Greece Diary, Part Four: The Dreaded Bales

Before we arrived, straw had been cut in one of the fields. A couple of days into our trip, a neighbour came to bale it up. This was fairly amusing/terrifying for me as he sent me running around the field moving already-baled hay out of the way, but we had no shared language which would have made his instructions easier. Then came our task: bringing the bales from the field to the barn.

It was pretty clear from the outset that I was the weakest of the three of us. I'm not weak but I'm not very strong either. And what this task required of us was taking out a wheelbarrow, loading it up with three straw bales - two on the bottom and one on top - and wheeling them into the barn. Let me just put this out there: some bales are relatively light. These were not. Oat straw is pretty bloody heavy. They must have been maybe 20 kilos each.

I knew we were lucky to be there and was happy to be earning my keep, but man was this hard work! Fortunately we were asked to bring in maybe three loads a day, each. We got the task done gradually over time. Mostly I worked in the barn (out of the Greek heat, thank God, but in with the Greek spiders) stacking the bales.

It started out small but soon I was lugging these 20 kilo bales up to the top of a high stack, then rolling them across while trying to avoid the leggy spiders dangling from the ceiling. At least I wasn't doing this:

I consider myself lucky. Coleen and Ben, you have my eternal respect. On one afternoon however we were all put to shame when Stathis appeared at noon, loaded up a wheelbarrow with eight bales (so the legend goes - I wasn't actually present) and brought them in without breaking a sweat.

I found that where I had bounced the straw off my bare legs (shorts) and arms I was covered in scratches and cuts. I was very proud of these - evidence of my hard work! Regardless, after 102 bales of straw, much sweat and a few tears, the barn was full.

It was the hardest work we did at the farm but it was work that needed to be done (before it could get rained on, and with 40+ ponies to look after this isn't the sort of job there's always time for) so I was proud of us all for doing it. I felt like we were earning our keep! But good GOD am I glad that it's over.

Signing off for today.

Next time: Greece Diary, Part Five: 17 Cats.