94 bales of hay on the wall, 94 bales of hay...

[altivo]

Take one down and toss it around, 93 bales of hay on the wall...

We now have enough hay to make it for a couple of months, but still need to acquire about 700 or more additional bales to get through the winter. Still no word from our regular supplier so we called a nearby neighbor who has sold us hay before. He's very nice, and less than a mile away so he can bring a haywagon over using his tractor for motive power.

He brought us a load tonight. The hay is well cured and not moldy but I think it may be last year's. And his price is considerably higher than what we paid last year. I expect increases in anything, but this is a big jump. So we're still looking. And meanwhile the first 94 bales (The first 100 are the hard ones) are all neatly stacked and ready to use.

Comments

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

One of the farmers I lived near (back when I lived in rural EAST Yorkshire) did not like bailers. Thought they were dangerous. He used to make stacks of hay the old fashioned way. Apparently it's a dying art.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

"Lost art" is more like it.

I recently got a copy of a 19th century text on practical applications of the slide rule, though. It has a whole page on calculating the weight of hay in round or rectangular stacks, with adjustments for settling and moisture content.

I don't think I've ever seen a real haystack "in the wild."

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

His were the only ones *I* have seen.

He was the only farmer in the area who still used them. I think his family was Polish (where the practice is more common), but yes it's more or less dead elsewhere.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I do have some wonderful old photos from about 1921 of my grandfather and some other men loading wagons full of loose hay into a barn loft.

I have to agree that balers can be dangerous, and they are certainly costly. The danger is not only to the operators, but to any wildlife that happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. We've found any number of mice flattened into bales, and one time a whole family of baby bunnies. That's dangerous to the horses too. While they won't eat the dead critter, the hay around the corpse can be contaminated with botulism toxin from the small victim.

[saythename.livejournal.com]

The good ole boy at work has noted that with all the
rain locally they aren't even at half what they
need. "Hayin's not been good" he said, with a spit
of chaw into the sink.

As long as I get my corn...oh look, the Corn Festival!

^_^

[saythename.livejournal.com]

http://edencornfest.com/

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Not real good for corn this year either. At least around here, the rains kept the fields flooded or muddy for much later than usual, until it was almost too late to plant feed corn.

The sweet corn we are starting to get is pretty good stuff though. I'm not a great fan of corn, actually. It's too sweet for me and besides it gets stuck in my teeth. Fresh broccoli, lettuce, and tomatoes, though, are things of which I never get enough.

[saythename.livejournal.com]

Good choices!

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

*romps over the hay bales*

[altivo.livejournal.com]

*watches as the mice trip you and pull you down into their domain underneath*

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Hello Mr mouse and Mrs mouse, how are the little mice. :)