Maidens of Virtue: Summary of Our Week

Greetings, my friends! Forgive the lack of posting, it's been crazy... So, I'll give you a summary of our week.

Last week we helped our grandfather (my dad's dad) dig potatoes in his large garden. Actually, he used his tractor to dig them up, but anyway, we ended up with 12 crates of the earthen veggibles. =D I took my camera along, of course, and managed to get a few pics of the workers, despite muddy hands... Oddly enough, though, I didn't get any pics of the potatoes...

This is Rhen and Ma hard at work. Notice Rhen's bare feet. ^ - ^

This is Poppy D. (Yes, he, like our other grandfather, is also known as Poppy. So, we have Poppy D. and Poppy S.)

Ah, here we are, at the hayfield! This is the Big Field and we are getting a second cutting, usually not as good as the first cutting, but still better than none. Please note: I took these picks with my camera phone while driving. *bows* Yes, yes, thank you! It takes skill to do so on a machine without power steering. I love it.

This, my friends, is a hay rake. A few people, though not all, when we say, "to rake hay," think that we do it with an actual hand rake. Well, this is the little contraption we use. I wish I could get the picture in motion, because it's hard to explain how it works, although it's probably the most simplest thing. Anyway, I'll try my best. The yellow part of this contraption rotates and "rakes" the hay into windrows (I have a picture of that also), which makes it easy for the baler to pick up.
... That's it really. See, simple. =]

Below, is part of the process of raking the hay into windrows. For your sake, I'll spare the long explanations. In the big fields, we use two tractors and rakes with one following the other, while in the smaller pieces, only one set is needed. The tractor in the lead is known as "lead dog." In the pic below, I am in front and the raker behind will finish this incomplete windrow.

And here we have a beautiful pic, taken from the tractor mind you, of the field, not yet raked. This time, because it was our second cutting and the hay was not as thick, we did not tett the hay, so as to spread it out and to let it dry more completely. But that is another story.

The completed windrows of which the hay baler will compress into round bales.

Ta-da!

And here we come to fresh, garden, green beans. Picked, washed, broken, and canned all in one day. And, believe me, it took all day. By midnight, we had canned 47 quarts.

And another day, it was tomatoes, though that didn't take all day and we ended up with 7 quarts to add to the other number we'd canned the week before.