Another area, in which we always had a lot of fun as kids, was playing in the hay and straw bales. With both mows full in late summer, we had an endless supply of giant “LEGGOS”!   The main thing we did with both the hay and straw bales was to make forts and caves, mainly caves. The forts served us well in “later kid years” as bulwarks for our BB gun fights.  The forts got quite large and elaborate with lighted rooms (using flashlights, of course!). The biggest problem with the forts were that during the big “wars” against a large “army” of kid’s that were at our place for big picnics, etc., the walls were easily toppled by enough brute force. This resulted in the siege suddenly ending as hordes of “enemy army kids” poured into our heretofore-protected fortress.  Occasionally, Tim and I had the upper hand when some of the “city kids” were voluntarily exempted from “combat” due to sneezing fits from allergies. Other times we evened up the odds by spreading the rumor that there were “large rats” that lived in the hay and straw and if you were bitten, “you would die”! This didn’t always succeed, especially with any previous warriors, but it did serve us well to keep the girls away from us.  The majority of the time we built elaborate tunnel systems in both the hay and straw. This never was appreciated by either Uncle Ned or our father, because they always said that it “rounds off the edges of the bales” and “breaks too many of them.” We were undeterred be anything they told us, and every year we had our custom tunnel system in both mows. We would make large rooms by using planks and putting bales on them. When we crawled through the tunnels, we would all of a sudden fall into the large pit. The whole system was pitch dark and any gaps that let light in were plugged with loose hay or straw. It was fun to crawl through falling down into the dark abysses and in almost total silence. The bales absorbed most sound, so even if we yelled at each other and were any distance ahead in the tunnels, all you could hear was a “muffle” at best. One favorite game that Tim, Len, and I played a lot was “bag tag.” We filled a cut off burlap feed bag with hay or straw and tied it with twine, which resulted in a semi-round object about the size of a big musk melon. One of us would take the “bag” while the rest went into the tunnel system to hide. If you were hit by the bag, then you were “it” and the game would start all over again. You really had to listen as the “bag guy” was pursuing you through the tunnels, since you could barely hear anyone crawling toward you. One time when I was “it” and as I was crawling through looking for Len or Tim, Tim was in the “double high” tunnel section (consisting of 2 bales high vice the usual 1 bale high). He climbed against the roof and held himself there with his arms and legs. He said I stopped right underneath him, listened, then scurried ahead, never seeing or hearing him!  As the summer faded into fall, then winter, the hay and straw supply dwindled down more and more. Hence, our elaborate tunnel systems get smaller and smaller, leaving us looking forward with anticipation till the next hay and straw season when our building materials would be replenished!