Out with the old, in with the new...

This is the time of year to ready our barn to receive the hay and pelleted bedding that will get us through the winter. This is the area in our barn that holds all our hay...last year it was 300 small bales of local hay and 44 bales of teff for our sweet old Maddie. Well, our winter turned out to be quite mild compared to the previous winter, so we have quite a bit of hay left. I'm not complaining, but poor Frank had to move the old stuff out of here. Nothing worse than moving stuff twice. So now we have to pick up all those pallets, clean out the old, spidery hay that's trapped underneath and get the cobwebs out so we can stack all the new hay in here when it comes.


So this is the last 9 bales of teff as well as my first ton of pelleted bedding. I have 1.5 more tons of bedding coming yet. I am going to buy more teff this year, so I can give it to everybody, not just Maddie. My farrier and I are going to go together and bring in a truck load. I think I'll need about 8 tons.


These are the 30 or so bales of local hay that are left. We put up a temporary gate at the end of the barn, so of course Daisy has to check everything out and nibble on the bales she can reach. She'll be 4 on this Thursday. I can't believe how quickly time flies.


Frank has been working over the whole barn, sucking up cobwebs, with our trusty new shop vac. Ever since we heard that cobwebs are flammable, we made it a goal to get this done. This little vacuum from Sears is great...lightweight and great suction. I don't even want to think about how many spiders are in there!


Anyone who has donkeys will tell you that they are much more interested in what people are doing than horses are, and I find that to be very true. The horses will check in then move on to other things, while the donkeys will hang around and supervise during the whole project. I just love these sweet sweet girls. That's Daisy (the daughter) on the left and Lily on the right. Daisy ended up being a couple of inches taller than her mom, and Lily is a bit more spotted, but for most people they are difficult to tell apart at first glance. They're in the diet field right now as Lily got a little bit sore feet this spring, so we're waiting for the grass to get less sweet and our lower pasture mowed before they can have full run of the property again.


I keep taking pictures of dear Sandy as we will never be sure when it's going to be the last one. She is 14 years 7 months old, and still doing quite well. No health issues other than a bit of deafness and some old-age creakiness that we treat with some Rimadyl. She does have big trouble with fireworks (and thunder and guns) so we got smart and gave her a bit of Ace (tranquilizer) this weekend and she slept through all of it. Whew!

Well, the garden update is that it's been really hit or miss. Swiss chard and lettuce are doing great, as are the peas. I have tried green beans for three years now and still am not successful with them for one reason or another. Potatoes and onions seem to be coming along fine. Corn had to be replanted and is still pretty small, so it'll be interesting to see if we get any by late summer. The few tomato plants I'm trying this year (determinate instead of indeterminate) seem to be healthy and strong, but I'm not seeing any tomatoes yet as it's just been too cold. Hopefully that will change soon! Talk to you again soon!