Hay Bales and Fall

Daddy told a story about baling hay in Honey Creek bottom fields.  Bottomlands were areas that would frequently flood during the wet parts of the year.  The soil was rich and produced bumper crops of hay for feeding livestock through the winter months.  Hay harvest depends on the type of grass crop as well as weather conditions.

My two older sisters had to work in the fields.  Sis #1 remembers parking the tractor when she was 5.  Sis #2 fell from the tractor and was almost run over by the stalk cutter pulled by the tractor.  A pure miracle she was not horribly injured by the cutting blades.  Both sisters hoed fields, bucked hay, drove tractors, whatever was needed to keep the fields and crops growing.

The year our family went on vacation to Yellowstone National Park my sisters wanted to go to the lake with friends.  Daddy was a hard taskmaster.  He said no to the lake visit.  In fact, Daddy made the girls, 14 and 10 years old, hoe the field by the main road to the lake.  They had to see all the cars go by filled with friends going to the lake.  Daddy hoed, too.  Decades later Sis #1 and Sis #2 gave Daddy a bill with interest added for the July 4th day's labor.  It was a running joke for years.

Back to the hay baling tale from Daddy.  During the late 1940s and 1950s hay bales were rectangular bales. Bales were between 40 and 75 pounds (2.8 - 5.4 stones) in weight.  That is a heavy load to toss to about shoulder height!  The worker would use a hay hook to grab the bale by plunging the point of the hook into the hay bale.  Once Dad missed the hay bale and plunged the hook under his knee cap.  He missed a few days of hauling hay.

Oh, my.  I continue to digress.  Daddy's story was about the farmer who worked the bottomland.  The bottomland grew other things besides the hay.  Snakes.  Not just the good snakes but copperheads and cottonmouth.  Both snakes are poisonous.  Daddy said it was not unusual for copperheads to be hanging out of the bales.  The snakes had been picked with the hay/straw and were embedded in the bale.  The snakes would attempt to strike as the workers came near the bale to buck the hay onto the trailers.   There may have been a gun or two to dispatch the pit vipers.  Daddy never said for sure but it is Texas.  Guns likely involved.

Any of you folks planning on bucking hay, please, watch out for the snakes.

Peace,

Janice

Amido (Screen door, window screen)

in or out

the screen door slapped loudly

spider's web swings

©  petra domina

loose window screen
the snake wriggles inside
naps on a bed

©  petra domina

Thanks to Chèvrefeuille for daily prompts on 

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI

Snakes, Mom and Other Random Things

While being in Texas to assist with my Mom's needs during her recovery, I am basically living with one of my sisters.  Sissy has a lovely home situated in a gorgeous neighborhood.  The area borders one of the Dallas area reservoirs.  Several of the properties back up to the corps of engineer undeveloped areas with thick underbrush and trees.  And snakes.  Not just any snakes.  Copperheads.

This morning I was awakened by house alarms and slamming doors.  My B I L later shared pictures of the 50 inch copperhead he killed on the patio.  This evening the next door neighbor killed their third copperhead in two weeks.  Yard workers had killed two in my sister's front yard about 10 days ago.  I am ready to move to a hotel very far from the lake.  I am not thrilled to think about being here by myself after Friday.  I will need to check the grass for snakes before letting Bosco go out for a run.

My Mom's progress continues to be fairly steady but hard for her.  Due to pain in her hip she had quit doing much of anything.  Her muscles we pretty badly diminished by the time of the surgery.  She is having to recover from the trauma of the surgery and rebuild 94 year old muscles at the same time.  She began choking on her food but a session with an occupational therapist has. resolved the situation.

To take a break from the hospital, rehab, how to get the house ready drudgery Sissy and I did some fabric shopping today.  The fabric is for new drapes for Sissy's formal and informal dining rooms.  Shopping with my sis rocks.  I have really missed these types of outings with her through the years.  Ready to live closer so we can still have more times like the two hours we spent touching fabrics, envisioning how to make the special hardware and just being together.

Gotta figure out how to get rid of snake threat then the times together will be even better.