Haying

From Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder

"Now it was haying time...Swish!  swish!  swish!  went the scythes, while Almanzo and Pierre and Louis followed behind them, spreading out the heavy swathes with pitchforks so that they would dry evenly in the sunshine...

"Father and Royal pitched the windrows into it (the hay-rack), while Almanzo trampled them down.  Back and forth he ran, on the sweet-smelling hay, packing it down as fast as Father and Royal pitched it into the rack."

"The sun grew hotter.  The smell of the hay grew stronger and sweeter.  Then waves of heat began to come up from the ground.  Almanzo's brown arms burned browner, and sweat trickled on his forehead."

"Father and Royal pitched the hay into the hay-mow, while Almanzo took the water-jug to the well.  He pumped, then jumped and caught the gushing cold water in his hand and drank.  He carried water to Father and Royal, and he filled the jug again.  Then he rode back in the empty hay-rack and trampled down another load.

We did five loads of hay from our little 1 acre field.  We did not cut it ourselves.  Mercifully, a nice neighbor cut it, but he was too busy to bale it, so here we are being pioneers again.  Maybe I should start having my children call me "Ma".

The best part of the day was the end.

"Mother met him on the back porch with the milk-pail, brimming full of cold egg-nog.  

The egg-nog was made of milk and cream, with plenty of eggs and sugar.  Its foamy top was freckled with spices, and the pieces of ice floated in it.  The sides of the pail were misty with cold...he dipped the dipper full, and he drank.  The cold egg-nog slid smoothly down his throat, and it made him cool inside...Father always maintained that a man could do more work in his twelve hours, if he had a rest and all the egg-nog he could drink, morning and afternoon."

I did make egg-nog just because after cheerfully telling the kids how fun this was and telling them they were just like Almanzo, they quickly reminded me that Almanzo got EGG-NOG at haying time!  I couldn't argue with that and the egg-nog was so fabulous that we'll never have that gross syrupy stuff at Christmas again.  Here's the recipe - and don't mention that it has raw eggs in it.  We're pioneers, remember?

Most Fabulous Egg-Nog

4 eggs, beaten hard

1 cup sugar

1 quart milk

1/4 gallon vanilla ice cream, softened

1/8 tsp nutmeg

1/8 tsp vanilla

Beat the eggs and sugar together and cool in fridge for at least 30 minutes.  Add milk and ice cream.  Stir until ice cream melts.  Add nutmeg and vanilla.  Then put an EXTRA scoop of ice cream in each glass, pour in the egg-nog and sprinkle extra nutmeg on top.  Enjoy.