Haying season was one of my favorite times growing up on the dairy farm. Great sense of well being seeing the barn full of hay for the oncoming winter.
I remember being just out of third grade, 1967, and Dad was mounting a side mounted mower on an 8n Ford just prior to our first cutting of hay. He had bought a longer bar mower and needed to drill new holes in the tractor frame to mount it. He had one of those old Black and Decker 1/2 inch drills. The old power house type that if you stuck the drill bit it would either break the bit or break your arm. Well the bit stuck and broke and a shard of it hit him in the right eye. He ended up in the hospital and lost the eye. Right when he needed to be getting his hay in.
That was one of my earliest lessons in what it meant to be part of a farming family and a farming community. Within days family and neighbors started showing up with equipment and bodies. In three days they but up the entire first cutting. My uncle, who worked a full time maintenance job at the school, was there every morning and evening to milk with my mom. Dad was restricted to lifting five pounds or less for several weeks so he could only do small chores and babysit while mom did the major chores. I was the oldest and did everything I could, but at 8 years old was somewhat limited in what I could do. Older cousins and neighbors came by a few times a week to clean barn gutters and help with whatever needed attention.
Dad was able to drive tractor for the second cutting, though his loss of depth perception caused him some real challenges at first. The second cutting was a smaller repeat of the first. Not quite so many people were needed but still a good sized crew arrived to help get in the second cutting. That put us in good shape for the winter.
Dad always went out of his way to help his neighbors and family. It was part of his nature even before the loss of the eye but became even more so after the accident. I don't think I recall him ever turning down neighbor or family when asked for help.
Chronographs, bore scopes and pattern boards have broke a lot of hearts.
