Many of the memories I have about the farm have to do with haying. There was always some excitement assoicated with haying, and interesting things happened then. For one thing, because Dad was desperate for help I suppose, it gave me the chance to drive a tractor when I was only 7 years old. There were other times when a truck partially crashed through the floor of the hay mow in an old part of the barn, almost getting a friend and me who were underneath. One of the summer kids, Volnee (sp?) Blodgett, let go of a hay wagon that he and Phil Cooley were supposed to be backing out the mow by hand, and the wagon nearly ran over Phil. Hay bales are also great for building forts anytime, and the hay mow was a constantly changing landscape, filling with hay in summer and slowly emptying to floors in winter. Later on, a used IH baler that constantly sheared a key pin when it was most critical drove Dad nuts, and brought a mechanic from Magalski's, the farm equipment dealer, up to try to fix it. That mechanic showed up 15 years later as my wife's grandfather. Who knew then?
My question to you: what do you recall about haying when you were kids, say teenage or less?
