We’ve nearly made it to the middle of September. I wish I could say it has been a strange couple of weeks for us. However, strange events are pretty normal around here, so we just go with it. In any case, our lives consist of things we have done before, with a few new experiences mixed in here and there. The occasional getting lost adventure keeps us on our toes, too.

The “old things” we’ve been up to? Hay. Good news on that front, though. We’re almost finished with the season! I can almost hear the hay baler breathing a sigh of relief. The sun has been setting in the hayfields much earlier lately, too. We never tire of those gorgeous sights.

The new things we’ve been up to?

Our young laying hens are coming into production. Yippee! Our older hens are molting. Either that, or the heat has them melting. I’m pretty sure it’s molting, though. It’s not pretty. Bless them. It is part of farm life and they will be perfectly fine in a few weeks.

Other new things we’ve been up to:

Educational classes at our area’s botanical gardens. The kids are loving those.

Another new thing for us: a little experimentation with our favorite muffin recipe. The result is a new apple cinnamon oat muffin. Yum.

And now that hay season is pretty much finished, Dustin and his father are concentrating on cutting the grazing pastures with the bush hogs. This helps with weed control, improves cattle eye health, and just makes the pastures look nice. The swap to a “new” job is always welcome.

In the middle of all these things, we’ve even managed to squeeze in a little humorous adventure. This story is one of those that wasn’t funny at the time, but I’m managing to smile about it now.

Dustin had finished working in one of our hayfields and needed to move his equipment home. It was mid afternoon, and a nasty thunderstorm had just rolled through. My job was to drive his tractor and baler back home. No big deal, I’ve moved that equipment plenty of times.

The problem was that the hayfield he had been working in was not a piece of property that I am familiar with. I have only been there twice. And it is located way out in the backroads of Limestone county. I mean way out there.

Dustin drove us to the field to fetch the equipment, using a route that we would not take on the return trip. I tried to listen carefully as he told me the road names where I should turn. I tried hard to remember.

I climbed into the ice cold tractor cab and quickly switched the AC off. I dislike freezing and Dustin dislikes sweating. That is a whole different story in itself.

Turns out, I misunderstood the directions I’d been given for the return trip. Or Dustin misspoke – this is still being debated. The road names I heard were Barker and Parker. Yep, they rhyme. My little boys have been practicing rhyming in our Language class. Anyways, I was looking for a road named Parker, not Barker. There was no Parker road where I was going.

After I broke out in a nervous sweat (remember the AC that I’d shut off?), I noticed the traffic piling up behind me. Where did all those cars come from? After all, I’m pretty certain we were on the backside edge of the planet. There is also very little cell service in the area. Somehow Dustin managed to get a call through to let me know the error I’d made. That was a sweet call. Thank you, honey. Love you, too!

After finally locating a scrap of roadside big enough to turn my big green tractor and baler around, I finally made a U turn and headed towards where I thought home might be. I waved at all those cars that so politely waited on me. I’m pretty sure they waved, too.

I did manage to find my way home and was really glad to see my kids. And husband. Yeah, I really was glad to see him, too. Even if he was laughing at me. The tractor and baler made it home unharmed, so that’s always a good thing, too. I suppose our lives need a little adventure in them.