Filling the Hayloft

The barn on the ranch  was at its peak on sale day, but it was fully utilized all throughout the year. Situated above the sale ring, a large hayloft brimmed with bales stacked high from the summer crop. Most of the haying was done on our part of the ranch and it was a family affair. My dad and uncles ran the machinery that would cut the hay, rake to pull it into rows after it dried to the optimum level, and then use the baler to to form individual bales, which it plopped out at regular intervals onto the field. Two lengths of yellow baling twine tightly held each grayish-green rectangular bale together. Loading and stacking these bales from the field to the hayloft provided plenty opportunity for my boy cousins to build their muscles and deepen their tans as they stuck each  fifty-plus pound bale from the field with a hay hook and tossed them to the truck where other cousins would stack the bales.

 Then the loaded truck went to the barn where the transfer to the hayloft transpired.  A long elevator angled from the ground up to the hayloft doors pulling bales from the truck up to the loft where the guys began stacking at the back of the barn from the hayloft floor to near the roof.  Each layer of bales was stacked perpendicular to the previous layer providing stability. In the summer, the hayloft air was dense and heavy with the sweet grassy smell intensified by the heat under the roof and lack of air movement. Stacking hay in the loft was hot and dusty work, and the guys frequently joked that they needed to remember how warm this was when they were dealing with the bitter cold in the winter. Because there were three men and four boy cousins big enough to help, I never had to drive a tractor or stack bales.  This was the men's work. 

My mom and I were responsible for keeping them fed. We baked cookies and took the guys a snack and cool drinks in mid-morning and again in the afternoon out in the field or at the barn, which was a welcome break from the kitchen for me.  We provided a substantial  meal at noon  such a meatloaf, scalloped potatoes, jello, green beans, a dessert and gallons of iced tea. And we washed lots of dishes. One summer for my 4-H bread baking project,  I had to make two loaves nearly every day of haying to meet the project requirements.  The guys ate both loaves each day.  My dad observed that the boys were so full that they were not nearly as much help after lunch as they were as before.  Mom even left me to do the cooking for the haying crew one summer when I was twelve while she went to a cousin's wedding in California.  I learned a lot about cooking for a crew in those days!

Times have certainly changed on the ranch.  It does not take a family crew to put up the hay because there are machines designed to do most of the work.  The hayloft sits empty and big round bales stacked by a forklift line the edge of the field.  There is no need for a big noon meal to feed a crew of hungry guys, and any dishes used are loaded into the dishwasher. I doubt that the guys miss the hot, dirty work, and the women do not miss spending all day cooking and washing dishes. But many good memories remain  of a family joining efforts to accomplish a big project.