{"id":4526,"date":"2017-07-12T18:01:12","date_gmt":"2017-07-12T18:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kelolandblogs.com\/lundatlarge\/?p=4526"},"modified":"2023-07-20T21:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-07-20T21:00:00","slug":"back-in-my-hay-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/back-in-my-hay-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Back In My Hay Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

That noise you hear coming from the Keloland countryside these days is the sound of corn, soybeans and alfalfa growing. I’m told that on these stifling humid days, \u00a0you can actually go out and see and hear it happening. \u00a0 \u00a0But, I have enough trouble trying to explain to others how I enjoy spending my time; keeping one eye on the computer and the other on my window-side aviary, I’m sure if it included sitting in a farm field watching crops grow, my concerned friends and family would be scheduling an intervention right quick.
\nI know most of us could use some rain but a drive through the country sure reveals some great looking crops.
\nWhen I was a kid in high school, this was the time of year when I hated to hear the phone ring at our house in the morning.
\nInstead of one of my buddies calling to see if I\u2019d like to hitchhike to Brookings and go swimming, chances are it was Cub Becker or some other area farmer wanting to hire me out for the day to help haul hay bales. Not the round bales the size of Volkswagens that you see today piled up in giant hay mountains. These were rectangular blocks of hay manufactured by a bailing machine pulled behind a tractor which tied them together with twine and spit them onto the hay rack it was towing where one or two sweating kids, with badly scratched forearms..would stack them up. When the rack was full, an empty one would be waiting at the end of the field.
\nI was a town kid and hated hauling bales but if mom answered the phone, she\u2019d commit me to the job despite my pleas that I might die of heat stroke.
\n\u201cPiffles,\u201d she\u2019d say. \u201cA little hard work never hurt anybody..besides you want some spending money for our vacation don\u2019t you?\u201d
\nSo, off I\u2019d go mumbling something about child abuse.\"hay\"<\/a>
\nActually, some farmers..mostly my uncles..took pity on kids like me not used to such back breaking labor. They\u2019d let the hay dry in the fields so the bales weren\u2019t so heavy. We only had to stack them four high on the rack and, if we needed a break, they\u2019d stop the bailer long enough to catch our breath and get a drink of water.
\nCub Becker, on the other hand, ran his operation like a boot camp. He paid a little more ($1.25 an hour) but he expected a lot more from us poor schlubs on the rack or in the hay mow.
\nCub liked to start early and work fast. He didn\u2019t care \u00a0if the alfalfa was a little greener than when most farmers cut it..or if the bales which came shooting out every few seconds, weighed twice as much as anybody else\u2019s.
\nIf we were struggling to lift them into position and got behind..he\u2019d turn around from his seat on the tractor and..like a Marine drill sergeant..start yelling at us about being soft and commenting on our manhood.\u00a0A view from “the rack” where many soft town kids were tortured.<\/p>\n

\"OLYMPUS<\/a>

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA<\/p><\/div>\n

But Cub was also the first one to trust me with the responsibility of driving a tractor and operating the hay rake. I\u2019ll never forget the feeling of \u00a0fear..power..and satisfaction when..at the age of 14.. I sat atop that Farm-all \u201cM\u201d \u00a0in total control.
\nWhen I\u2019d finished, Cub was waiting in his pick-up at the end of the field. He gave me a little nod and a wink.
\nHis way of saying, \u201cnot bad for a town kid.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That noise you hear coming from the Keloland countryside these days is the sound of corn, soybeans and alfalfa growing. I’m told that on these stifling humid days, \u00a0you can actually go out and see and hear it happening. \u00a0 \u00a0But, I have enough trouble trying to explain to others how I enjoy spending my…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lund-at-large","category-60","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4526"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11513,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4526\/revisions\/11513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}