Soule: Here's How To Make Hay And Memories On The Farm

Farming is hard work but can be exciting and picturesque – especially for kids. Family farms are fewer these days, but plenty of grownups still cherish memories of sunny, sweaty summers amid crops and livestock.

On a recent visit to my chiropractor in Concord, office manager Joyce Supry reminisced about her childhood summers on her grandmother's farm in Tunbridge, Vt.

Each year, Joyce, her cousins, and siblings spent six weeks in the country, where her Uncle Joe used horses to cut tall grass for hay. Then he gave the horses a break and fired up his tractor to rake the cut grass into rows, a process called "wedding."

Once the grass dried, usually after a few non-rainy days, it was time to bale it. The tractor pulled the baler and the hay wagon. Joyce and cousin Sue were too young to drive the tractor but old enough to ride the wagon and stack the bales as they were tossed out of the baler. As the stack grew taller, it became increasingly unstable.

Riding back to the barn, Joyce and her cousin were perched on the wobbly bales. Crossing the brook bridge on the way out had been routine, but coming back, the wagon lurched across the sketchy wooden bridge, and the load swayed this way and that, with the girls clinging on.

Joyce never fell into the water, but the real danger made the experience more exciting than a rollercoaster ride.

Warned to stay clear of the Jersey bull, the girls tempted fate and would challenge each other to get near him.

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Carole Soule is co-owner of Miles Smith Farm, where she raises and sells beef, pork, eggs, and other local products. She can be reached at carole@soulecoaching.com. Carole also coaches humans, helping them achieve the impossible a little at a time.