Only hours before we were to gather to bale the hay. After I had turned it into its windrows and tested it for dryness.
It rained.
and rained. A 30% chance of a stray thunderstorm had appeared on the radar yesterday morning, and then in our sky that afternoon.
And so I cleaned. When I get angry I clean. There is no point in getting angry at the sky. But nevertheless, I cleaned.
So today, hopefully, the the hay will start to dry again. Though today there is a also 40% chance of scattered showers. Then tomorrow it is fine. Then all next week there are storms forecast. I hope our window has not closed. The plan had been to get it all in yesterday afternoon. I think I am going to have a very clean and tidy house.
This morning my pig people come to help me with the piglets. John has gone to work, so I had better get busy.
Have a lovely day.
Your friend, celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
68 responses to “And then it rained…”
Cleanliness is next to Godliness….and when it’s all done, the tranquility of a thoroughly cleaned space will be its own reward!
I so agree, and with all the building it has been So Long since I had a thoroughly clean living space.. c
And there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth…and some fancy cursing, to boot! Better day today, c…the coupe looks great.
Most definitely the gnashing of teeth! c
Oh Celi, what a pain! Here’s hoping the rain stay away long enough for you to get sorted.
Oh I LOVE your crochet bed cover – just too exquisite for words! Wish I was brave enough to tackle a task that big, then again my 3 cats would destroy it in a minute flat with the little claws jumping on the bed.
Hang on, maybe this will work – rain, rain, stay away, come back another day. Miss C has work to get done.
🙂 Mandy xo
Keep chanting, the sky is lightening!! morning mandy.. c
Morning! Love the bedroom. Beautiful crocheted cover. Did you make it?
Turf laying today, and of course it is raining. Not too heavily but enough to make the soil claggy. Such is lfe!
M. xx
That crocheted piece is one of Johns grandmothers and underneath it is a cotton bedspread that is one of my grandmothers. And the patchwork quilt is from The Matriarchs collection. c
Such a lovely collection of memories on that wonderful (iron?) bed.
The cast iron bed was Gramma Dancers… The Matriarchs grandmother.. we also grind our coffee every morning using her coffee grinder.. c
I love special links to the past like that, c.
What a wonderful collection of old souls that stay with you all !!
Love the bedspread and the quilt and can imagine how comfortable it would be to lie in that bed and dream . . . . uhuh! Sorry about that hay which will take another awhile to dry out . . . just had a look at our radar: 90% heavy rain for the next four days . . . and thunderstorms in the middle of winter . . . at least no would-be hay . . . .
there are lots of storms and rain in NZ too, you guys are getting hammered.. c
Good morning Celi; the coupe looks fantastic. as for the hay if you are using a square baler ? you can loosen the baler strings to bale them loosely which will allow them to finish drying in the barn; but there is a chance that it could burn down the barn too,but that is when the hay is not dried right and baled early. a little rain just needs to dry . this is your main staple for the animals right? the farmers of old would have saved it. just a thought . have a blessed day. mike
just as an after thought ; i put green hay from my first cutting in the barn and it dried . i just baled it loosely it was either bale it or loose it. and i cant afford to buy hay. mike almost four hundred bales.
we are using a small bale baler, and if it stays dry today, maybe i shall start baling tonight or tomorrow i hope, we can bale all day tomorrow as john has the day off. Loose bales are not a problem, also i can stack them with air too. I will store them where i can see them. yes this is our main feed and like you i cannot bear to lose it. I will go ahead anyway, when i picked some up for daisy at milking time this morning, it was quite light and damp only on the top, but should I rake it again? The underneath of the rows are quite dry.. I am thinking not. thanks mike.. c
Mike says don’t rake it if it’s dry underneath. Bale it! Hope you have a great day Celi!
we are having a terrible day, it is pouring now.. i have decided that if it is dry for 24 hours I am going to bale it tomorrow afternoon and then take it up into the hay loft and open the bales for it to dry up there, i can just fork it down to the animals from there.. I cannot bear to waste it, but we are looking at a full week of rain next week.. sigh.. c
As always – so productive Celi! I might just have taken a book to the couch and sulked 🙂 Rain … both friend and foe of the farmer. Blow all your rain over to us – we are dry here in Africa. Laura
I’m so sorry love. I know how you feel too. You’re feeling bloody. xx
My mother used to call it ‘bloody’ too.. c
RATS! I’ve had that happen with haying – very frustrating but not much you can do about Mother Nature. I’ve heard of salting the hay when stacking them inside – dries it out and using plain loose cow salt would benefit the livestock later on also. Your new room is beautiful – those red doors just pop! Love the bed cover and quilt. I have a crocheted cover that my grandmother made but it is need of some repair – haven’t put that on my list…yet.
Ah… The List! yes, luckily this one is on good shape just some discolouration from age, i will not bleach it though,(too hard on old fabrics) just have to love the aging!
Sorry about the rain — so aggravating when you are trying to get hay in the barn. Beautiful room for the Matriarch! :Love all the windows and light. The old bedspread is gorgeous –there is a product called Restoration Fabric Cleaner available at Nordic Needle.com that I have used with great success to restore old treasures.
http://www.nordicneedle.com/prod/6599.html
I am hoping the day is going well and that baling is under way. The crochet cover and quilted throw, remind me of similar pieces my late mother in law made many a long year ago, natural daylight or oil lamps were her only aids. That room looks so calm and peaceful.
Plus they did all that handwork at the end of some pretty heavy days , those women had so much energy, all that organic food!.. Baling will commence, if it gets a days drying, this evening when the men come home. Another day of crossed fingers!!
c
The coop is coming along nicely! I’ve missed so much…I ‘ll have to steal some time away this afternoon to go backward in your blog to catch up!
Hopefully your hay will dry quickly with the warmer temps that are on the way and you can bale it up and be done with it. Have a lovely day, Miss C. 🙂
I’d hoped yesterday’s storms didn’t stretch too far South. As it is, we’ve more storms coming. Love the history behind the bedding and the floor looks great. I see the test patch of blue & yellow paints and like them both. I see Boo didn’t sneak into today’s pics. I double-checked to make sure he wasn’t looking through the door or swimming in the pool. 🙂
Have a great day, Celi. I’m off to Evanston before it rains. I need strawberries!
It seems that everywhere that doesn’t need rain has plenty of it. Gets quite depressing and I haven’t got the added pressure of trying to dry hay. Nil carborundum:)
Arrgh! Rain on down hay. Bale like mad as soon as you can. I do hope it drys okay. Mine is ready to go down but still the weather isn’t.
Oh, Celi….I understand how frustrating this is. And with a forecast that showed absolutely no rain for the upcoming several days, this came out of nowhere. I was blessed to get mine in the barn about 40 minutes before we got seven tenths of an inch of rain. But I’ve been in your shoes too.
If you have access to what we call a “tedder”, you can spread the hay back out again to dry more quickly, then re-rake and bale. But I realize you’re working with what you have, so I’ll keep my fingers crossed for cooperative weather. Having a supply of good hay in your barn for your animals and lets you sleep better at night :-).
We’d love to have a tedder! It’s on the “want to have someday” list!