‘This is weird.’ John said, as he trudged back from the house to the hay field. He had checked the weather again when he went inside to take his cherry pie out of the oven (the cherries are ripe!) .
“It looks like every storm that is coming our way today hits something and kind of shatters and parts and goes around us. Like a wall is there or something”.
“Ah”. I thought,” as I unfurled another windrow to the gathering breeze, the skylight of blue directly above sending in a searchlight of drying sun.” That is A Fellowship of the Farmy Wall.” But I said this to myself because the best magic is a secret.
In the early morning we had read a forecast for rain and storms but then very strangely it had started to clear. So we had optimistically gone out and begun to spread the windrows apart, gently easing the damp hay out from under the dry hay. Up and down and up and down getting two acres of hay out and fluffed back up. All by hand, two of us with forks, John going in and out at times to attend to his cherry pie. It took hours. And as we worked the day got warmer and the breeze built as it ran straight in from the South. The hay was drying incredibly fast. Magic fast.
After a while John had gone in to check the weather forecast and came back with this interesting discovery, as I stood in the field with my rake and watched another huge mean black rain-cloud roll in from the West then swerve and run out to the North. The whole North and West horizon boiling with black clouds raining on corn fields a mile from us, but our hay field began to dry. Hope scampered along the rows. By 9 am the sun was midday hot out, a dry heat. And a determined breeze began to giggle down the rows stopping to chat and rustle, butting in on the settling of the alfalfa and grass, lifting the drooping stalks. As I threw a forkful of hay up the breeze caught it and added a conversation of voices, buoying it up, spinning and dropping it neatly onto the new row. Like a joyful friend the breeze and I worked together down the rows.
I did not feel the pains in my wrist or my back until later, as the breeze and I sorted and reshuffled the drying hay. Was that you? We worked faster as more rain clouds gathered and loomed above the neighbouring fields then turned and hightailed it in the other direction. Did you do that?
We began to take the day seriously, the first rows narrowly passing all the dryness tests and the sky above our heads blue and hot. So, late in the afternoon tentatively we hooked up the baler and began to bale the hay. The knotter knotted. The bales were not too heavy and gathering confidence we began to smile and even cheer a little as slowly and carefully we brought the hay in. We brought in 64 bales before the dark and the weather sent us home. We stood them on their sides in the barn, with room to breathe around them. We have half the field still to dry and bale but 64 bales is over a months worth of winter hay for two cows, the pigs and a bunch of sheep.
In a week or so when I am sure they will not heat up, they will be pulled up into the hay loft. The animal pantry. Now who does not believe in magic and miracles and angels?
Good morning. I am late today. The internet was down when I awoke so I did the farming first. There are showers around for the next few days (one on my head right now) so in the next dry spell we will return to the field. I am much impressed with your ability to hold the weather at bay plus blowing all that hot dancing air down the pike, for a good 24 hours, saving over half the crop of hay. Don’t tell anyone what you did though, they will think we are all bonkers. But I know.
When we bring in the next half it will go straight to fattening the Bobby. And I will close up another field for hay, as a trade. Hopefully this way we will still get in the 400+ bales I need to get us through this winter and into next spring.
You all have a lovely day.
Your smiling friend, celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
78 responses to “Do you believe in miracles and magic and angels?”
I am so happy and excited! I did pray for your farm like I pray over mine. Being a believer and a Christian I hold to the truth that we have a Savior in Jesus Christ and that we have an enemy who hates all things beautiful- especially organic farms. So each morning, I take my authority in Christ and tell the enemy that he will not use the weather as a weapon against me. I prayed the same over you and yours and then over every other farm working to get their hay in. I also prayed for strength for you as I fully understand what is required to do so much on your own while the husband is away working. I love the Chronicles of Narnia books by C.S. Lewis and the deep magic of Aslan, I see it every day on my farm.
Also, the piglets are the cutest things ever!
Thank you.. c
Hooray! Never underestimate the “hot air” of your readers, Celi .
Loved the hot air!! c
Touche! LOL!
good for you! i am glad the farmy gods blessed you with good hay weather. i hope they bless me with some rain! i will be making a cherry pie in a few days. i made a blueberry one yesterday. your looks so good! and the piglets….i want one so bad! i always mean to ask you….will you ever add goats to the farmy?
Goats. Not unless I am going to milk them and I am not quite ready for that yet.. c
I SO believe in the power of positive thinking! Yea! How did it go with Queenie?
Oh Queenie, I forgot to tell you, yes her procedure was successful (whew) now we have to wait 30 days do a blood test and see if she is bred. we had a busy successful sunday. c
GOOD! The waiting can be the hard part.
Don’t we know it!! sigh.. c
Perhaps your Mary had a hand in parting those clouds for her daughter as well.
Yes, I too believe in the powerful beams of positive thoughts from so many of us for you & Farmy. And I also believe that Soon some Savvy Editor will offer you a lucrative book contract that will pay for the extra strong arms you need for this difficult but richly rewarding undertaking. I would buy your lovely books for to read & give! Keep writing & living your special life, Cecilia!
I would write a book for you in a heart beat, maybe I should.. after the haymaking though!! SO you know any cool editors?.. c
Oh Thank Goodness – I have been checking my emails since 6am and getting so worried when your post didn’t come. Of course I am then thinking all sorts of worrying things about the hay, your wrist, Queenie and the vet (i could go on LOL). So relieved to hear all my worries were wrong! Like me you don’t mind rolling up those sleeves and getting the job done, it’s when things keep knocking you back, and everything takes so much longer that it should, our exhaustion turns into the blues! But see I knew keeping your pecker up and all of us sending positive vibrations would win out in the end. OK now I have to speed up as I am well behind my garden chores……. Hugs
PS Managed to get some fat back from the Farmers Market on Saturday and I am going to ‘render’ me some lard! Can’t make cherry pie as I only had a few (young tree) and the stink bugs got them, but my raspberries are coming in great so Raspberry Pie with real pastry is in my future!
those positive vibrations were just the thing! the support i get from the Fellowship is extraordinary and has saved me many a time.. thank you so much.. c
I think that it was your guardian angel after your recent washing basket moment. Well done to you both for all your hard work, your angel probably has a big grin!
Christine
I do believe in guardian angels.. c
Yippee, woohoo fabulous!
Also, would you look at how quickly our little piggies are growing – they really do grow fast!
Yippee for hay!
🙂 Mandy xo
I believe in the magic. V.
Today we woke up to clouds…soft billowy GREY clouds. And a very cool breeze. So cool a light jacket was necessary to change the water in. We still have clouds now, not as many, but still soft and mostly white. I have all the windows open the heat is only 99* I’m going to enjoy it as next week we top over 100*…way over they are saying.
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
Oh you have had it so hot so far, we are only now just inching into the high eighties, A reprieve of sorts! c
Am so happy for you and John that things finally went your way. Do I detect a metaphor with the pictures of the pigs cavorting and your Farmy Fellowship! : )
What a splendid idea, i was thinking of a happy dance! Aren’t you guys just fantastic.. c
So glad the rain held off for you. We got dumped on, lots of flooding around here. Love those plump little piglet pics. How many have Charolette’s ears and how many have Sheila’s ear set?
Have you ever salted your bales before? When we would have hay that was a tad bit damp we would sprinkle salt on them, each layer in the loft would get salted. Fine ground salt, like table salt, each bale would get a sprinkle by hand across its length. We had 25 or 50 lb bags of salt that was mixed in with the dairy cow ration that we used from. I can’t remember how many bales a handful of salt was suppose to do but we had luck with it. Dad always checked for warm or hot bales but I can’t remember any in the salted hay. I can remember a couple times when we ran out of salt and had some hot ones. Of course they were never on the edge of the stack, it would always involve moving a lot of hay to get to the hot ones. The hay has a certain smell to it as it heats up. I can remember checking for hot bales as part of chores every day. Sometimes we would salt bales that were heating up, let them sit so air could flow around them and it would stop the heating process. If all that failed we always had hungry heifers who ate just about everything.
Do you have a hay rake for the tractor? If not I would keep an eye out for an old one from about 30 to 40 (or More) years ago. They would be too small by today’s standards and very useful for your smaller fields. There are rakes that run of the pto and ones that are 3-point mount that provide their own energy (they kind of look like big sunflowers). They not only can be used to rake the hay into windrows but you can fluff with them too. It all depends on how you adjust the toothy parts. You lose a little quality in the hay by multiple fluffings but you don’t lose the hay crop.
Our rake rakes into the windrows, i shall put a shot of it on for you tomorrow, though after the rain one that would fluff it back up would save me a lot of manual labour,(though i do understand about the depreciating quality) and you are right, our fields are small so there is a lot of turning.. (like being a swimmer in a short pool!) I am buying a big bag of stock salt tomorrow for this next lot..This is an excellent tip. thank you. It makes perfect sense to me. The bales we put up yesterday I stacked for maximum air flow and it is nice and breeze in the bottom layer of the barn, i am not putting them upinto the hay mow untiI am sure they will stay cool. luckily i am familiar with the smell of hot bales so I will be in there checking frequently. How long do you think I need to worry for? Two weeks?
The last of the hay just got rained on again.. sigh.. c
It was a magic pie! I’m glad you were able to get the hay baled and what happy little pigs 🙂
I’m late on parade again – laptop on the blink. I’m so glad all the wishing and hoping and praying worked – the Farmy friends are a powerful bunch. Your piglets are adorable. I hope the rain stays away for a few more days.
Love
ViVx
It is supposed to clear again on wednesday.. is your mouse still AWAL?
I bought a new mouse, installed it but it didn’t work. Without being able to move the cursor, I am unable to use the laptop to reinstall the USB ports which are not working, but I can’t take it to the nice computer man, as there is too much going on here. My PC is all but defunct, so there is serious money to be spent! Meanwhile, I struggle!