The Joy of Haying Remote Fields (Not)

The soil is too dry and grass is not growing. I’ve been looking around for any neighboring fields we could hay. However, there are none available. A friend knew of some in East Barnard (about 4 miles from the farm). We drove around one morning with his two little kids checking these out. Unfortunately, most were very small. All were sloped (not an exciting characteristic for round bales). 
 
So this week I started haying one of the larger fields on Balla Machree Farm on Broad Brook Road -i.e. 25 minutes by tractor from the farm. About half of the 12 acres produces hay; the other half produces an extraordinary amount of ferns.  
 
I was hauling the bales back to the farm yesterday when a tire on the hay wagon blew and shredded. Arrgghh! Wait. Do we have another 15” tire somewhere? Yes, on the little blue wagon. I try to take one off, but the lug nuts are seized. Arrggh. A torch to the nuts finally loosens them. Okay, good. Load the tire, wrench and jack in the car and we’re off! I take the wheel off the hay wagon, go to put the temporary tire on and…. The lugs are not in the same place. More aaarrrghhhh! 
 
After more trials, which all fail and I’m intentionally trying to forget, I'm reduced to hauling two bales at a time, which is as many as I can take with just the tractor. And after sending out this blog, I’m back on the tractor to fetch the last 6 bales from the field. Lisa will wrap bales while I’m doing this. Then she’ll spell Ida in the creamery and I’ll try to get a new tire. The joys of farming!