Monday, June 9, 2008

Haulin' Hay

Whooooboy, this brings back memories. I wish I had a penny for every bale I've bucked ~ you country boys know what I'm sayin? I can even remember my favorite hay hooks (had a short one, and a long one) ... used 'em hard & used'em often ... and here some 40 years later, still got the blisters to prove it!! Wasn't nothin' to buck these 80# bales all day long, 100* in the shade, got a free field lunch & mebbe a bottle of 3-V cola ... and a $10 bill at the end of the day ~ honest work, honest wages ... and you din't hear me complainin' either ~ I was habitatin' tall cotton them days, ah garrontee! Went t'school all day, worked mah daddy's farm when I got home, got three squares every day, went t'town on Saturday fer tradin' and a matinee picture show, then to church on Sunday. God Bless America. What about it, Hag ... Farmer's Blues

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

BrotherMan You makin me ache all over. We hauled 1100 bales in two days one time. All stacked nice and neat in the barn. Everybody helped everybody so their hay wouldn't get any rain on it. There was one fellow we helped but nobody much wanted to. The wife always cooked the dinner and this lady's kitchen was so nasty nobody wanted to eat there. Ever pick up a bale with a snake under it or get a mighty good scolding for tumpin the hay off the wagon. I helped my granddaddy (He let me think so) by holdin the reins of the mules that pulled the hay wagon. Lauh Me. What a person can remember. Edder

Chez said...

1100 bales in 2 days? sheeeeit, mah lil' sister's girl scout troop could haul more hay than that! what happened ... didjer tractor break down?? lol

yeah, i hated when i'd turn over a bale & a big ol' bull snake be under there ... damn! sometimes dat ol' alfalfa got baled green, then mebbe got a lil' rain on them ... sun come out the next day ... hotter'n blue blazes, no breeze ... just stiflin' HOT & MUGGY ~ dad would send me out to the field mebbe couple thousand bales in it, and tell me to turn them all over so bottoms would dry out! yeah, i seen a few snakes in my day - tru dat.

Anonymous said...

Brownie Troop? They musta had a bigger pick-up truck than we had. Fifty-five or sixty bales on the truck and head to the barn unload and repeat till it's dark. The mountain top farm I grew up on wasn't big as the flat land fields. The picture made me hurt all over none the less. Edder

Chez said...

LOL ~ yeah, them brownies drive big trucks ... fer haulin' cookies & such. Hay podnah, what mountaintop are you farmin?

Anonymous said...

I was raised about fifteen miles south of Huntsville Alabama. Brindlee Mountain. I lived in Huntsville for about 20 years after I got grown. My wife works for Chrysler and Mercedes sold the plant in Huntsville. With only six years till 30 year retirement, She took a job in Naperville Illinois just bout 30 miles from Chicago. We are here for at least 4 years, 6 at the most then it's back to Sweet Home Alabama. I keep lookin for reasons to hate it up here but they ain't that many of them. Traffic and Taxes Everything else just rolls off my back like water on a duck. Edder