One Hundred Forty Bales of Hay on the Wall....

ear.


So we're getting down to the wire; much to do before the horses come but it's all falling into place nicely. That first photo is what 150 bales of hay look like, sitting on my road next to the barn.

I kicked off today with another school presentation (no photo this time) at the same school as last week. That went well and then I went to Whole Foods to get some cool stuff that you can't get in the country. I don't shop at Whole Foods unless there is something there I really want (in this case it was Meyer's counter surface cleaner, geranium scent). It's kind of fun to walk through the store and go right by the $8 tub of salsa. There must be enormous margins on salsa. Perhaps our team ought to get into the salsa business? That's one way to fund the operations.

I left Whole Foods intact but nearly got schmeared by an elderly lady who decided to make a slow, left u-turn without looking. Seeing as she was to the right of me this posed a problem but nothing a long blast of the horn couldn't fix. No harm done and on I went--to the book store. I had a few minutes to kill before a meeting but found myself surrounded by absent professor types. Bearded men with a glazed look about them. One had his long legs sticking out into the aisle and it's a small store so I had to step over his legs to browse the magazine section. It just so happened that his gangly legs were in the home magazine section and I grew annoyed at having to step around his legs. I love bookstores but officially crossed that one off my list.

Confidential to Barabara: I browsed the Bungalow magazine and saw the ad for Canmore Cottage! I immediately thought of our thanksgiving dinner in the Mayflower pub, the year my life changed for the better. Ahhh, such fond memories! I'll miss that place.

Speaking of missing places, I drove by Hoboken Hostel today. The lawn wasn't mowed and the gardens needed tending. I was sad for that, but am very content at La Bella Vita.

I got back to the farm at 1 and found Joe and we hatched a plan to get fetch the trailer of hay. First I helped him change a tire on his tractor. He's got one of those 30# rivet guns you see the race car drivers use so that was cool to watch.

I knew the fence materials for my arena were to be delivered today so we waited until that truck arrived. The semi showed up and the guy had no way to lower the pallet to the ground. It was 400# of fence material so Joe revved up the tractor, I hitched a ride and we met the trailer down at the arena and got it unloaded. Then it was on to the Weisensell farm for hay. That went smoothly; Joe and I talked in the truck on the way. He was telling me about a cow he had that could produce 100# of milk/day. That's really good for a cow.

So we hitched up the hay wagon and drove it home. We both kept an eye out the window, hoping the clouds would hold off and the trailer would stay hitched. It had been raining off and on all day and we lucked out. We got the tractor into the barn with Cassie's help then those two had to leave for a family dinner function. That left me and 150 bales of hay--but it was dry at least.

Here is what 150 bales looks like from atop the bales, looking out the barn across the street.


I went at it and got the trailer unloaded and the hay stacked in under 2 hours. It was hard work and I swear some of those bales weighed 70#. I took a few monkey bar swings on the cross bar of the trailer. My shoulder did not like that, but it was too hard to resist a nice landing in the hay.

I was going to ride Oscar but was running out of steam so I opted to call it a day. I sat on the last hay bale and took a photo of the stacked hay.

Here are my feet, atop the tired and huddled masses of hay that I'd just stacked. It smelled good in the barn, I'll say that much. This was very nice hay and from what I could tell, it looked like a mix of timothy, possibly orchard grass, alfafa and maybe some other seed. It was something the Trelay seed company mixed up especially for horses. Will have to check with Sara on that.

And now I think I must take a shower. I'm off to Vegas for a few days for work and I'm not happy to leave the farm. I love it here and wish all of you were here to see it!
til soon,
becx