A Lesson from the Master

An age-old tradition of educating each generation is for the elders to teach the youth.  We had just such an impromptu session in our barn on Saturday.

Mike had promised Lillie a hanging hay basket for Blaze a while back.  So, when she came for a visit on Saturday, she took home her basket as well as the knowledge from Daddy Mike for how to fill it without getting tangled and knotted up in the process...

I don't know who was most intense for the lesson

...the teacher or the learner.

First, you find a bucket or a tub on which to spread the netting of the hay basket...

It is important to have a surface 

where you can let the netting drape down over the sides...

Once you get the netting stretched out to the bottom ring 

and the sides draped down over the sides of your bucket/tub... 

set the hay right atop that ring in the center 

there on the bottom of the basket. 

(I forgot to take a picture of the hay filling step!)

Then, you take the top of the hay basket, where the white rope is running through the rings, 

and pull the sides up around the hay...

The white rope can be pulled to draw all the rings up around the hay and be snapped to the side of the fence or the wall to hang for the animal to eat. (Yep, I forgot to take a photo of that stage, too, but this shot shows one in action.)

I just love the intensity of their faces in this photo series.  

Both, the learner and the teacher were glad to be involved in the session.  The skill is one that will be important when Lillie gets home to put the hay basket into service for Blaze and she knows it.  Mike looks so glad to be able to share his expertise with such an eager pupil.

(I also love the intensity of the peripheral audience who happen to be taking in the lesson as well, don't you?  Check out that stance and rapt attention in photo number three above!)