Big Picture Thursday-Haystacks

Big Picture Thursday:

Haystacks:

Something beautiful and fulfilling about haystacks in a summer field.  

Before they are moved to be tucked into the safety of hay yards waiting the cold snows of winter.

 I appreciate the work and the vision that hay represents.


Families looking forward to the future and planning for that snowy day.


Swathing or mowing to cut down the hay.  At the perfect time those single pieces of hay or alfalfa is raked into rows or into "piles".  


For haystacks, the hay is layered just right to make these longlasting stacks.

 A warm memory from my childhood was throwing myself onto the base of one of these warm stacks smelling like bread in the oven.  I would be completely enveloped by the sweet smelling hay.

Or climbing and sliding down their sides if Dad wasn't looking!

Watching my Mom with a bandanna in her hair and Dad with his cowboy hat racing across the field in their created machines out of old Studebaker.

 Haystacks.  
Planning.  
Thinking ahead.  
Personal responsibility.  
Team work.  
Family.  
Harvesting.  
Deep sense of satisfaction.
Ownership.
Hard work.
Security.

Today, I don't have the privilege of haying in a grass or alfalfa field.  
I do have the privilege and honor of haying in my own way.  
Storing food from my garden.  Putting money away for a rainy day.  
Thinking ahead so I can feed my family and animals.  
I can nurture my family through those cold winter months.  Planning for those days ahead when I will not be able to "harvest" anymore.
Layers of friends and family; memories and experiences.
Building upon my family and my church.