Friday

Well it was just another beautiful day here in the mountains, actually today was rather nippy to start but warmed up in the afternoon to nearly 80 degrees. The sun was bright with blue skies and a nice comfortable breeze which made it nice. I spent the morning after my quiet time and a mountain breakfast of buckwheat cakes, eggs and ham on the side trying to figure out how to stiffen up the bearing in the old rotor-tiller; I think its a lost cause. I tried several methods but could not keep the belt on the pulley that drives the rotor. It was close to 1 PM when Kay Luffman called about Nancy and I helping get in some square bales of hay.

We headed out around 1 PM and got to the hayfield where one field of 77 bales was waiting to be picked up. Nancy drove the truck and Kay and I threw up the bales and then stacked them. Andy showed up just as we finished the first field then headed over next door to another field that Gerald was just finishing up baling. This field had about 225 bales and once again Nancy drove the big truck pulling a goose neck trailer while Andy stacked and Gerald, Kay and myself threw up the bales. It took us about and hour or so to load the two trailers then we headed to the barn.

It took us nearly another hour to off load the 300 bales and stack them in the barn. We were on our way back to the cabin around 3:30. Wow was that ever a good workout and it felt good to help our friends with this chore. Needless to say we were all hot, sweaty and dirty from all the grass seed and dust that comes with making hay. At least the hay was well dried and cured so the bales were pretty light with an average weight of about 40-50 pounds.

After we got back to the cabin I converted my old grill from a bar burner to an H-burner. The old burner was rusted out and caused hot spots when grilling. For about 20 bucks I save a couple hundred by using a universal stainless steel burner. The only loss was my electronic starter. After refitting the grill we settled in for the leftover stuffed peppers and smashed taters along with a fresh garden salad, yikes was that ever tasty. After the clean up we headed outside to wonder around the yard so I burned some trash in the fire pit. Well tomorrow is the Mountain Heritage Festival in Sparta and supper at the Dalton so once again we will have a busy day, LATER