Teddering

That's "teddering", not tottering, although at my advanced age, you might expect it to be the latter.

A tedder is a whirly-thingy that goes behind the tractor and fluffs up the cut hay.

I learned to drive the new tractor and tedder the hay after my husband cut it. We are hoping that it will be dry enough today to rake and bale it. We only cut a portion of our hay field so that we'd be able to learn without risking the whole supply.

There are entirely too many buttons, levers, gears, and gadgets inside the tractor cab. Although I drive a standard shift truck, I have to think REALLY HARD about what to push, pull, or step on to accomplish whatever it is I'm doing at the time. Hopefully, there are still enough brain cells left and the connections between them that I'll get the hang of it soon. In the meantime, it's a good thing there's air conditioning, because I'm doing a bit of sweating under pressure.

More trees are turning color this week, and the temperatures are cool enough at night that I am slowly taking plants that have summered outdoors down to the greenhouse. I've cleaned up a bit down there, and have plans to replace the ailing furnace and to upgrade some of the interior spaces.

There's a cardboard box brooder full of chicks down in the old house. It's too cool at night to put them out in the chickenhouse brooder until they get some feathers on them.