Silage

They are starting to bring in the first cutting of grass on the ranch as silage. It is a great week to do so, the weatherman says great weather for almost a week, and that is not common for this time of year. It no longer matters in my life but it sure brings back a pile of memories.

Silage and haying seasons were some of my favorite growing up. Those two times I was part of the team, not at home doing girl things i.e. cooking and the sort. It was afternoon and evening work thanks to the dew that always blankets the Island. In the morning they would either cut more grass or, during haying, use the tedder to fluff up the hay to encourage more drying. Shortly after lunch it would begin. One man on the tractor picking up the grass, two men in trucks transporting same to the pit (or barn if that were the case) and my father on the tractor in the pit packing and putting loads where they were needed. I was never allowed to participate in silage, it came about after I had graduated, but it still affected us in that Larry did a lot and Lawrence was always available to help, but never asked. He rode miles and miles each season in the hopes of being asked. It was a heartbreak for both of us.

But the part I wanted to focus upon was later in the day. Meals were catch as catch can when the work dominated during those times. So we would all eat together, my job was to make sure it was ready when needed and easy to eat and run. We usually ate outside under the trees between my parents and grandparents and had a barbecue. I would fix salads and desserts, then grill whatever was needed to be hot when they arrived. Heading toward the barn someone would say this is the last run before dinner and I would hop to it and be sure all was ready. Everyone ate together and it was always a party, it was always fun. The crew would head back to the work and I would start cleaning up and getting ready for phase two....watermelon under those same trees when the work was done for the day.

I never really gave my mother credit for being much help with those days, but in retrospect, she was very much involved. It was her ideas that told me what to make and what to do until I got things more under control. She was the one that would make the schedule for me to follow so that everything was ready at the same time, a skill that is extremely helpful to me to this day. Some of my ideas were great but not practical, and she would cross out those ideas and substitute more practical things. Lasagna was great, not so much spaghetti, that kind of thing. One held it's heat really well, the other was a problem. I didn't appreciate how much thinking went into those meals when I was doing them, but now that I am responsible I understand that she really did an amazing job of leading me through those lessons.

So the grass in now down and being picked up, and I sit in my kitchen and watch with a normal day in front of me and a little piece of me feeling very sad to be excluded from something that was so important to me as a child. No big meals today....but I will invite Joyce over for dinner again tonight so there will be more than two of us. A small blessing and a good blessing.