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Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Back In My Hay Day....

No, I'm not reminiscing....

It's just that Monday, I cut down the last hay for the year - then Tuesday morning it RAINED! Not a whole lot, MAYBE a 10th of an inch, but it wasn't SUPPOSED to rain at ALL!

Never trust a Weather Gypsy....

I had designs on raking AND baling it today, but things got away from me and all I got done was the raking. I'll have a little "touch-up" raking tomorrow "noonish", then get out the baler.

I actually enjoy putting up hay, except for the picking them up and getting them into the barn part. THAT just plain ain't no fun anymore. At least I have the "Bale Basket" that collects them into piles so we don't have to "chase" them down. Deb always comes out and helps with that part, too. It takes us a bit, but we get it done.

I'm always glad when the cutting part is done. I use a New Holland "Haybine", so it makes it nicer, but it's still the longest and most boring part of the process.
The part I REALLY like is RAKING. It's also the quickest part. You just zip around and windrow everything up. It's lots of fun and any seat time I can get on the 8N is always worth it.

Baling is my next favorite of the process. Getting all those nice new "cubes" piled up and knowing that the goats (and cows...) will have some nice hay to eat this winter - it's accomplishment I like to see.

One of the best things is seeing the smiles on the goat's faces when they smell the fresh hay in the barn. They come running inside in hopes that I'll be nice and open a bale up for them.

They have ZERO concept of "waiting until winter" - they want it NOW!

I gotta admit, though, I love the smell of fresh hay in the barn, too! I also love the look of a freshly done hay field. It looks like a giant lawn.

I also discovered a couple of holes in the hay field that weren't there last year. One was a really fresh Badger hole. I filled that one, packed it in with the tractor tires, and smoothed it out. So far, nobody has returned to dig it out again. I'll need to fill the rest in before next spring....

At least, this should give us plenty for all the critters.

Right now, they're still happily munching away in the new pen. They are making great strides in cleaning everything up. They are uncovering things I forgot I had....

The dairy goats are trying to pull a fast one again. They hurry up and eat their grain, then try to come out and "double dip" by stealing the calf's food. I found out that they are a gullible lot, though.

Yesterday morning, they were trying to steal the food from the blind calf
(The NERVE of some people - stealing from a blind guy....). I didn't have any grain handy, but I had an EMPTY bucket. I just shook it and they came RUNNING to see what I had. They happily followed me right back through the gate into the other pen so the cows could eat in piece.

"Suckers!"

Of course, once they got through, I closed the gate, then went and got them some grain.

I guess they aren't the only gullible ones....

2 comments:

  1. Yep I'd say they knew exactly what they were doing...it's YOU who thought you were pulling a fast one on them! :)

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  2. Yes, but at least that gets them to do what you want.

    Kathy T

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