Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: Illustrate the meaning of “Don’t Try to Walk before You Can Crawl” (without using the actual phrase or literal example). (01/17/08)
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TITLE: Riding on Top of the World | Previous Challenge Entry
By Emily Gibson
01/18/08 -
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As I’ve worked all the different hay crew jobs over the years, I marvel at my children now learning the progressive roles. I watch gratefully as their younger back leans over to pick up those bales and their nose gets congested with grass pollen. There are advantages to being "older" at times.
It takes teamwork to make a hay crew function. There are different jobs, some simpler, some more complex, but all crucial to the eventual goal of getting the hay safely in the barn. A leader on the crew is essential to direct individuals to the different jobs, and to rotate them as needed to rest the most heavily worked, or cool off the most overheated. They teach a new skill to someone who has yet to learn being part of a hay crew means not whining, no matter how itchy, sweaty and miserable you are, because you are safe in the knowledge that everyone else is just as itchy, sweaty and miserable as you are. There is necessity for good communication: if the driver doesn't listen to the people on the wagon, or the bale buckers don't indicate who is going to grab which bale, it is chaos. There is no slacking off because it is immediately noticed by everyone else. And incompetence becomes readily evident though tolerated primarily in the young and in the city people who don't know better. Teaching others the job on the fly can require patience and understanding of "having been there once myself.".
Stacking hay on the wagon is an example of the most advanced hay crew jobs, reserved for the strongest and most experienced. Done incorrectly, it can result in a significant inconvenience (and possible danger) of a load tipping off the wagon on the way to the barn. Done carefully, there is nothing that can disturb that load. It is secure and solid.
Members of a hay crew, at least for an evening, become best friends. They laugh and commiserate and tell old stories about previous haying years. They eat a great meal together and drink way too much lemonade and ice tea and agree that this is one of the best ways to spend a summer evening. They look at each others' dusty faces and grass strewn clothes and hair and know they all look alike for a few hours. They admire the snow covered mountains to the east glowing orange with the sunset while eagles and hawks gather overhead to dive for newly exposed rabbits in the hayfield.
Best of all, after working their way up the hay crew jobs, they get to ride on top of the world, where the cool wind refreshes and life simply doesn’t get any better.
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