Getting Ready

It is now mid August and time to be thinking of stocking up for the winter. 25 bales on board, enough for 2 horses for one month. Seven more loads to go! Normally i can get 35 bales per load, but my back will not allow me to get the extra tier on the truck, so I make an extra trip.

The Ford is a 7700 series and does not even notice the load when going up the steep hill coming to our place. This load is last years hay, but still good and cheap at the price $2/ bale. this years hay will be $5/bale and I will be picking up 150 bales of that.

With all the rain this year, and the great hay crops, i am surprised that the price hasn't dropped. I see signs that people are exporting to drought areas, so i guess that's the reason it is holding up.

I gave the girls a small sample and they wolfed it down. They were reaching, trying to feed off the truck when I was backing into the storage area. They have a good memory for some things!

Time goes fast when you are having fun!

Laid Back Monday

I finally figured out how to get my photos off my cell phone! It was not easy, but I finally got it with a little help from an online Samsung chat line. It turns out I had better stick with the camera from Texwisgirl as far as quality goes.

 The above shot was what an almost 5 year old does when hauling hay. He really enjoyed riding shotgun on the hay.

 When an indoor cat gets out and gets her butt chewed by dog? coyote? or? this is what happens. Not a happy cat!

It was even difficult to drink or eat. Garfield aka "Chunk" is an interesting cat with 6 toes on each foot, and behaviour that mimics a dog. She even lets Max, the Chocolate Lab, who is about 100 pounds, play with her, and hold her in his mouth. I'm not a cat person, but this one could almost make one a convert.

Hay is In!

After 3 days of tough work, 300 bales of hay are in the hay shelter, or about to be tarped. It took a round trip of 82 km and three trips to get it. The picture below shows the horses eating their second last bundle from last year. Talk about going right to the wire! Note the empty hay shelter in the background.

The 18 foot trailer hauled by a Dodge 3500 made short work of it, once the hay was loaded.

 The largest load was 135 bales, piled 5 high. I gave up on that because heaving the bales up that high then climbing up to stack them was getting into the area of no return, and lots of sore shoulder muscles.

 It looks a lot better with 140 bales in the left side and 140 in the right. The stuff parked outside will be tarped and used first. If you are wondering about the two coloured roof, the supplier ran out of red shingles so I had to use grey on the right. Both shelters were built for less than $200 total for both.

The spillage from the trailer and from the ground was a big hit with the goils.

Boots stayed clear of the activities.

For those of you wondering about the cost of wintering over 3 horses in this part of Alberta, the 300 bales cost $5 each and weigh 55 pounds average. The diesel fuel cost another $80 to go get them. Fortunately, my friend loaned me his truck and trailer, and being retired, I work for free (cheap).

Tomorrow, I am going into town for  coffee with the folks, and then I AM GOING TO VEGETATE for at least one day!

Carrots and Hay

It was another beautiful day! My hay collection trip fell through and I figured with a free day, it was time to dig up the carrots and process them.

It was only two rows of carrots, but they produced real well, enough for 17 big feeds! They are now residing in the freezer.

The topping and tailing was not so bad, nor was the blanching. The irksome part was peeling those gawsh darn carrots. There must be a better way than using a potato peeler on them. It did a great job, but talk about time consuming! That is a bushel basket, by the way.

Anyway, they are all processed, and my short term memory loss will take care of that issue by next year. As long as I don't plant 4 rows.

The balance of the day was lining up a big truck and trailer to go and get the winter hay supply. My supplier for the last 5 years, decided that they didn't have enough to sell this year. I found that out Friday after talking with her since July. It looks like they waited too long and the hay went brown and moldy, which is a big no-no for horses.

A few phone calls rounded up an alternate supplier about 40 km away. More work and more travel, but by the looks of it, better hay. I will be hooking up a borrowed Ram 3500 and 18 foot trailer and hauling for the next few days. The trailer looks big enough to get 150 bales on ( I hope) then I will only have to make 2 trips. The tough part will be getting it into the hay shelter since it will have to be double handled. It might be worth while to relocate the hay shelter for next year. Nope, bad thought!

The weather looks like it will hold for the next 10 days.

Wordless Wednesday...Almost

The hay is pretty much ready for harvest.

Alfalfa 

 Can you figure it out?

You can run, but you can't hide