Our future next door neighbours (they will be actual neighbours once our house is finished) are small scale grain farmers. They lease about 250 acres farmland which they plant with corn, sunflower and wheat.
Because their machines are very old they cannot harvest the grain and make bales in a single pass. So making the bales has to wait until all other harvesting is done in mid autumn.
It is always a happy day when we get the call that our straw bales will be delivered! The kids also rejoice as they love to play on the bales. We specifically stack them so they can climb.
Even the kids of friends want to come play - in this case a girl that stayed the day. The kids love it when they have a friend for the whole day - plenty of time to play together, no rushing parents and deadlines.
We managed to take a few photos of the climbing games at sunset with lovely warm light.
Soon enough we'll start mulching the fruit trees and the vegetable beds and the pile of bales will dwindle... Until next year!