I am not all set for the winter, but I'm feeling a lot better about things. As I have whined before, we are facing a third winter with a serious hay shortage. This time, I'm stocking up.
We only have two horses and did not build a big barn. In fact, if I had it to do over again, I'd do it all over again differently. If you are thinking of building a barn, go talk to other small barn owners. I did most things wrong except the size, shape and usefulness of the stalls. I've got a hay loft, but no good way to put hay in it. It doesn't hold enough hay, so we put the hay where the horse trailer should go. I have many complaints about decisions I made, and no one to blame but me.
Anyway, with two horses I'll need a bale of hay a day from October through May. Right now I have 150 freshly cut bales stuffed into the hayloft and the horse trailer garage that's now a hay garage. I could use more hay, but that's all the hay that fits. And it's the best position I've been in yet as fall approaches. Who knows. Maybe we'll get more and put it on the house porch. It would be worth it!
So, I've got hay. And I'm over being sore -- our last 100 bales came with the deal that we had to help unload it. Hay is heavy and it was hot, too. Hay will also scratch your bare legs if you are wearing shorts.
If you're a horse person, you probably already know that hay with too high of a moisture content can spontaneously combust. The hay we bought it quite nice, but we had a bale of hay that broke open when we were unloading it so we put it into a wheelbarrow, moved it out of the horses' reach and didn't worry about it.
Then it rained. I made sure we fed the hay in the wheelbarrow first, because it was wet. The second morning I went to use it and was shocked to find that the wet hay was hot! Just like that! Fresh cut bale of hay, some rain, and HOT HOT HOT! Hmmmm. Great science project for somebody.
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