He was looking at what the animals we eat are made of in terms of what they eat.
So he was out with a grass farmer somewhere in the Allegedly United States.
He was helping with the hay baling.
Hay, he said, is not nice soft fluffy stuff.
It can cut your fingers and gives off lethal dust.
This was timely as I was about to go out and spread some hay on the garden for mulch.
Bought a bale from Nino, farmer and sometime Deli owner.
Fifty bucks delivered.
Well this thing is huge: a cylinder about 4ft high and 3ft wide;* and packed together like a rugby scrum after a bath in glue.
What's more, you have to rip it apart with your bare hands.
No known tool will loosen it.
(It helps when you've worked out whether it was baled clockwise or anticlockwise.)
I don't know about those romantic films where couples sleep on piles of the stuff in barns.
Rather sleep in the overhead locker of a 747 during turbulence.
Still, with this job in mind, I found some strong gloves and a sanding mask.
The bloke on the radio was right.
Sharp as hell and giving off clouds of fine dust like cigarette smoke.
When I got back in for a few pints of water, the sanding mask was turning black.
After a day's work, I still hadn't made much impression on this monster.
Here's what's left -- i.e., most of the original:
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* = 36π, 113 cubic feet?
