Yes, that’s me, Ella, up on top of the hay wagon with brother Hal. Sister Bessie took the photo. She let an author friend of ours use the picture on the cover of a children’s book he was writing. But guess what he called this photo” – “The Boys Bringing in the Hay.” Guess he didn’t think a girl should be up there.

I don’t think “boys” was the right term either – after all, I was almost 60 then and you were already . . .

That’s enough!. After all, I’m the youngest. Anyway, we are supposed to be talking about sustainability. You know that was a load of energy we were sitting on top of – about two tons of it.

Yup, Ella’s right. That’s a load of energy – really solar energy. That hay powered all the workhee-aa on the farm, and it powered the horses that took us to church on Sunday. Not only that, but back when I was a boy, every year we sold 30 tons of hay to the New York City market. The whole transportation system there were hay-burners – the taxis, the delivery wagons, the trolleys, everything. No need to burn fossil fuel and fill the atmosphere with CO2. Everything was totally sustainable.

And not only did we send hay there, but people in the city sent their horse manure back out for farmers to use as fertilizer on their fields. It was a real recycling system.

Now go out behind the barn for the final stop on this trail to meet our little nephew Halsey Corwin.