Buckin' Bales and Backyard Barberin'

John had a neighbor put up some grass hay in small square bales. Sometimes they are referred to as "idiot cubes". Small square bales are so incredibly handy to have around because you can just take off as little as you want and feed a horse or a milk cow. The problem is that they pretty much have to be picked up by hand, and tossed onto a pickup or flat bed trailer and then taken off by hand and stacked by hand in a shed or hay mow....which means you are throwing them up into the hay mow...you guessed it...by hand. The bales weigh anywhere from 60 to 80 pounds. It has been several years since we had any small squares. I think it took us a long to time forget the pain and suffering of the above described labor and to only remember the romance of having small square bales of hay to feed to our favorite animals.

The neighbor was just finishing up baling when we arrived on the scene. It was 5 o'clock and the thermometer had just peaked for the day at 96 degrees. There were some storm clouds looming in the west and the humidity was a factor and there was not a breeze to be had. Perfect.

I was the driver. This is a great job to land when the small square bale picking up jobs are handed out. John was the one to walk along beside the pick up and toss the bales up on the back (we don't have a flat bed trailer) and Cole was the stacker. We had 123 to pick up and could get about 35 on the pickup so we took one load to the hay mow, two to the quonset and the few that were left will go in an empty grain bin that sits off to the side of the field where they were hayed. Hot. Sweaty. Itchy. Dirty. Those are some good adjectives for this work. But, the job is done and we are currently getting a little rain storm so it is a good thing John made us get right at it. He is a good motivator that way.

The last time we had small squares was probably in 2001. So it took 7 years to forget the ordeal. That was a crazy lot of bales that year. We stuffed them into the hay mow and then stacked the rest in the quonset. I was the stacker that year. Never again. I did pretty good until we were stacking in the quonset and I was getting really tired and I was clear up on top of the bale pile and John was throwing them up faster than I could get them stacked and I was getting behind. He made a comment about how I was getting behind and I was about at the end of my rope and snarled back "YOU SHOULD HAVE MARRIED A MAN!" It was a disturbing thing to say and it didn't really come out the way I meant for it to. I was really just trying to point out that I am a girl and didn't have the muscles that John did. Anyway....I was the driver this time so nothing like that happened here tonight.

After we were all done, it was time for the haircuts. We were already itchy and dirty so why not go for the gusto. Actually John and Cole had gone to town this afternoon with the intention of getting haircuts but Donnie, the barber was closed until next week. That is bad news. Cole is a big fan of the Barber Shop. They have the sports channel on, the men sit and visit about guy stuff and you get a shoulder massage after your haircut with this vibrator deal AND a piece of bubble gum. How can it not be great?

Cole is not a fan of me cutting his hair. I used to cut it all the time and there was the unfortunate ear cutting incident, that was the last straw for him. But tonight he had no choice. I tried to assure him that I would not be cutting his ears, and that I would not cut his hair too short....there was another unfortunate incident when I started with the clippers and the smallest attachment and then just had to go for it and the result was pretty much a really bad buzz. He cried. It was traumatic. Anyway, I don't think I did a horrible job tonight and when we were all done I said "There you go, I just saved you twelve bucks." To which he replied "Not to be mean, but I would rather have Donnie do it." Fine.