Our Hay Days
It's haying time! Life is put on hold in this valley when the hay is ready to bale, and we drop everything to get our winter's worth of hay up and stacked in the loft before Saturday night's predicted rain.
Hay may not seem a likely topic for a blog on Habitat Gardening, but our two horses (who eat the hay) do supply the copious compost that is my essential ingredient to lush gardens and a healthy lawn without chemicals. And since it's my blog, hay is on my mind and hay will be today's topic!
So anyway, yesterday we got our first wagon load from the Andrews farm on Paxton Road:
So we got our hay elevator working and started the sweaty work of stacking 93 bales of the scratchy stuff. Before we were halfway done with this load, though, another wagon arrived. Groan. What do normal people do after work each day?
We have one load still to arrive tonight or early tomorrow. While other New Englanders head to the Cape or to New Hampshire for the long holiday weekend, we'll be loading, hauling and stacking another 200 bales. It's always worth the sweat after the job is done, though. We'll have a full hayloft to feed Rocky and Sneaks right through til June of next year, and all that hay will keep the barn insulated through the long winter.
Keeping horses is not always easy, but we sleep SO well at night during the Hay Days.
And Rocky and Sneaks' verdict on the quality of this year's hay? Eight hooves up!
Hay may not seem a likely topic for a blog on Habitat Gardening, but our two horses (who eat the hay) do supply the copious compost that is my essential ingredient to lush gardens and a healthy lawn without chemicals. And since it's my blog, hay is on my mind and hay will be today's topic!
So anyway, yesterday we got our first wagon load from the Andrews farm on Paxton Road:
So we got our hay elevator working and started the sweaty work of stacking 93 bales of the scratchy stuff. Before we were halfway done with this load, though, another wagon arrived. Groan. What do normal people do after work each day?
We have one load still to arrive tonight or early tomorrow. While other New Englanders head to the Cape or to New Hampshire for the long holiday weekend, we'll be loading, hauling and stacking another 200 bales. It's always worth the sweat after the job is done, though. We'll have a full hayloft to feed Rocky and Sneaks right through til June of next year, and all that hay will keep the barn insulated through the long winter.
Keeping horses is not always easy, but we sleep SO well at night during the Hay Days.
And Rocky and Sneaks' verdict on the quality of this year's hay? Eight hooves up!
Phew! Well, that's done. As much as I don't really like loading 270 bales of hay into the loft, there's nothing like sitting back when its all done, with a whiskey, of course, and looking at a barn full of hay. Just knowing that we don't have to do that again until June of next year makes me feel all tingly.
There's no better way to spend a long weekend with the one you love than to spend it doing chores at your own farm. Well, a long weekend on the western coast of Costa Rica might come close.
Reply to this
HEY
You, as The Blogger, have the right to write about anything of your fancy. I find enlightening to learn about horses and beetles and all the veggies in your garden. Humility comes to mind when I read that you were hauling all those bales and I only have to turn my compost before leaving for the Midwest.
Thanks and see you soon.
Reply to this