them all the books and toys they purchased with their Christmas gift cards. I was blessed to spend the day with the kids for their first day of mid-winter break (while Jason was at his off farm job), along with my bff! We came home to help with what we could here on the farm, it wasn’t much, but we offered what we could.
Raising our kids on this farm is hard sometimes, but joyful too. They are learning the value of hard work, sometimes even getting supper ready for each other, well because mom and dad can’t always be there to do it. They’re responsible for the smaller animals, even though they grumble and complain sometimes I know these are lessons not every kid gets to experience. I am grateful we are able to give these experiences to our children.
Do I wish when we came home last night we could’ve all been inside for the night, picked out a family movie and sat and watched it together? YES I do. But we didn’t, and that’s ok, God had other plans. Guess what we’re doing tonight? YEP, family movie night!
I don’t write this for pity, I write this for awareness. I write this so that those that might take for granted where your food comes from understand the sacrifices farmers and farmers families make. We LOVE being able to provide for our community. We are blessed we have been chosen to farm. I hope you read this and are grateful for the food farmers provide for you.
What did you do Friday night while the farmers were out in the cold making sure their cattle, pigs, chickens and goats all had feed to get through the night (and probably unfroze a water tank or 4)?
I didn’t get a pic of the wagon full of bales, but this is what it looked like after he got them pulled out this morning.
Close up of where the hay wagon landed….