Meaning Behind the Song:
This song I wrote about the memories I have of hauling hay with my Grandpa. I remember riding in his white trucks. He had several throughout the years. I used to go everywhere with him and many times it was hauling hay either from his old green and white barn to someone else's farm or from someone else's farm to his. I would help load and unload the bales of hay and straw and as a little boy had to use a bale hook to pull the bales before having someone else such as my grandpa, brother or another person stack them, because I was too small to lift them. Even as I got older I still used those hooks to pull the bales to save my energy to stack the bales. Grandpa had his ways of stacking bales of hay and straw and if it wasn't done his particular way he would get upset and often give me a dirty look. LOL! As a kid it made me feel bad, but now I completely understand why he did it. He meant well! He just wanted to make sure we could fit all of the bales into a single load. I remember him always filling his big tea jug, before we would go out for the day. He was a hard worker! Always up at the crack of dawn, many times before the sun came up and he would work until the sun went down. He made sure all of his animals were fed, including the peacocks that I talk about in this song. They lived up in his hayloft, where we stacked the bales and often talked!
I miss my grandpa dearly! Although I say I don't miss him getting pissed at me for stacking the bales wrong, I really do! If I could have him back and experience it all over again I would take it in a heartbeat!
RIP Grandpa Nolan (1930 - 2010)
Lyrics
(C) 2026 Hauling Hay With Grandpa - Raymond Bruns (All Rights Reserved)
Remembering Grandpa in his bib overalls
Running his conveyor watching the haybails fall
While I pulled the bails with an iron bail hook
If I didn't stack them right he'd give me a dirty look
In the hayloft where the peacocks sqauwked
That's where the haybails went and we often talked
Stacked bail after bail until the sun went down
Then take off in his truck and head back to town
Back to the brick house by interstate 44
Where we all went to bed and grandpa snored
When we woke up to the roosters crowin
Grandma would be downstairs with cereal flowin
We all sat around the breakfast table
I'd drink tang and often read the label
Grandpa would then fill his big tea jug
While Grandma would give me a great big hug
We then headed out for the long day
Headed somewhere to haul some more hay
Spent the day mostly in Grandpa's truck
Stacking bails wrong he'd say what the cluck
Then we took the long way back to Grandpa's farm
Back to his ole white and green rickety barn
In the hayloft where the peacocks sqauwked
That's where the haybails went and we often talked
Stacked bail after bail until the sun went down
Then take off in his truck and head back to town
Thirty years later I remember Grandpa and his white farm trucks
And him walkin to his Barn raisin his Great Pyrenees pups
Then feeding his chickens, sheep, and Llamas too
Getting up at 3am, no matter the weather, or how the wind blew
In the hayloft where the peacocks sqauwked
That's where the haybails went and we often talked
Now grandpa's up farmin in heaven being missed
And I'm not stacking hay bails watchin him get pissed