We had a beautiful (cold) sunny day today so I decided to go and get some hay. The guy who ships it in told me he was bringing in a load of the "good stuff" and would be home on Sunday night. Once Kayla was at school I hightailed it down to his place for an inspection before I hitched up the truck and trailer. He wasn't lying - it was nice stuff! Back home I went to hitch up and then headed back. On the way back I stopped at Fronie's house to give her hubby the heads up that I'd need him to help me unload. He's due to go back offshore tomorrow so I imagine he was REALLY happy to spend his last day at home helping me put hay in.
When I got back to my supplier's place he asked me why I didn't bring a man with me to help me load. You've got to understand that he's an older gentleman and not used to us "independent women" so always gives me a hard time because I travel solo (or with Fronie!). Anyways, we started loading. Once the bales were piled as high as my chest I had to yell out to him and say, "I need a man in here to help me - it's getting too high and I'm peeing my pants"! I think he just about died. But he did get one of the other fellas over to give me a hand and we "got 'er dun".
I drove the load home, barped the horn as I was passing Fronie's and backed up to the barn. Mike was on unloading duty - Fronie and I were up in the loft. She has a bad back so is in charge of counting the bales and working the hoist. She keeps track of the number of bales by putting marks on the posts in the barn. Today she chose a cheery ORANGE marker to use! I'm not sure if I've mentioned before that Fronie has the attention span of a nitt - but she does. It's a job just keeping her focused on the task at hand. Between her gabbing and her phone ringing it's not an easy job. Then she stands there waiting for Mike to load more hay, looking at me like he's stunned, and then realizes that SHE hasn't lowered the hoist yet. It was definitely entertaining! So as Mike is unloading, I'm hauling them off the lift and stacking them. Once again I ran into my little "dribble" problem (just not the same since I had Kayla) and of course Fronie and I were laughing so hard at that, it made me dribble even more. Talk about a hard day on the undies!
66 bales later I headed back to pick up another load. It was about noon-ish. Around here lunch time is pretty much sacred but I guess the boys took pity on poor little me without any men, so they loaded me back up (I didn't even have to dribble) and I headed home again. I'd like to say that Mike and Fronie were happy to see me but I'd be lying! At the end of it all Mike asked Fronie why I had to have horses instead of Chihuahaus (not sure of the spelling). I just about split a gut - I think he was serious.
After the hay they went home and I did the barn. I finished just in time for Kayla's school bus to arrive. Needless to say I'm beat to a preverbial snot (not sure what that is but is sounds pretty cool). But I now have 128 bales of hay in addition to what I already had so I'm set for the winter. Hopefully I'll make it to first cut this summer!
Going to bed now. GOODNIGHT!
Mon Jan 25, 2010 9:36 pm
