Our world farming

A few weeks ago, Grant arranged with farmer friend, John Muirhead (his walking partner at Parkrun, remember?) to mow the large field alongside the servitude on the property. The pecan paddocks also needed mowing.

John and his son, Gavin are cattle farmers; they come and mow, rake and bale your field. They collect the bales and you've had your field cleaned beautifully. 

First the mowing

We were hiking last Tuesday and arrived home when the whole big field was almost completely mowed. 

Next came the man with a rake and set the grass in windrows 

 

 The baler was waiting to do the baling

Baling started (who can spot a bird in this photo?)

I did a photography course way back in April 2007. One of the subjects was bales of hay. With a field full of bales on my doorstep and on my walk, you can imagine how much fun I've had photographing these bales.

I set the camera on self-timer on a bale; dashed to the next bale and called Skabenga. He came running but didn't look at the camera! 

I took photos of these bales in the early morning; from the house side of the field; from the gate at the end of the servitude; during the day and late afternoon. Many of the photos below have different lighting because of this. 

 The dogs love the extra wide open spaces to run in. Note baler over the ridge

 The crows loved the mowed and baled land - so easy to find food now! 

 Our resident raptor, the Steppe Buzzard loves the mowed

 and baled land as well

  Early Saturday morning

Early Sunday morning

Every evening the drivers brought the tractors, mowers, rakes and baling machine inside. 

Skabenga spent the first evening barking furiously at this intruder! 

 The rake 

Guess who loved exploring the equipment in the yard?

 Unca Shadow strolling from the baler to check on the rake

Ambrose, King of the Castle! 

With the tractor and mower at the grape vine, the tractor reversing in next to the stables (note horses inside) and the baler (photo above this) to the left, we had to do some fancy footwork between the big house and our rondawel at night

I hope you enjoyed the visit to our life these days as much as I enjoyed sharing it. 

I'm linking to Our World Tuesday here