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| Butch's Construction Trailer |
Justin gave us a lead on some nice Eastern, WA grass hay. I called - it was still available, so we made arrangements to go over yesterday. With rain coming down in buckets, it wasn't the best start to the day trip! The camper came off the truck & we headed to Ballard, where Butch is currently working on his latest project. It was the first time in forever that I'd been in
Wallingford or
Ballard. It was nice to go through on a Sunday - when traffic was minimal. Once at the job site, we picked up a nice big, long trailer!
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| The trailer |
Finally, after some changes to our hitch to accommodate the trailer - we were on our way! Did someone say "Rain"?
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| Crossing Lake Washington on I-90 |
The rain stayed with us all the way over the pass, but by the time we were in the traffic jam created by the highway being narrowed to
one lane near Easton - blue sky was appearing! The leaves are really starting to turn now - it's always so nice to get out into those wide-open spaces!
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| Butch & Don moving bales! |
It wasn't long until we were going off the exit ramp - I placed the call to Don & could see him waving from his field! What a great field! What nice grass! So much nicer & richer than anything we can grow on our wet side. The price was right too - right enough to make it worth us paying for the fuel & making the trip to bring a couple ton home.
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| The first bale hits the trailer! |
It wasn't long at all before it was all loaded up - tarped & tied! Now mid-afternoon, we thanked Don, made arrangements for his next cut in June & headed back to Ellensburg for a late lunch/early dinner :-) Feeling better after our meal, we were back on the road & could see that the clouds were moving east with the rain back behind it. Hardly any traffic - at least going our direction! When we got back into the Easton area, the backup on the far side went on & on & on... We couldn't help but feel sorry for the people trapped in that mess.
The rain hit hard, we took 203 from Fall City & by the time we were close to home, the rain had temporarily let up. Butch maneuvered the very long trailer into our gate - we were both thankful that we'd widened it this year! Next was the unloading! I got on the trailer & pulled the bales toward Butch - he started stacking! We'd just pulled off the last bale when the rain hit! It hit hard too! What a relief to have the job done - just in the nick of time!
i lived in ballard 4 years and am still very fond of it: ) odd that you went there to get a hay rig! one thing you never, ever seen in germany: hay on the autobahns. i asked my husband why you never see hay being moved and he said that people buy locally, hay is always delivered by horse trailer or tractor. when our field is mown, the bales get stacked on a flatbed pulled by a tractor, and it chugs away up the hill about 5 km away to its destination. i guess it's possible that some regions of germany (bavaria?) don't grow their own hay and have to bring it in on an autobahn, but i don't know. i didn't know any hay was grown at all, commercially, in western washington. i thought it all came from the eastside. i mean, i know some people mow their own fields, but not commercially. am i mistaken?
ReplyDeleteWe picked up the trailer at Butch's job site - in Ballard. We did go to the Eastside for the hay. So interesting to hear how things are done in Germany, but sounds like the "good ole days" when our farmers did the same.
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