Making Hay

"Make hay while the sun shines" is a phrase I have used all my life.  It has always been a word which reminded me to get it done while you can.  Coming to the farm from the sanctuary in this season of retirement has given the often used phrase new meaning.  One of the things grown around here is grass.  The grass is not sod for urban lawns, but grass for hay.  When the green pasture has turned brown, the cows spend their time at the hay bales.  Their winter job is to eat hay and mine is to get it to them.

 

What I have learned is that hay is best made in the sunshine.  Once the knee high grass is cut, it lays in the field for a day or two depending on the weather.  Hot sunny weather dries or cures the green grass turning into a brown low moisture feed.  No one who cuts hay with plans to bale it in the next day or so wants to see rain which means more work, a lower quality product, and, perhaps, mold and mildew in the bales.  "Make hay while the sun shines" is what everyone with cows is working on in these days so filled with overbearing heat and low humidity. 

 

And while everything done on the farm somehow points toward a partnership with the Creator, those bales of hay seen in the farm speak very loudly to it.  Once the grass is on the ground, it is up to the creation to finish the work.  When the farmer walks out of the freshly cut grass, there is always a look toward the sky and surely a prayer for continued hot dry weather.  The hay bales are a reminder from the Creator of the creation that we live in partnership with God.  As hay is dependent on the work of creation, so are our lives dependent on the ongoing work of the Creator.  Keeping our eyes toward heaven and prayers on our lips makes good sense for farmers as well as all the rest of us.