Our Little Farmer loves to carpet farm.  He loves activities and making his own supplies for the farm.  So, when we visited an older friend who has a farming set-up that little boys dream of in his basement we knew we needed some homemade round bales of our own.

Our friend gave instructions to buy a wooden dowel rod.  We purchased a 3/4″ dowel rod and another one that was 11/16″ or 5/8″.  My recommendation is to take a plastic bale that is the desired size with you to the store and match it up to the dowel rod of your choice.

We cut those dowel rods to the desired length.  We made sure they fit inside the small round baler before cutting the entire rod.  Then the Little Farmer and his dad sanded the corners of each bale.

The most difficult step was finding the Krylon “Make it Stone” paint.  Our friend had found some at a local Ace Hardware.  We learned that even if the product isn’t on the shelf, some stores can order it for you.  We also learned there are at least a few shades of green in this special paint.  This paint really gives the bales a more realistic texture.  Even little farmers know real bales of hay aren’t smooth.

Krylon make it stone spray paint. We found ours at Ace Hardware.

We talked about how to spray paint and I gave a demonstration before the Little Farmer took over.

He might have missed a few spots, but I believe that you learn by doing!

Henry had fun painting the bales on his own.  He missed a few spots, but he got more practice painting and he enjoyed “making hay.”