The Farmer and the Cowboy

Harvest time is upon us.  The hay has been cut and baled and the winter wheat and forage pea crops have been combined and placed in the bin. Rain showers visited us for the weekend and the combines are at a momentary rest before the spring wheat and hay barley will be ready for harvest.

So, finally, I had time to deal with pictures.  And discovered a story in photographs from last week.  As the combine rolls down the row, it has the ability to leave behind a lot of straw that can be baled.  While we ordinarily chop the straw as it leaves the combine, we do reserve a few passes on the wheat field for our friend and neighbor to bale. 

It's a fairly nice tradeoff. He typically takes some of our wheat straw to use as bedding for his horses and we take some of his small square hay bales for use in the barn during calving.  Danish Cowboy has known this guy for years.  They met in elementary school and have been friends ever since.  I work with his wife, his daughter occasionally watches over our children for us.  It's a good relationship to have.

They don't see each other often anymore as our lives and interests sometimes take different, though complementary, directions.  So, when they see each other, they talk.  A lot.  Their conversation on this particular evening was also apparently in need of some good hand gestures for explanation.

Not really sure what he was gesturing at.  It is not like we live where there is a varied skyline of high rise buildings or even named and knowable mountain peaks.

Was he pointing to a particular cloud hovering over the Big Open on this particular evening, a hay bale, the imaginary gourmet grocery store or mountain glen that would be my idea of Shangri-La?

Time, dwindling sunlight and modern conveniences soon brought an end to this pleasant evening, though. 

And we all returned to our own walk of life for this time of year, although the beauty of a harvest sunset and the pleasantness of seeing friends during the busy harvest season will not soon be forgotten.