Sunday Morning Musings

While I am still riding high on Round Bale Euphoria I am looking out the window praying for rain.  The sky is gray and cloudy and we had a light sprinkling but it was only a tease.  Upstate New York is drying up and if I'm going to get any second cut, the most nutritious hay, at all it will have to rain, and rain a lot.  Doesn't look good.  My neighbor's corn is hardly growing at all, and he has a big herd of cows to feed.  I buy cracked corn and egg layer every week for my goats and chickens.  Luckily, Bluefaced Leicester, my hardy British breed, doesn't need grain at all, except for lactating moms, maybe.  Luke is still in a state of euphoria over the round bales.  In years past he would play on the mound of square bales, but a barn full of 50 round bales presents a whole new challenge of games for a ten year old. They are packed well enough - thank you, Matt Redmond - so they can't roll on him, but are just enough apart so they shake a little and make running over them an obstacle course.  Luke has Izzy and Sadie trained to climb up a board to the top of the bales with him.  Another added bonus of having the upper field cut is that Luke can take his little motorbike up there and ride to his heart's content over the mowed land.  Matt has him at the Madison County Fair tractor pull this morning while Hannah and I hold down the fort here on the farm.  We toasted French baguettes for breakfast and are enjoying girl time.  If only the Irish faeries would come and clean up the place so I can sew and Hannah can spin.  Yes, I said spin.  Hannah spied some purple roving while we were loading the trailer at the farmer's market yesterday and expressed a desire to spin it.  I'm thrilled to help her with that.  The market was slow and HOT yesterday, but we did have a nice time.  A couple from South Carolina came panting into my booth saying how thrilled they were that I am still there as they wanted a big block of soap.  Another young woman told me she was "saving up" for a skein of yarn, as she petted and stroked it while cooing sweet nothings.  Stuff like that keeps me spinning and cooking soap.