Stocking up

About a month ago we finally got our first load of hay that will feed our animals through the winter. Since then we got a second and third load of hay, so the barn is filling up fast.

Jonathan, who has now gone off to college, helped stack the first load.

Don't worry. Mike wasn't throwing that bale of hay at Jonathan.

Yeah, I was having fun taking pictures and trying to get all the bales in mid-air.

And this is what it looked like when that first load of hay was stacked. You see who immediately took advantage of that hay stack? (way up on top!)

We all know that the real reason barns have hay stacks is so that the barn cats have a place to hang out. This is Patches, our nine-year-old barn kitty who was dumped out here as a kitten.

Since I took these pictures, we've had two more loads of hay, and this side of the barn now has hay up to the ceiling, and the other side is about half full.

Hay, hay, hay!

We've been stocking up on hay to get ready for the winter. Most years we have to start feeding hay daily to all the animals somewhere between October and November, depending upon how cold it gets and how early. When our last load of hay was delivered, Mike told me that it would take him about twice as long as normal to get it stacked in the barn because our son wasn't home to help.

"Well, I can help!" I cheerily chimed in, feeling slightly insulted that he didn't even consider asking me.

True confession time -- I have never stacked hay in the past because our children always helped.

Without even cracking a smile, Mike immediately asked me whether I wanted to be on the hay wagon and unload or be on the hay stack and stack the hay as he tossed it to me. I opted to be on top of the hay wagon because unloading sounded easier. After all, I would have gravity on my side.

So, here is Mike waiting for me to climb up on top of that stack of hay and then to climb on top of the hay rack to start tossing him bales to stack.

And here is Mike tossing hay from the hay wagon to the stack of hay.

What was that? You thought I was supposed to be the one on top of the hay wagon? Yeah, well that was my original plan, but it never occurred to me how high I would have to climb. I am only slightly afraid of heights. But I do have a huge fear of falling from things that are high. I was not at all prepared for how unstable the hay would feel. Or the fact that climbing up onto the top of the hay rack meant that I'd have to jump from a bale of hay that feels like it's being crushed under my foot and somehow pull myself up on top of a wobbly hay wagon. How exactly was I supposed to pull myself up on a bale of hay that weighs about one-third as much as I do? I briefly pictured myself falling to the floor with a bale of hay landing on top of me. Yeah, it was rather unnerving.

So, I told Mike I'd stack hay. As he tossed each bale to me, I moved it into position on the stack. But I wasn't prepared for the fact that my foot might slip under a piece of baling twine and I might almost trip and fall off the stack of hay -- several times. Within ten minutes, I said, "Maybe I'm not the best helper." And Mike quickly suggested that I might have something more important to do. I agreed. So, with a great deal of relief -- he was probably as relieved as I was -- I climbed down from the hay stack and took a few pictures and then headed into the house. So, here he is stacking the hay that he tossed.

And here is a picture of Pepper supervising from under the hay rack.

I'm sure I don't say this enough, but I'm so thankful to have such a big, strong, healthy husband!

Hard decisions

Mike and Jonathan just unloaded 100 bales of hay, which brings us to about 200 to get us into April. Jonathan, Katherine, and I talked about how much hay we're feeding every day, and it's mind boggling -- five bales a day! So, now we have enough for about 40 days. Even if we did buy more hay, that would bring us to more than 600 bales for this winter, which is ridiculous. I don't even want to think about how many dollars that totals.

We'll start seeing a few blades of green grass in March, and the lawns and pastures will be solid green by early April. However, it can't be counted on as a serious source of food until May. It just doesn't grow very fast when it's still cold outside. So, something has to change.

I just emailed pictures and info on seven sheep to someone, so if she buys them, that will reduce the number of sheep by more than 25%. The other obvious reduction that can be made immediately is in goat wethers. My mother always told me, "Never say never," but you know, there are times when you think that it's perfectly safe to say that you will never do something -- like, "I could never butcher one of our goats." Part of me says that it wouldn't help that much, but then three goats is 10% of the herd, so that would make a difference, especially when one of them is a standard-sized goat, so he probably eats as much as two of my Nigerians. There's a part of me that has no trouble talking about this, but there is also the part of me that can't seem to pick up the phone and actually make the appointment with the slaughterhouse.

Hay and horses and goats and sheep

It's amazing how every now and then something knocks me down, and after spending a few hours in bed, things look a lot clearer. Today it was a migraine. I got only three hours of sleep last night, and then I woke up with a migraine, which just got worse and worse until I finally surrendered around noon and went to bed. I couldn't sleep for a couple hours, so I just laid there thinking. One of the many things going through my head lately is how fast the animals are burning through the hay. The front of our barn was filled with 500 bales of hay in November, and we only have about 150 left, which is not enough to get us into April when the grass starts growing. I've left two phone messages for one hay man, and he hasn't called me back, which I'm thinking is bad news. I emailed another person, and she responded right away, saying that they didn't have any extra to sell.

When I look at how many animals we have and whether or not we need to sell or butcher any, I always think that it's not a problem to take care of one more and one more and one more and . . . And I seriously underestimated how much more hay would be eaten by the new additions to the farm this year: two cows, six sheep, and another llama. Then I remembered something that a speaker said at the conference earlier this month: to be sustainable, you need to be producing your livestock feed on your farm. Yeah, that was a goal initially, and I forgot about it somewhere along the line. Now I understand why people and businesses put their mission statement front and center, where they're looking at it every day.

So, here are some obvious observations and solutions. First, I need to say good bye to the two horses that are here. When we moved out here in 2002, we had more than enough to feed our livestock, so it seemed like the nice thing to do to take in a horse that needed a home. My daughter had a horse, and he would be happier with a pasture mate. So Merlot (pictured above) came to live with us. He has EPM and severe arthritis in his hock. He can't be ridden. His owner said she was only looking for free pasture board. She would take care of all the vet bills, farrier bills, and other upkeep above and beyond feeding. That lasted until she got divorced a few years ago, and she stopped paying his bills. And then when my daughter's horse died three years ago at the ripe old age of 30, Merlot was very upset. I emailed the owner to let her know that Buddy had died, and I asked if she'd like to move Merlot to another farm where he'd have an equine friend. Her response ranked right up there as one of the meanest emails I've ever received. She suggested that I have him put down if I was going to "abandon" him, and that was the last time I ever heard from her.

So, I really need to find a new home for Merlot. I'm hoping there is someone out there, who is at a place similar to where we were eight years ago -- plenty of pasture just sitting there waiting for someone to eat it. I also need to contact the other horse's owner. What other horse, you ask? Well, after Buddy died, and Merlot was unhappy, I allowed another person to bring his horse here for free pasture board. I guess I'm just hopelessly optimistic. I haven't heard from the guy in almost two years, so I hope he responds better than Merlot's owner. It will be sad to say good-bye to the horses, but I can't deny the fact that they're eating pasture and hay that my goats, sheep, cows, and llamas could be eating.

I have also wound up with nine unproductive goats, and their feed bill is certainly adding up, especially when three of them are la manchas. It's very frustrating that I find myself with five wethers. The first two were born here seven years ago, and I kept them simply because no one ever bought them. (One is pictured at right.) Then I decided to keep the mini mancha wether because I was going to train him to be a cart wether. I have recently come to the realization that training a goat to pull a cart is not something I will have time to do in the next few years. I must admit, I can't do everything! I also have a la mancha wether, who I bought as a buck, but after he kept jumping fences and getting in with my Nigerian does, I decided it was too risky to have a full-size buck on the farm, so I castrated him, thinking that I'd train him to pull a cart too.

The final wether is a great example of what happens when you hold an animal without a deposit. A therapeutic riding stable contacted me and told me they wanted a couple goats for their petting zoo, and asked if I could donate them. Sure, I said, enthusiastically. I decided Nick and another goat would go there, and in spite of many offers to buy him, I kept refusing to sell him, because he was going to be donated to charity. They kept saying they'd be ready to accept him in another month or two. He is now two years old! In case you're wondering, the ninth unproductive goat is Star, the first goat I ever bought, who is now 11 and enjoying a well-deserved retirement! It's time for me to sell the other eight. That would cut my goat herd by 25%.

And I really need to start selling sheep. I had wanted to keep my flock at around 20, but this year it has crept up to 25, and they eat 25% more than 20 sheep. Really, I think I should reduce it down to about a dozen sheep. That was a very nice number as I knew all their names and pedigrees. Now I'm out there trying to read ear tags and figure out who's who. The rams are still a quarter mile away from the ewes, so there will be no more accidental breedings this year.

I can't believe the numbers got away from me like this. I need to continue evaluating what we're doing and what animals are here, and see if there are any other ways I can reduce hay consumption. There is one more hay man I can call. If he doesn't have anything, then I'll probably be losing a lot more sleep in the coming weeks. This is not the ideal time of year for selling or butchering, but I'll have to start making some hard decisions.

Tired

I can't believe I haven't posted since Sunday. I had so much I wanted to write! Then life happened. At least I only have two days left to teach, and I'll have two months vacation before starting again in August.

We had a big party for my husband's family on Father's Day, then the refrigerator stopped working. It was running non-stop and couldn't get any colder than about 50 degrees. Since it is only four years old and already needed a repair last year, we decided it probably wasn't worth saving so we went shopping yesterday and bought a new one.

I had to go to Urbana on Monday to check out my oldest child's new abode, and grading has been keeping me terribly busy. In fact, I'm getting home and then having to spend a few hours grading, so I'm only getting about six hours of sleep each night. I know six hours is enough for some people, but not me, sadly. I wish I could survive on only a couple hours of sleep each night. Sleep really seems like a waste of time, but it's necessary.

Lucky for me, Mike and the kids sheared most of the sheep yesterday while I was teaching. I've asked Margaret to write a blog post about it, but I'm not sure if she will. I did take a picture of her and her dad -- they reminded me of the Pig Pen character in Charlie Brown! They were covered with dirt from head to toes, and they smelled like lanolin.

Most of the rams and wethers still need to be sheared, so I'll probably wind up helping with them next week. Today, the hay from our field was baled, so that needs to be picked up and stacked. Problem is that only Jonathan and I are home, and it's supposed to rain tonight, so it'll be interesting this evening. A load of alfalfa is also supposed to be delivered tomorrow.

And did I mention that temperatures are hovering in the mid-90s with "real feel" temps above 100?

Old-fashioned haying

The neighbors probably think we've lost our minds. Of course, they probably think that a lot more than I realize. A lawn mower has not touched our lawn this spring. The grass on our front yard is knee-high now, so Mike has started using his scythe to cut it. The girls and I then pick it up and use it for the goat's night-time feed while they're in the barn. When we have extra, we roll it up and tie it in a bundle (using old baling twine) to save for winter feed. This works quite well with long blades of grass. Probably wouldn't work so well if you were trying to do alfalfa.

I was using a child's plastic sled to take the hay to the barn initially, but I quickly realized that its small size meant a lot of trips between the yard and the barn. Last week, I bought a "garden cart." When I saw it, with its wire bottom and side, I immediately saw the potential for a little hay wagon. I brought it home, and after Mike assembled it, he bent some welded wire into a rectangle and put it inside the cart so that we could put about 3-4 times as much hay into it before having to make a trip to the barn.

Behind the cart in this picture, you can see the grass on the left has been cut and is ready to be picked up.

In case you didn't notice my Twitter update a couple days ago, I also must issue this warning -- a scythe is VERY sharp, and it is quite possible to cut yourself. Mike sliced off the tip of his middle finger a few days ago when sharpening the blade on his scythe. "And you thought non-motorized toys would be safer," he said with a smile.

For more on why we're trying to get hay from every corner of our property, check out this post from last year.