making hay while the sun shines

Farming, man.  It's stressful.
This year we decided for the first time to cut and bale hay.  The thing with this process is the hay needs to be cut, allowed to dry on the ground for a few days, and then baled.  And the thing with living in the tropics, and this being the rainy, hurricane season, is that it rarely goes for more than a few days without raining.

This is the day we cut the grass-- notice, the nice, sunny blue skies.

Adding to the stress is that the farm does not own baling or mowing equipment, so we had to hire them... and Belizeans as a whole are quite relaxed about getting places on time. We spend a lot of time on the phone begging the operators to come RIGHT NOW because clouds were gathering on the horizon, and oh by the way a HURRICANE is supposed to hit tomorrow.  

And here is the baling, under grey skies....

After much worry and prayers to St Isadore (patron saint of farmers) we got all our hay baled and moved under shelter.  The weather held-- it didn't rain for three whole days-- and lucky for us the hurricane decided to go north.  Overall,  I now have much more respect for farmers who do this all the time.