Iowa Farm Life in Winter

Fresh snow from the night before had Jim plowing us out most of the morning. They'd predicted only about an inch, but we got 5 or 6 here. The horses enjoy pawing around in it to find grass though.
We'd been saving some of our last bit of hay for one of our best customers, so this weekend it was time to deliver it.
We had some great help from two of our neighbors' boys, Alex and Daniel Nowysz. It took them over and hour to stack up these 200 bales. That's some stack, eh? Thanks for the help boys!!
Then we have to make sure they're tied down tight so we don't loose any on the way. Unfortunately, this job took all day and it's still an hour and a half drive to deliver. We really love our hay customers, but with all the time and energy hay takes... getting equipment ready or fixed, deciding when to cut it, cutting it, praying it doesn't rain, raking it, baling it and stacking it on a wagon, re-stacking it in the barn, moving equipment to get into the barn, stacking it again on a trailer and then unstacking it again, to deliver it, ...only reminded Jim just why we can't be in the hay business anymore. -AND why Farmers have always had our utmost respect :)