Stacking Bales

This morning we woke up to another day, just like yesterday. The temperature was almost balmy - shirtsleeve weather. I had heard rumours that it wasn't supposed to last so we tuned in to the Weather Channel while we drank our morning coffee. Sure enough, there was cold on the way, and even snow and freezing rain across the northern prairies. We haven't been wasting this lovely fall weather, but that forecast stepped up the urgency of getting some of these fall jobs done.

Glen had hired someone with a bale hauling truck to come and move the bales home for us. We have a small trailer that Glen modified out of an old truck box and hoist, but it only moves ten bales at a time and requires a tractor and loader to load it, and someone to drive them home and dump them. With Mitchell away from home now this method is very time consuming for just Glen to manage on his own. He figured that the money would be well spent to just have them delivered to the yard. The guy came this morning and hauled bales all day, with Glen stacking each load tightly together while the trucker went for the next load. They still have another full day's work to go tomorrow to get the job done, but it will be a big one off the fall list of things to do.

Jesse had a couple days off this week so she came home and helped her dad move cattle to new pasture and build more fence. Of the four kids, she is definitely the farmer in the bunch. She is making plans to go to university next fall and work towards an Ag degree - something to keep her busy and gainfully employed until Mom and Dad are ready to retire. Glen still has more fencing to do and the barns need cleaning out before the cattle are in for the winter, the watering bowls have to be winterized and calves have to be weaned. He gets tired just thinking about all the jobs to be done.

I spent the weekend washing my new windows and cleaning up after their installation. It is fantastic to be able to see through the glass again! It looks like I'll have to get a wider type of trim for around the windows - which means painting, something I hadn't been counting on, but hopefully I can get it all done before freeze up. With all the kids out on their own, I've been trying to make the extra bedrooms look like guest rooms, not teenager hangouts. It's been quite a challenge - especially Jesse's room. She must have tacked or taped up hundreds of posters and photos throughout her teens. I have washed down the walls, now they need crack filling and probably two coats of paint. Sure hope she has kids some day - I'm going to make a point of encouraging her children to decorate their rooms freely. It was the best revenge I could think of as I scraped a hundred little glow-in-the-dark stars off her ceiling this afternoon.

I also re-potted my house plants today - a job I've been putting off for at least a year. It's a miracle that the poor things are still alive. The temperature had dropped a lot throughout the day so my hands were nearly frozen and I'm sure the house plants were glad to get back inside, but there still hasn't been a killing frost so my outdoor flowerbeds are still blooming - in some cases they are prettier now than they were in July. It's a crazy place we live - last year frost took everything - crops, gardens, everything - on August 20th, and here we are a year later on the second of October and plants are still green and growing. I'm afraid I might end up having to cut the lawn one more time.

Glen is sure tuckered out tonight. He was on an open tractor all day - out in the wind and working steady to stay ahead of the trucker. He says his knees are played right out with all the braking and clutching he had to do to stack the bales. I was out to take a look just before dark - he's done a nice job - all the bales are in tight to each other so that, as much as possible, the rain and snow won't have a chance to get to get in and rot the feed. He asked me to make sure he didn't bale straw next year - he has enough for two years ahead at the moment. It's hard not to reap in the harvest when it's there; you never know what next year might bring, on the other hand, after a while you just don't have the room to stack them, and can't use them up before they rot, anyway.