Hay hauling "olden day style" (in other words...OUCH)

My husband's uncle hired him to haul 600 little bales of alfalfa to Payson for him. My husband thought that he'd made a pretty good deal. He then asked me, his very out of shape wife, to help him. His pretty good deal went down the drain with that first mistake. The bales are already stacked in the field, we just have to throw them on the trailer, stack, and haul. We were informed that there would be a crew there to unload the trailer when we got there.
Day 1
2:30 pm 95 degrees- long sleeved shirt, allergies, -wimpy sneezing wife helps load about 16 bales to amazing, strong husband's 200 on the trailer. We then load kids up, strap down hay, honk at Hayes on the way through town because he has scouts after school and then head to Payson where the "crew" waits to unload us.
5:30 pm scheduled time to unload. We wait, and wait, call the lady, no answer, drive around to see if we are in the right place and then go back (during rush hour with a loaded trailer) and wait, call the lady, no answer, and wait some more. My husband then makes the comment "What women doesn't have or answer her cell phone"? Then some 80 year olds show up and ask us if this is the girl scout hay. Earl looks at me and rolls his eyes. They get out of the truck with gloves. I put 911 on my speed dial.
6:15 pm "boss lady" shows up and says that we are waiting for the hay elevator.
6:30 pm Hay elevator man shows up with it hanging out of the back of his 4 horse trailer. We unload the elevator to the side of the hay stack, put on our gloves and go to work. Still 95 degrees. 2- 80 year olds, a hip replacement hay elevator man, boss lady, and Earl and I. HMMMMM. I wipe out my head in the rafters while rolling hay bales to the back. I can't see through the sweat running into my eyes which are already so swollen that my head looks like a red rubber ball from elementary school. I am also sneezing so badly that I can't breath in to get any air. Unloading crew my foot!
8:45 pm We pull into the yard exhausted. Lukewarm showers, because the water heater is broke again and fall into bed. I have blisters on my "mommy" hands and just want an allergy pill. Take a couple of Tylonal for my split head.

Day 2
7:30am I take an allergy pill. I put on a cowboy shirt but roll up the sleeves.
8:30 am Get Hayes and Kalon to school. Recruit awesome brother-in-law Jess to help load hay. Loading hay goes a lot faster. Jess and Earl are amazing. I am still pretty wimpy but work up another good sweat. It helps that it is cooler. Strap down hay and decide to just haul it up and unload it ourselves instead of waiting for another "unloading crew".
11:00 am Pull Kalon out of school a couple of minutes early and head north. Jess felt sorry for us and went along for the ride. Lady meets us at the hay shed. Unloading is much faster. I drag a lot more bales today and don't throw nearly as many but the work still gets done. Again, Jess and Earl rock! Wendy's house for lunch on the way through Nephi.
2:00 pm Exhausted! Get home and pretty much die but I can't because I'm a mom and mom's do a million things so I keep doing the million things on my list. My muscles don't hurt. My hips and elbows do. When did I go from muscles to joints??? Maybe I'm not in as bad a shape as I thought?!? Okay, I know wishful thinking! My arms look like a crazy cat got a hold of them but it was a little cooler.
Day 3
7:00 am Take an allergy pill. Coolness over protection today. A t-shirt is so, so, so much cooler. Feed kids and get ready. Call for Aunt Tammy to take Hayes and Kalon to school.
8:00 am Pick up Jess again who is again, so willing to help.
8:45 am Start loading hay. It goes even faster than the day before. Again, I'm hardly any help compared to the boys but I do what I can.
9:20 am Finish loading. NEW RECORD! We don't even call lady today. We drive up, I kind of slide out of the truck and crawl slowly and carefully onto the trailer and again drag bales. We unload in record time and are home by 11:40am. I feel like I have been through the ringer. No naps for mommy though. On to the demands of motherhood.

That night as I ran over to my friends house, she commented that I looked skinnier. Okay, I'm getting on a hay crew full time! I may not be able to walk for a few days though.

(The first days unloading crew were very, very, very nice people and we never did use the hay elevator. They chained it to the hay shed and when we needed it on day 3, we couldn't use it.)