Farm Dreams: Bucking hay is 'more fun with a friend'

Despite suffering from hay fever, Micah Klesick dons a surgical mask and starts bucking hay that his brother Aaron baled earlier. In recent days he estimates he has tossed more than 1,000 bales onto the family farm's trucks. The tightly packed bales can weigh 80 pounds each, so it is no minor chore for a 16-year-old, or anyone else.

Hay bucking is the stuff of farm lore. A big, strong worker may be outdone by a smaller person who has mastered the technique. Micah said it isn't so hard to do once you learn the right moves. But that may be the teenager in him talking.

Between hay fields, Micah works alongside his friend, Nathan Lama, 18, weeding row after row of crops by hoe and by hand. Weeding alone, he said, takes 30 to 40 hours each week. But he doesn't mind. The tedious work is "a lot more fun," he said, "with a friend."

Whether weeding rows that, end-to-end, stretch into miles, or bucking hay, Micah and Nathan talk a lot about hydrogen experimentation. "It's my summer science class," Micah said. "I'm interested in developing hydrogen-powered engines."

The great conversation, Micah said, makes the long days under the hot sun much more bearable.

Madeleine, Alaina, Emily Klesick and some of the young people who work in the family produce business, take a midafternoon romp in the hayfield, racing from bale to bale, turning them over so the bottom side can dry in the sun.

"We always run when we turn bales," Emily said. "It's just more fun that way."

Andrew may be a little small yet to toss hay bales, but he can drive one of the farm trucks while his brother and the others load it with hay.

Andrew clearly likes driving the truck, but said the most fun job on the farm is driving a tractor.

He said he learned on the old red Farmall, using the clutch and shifting gears.

"When I was young, I'd sit on my dad's lap and learn to drive it," the 10-year-old said.