A New Place for Hay

     Well this was the weekend to finally finish the shed for our fall hay cutting.  We have a list of things that we need to be doing before cold weather comes.  The calves have outgrown the small lot we fenced in for them in May.  We need to add another pasture if we are gonna use grass to sustain them.  We are having to feed a lot of hay to make up for the small lot they are on.  Our chickens have made our barn a HUGE MESS.  We need to switch places with the goat lot and get them out!  They bother Bernice, our milking goat. When I am trying to milk her, they create a most unpleasant experience for both of us.  They eat her food, fly up on my, and her back, and they try to look in my milk bucket while I am milking!  Don't get me wrong, I love my fresh eggs, but.....come on girls!!!!  The barn needs a coat of paint on it since it is saw milled wood.  Oh and about 30 other little things that I couldn't even name.
     The hubs came in and proudly announced Friday,"I am gonna get the shed finished if it kills me!"  True to his word first thing Saturday he and dad were at it.  This project has been going on for quite sometime.  A few months back we knew we were gonna need a shed for hay.  The barn is just too full of animals and tools.  We began looking at homesteading blogs for ideals.  How could we build a shed and do it VERY inexpensively?  We just decided we would make it out of logs!  We have a lot of trees on the property and they don't cost a thing.  Pines, don't you just love them?  That was our choice, so about 6 weeks ago dad and hubs set out to haul them in.  Then life happened....  I wondered how long it would take them to get back to it, there has been much rain delay figured into this project.  They can't drag out all the logs needed unless the ground is dry enough for my dad's large tractor.
      They finally did get three logs in the ground 3 weeks ago and then it just stood there like a redneck tribute to Stonehenge.  I am sure people had questions about what we were doing......
     The guys did, however, finish their project by Saturday afternoon with only a little bloodshed, and help from our oldest (he would be so glad I mentioned him.)  Now, please don't bring the levels, cause you know our woods only produce the straightest pine logs around.  No, seriously  it is neither level or straight!  But the total cost was around $25!  We probably used $20 in gas for the 3 tractors we used.  Yes, I said 3, and it took everyone of them.  The screws were left over from the barn build, cost would be around $5.  So, anything you imagine is possible if you have a little ingenuity and grit. 
     I am thinking that the most heavenly part of the weekend had to be for my oldest.  He got to spend the day with his Dad and Paw, learning to work like a man.  Enjoying their banter as they work.  I never got to meet either of my grandfathers.  They both died long before I was born.  My kids are so blessed to know both of theirs and a great-grandpaw!  I know he will remember that weekend he put the roof on the shed.  He will remember Paw bringing up the tin to them in the bucket of the tractor, while they pulled it off and put it into place.  I wonder if he will ever pull in our driveway and pass that shed without thinking of that.  I have to smile, because I know that those are the things we remember when we grow older.  The moments we share with the adults in our lives as we are growing up.  The reality of it is, he IS growing up, right before my eyes.  I wonder where we will be in 5 more years.  Will our "simple" life appeal to him, I hope so.  I hope he will look back on these days and remember getting to grow up at home.  My biggest prayer is that he will grow to know the Lord more everyday of every year.  That is where he will find his true calling in life...be it the farm, or the city.