Second Cut is Done !

I'm sorry for all the posts this year about hay. Cutting it, fertilizing it, raking it, baling it, and storing it have taken an inordinate amount of our time this year, and when that's what you do from first morning light until the sky is too dark to work any more, well, that's what you write about ! At any rate, it's over with, at least until third cut comes along.

Too much hay and green grass is not a problem we're used to suffering in this part of the south, at least not in the height of summer, not since I moved here six years ago. History would suggest that in terms of hay, we make what we can and buy the rest. In the devastating drought of 2007, we had to buy it all, and we fed hay that year from mid-summer until the following spring. Since there was no hay to be had locally at any price, it all had to get shipped in from elsewhere. We paid as much as $ 80.00 per roll for stuff I wouldn't normally even bother to get off the field.

I can't say I'll miss the fifteen or more hour days I've been putting in for what seems like forever this summer. On the plus side we are sleeping like babies when we finally get in the bed at night. This is the first year we've had enough moisture to make all the hay we're going to feed and we'll have some to sell besides. Even when you make it yourself, it's sure not free, but it's satisfying to look at tarps and barns full of hay and know that barring disaster, we're in good shape for winter.