and Now we're Raking Hay

Well, you guessed it.  My Farmer found something for me to do yesterday.  He was delivering hay and asked if I would like to ride along.  (Yep, he needed help)  "Well, of course, I would love to", was my cheerful response.  The help he needed was driving the tractor from the unloading dock, down the highway, to the place where the hay was going.  Not a problem, except that everyone else on the two lane, curvy canyon highway was doing 60 mph and I was doing 7.25 mph.  My tractor should have been able to do 17.5 mph, but something is wrong with the hydraulics, so 7.25 was my top speed.  I gained a few new gray hairs, but made it safely.  And learned that I am SO thankful that we do not farm by a busy highway.  Anyways, now back to sharing the next step in our "making hay" process.

 This is the view from my tractor seat looking backwards at the rake.  We use ancient rakes.  I would love to have one of those big double rakes, but they cost lots of money and are just not in the budget at this time.  Maybe someday.   There are two basic reasons we rake or turn our hay. One is that the windrow our swather leaves is a little to wide for our baler to pick up. And the second reason is to help with the drying time.  Turning it fluffs the hay and helps it dry.  But only if you do it at the right stage. If we turn it a day early, it sometimes will add a day of drying time, which is not a good thing.  Also if it is alfalfa hay, we like to turn it in the morning with a little dew, before it gets to dry, so the leaves do not shatter to much.
The next picture is from my tractor seat looking forwards.  You can see the turned rows, the unturned rows, and my Farmer on the tractor in front of me.  (And I'm sure he was saying "she should be working not taking pictures".  Oh well)

In this picture you can see the turned hay and in the distance the next step, baling. So come back tomorrow and we will bale some hay.  Once again, as long as my Farmer doesn't have another job for me.(haha)