"The

Harvest and Hauling

of

High-flying HAY!"

Part I

Remember "Between the Hägg and the Syren" when we discovered that the ventilation fan in the barn didn't work? 

As the haybarn is being filled with hay it is imperative to keep the ventilation going to avoid the danger of molding and combustion. The two fans we were relying on were 25-30 years old. 

After talking it over with the father/son team at MEAB, Pappa decided it would be the safest plan to order two new fans which could be used next year in the new hay barn and serve this year as a back-up in case the old fans broke down in the middle of the haying.   

With Gustav and Maxie we hooked up the trailer and took another trip to the village of Åsmon to pick up the fans, loading first one then the other and strapping them both down for the trip back to Eden.

Now we felt we were prepared for any eventuality.

And with his ever-present scanning of the Blocket Pappa found a fabulous used hay wagon at  1/10th of what it would have cost us new.  It had been on a farm in a different part of Sweden than we are but there was a transport truck coming our way and the driver brought it to us. 

Yet another insurance factor for the haying season.

And as kind of a fun twist of fate...when Pappa was putting the hay wagon away he called me over and said he needed to show me something.

We had been trying and trying to find a new source for some piglets this year as the farmer who usually sells them to us had had serious illness and had none.  We had been unsuccessful, despite numerous attempts.

But when the haywagon was delivered....

  

Look what was in the back!

It turned out Pappa had located a sow and a boar not too far off  the transport driver's route, so arrangements were made to bring the piglets at the same time. 

So FUN!

We told Gustav and Maxie they could each name one so Gustav named the boy "Tony" and Maxie named the girl (who was quite a chubster) "Burken", which means in Swedish "the short,  fat,  jar".

Perfect!

With the haywagons ready, we started to watch the weather reports every minute, looking for a three to four day rain-free stretch which is needed to cut, turn, row-up and take in a field of hay.  In just a day or two, we  felt we had a possible shot at it.

Step 1:

 

The cutter is loaded onto the tractor and the waiting field is cut.  It's best to do this in the evening, so here is Pappa on his way out late in the day to get started right in. The fields are so lush and green.  

Step 2:

The next day about noon, when all of the dew has evaporated, and with one of the smaller tractors fitted with the turning attachment, Gustav goes out to turn and flip all the cut hay so it will dry properly.  The circular arms are lowered and rotate at amazing speed for aeration. This turning must be done at half-day intervals as many times as necessary to dry the hay adequately.

Step 3:

This is the time to gather the cut and dried hay into windrows so it can be picked up and loaded.  The term for this in Swedish is "Stränglägga".

Step 4:

With the haywagon in tow the windrows - look right in front of the tractor and you can see one of the windrows - are gathered in with a kind of rotating finger-like conveyer belt action (something like a rollbrush) until the wagon is full to the brim....close to 30 cubic meters of beautiful winter feed for our animals.
  Then we head home for the unloading. 

This field, which we lease in a neighboring village, is done.
There are many more to be completed - in all we take in about fifty wagon loads total for one of the hay barns.

"Summer Fun to the MAX(ie)!!"

Maxie on the day he arrived.  

Every summer we have children come to the farm for a "Farm Slot". 

These are kids that do not have any farm experience, live in the city and would otherwise be spending their summer days in leisurely activities that don't involve much physical labor.

They generally stay anywhere from one to three weeks, depending on how well they adjust to the relative rigors of farm life. 

And once they begin to understand what is required of them and get into the daily routines - just about all of them LOVE IT!

Most have returned for two or even three summers.

In late winter we were glad when the requests began rolling in because with Manny gone on his mission we knew it would be important for Gustav to have some company close to his own age.

Our good friend Kenneth was the first to ask if he could bring his son Macksim (Maxie) up from the southern part of Sweden as soon as school was out. We had never met 12 year old Maxie and explained to Kenneth that we had found it worked best to try it for a week to start and then see how Maxie felt about it. 

                                           But Kenneth hadn't even made it to the end of the driveway before Maxie was on his way up the ladder to the roof of the big hay barn with Gustav right behind him. 

Pappa brought over the last of the large vacuum pipes that had to be assembled in preparation for the start of haying season the next day.

                                                   The top window was removed and then came the unloading of the pipe sections. Gustav, who's done it a million times, gave directions, and Maxie followed .

Here's Maxie inside and Gustav outside. The assembly moved

 FAST!

Before we knew it, they had the big "L" up and supported...

(we were so impressed at how Maxie jumped right in).

 Pappa had been down below bringing over the super motor that runs the vacuum and getting everything connected up. 

Bingo! 
Done and ready to go! 

You would think that would be enough for a first day's experience, but we saw quickly that Maxie was 'good to go' in every way.  Pappa took him into the pump house and got him outfitted in a coverall and then right into the barn where he learned to measure out the grain for the milk cows and get it into the troughs.  Then it was 'bringing in the cows', again with Pappa, from the fields where they had been out grazing.... 

time to do the evening milking.

From that moment on, every day was packed and Maxie was a part of it all.  Through a series of events that no one could have foreseen, he was the only one who was with us this year and he and Gustav grew as close as any two brothers could be, laughing and teasing and working side by side from early morning into the night.

And that is how it is on the farm in the summer.

As you read the coming posts you will see Maxie in full swing all throughout June, July and August.

We came to love him as one of our own, and felt so grateful to have had him for the better part of three glorious months.  He was an outstanding boy, full of fun, smart as a whip, and a terrific worker.

This is October.

When I was cleaning upstairs the other day I was surprised to find a pair of rumpled black socks in a remote corner of the room.  They were worn, full of pills and had gray monsters with red hearts on them,

and they were Maxie's.

When I saw them I missed him so much.

We love you Maxie.

Come back soon!

"Between the Hägg and the Syren"

Part III

About three days before this picture was taken we knew we were running out of time.
The garden was fertilized and tilled but we hadn't started the planting. 

If our "born and raised in Texas" friend, Jim Whitteker, was here, he would say:

"Let's git 'er done!"
I had my gardening wagon, I had my seeds, I had my chicken manure, I had my Earthway Garden Seeder.

We always start with a row of flowers - in this area they put in a row of flowers about every fifth row for beauty -  and then next comes the salad row.  This year we tried some new seeds such as the Baby Salad Blend that sported several types and colors of lettuce blended together.  We also tried sequential planting of the radishes and lettuces to see if we could prolong the season a bit and have the fresh vegetables into the Fall.  

 

 We had never used seed tapes before but when we needed more beet seeds and the supplier was out, we figured this was a good chance to give it a whirl.  Hans always prepares the seed beds for me, and this time he also helped with some of the planting which was a real blessing with not a lot of time left.  You can see the evidence of how my brain was working if you look at the neatly printed wood stake to the right.  I read the seed packet wrong and instead of writing the Swedish word for spinach (spenat), I wrote the Italian word (spenati) instead...there was some fairly intense teasing about my "italian spenati" and how it might taste when it came up :)

  

I was excited to find a new strain of mangold (swiss chard) called Bright Lights which promised to have almost neon stems and veining of several different colors (so fun in the salad bowl when the shoots are tender!)

And through it all I had the "Bindi Escort Service" to keep me company.

 It doesn't seem to matter where I am or what I'm doing, she finds me and makes herself a part of it.

She bit up the seed packets, she nested on my apron, she laid on each and every item three seconds before I needed it.  When Gustav walked by and saw her gnawing on the seed packet he said,

"Looks like we aren't the only ones who love our greens".

When we finally had all the rows planted and all the bedding plants in as well, it was time for the fiberduk.

In this climate, once the planting is done, you must cover everything with this white webby fabric-like product to protect it and hold the warmth in the ground so the seeds will sprout. 

And in one of the world's greatest examples of

                            OVERKILL:                             

       Gustav, asked to bring us over a "few" bricks to weigh down the lengths of  fiberduk,  took the brand new bells and whistles tractor, loaded up a couple of armfulls into the front bucket, and drove it two inches to the garden's edge.

But, in the end result,

 here it is.

All fertilized, all plowed, all planted, all covered,

ALL DONE!

So how much time elapsed

"Between the Hägg and the Syren"?

It was 19 days.

In that time we cleaned, fertilized, tilled, planted and covered the garden - cleaned and prepared the hay barn and travelled to the village of Åsmon for the repair of the ventilation fan - sheared all the sheep - sprouted and planted all the seed potatoes - travelled to Genbäcks in the village of Åsele for all our bedding plants and garden supplies, bringing back a new Hägg tree and a hedge of new lilacs for planting - took down all the lights on the Advent tree, took down the tree itself and sawed it into firewood - sold the old tractor and picked up the new tractor - got all the dung out - harrowed all the fields - cleaned all the machines and put them away.

We made it!