Surprise!

The other day I took a little video of riding Baasha through our field. It's really no fun to ride there cuz the hay is up to his withers and it's probably not good for the hay anyway. So, just this once I crossed through it and captured it on film. Good thing, cuz it would all change soon.

Yesterday I went to catch Baasha and Lo and Behold the hay is cut! Must have been when we were at church, dangit, we missed it! I caught Baasha, took one moment to gaze out at the strange emptiness, and ran to get my man.

I couldn't find him! I called in his office, in the house, no answer.

He was out in the front yard picking red currants. (They are the hops-like plant that I couldn't identify this spring. The photo is from the other day when he was out there - we're out there a lot lately.) He must have heard the tinge on my voice when I said "I want you to see something" cuz he said, "Did they cut our hay?" !!! YES !!! COME LOOK!

Wait, let me get my camera, hold Baasha. I ran in the house as fast as I could.

Amazing. All that grass, lying down in pretty rows. What a weird feeling it is! I wonder if any neighbors saw us grinning and gaping in awe at our newly shorn field.

Perfect timing too, cuz in 10 days we'll be in America and I wanted to get Baasha out there in the big field before we leave. I'm gonna move one line of step-in posts out into the center and divide the 5 acres right in half, so that we can keep the rotation going on as Paradigm's Jason recommended to me.










My man held Baasha for me as Baasha helped himself to the hay.












Here I am wearing the world's most unflattering shirt. (Don't click.)






I ripped that hay out of his mouth and said, "It's really not good for you at this stage!" My man laughed cuz he's never seen Baasha with so much food in his mouth.

Later I returned to gaze out at the field, and saw a black cat hunting in the center, inspecting what new life has been exposed. A white chested hawk drifted in circles above the field, free for the moment from the harrassment of crows. A deer was on the opposite side of the creek, and Baasha was grazing in his favorite grazing strip.

I'm so glad I got to watch the neighbors across the street get their hay cut, cuz for me it was a fascinating process. Hopefully I'll get to see them turn our hay and package/bale the hay (not sure if it's gonna be hay or silage yet). These last few weeks everytime a tractor goes by (and they do a lot here) I would listen to see if it stopped at our gate. I'm so happy it's haying time, cuz it's annoying to have a field you can't really use while hay is growing. I haven't even strung up the electric wire yet cuz I didn't want to walk thru shoulder-height grass to do it. (The posts are all in and capped though, finally!)

Why didn't we notice right away? There is a strip of trees between our house and our field, sadly, blocking our view to our pasture. Darn those trees!

I can't get enough of this new life and I'm constantly re-enchanted by the happenings around this place. Counting my blessings every day.