The Dalan Farm: And in other news...

It's getting quite summer-ish on the Farm these days. I already cut and raked some hay. I get to spend the long weekend re-raking and bailing. Wohoo! Actually I LOVE getting dirty on the Farm, so running my tractor around the hay ground IS a vacation of sorts.

For those unfamiliar with the process, first I cut it. Doesn't look like much at this point.

I did get a touch of rain the day or two after I cut (.04" if your curious), but my research shows this should not be a big deal. Probably some vitamin loss, but grass takes a while to cure. Did you know hay continues to metabolize (burn up stored sugar) until it reaches 40% or less moisture content? Crazy stuff. The new disk mower (looks like an old side cutting Ford 506 sickle mower...but with spinning blades) allows me to cut as fast as I can go and still hold on to the tractor. It's AWESOME. Last year the first cutting took me three weeks. OK, I broke a lot of stuff and didn't know how to properly hook up the mower, but even when it was setup right it was way too slow.

So next, I rake. I use an ancient (but well greased) JD 350A. Works like a champ. When properly adjusted, I can fly around the field faster than it is really safe to. Makes things interesting.

This weekend I will combine rows and unleash the New Holland Baler on them. The baler is a big, old red beast that can eat 4' wind rows (if properly cured/dried) without effort. This allows me to save a ton of time when bailing, as I make fewer passes. Using this baler is like towing some kind of red-hay-eating-monster behind the tractor. Pictures to come later ;)

That's the big news for this week. I took some interesting shots of the pigs in attack formation,