Last evening we arrived at Purdy Park and Ride smelly dusty and hot to meet and greet our most recent WWOOFER volunteer, Katy. Welcome to Gentle Giant Meadows Ranch Katy, we hope you leave with many happy memories and many many more new experiences.
It’s official…..we have THE best friends in the world ! On Saturday Chuck began churning out the bales behind his chugging old tractor and the call came to stand by for this years haying extravaganza. Anna had been given the long holiday weekend off in honour of her birthday and Independence Day and Greg and I were “home alone”….but we weren’t alone long. One by one friends and neighbors volunteered their muscles to the cause, we had a total of three bad backs, a bad shoulder a pokey eye and 2 of the best looking young hay buckers in the USA. Thank you William and Johnny. I remember when you were knee high to a grasshopper….are we getting old ? Poor Heidi arrived at the barn with an eye looking like she had been through 5 rounds with Joe Frazier and lost. All afternoon she dragged pulled and bucked hay with a watery red eye and a freely running nose, a scratched cornea didn’t stop Heidi smiling and we want to let her know how much we appreciate her. Patrick and Kelly, thank you for giving up a very hot humid Sunday to help….we love you and hope that you don’t hurt too badly today. It’s hard work…it’s hot and tiring but we had a great time spent with amazing friends under a clear blue sky and it can’t get better than that. Today we take Anna and Katy back to the field for the last bales. It will be their first venture into bucking hay….hopefully they are still smiling when the last of the hay is firmly pushed into place in our big cedar barn. By the time the hay elevator finally grinds to a halt and the little motor falls silent we will have moved 817 bales from the field. We do have THE best friends and neighbors.
Time to go. Animals to feed, stalls to scoop and more hay to move. Take care keep safe. M