Hay

We need hay. For whatever reason we calculated incorrectly. We bought enough hay to get us through to second cutting - we thought! Usually in Colorado people get 3 cuttings of hay. The first is usually more grass (if it's an alfalfa grass mix of hay) and it's more stemmy - meaning more stem than the good protien filled leaves. Second cutting is better - and third cutting is the bees knees (if put up correctly)!


This time of year is BAD for buying hay. No one has cut the first cutting of hay yet. Most people are getting down to the last of the hay they bought for getting thru winter and don't have extra to sell. Prices are high. Hay is not as good because it's the stuff either no one bought when hay season was in full swing and other nicer hay was available or it's incurred damage due to winter storms - like moisture getting in to make it moldy.


We found some hay - it isn't premium hay but it's decent and as I said before - beggars can't be choosers! We picked up 23 bales on Sunday to get us through til first cutting - gulp - we hope!


We will have to revamp our hay figures. Granted, we brought home a new horse that needed weight in November. We had an extra doe. We had LOTS of babies this spring... and all of these things caused our hay to vanish.


We like to feed second and third cutting hay. We feed a grass/alfalfa mix and the second and third cuttings give us a finer hay with more alfalfa. It is less waste - cuz the goaties do NOT like the stemmy hay and won't eat it and it will be more protien for their production as well as good hay for our horses.


I think when I call our hay contact, Ellie, to put in our order for hay this year, I will up our total number of bales by 150 bales - will ask her for 550 bales of hay for the year. THAT should get us through to second cutting next year.


We used to pick the hay up from the field from a guy by the name of Schlagel. He was in his 70's and put up hay. If we picked it up out of the field before the stacker machine came, it was .25 cents cheaper. I'd drive the pick-up and Furry Husband would throw bales into the back. If I brought Schlagel a home made pie, we'd get our hay another .25 cheaper! Those were the days...
Ol' Schlagel went out of the hay bid'ness and now goes to auctions and buys tractors, fixes them and re-sells them. I wonder how many pies I'd have to bake to get a good deal on a tractor....?


When you get hay, you not only have to load it onto your truck or flatbed trailer, but when you get home, you have to unload it and stack it in your hay shed. You lift, carry and throw every bale not once, but at least two times.

We've always stacked the hay ourselves... full on heat of summer, hay chaff gets EVERYWHERE and I do mean EVERYWHERE, it is itchy and dusty and I have increasing reactions to the hay chaff/dust so that it's hard to swallow and breathe. We wear long pants, long sleeve shirts, kerchiefs around our nose/mouth just like kids playing cowboy and heavy gloves. It is very hot and sweaty work. Hay bales are anywhere from 60 - 75lbs and they are not exactly comfortable to carry and/or stack. The hay pokes you all over and is simply not pleasant in any way, shape or form. Pictures like this make me wonder just how drunk or drugged does a woman have to be to look this happy and alluring in a pile of hay? And would anyone REALLY have sex IN a hay pile? Seriously. Spend a day stacking hay and the image below would send you screamin' down the dirt road far, far, away.

Turns out that Ellie has a 15 yr old son. Her son charges .50/bale to unload and stack the hay in our shed. We paid Ellie's son last year.


We got home one day and there was our hay shed, completely full of beautiful, green, fresh smelling hay and neither Furry Husband or I had shed one drop of sweat. You could practically see the light shining down from above and hear the angellic songs. Oh, man. That feeling. We felt like we'd won the lottery. Like we was a Rockefeller or a Kennedy or a Hilton. Like we WAS somebody. We happily paid the .50/bale and I'm looking forward to doing it again this year! Thank the good, baby, bobble head Jesus for 15 yr old farm boys!