Red-roofed barns, silos, and rolled bays of hay may seem ordinary if you live in the country, but they were exotic enough to cause a group of city-dwelling photographers to pull off to the side of the road this past weekend to photograph them.
Never having lived or worked on a farm, I have a romanticized vision of life on a farm, of living close to nature. There is something almost idyllic for me in a setting like the one in the first photo.
As for rolled bales of hay, I don’t quite understand them. A lot of the cowboy movies that I grew up with featured muscular cowboys tossing around bales of hay that looked nothing like the ones in the second and third photos. These bales look like giant Shredded Wheat biscuits that would require a huge bowl and lots of milk to soften up enough to swallow. I remember from my childhood the scratchy sensation in my throat when I was in a hurry and swallowed my Shredded Wheat cereal before it had absorbed the milk.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Hay, hay, hay, city boy! Yer right as a turn south out of an eastbound gulch. Shucks, my pa and me used to toss them things around like they was marshmallows. The thing about these newfangled contraptions ain’t that they weigh so much, but that a guy just can’t get a good grip on ’em. And even if they weren’t so consarned round, you couldn’t lift one up high enough to stack on another, even if ya could pick it up. What do those young whippersnappers do for exercise nowadays, anyway?
At least the round ones are photogenic (and one of my fellow bloggers is able to photograph hawks perched on them). It is easy to forget that what is “normal” for us in terms of scenery and wildlife may well be “unusual” for folks living in another part of the US or in other countries.
I remember throwing many bales of hay up onto hay wagons when I was younger, and It wasn’t any fun! I don’t know what the story is with the round ones, but I imagine it must be cheaper and easier on the farmer. It’s too bad that you don’t have more time to spend in the country.I think you’d have a ball if you did.