[AT] Old tractors and hay

[Dean Vinson]

Farmer wrote:

> The connection to hay seems stronger than just corn or soybeans.

Well, being as you're already in Shelbyville, I suspect the hay must have a
slightly stronger natural magnetic force so it pulls those folks' cars off
the side of the road when they're driving past.

The other explanation that occurs to me is the smell, and I'd pull off the
road to breathe it in for a while too.  Warm summer evening, haymow full of
freshly-stacked bales, barnyard hose to wash the chaff off my arms and neck,
icy bottle of beer to help me reflect on the day's work... and that smell of
good new hay.  If I could relive that memory every now and again I'd be
pretty content all in all.

I think we might have kicked around before the subject of smells being
powerful for bringing back memories.  The other one that comes to mind was
the bitter winter day I was trying to pull the manure chain back onto the
sprocket up at the top of the ramp on my employer's farm, which he'd
recently converted to hogs.  *#&! cold wind cutting through me while I beat
on that cold #*&! hunk of reluctant metal and tried unsuccessfully to stay
out of the slippery semi-frozen pig crap.  I guess I do enjoy the memory a
bit but I probably don't need to relive it quite so often as baling.

Dean Vinson
Dayton, Ohio
www.vinsonfarm.net