The last dry spell my down-the-road neighbor (or his sons) managed to cut my little bit of hay, and bale it, along with my horsy neighbor's hay. It's not very good this year, but it looks so much better baled than it did standing there full of flowers. Pretty, but not nutritious. I am so thrilled by my two bales of hay!
(The pictures are all of one bale. The other one is too close to my horsy neighbor's house. But I was really really sorry I didn't have the camera with me when I got home yesterday to see her dog lying on top of that one.)
How many acres of land do you have?
ReplyDeleteWe haven't even started cutting any hay - there is hardly any there - not sure it's worth the trouble and expense. Of course, I don't call him the Rancher for nothing, so it will probably start to go down soon.
We drove around the "neighbourhood" yesterday and only saw one fellow who had just started cutting. Of course, he lives in the rain belt a couple miles away and actually has a crop that looks half decent...
Our problem has been to find a dry spell of more than a few hours to cut some hay in. Mr. W cut his own and his sons' hay in the first opportunities, but finally last week there was another gap in the rain and he got mine and Sarah's.
ReplyDeleteIn a "normal" year the first hay would be cut in late May/early June, and the second in late August/early September. In an extraordinary year, there might be three cuttings--early May, mid July, and late September. Then there are the years, like last year, when it was so dry people cut hay when it was barely twelve inches high.
I have 48 acres--mostly trees. The clearing with the house is somewhere between two and three acres (I'm not good at measuring steep land by eye) and the creek bottom is between four and five--just enough to fatten a steer or two on, if I could keep them from escaping through the creek--and the place where the two bales came from is probably about two acres. The rest is trees.
All the real estate agents who were showing me land are also cattle farmers, and although I said I wanted lots of trees they kept showing me all this beautiful pasture, and watching me drool over it, and not quite believing me when I said "Not enough trees." Especially since I would get out and poke my fingers in the soil, and pick bits of pasture grass and taste them....
Well, I just checked our long-range forecast, and we are under a heavy rainfall warning for the next couple of days! Sheesh!It sounds as though all of the rain that didn't fall in June is going to fall in the next two days! It's probably too late to help the hayfield, but will definitely help the pasture and garden - as long as it knows when to quit.
ReplyDeleteWe never take more than one cut of hay - our season is too short - the hay wouldn't have enough time to recover after a second cut before the frost started.
Random thought: it would be really cool to have those three photos framed and hung up right next to each other on the wall.
ReplyDelete- Sagan
Just wait until I get all the pictures hung that are already framed, and see if I have any wall left! Then I'll think about it. I certainly would like to look at them often.
ReplyDelete