I just took this photo from the front door of our farmhouse. The hay is ripe and the weather seems to be perfect to make hay. The grass hay has nice ripe grass seed heads, and all the pollen is gone.
This photo shows how close the hayfield is to our front door. Yes, there are 2 birdbaths in the photo. Why? The one on the left is specifically for winter, it has a thermostatically controlled heating element. It is great to keep open water for the winter birds. Did you notice the foxglove I am growing, why, because it is something that deer will not eat.
The cutting of the grass hay has begun. The standing grass is 5' to 6' tall.
Another photo showing the work in progress. The top roof of the tractor is visible in the top middle of the photo.
This is another photo showing behind the house, where the lawn is next to a fence where is grass is very tall. As you can see the area around us is Forest. The Willamette National Forest to be exact. I guess that it is no surprise that we are having trouble with wild animals here.
I hope that the haying goes well. We hire High School students to "buck bales", the hard work that is too much for us older folks. We pay them fairly with cash. There is not much work for pay in this area....so we offer the work to young men we know.
