A great day mowing hay includes two things – no breakdowns and not hitting fawns with the mower. Larry and Terry took the time to heat and reshape a broken spring on my mower – it took two attempts, but it is running better with the repaired part than it did before the break.
But the fawns made the day. There were six fawns bedded down in the tall grass – very tall grass – and I spotted all of them. Two sets of twins and two singles. I could walk into the field and herd them out of harm’s way – and my thoughts went back nearly 50 years, to a time when I did not find the fawn and herd it out of the field. On Saturday, I had six successes, and no failures.
This morning, I noticed one set of twins running toward the mowed area, then looking at the short grass with dismay. I had left a bit of tall grass alongside the drainage channel, so they have moved into it. I think that, since it is between the ponds and the garden, it is in a place that the new coyote avoids (too close to the house for comfort). The old coyote would have worried me – he was a lot less concerned about avoiding people.
So now comes raking and baling. The harvest is late as I waited for the soil to dry. I already have matched last year’s harvest and stashed it under a roof. There is a joy to farming – in most of my 25 years with USDA I worked with farmers. Now, as an old retired guy, I get to have some of the fun of farming. A friend told me of 43 calves this Spring without problems. Little calves are part of the fun, the joy, of ranching. I may not share that part – but the joy of keeping the fawns away from the danger of the mower is a great thing.
Trego's Mountain Ear 