Joy! our long job of haying is over our grass it is all mowed down & gathered to the barn, filling the barns quite full though less than last year. We have cut our oats & gathered them also (16 loads) We finished haying yesterday & oating to day. This is a job I am always glad to finish, for it is work, work, work, from morn till night & day after day, too confined a life to suit me, for I was not born to be a Slave, to work, or any thing else. No and although I love work, yet when continued in one ceaseless routine of toil & on one thing ( & that to hard a one as haying for 6 long weeks or half the pleasant season of Summer, it becomes a drudge & a hardship. I love a change, and now the hour has come when I can obtain it, and some hours & days of leisure. I want time to enjoy the beauties of the fields & gardens, the face of nature clothed in loveliness & majesty. I wan to enjoy life while it is yet mine to enjoy, & in agreable [sic] pursuits & ways. To improve in wisdoms whose paths are peace. This is indeed a lovely world & we all ought to enjoy as best we can, & we should. But can we if engaged in incessant toil.
We have cut about 35 or 36 acres of grass drawed 184 loads & 74 tons of hay to the barn, accordingly to C’s estimate last year 76 tons