We're frugal...and crazy!

Make no mistake, we know how to save a buck. We also feel excitement at the thought of old time farming. Well, okay I do. If Jeremiah had his way, all baling the hay on the property would mean is pushing a few buttons  for coordinates and sitting in an air conditioned cab while the tractor did absolutely everything else. As it stands, A. we do not have the money for a $100K+ tractor and implements that do all that and B. we have nowhere near the property to require that.

What do we have? Let me rephrase that, what do I have? I have a desire to get out there in the coolness of the morning and cut hay...the old fashioned way...with a scythe. I seriously doubt it would be worth it to pay someone to come out and cut and bale it for us. Even swathing it (cutting it) would be cost prohibitive I think. We could do it on a shares system, but I' really like to try my hand at cutting it all by hand.

Jeremiah said when he was younger he could beat the pants off his brothers in a head to head competition- weed eater vs. scythe. In which, he had the scythe and they had the weed eater. I don't doubt it, I've watched videos. And while I am not so naive to think that there isn't some work involved, it could be fun...if for just a little while anyway. So, that's the plan. Where I will find time for this hand cutting and hand baling, I don't know. Maybe by next year somehow in the infinite universe of perpetual time, more time will be created and somehow my body will become less tired and able to work longer. Pipe dream? Perhaps. I'd still like to give it a whirl though.

As far as this hand baling...I'm not so big on the hay stack thing. I thought, for sure in this day and age someone has built a hand baler!! Sure enough, you Google search "hand baler" and up pops a device used a lot in Texas for pine straw bales. Pine straw is nothing more than pine needles baled up and used for landscaping purposes though I am sure this type of hand baler was probably used way way back when in some form before baling machinery came out, or was in its early stages or whatever. ANYWAY, because we have infinite time on our hands (guffaw!), I'd like to build one of them fancy hand balers too. it consists of nothing more than a tall box with a front door and a plunger. Easy enough right? Yeah, I could just see the kids out there with me on a cool sweltering July morning happily begrudgingly carrying arms fulls of sweet smelling itchy dry hay to the hand baler and the joy disgust an disdain on their faces when out pops another heavy bail to move into the barn. Yep, sounds like a right mighty good time!