The Loft

I have three very great fears... rather silly ones but they are fears.

1. the Dark (hate it)

2. Heights

3. Spiders (not knowing where they are)



Well, our hay loft puts all three together. Today was my day to go up in the loft and throw down hay (Melissa did it last time), and as I drove to the boys I pondered this. There was no way I could get out of it, I HAD to do it. When we arrived, I trudged into the barn. "Here it goes" I thought. I carefully placed the 10 foot ladder up against the opening into the loft. This opening is rather odd... probably 3' by 3' feet and at a weird angle and in order to get in you have to place the ladder almost completely vertical. I flew up the ladder (my thought is that if you get up faster then you can get off of it faster) and came to the opening of the loft. Complete and utter darkness awaited me there as I grabbed the beam high above my head. The next move was to place one foot on the ledge to my left that was 3 inches and the other foot on the 2 inch ledge to the right that was against the wall. Then with my feet spread wide apart I placed my elbows in front of two beams and proceeded to hoist myself into the loft. Not a pretty picture, but that's what you have to do. When that was done I was laying on the floor of the loft and then had to roll over to get completely in. "Ooooooh and its dark, and there are spiders" I said out loud. Finally I stood up, but the ordeal was not over. I had to find the string to turn the light on. This string is amongst all sorts of spider webs and gross stuff. This is the time that I become Hannah the "Brave", or at least I try to. I found the light and everything was good, well almost. I threw down the hay bales.... 1, 2, 3.... all the way up to 8 until I ran across one that I was sure has spiders. "I'll just get the others and leave that one for Melissa" I thought. But I didn't... I had to get that one out of the way in order to get more, and besides that would have been mean to leave it. So down went the "spider" bale. *shudder*. After a few more, it was time to come down. The light went off and the process began all over again, this time backwards.

I am not deathly afraid of bringing hay down, but I used to be. There was a period of about 8 months where I could not go up into the loft because I was too scared. Then I got over it. It is part of being a country girl!!!! Yay for the country, for horses, for hay, and for LOFTS!