July 02, 2010
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| Smells Like Summer |
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Sarah Long, Madrid
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This morning was one of the first that could go out to do chores and not where a sweatshirt. Don’t get me wrong I love sweatshirt weather, but this was a good feeling. I was able to go out in simply the short-sleeved shirt I had on, with not even a thin button up over top.
I walked out the gate over what used to be cold sticky mud not two days ago, and found a warm dry compost of soil, manure, and hay. The sun was out and the hay on the ground which is normally a deep orange from being churned into the mud; was gold, brightly colored and wispy, like the tail of the Palomino standing nearby.
I opened the barn door and I could smell the hot air from the hay pile. This smell means summer. It’s hard to describe, but if you were to get a whiff you would know. It’s not a bad smell, and it’s not strong. It’s faint and delicate but it’s definitely there. This warm, tightly baled hay is stacked neatly in our barn waiting to be thrown out to feed.
After feeding some grain and getting the sheep out of the horse’s feed dish I rolled a bale off the top of the stack and broke it open. With two swift motions with a pocket knife and a cloud of hay dust plumed out of the bale. On any other day I would have shied away to keep from inhaling the particles, but this morning I relished in the sweet grass smell. I tossed a few flakes to Bear, the Roan, Simon, the Sorrel, and Halloway, the Palomino, another to the goats and one more pile to the sheep and headed back to the barn.
This morning was more than another morning doing chores. It was a pleasant discovery and I took a little extra time to sweep up and take in the scents of the new summer.
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