Slow day yesterday, for everyone except people with fields of hay that need cutting. It rained like hell here over Memorial Day, so they’re behind.

We mostly grow two things in this part of Texas, neither of which you eat. Well, not directly anyway. The first is hay.

With all the rain this stuff is ready to go, and folks have been at it all week, even though the fields are still pretty wet.

Even if you aren’t paying attention to the fields, it’s pretty easy to tell that they’re very muddy.

The other thing we grow around here is corn. But it’s not people corn. It’s feed corn for cattle. When this stuff is ready to go, it will look dried up and dead. But apparently that’s how cows like it. I haven’t checked on it, but I’ve seen them eat it so I’m willing to let it go.

Most of the hay that gets cut here is rolled. It’s nice and compact and easy to handle (with those long pointy spike things on the back of a truck). Those things always made me nervous but then I remember films like The Omen.

One thing you can’t do when you cut this stuff and bale it, you can’t bale it wet. Wet hay will start to decompose, and the temperature of the decaying plant inside the bale will get hot enough to start smoldering and eventually ignite. Farmers down here have an expression for people who cut and bale wet hay, if they see it burning out in a field somewhere. They call them “dumb asses”.

Dave in Texas don’t know if that expression is used in other parts of the country.

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