First cut in the barn

Today, we completed putting in about 14 acres of square-baled hay. Using a mix of power, horses for tedding and raking, two tractors for mowing and baling, we put up about 650 bales of good quality hay and stored another 3000 pounds of loose hay in the barn. Baling-twine blisters and sunburned necks, jugs of water and the smell of the July sun are the trappings of the day. The weather has turned away from cool and rainy to hot and humid, thundershowers returning to the forecast--we are all breathing a bit easier with first cut in the barn.