Drought and water rights has made this year the year of no hay. It's never been this hard to find hay to feed the animals on the farm. Grazing is now exhausted, except for the sheep, they love to eat weeds and there is still some work to do.
Unfortunately all our sources were unable to make our yearly delivery. Our animals love mountain hay which is cut just once a year in mid to late August. Just by chance we happened upon a hay company that had just locked up a farms worth of hay from Westcliffe Colorado.
The only problem was that it came in large bales 3'x3'x8' weighing 750 pounds not the 60 pounds of a small bale I usually get, oh my! Could we store that size in our hay barn, yes, but how do we unload a semi full of it? Luckily our dear neighbor came our rescue with a bigger tractor than ours with its handmade hay fork that he had welded together himself!
Here's to luck, finding that hay, and to the gift of kind neighbors and my dear husband. Our hay is now stored for the winter, yes, through the whole winter!
Fall is for storing up food and preparing for winter, isn't it just around the corner? Now how do I handle these large bales, that's my next adventure.
~Deb
*Last time in Barn Stories: Summertime