Weekend guests...... and 56 bales of hay.

Our friends K & B were here for an over-night visit, along with K's granddaughter E. They have all been here before, but this was E's first over-nighter in the barn guest rooms. Just like our own Miss C, E picked the bedroom at the back of the barn with the balcony over-looking the pasture. That is also Miss C's favorite place to stay when she's here for the night. K and B made themselves comfy in the cottage. The young kids just love the barn. Even if I were a young kid now, I'd be picking the cottage rooms for myself. Miss C says I'm just not a barn-girl.

The temperature must have been over 100 degrees today, but the five of us drove to Washington On The Brazos State Park. I have no idea why. Much too hot for that kind of afternoon sight-seeing, let me tell you. But K wanted her granddaughter to see it, and instead of telling the three of them to go and have a good time and we'll see you when you get back, off we all went. It's a wonder that one of us didn't have heat-stroke out there in the park. It is indeed a very beautiful park, but when it's hot, it's hot, and today was just too blessed hot for that.... especially in the afternoon.


For the past three days, we've had workers here mowing and raking and baling the hay. Today was the baling day...... this huge tractor-combine-thing gathers up the hay that was cut two days ago and then raked up yesterday. Huge farm equipment did all those chores, but the best one to see is the baler...... all that hay getting picked up, rolled up, tied up, then out it pops like a super-giant stunted Tootsie roll. Each round bale of hay weighs about a ton, and there are now 56 bales of hay scattered around our fields.

The men who did the work out there will take away two-thirds of the hay bales for re-selling, which is their payment for the time they spent here. One-third of the hay will be left here for us, and we can sell it to the neighbors who have livestock. A few of our neighbors regularly have to order hay for their cows and goats and horses, so I'm guessing it will be easier for them to get it from us. And of course, I'm thinking we'll make our hay less expensive than the hay bales that they get elsewhere.

We will now be on a regular mowing/baling schedule with the men who cut our hay this week. This work was done last year, just once, and the guy then just did one pasture and got six bales of hay for his trouble. This year-- more hay, higher hay (because we had so many tall wildflowers)-- and it all resulted in the 56 bales. Amazing to me.


I asked our friend B about that huge spider that I found on the back deck yesterday..... she did agree that it was a tarantula. B said that they don't sting, but they can bite-- the fuzzy black ones here are not poisonous, but it can make you sick for a little while if you're allergic to them. (And who knows if you are till you get bit?) B said I was lucky that the spider didn't move while I was spraying it with the Bengal Gold. She said those tarantulas are very good at jumping-- they can reach heights of three or four feet. Wonderful..... another lesson to learn and to remember.

B also said that some people keep tarantulas as pets. (Whatever for?) A friend of hers years ago had a bunch of them and he trained them to respond to his voice...... he would go out into his yard and call them and they would pop up from their hiding places in the ground because they knew he'd have special treats for them. I forgot to ask B what "special treat" would attract a tarantula. Maybe I don't even want to know.

I looked around the backyard deck and the flowerbeds out there today, to see if the sprayed and deceased tarantula was anywhere in sight. I wanted my husband to see it, to see how huge and furry it was. I am so, so lucky that I just sprayed that can of bug-spray on that thing yesterday. The thought of trying to capture it under a bucket (so my husband could see it) did cross my mind when I saw it out there, but can you just imagine if that thing had jumped into the air while I was trying to cover it with a plastic bucket?............ I would probably still be hanging from the mesquite tree out back with my fingernails clamped into the branches.

I am not an insect person, that's for certain. Can't stand them, can't look at them, don't want to deal with them, don't want to see them. And here I am..... in a Hill Country dream house..... surrounded by every creeping crawling thing from the pages of National Geographic.