[jj]

jjo, i've been exposed to and utilized the two expressions much over the decades but i've never put the two together in the lyric with any certainty as to what GL is getting at....same with the blue moon phrase ie. the not so common occurrence of having an 'extra' full moon during a season...maybe it ties into formerlylavender's gravy/'extra' interpretation

anyhow, we use the 'better make hay' line early in the morning when there is a call for bad weather later on and there is a outdoor chore/project to be done that is time sensitive....or when we're trying to finish up a task early in the eve as darkness creeps in, quickly...so making hay is basically "getting at 'er"!

gravy usually meant getting rewards or perqs as a result of little extra effort...recently the neighbour and i needed to demo a shed...when the work was done we realized we could take some bits to the scrap metal yard for $$$...later i thanked him for the help and said 'you can keep the gravy($)'

i always liked his phrasing of the line but am not much for making sense of GL phrases (once he said of a particular penning, 'it's just a lyric')...when he follows it up with 'brings the good folk down', you could interpret 'down' more than one way...either way, for me, the song has a 'daily routine' vibe to it

char and many others likely have a more concise and conclusive response, lol