The writer and illustrator grew up on an Iowa farm in the 1930s as the Age of the Horse was giving way to the Age of the Tractor. Detailed sketches and color drawings illustrate the work involved - walking through the spring mud from barn to barn carrying a bucket of feed, a bird's eye view of the farmstead, cleaning oat seed with a hand-powered fanning mill, planting corn behind a team of horses, milking a cow the old-fashioned way, the details of a cream separator, threshers at harvest time and much more. Artley describes the hard work but also the fun.

Beginning with details about mowing, drying and tromping hay, the narrative moves on to explain the haystack's important purposes: to provide food, and a shelter from the wind for cows during the winter; during warmer weather, to serve as a resting and feeding place for pigs. In return, the animals' manure is used as fertilizer for the next year's hay, thus continuing the cycle.

A joyful rhyming story about a girl and her mother and the machines they use on their family farm to make hay. A girl tells the tale of making hay as Mom uses a mower for mowing grass, then a tedder for aerating the grass, and eventually a baler. Told in rhyme and illustrated with fabulous art by Joe Cepeda, each part of the process is a celebration of summer, farming, and the mother-daughter relationship. Includes a glossary.