If you remember from last July, we got our hay baled in the nick of time, then stacked, and later tarped against weather.
However the hay was a quarter-mile away from our house. In winter in north Idaho, that quarter-mile may as well be twenty miles. With the bales weighing a thousand pounds apiece, it's not as if we can toss one onto the kid's sled and skid it home when the cows get hungry.
So we needed to get the hay moved. Every year, a neighbor with a ginormous tractor moves the hay into our barn in exchange for hourly pay. We had a wet spell last week when he was reluctant to move the hay for fear of getting his tires mired in mud. This past week has been clear and cold (meaning the mud is frozen solid), so he stuffed our barn full.
We'd already been taking bales out of the pile for feeding our livestock, so our neighbor crammed what remained into the barn, with the overflow (four tons) stacked on pallets near the cattle feeder. We'll tarp this and use it first.
There isn't any hay left on the far field. Whoo-hoo! We're all set for winter. The weather isn't calling for much snow in the next week, but we're supposed to get some bitterly cold temperatures and nasty wind. We have to feed the livestock outside, but between feedings they can tuck themselves into our limited barn space and at least get out of the wind.
If we ever win the lottery we're gonna build a big honkin' barn so our beasties have complete shelter during the winter.
(Here's a lousy pic of the livestock eating from their feeder. I'll try to get a better picture today.)
It is *freezing* this week! (I live in Hayden.) Good thing you got that in by now. I'd hate to be out in this weather any more than we have to be.
ReplyDeleteI got to visit a little with my dad's last living relative in WV. and I'm so pleased with him and his legally blind son(my cousin). They still raise some of the finest looking cattle you will ever see and he is nearly 90 years old. They just got 11 inches of snow and their power was out for nearly 3 days. I have got it too easy!
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