Hay bales- the Moroccan way

While driving (or rather, riding) on the way to Rabat from Marrakech, Morocco I saw many small farms beside the highway. The ride is about 2.5 hours long, and for the most part, the scenery is rural. Out my window I saw several groups of animals and to my surprise, they were ALWAYS guarded by a shepherd. Some cows, some goats, some chickens, and a lot of sheep- regardless of the animal, a boy or man was always found nearby. Usually holding a stick, or a gardening tool of some kind, the shepherd looked deep in thought sitting on a rock, or, when about to rain, circling the group of animals. All of the animals were quite dirty- none of Mary's little lambs around, but instead, dingy sheep. Also, in the middle of these fields were small mud-brick shanties where, I presume the shepherd kept supplies for lunch and the animals, or spent lonely nights.

The fields are not what I am used to in Indiana. I mean, they host the typical crops, hay, alfalfa, beans and even, to my surprise, corn! But, the shape of the fields is truly bizarre. No, squares or rectangles or even circles for that matter, but strange trapezoidal shapes which appear to have no logic behind them. When asking my own native Moroccan, he told me that the government has jurisdiction over the property and has historically split it up again and again for years. The result: very strange scraps of land for the farmers.

Another amazing sight was the hay bale "buildings." This I found to be a truly impressive feat without the help of a crane or other hi-tech building equipment. The bales are the traditional square bales of my childhood- solid (heavy) rectangular "bricks" held together with baler twine which serve a second purpose as "handles" to move the bales around. However, these bales were not stored in barns like I am used to, but compactly stacked in building formations. The photo above is not too great as it was (obviously) taken from the window of the car. But, in it you can see a "building" constructed solely of hay bales. This one looks like a pole barn, but there were others with rounded, or domed, ceilings too! The bales were so tightly put together that nothing larger than a mouse could penetrate the stack. I wonder how the rain we received yesterday and today is affecting the hay because as any farmer knows, the struggle with storing hay is preventing mold and mildew. You can also see that in the photo there is a silo and other typical farming equipment/buildings, yet the Moroccan farmer stores hay in an artful way.