It didn't go quite as quickly as I'd hoped, but we did get all of the hay unloaded and stacked away. 170 bales in the barn loft - which is not nearly as full as I thought it would look - and another 28 in the granary for quick access (and cat insulation).
We started unloading Saturday afternoon after T got off work, and with H home from college even had an extra set of hands for the first couple hours. Which was a huge surprise and a lovely gift, considering she's not at all interested in the horses. And given the fact that she only weight about 30 lbs. more than the bales do, I was seriously impressed that she stuck it out for that long.
We had the first 60 or so bales in the loft when the skidsteer started acting up. Resolving that problem and a break for supper took a couple hours, and by 5:30 it was too dark in the loft to see to stack. So call it 85 bales on Saturday.
And of course, for the first time in over a month, Sunday morning's forecast called for rain. It started to spit as the last 25 bales came off the trailer, and probably would have poured had we left some on, but we didn't end up getting enough to even settle the dust.
I guess I'm in better shape than I thought, as other than my hands I'm not terribly sore, and I sure thought I would be. Tired, though. I slept really, really well Sunday night.
Showing posts with label hay loft. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hay loft. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Friday, November 21, 2014
Yay, hay!
Upwards of 15,000 lbs. of small squares trailed me home last night.
The big round bales have been here for a while, but having some small squares stored in the barn is never a bad thing. Especially given how cold the weather has turned this fall! We stacked 60 up in the loft this summer, and another 200 will be joining them on Saturday. Really nice grass hay, averaging about 77 lbs. a bale, and decently priced, too.
A bit of cushion if winter hangs around into spring.
One of the guys at work puts it up, and he does a fabulous job - nice, tight, evenly packed, sweet smelling bales, all stored under cover. The horses loved the ones I bought from him last year. Not to mention how super-convenient it is to have to-work delivery - last year I only got 50 bales, so I just picked it up in the horse trailer. This time since with the larger amount, he loaded it (he has a bale mover attachment for his skidsteer that will grab 12 bales at a time - and boy howdy, would I love one of those!) onto his big flatbed and pulled the trailer in to work. Much easier to just hook on and drag it home from there.
He ran the whole shebang across the scale on the way into town: his truck (1 ton Dodge dually, same as ours) & loaded trailer weighed in at upwards of 33,000 lbs. Which was kind of fun to pull. I haven't driven with a load that heavy on before.
Out of curiosity, what's hay running in your neck of the woods? We paid $50 per net-wrapped, big rounds of prairie/mixed grass hay - not sure what they weigh in at, but I'm guessing somewhere in the 900-1100 lb. range based on how tight they're baled & how hard the skidsteer works to move them. That's about average for here. The small squares were $4.50 a bale, which again is about average based on what's listed on the HayExchange for Kansas ($3.75-$5.00/bale for grass hay).
(Stay tuned for further adventures as we actually get the bales stacked in the loft!)
The big round bales have been here for a while, but having some small squares stored in the barn is never a bad thing. Especially given how cold the weather has turned this fall! We stacked 60 up in the loft this summer, and another 200 will be joining them on Saturday. Really nice grass hay, averaging about 77 lbs. a bale, and decently priced, too.
A bit of cushion if winter hangs around into spring.
One of the guys at work puts it up, and he does a fabulous job - nice, tight, evenly packed, sweet smelling bales, all stored under cover. The horses loved the ones I bought from him last year. Not to mention how super-convenient it is to have to-work delivery - last year I only got 50 bales, so I just picked it up in the horse trailer. This time since with the larger amount, he loaded it (he has a bale mover attachment for his skidsteer that will grab 12 bales at a time - and boy howdy, would I love one of those!) onto his big flatbed and pulled the trailer in to work. Much easier to just hook on and drag it home from there.
He ran the whole shebang across the scale on the way into town: his truck (1 ton Dodge dually, same as ours) & loaded trailer weighed in at upwards of 33,000 lbs. Which was kind of fun to pull. I haven't driven with a load that heavy on before.
Out of curiosity, what's hay running in your neck of the woods? We paid $50 per net-wrapped, big rounds of prairie/mixed grass hay - not sure what they weigh in at, but I'm guessing somewhere in the 900-1100 lb. range based on how tight they're baled & how hard the skidsteer works to move them. That's about average for here. The small squares were $4.50 a bale, which again is about average based on what's listed on the HayExchange for Kansas ($3.75-$5.00/bale for grass hay).
(Stay tuned for further adventures as we actually get the bales stacked in the loft!)
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Our first vehicle...
When I went out to feed this morning everything had the faintest coating of ice. We had just enough rain/fog to create a glaze overnight, I guess. At least the wind that was picking up was out of the south instead of more of that chilly northeast stuff.
I waited until things were damp instead of crunchy, and took the horses up. They walked up politely enough, but the minute all of them were loose, took off for the backside of the field as if I'd lit their tails on fire. A big sweeping circle and they were back, Sunny doing some odd jumps along the way - turned out he'd gotten a short round of barbwire hooked on his tail. I walked the pasture before we put them out, but long grass... leave it to him to find something to catch himself in. No damage done, though. I saw it spin off, and walked out to collect it, the four of them clustering around me snorting and showing every sign of tearing off again.
I left them munching enthusiastically and headed back down the hill to tackle the barn loft. In addition to a bunch of old windows that I'll need help getting down if I don't want to shatter glass everywhere, there are three dozen or so mouse-nibbled cane bales and some alfalfa stored who knows when up there. It's no good trying to get anything done with the horses in there, they just want to eat whatever I throw out. Unfortunately, I only managed to get about 10 or so of the cane bales and a some of the loose stuff pitched out the loft door before the wind picked up enough to start whirling the dust everywhere.
What I did manage made a substantial enough pile, though - I was impressed that the cane bales mostly stayed in bale form despite the drop and some of them only having one remaining string. Given my track record with small squares, I expected them to explode on impact. It took about 6 trips with the Bobcat, but I managed to get it all dumped in a bare spot beyond the fenced in area to the north of the driveway. I collected a large audience of cows in the process. Apparently, tractors - or anything that sounds like a tractor - mean food, and since the cane bales actually still smelled sort of like food, they figured I was feeding them. They just couldn't figure out why the panels were in the way...
I'll have to wait for a day with no wind, or only a minimal one out of the south to do more. On the plus side, I saw no signs of either snakes or live mice, so apparently time and the cats are taking care of one or both.
Since the sun finally decided to come out and warm things up slightly, and the time change means more daylight, I left the horses up a while longer today. They were waiting for me near the gate, and it didn't take long to get them hooked up and heading down. The wind was blowing pretty strongly, but just before we hit the one spot where the shoulder drops away, I thought I heard something behind us. Just to be safe, I pushed Thunder and Rufus over and swung Sunny and Amyra around so that we were all on the verge with the exception of Rufus's hind end and facing back up the hill so they could see what was coming up behind them. Good thing, too, as it turned out it wasn't a car. It was a truck pulling a 20' bale hauler. Empty, and very loud.
And once again, can I say how thankful I am that I have four farm-raised horses? The sum total of movement was Rufus stepping sideways so that his hind end was in the ditch with the rest of us. The truck slowed down some, the driver doing some gawking at the crazy lady with four critters attached, all staring back at him, and rattled on past. I clicked and treated them for being so sensible, and, after a suitable period to let the truck get on down the road so I could hear if there was anything else about to come down the hill behind us, we got back on the road and clip-clopped our way on across the bridge and down the driveway with no further interruptions. Whew!
I waited until things were damp instead of crunchy, and took the horses up. They walked up politely enough, but the minute all of them were loose, took off for the backside of the field as if I'd lit their tails on fire. A big sweeping circle and they were back, Sunny doing some odd jumps along the way - turned out he'd gotten a short round of barbwire hooked on his tail. I walked the pasture before we put them out, but long grass... leave it to him to find something to catch himself in. No damage done, though. I saw it spin off, and walked out to collect it, the four of them clustering around me snorting and showing every sign of tearing off again.
I left them munching enthusiastically and headed back down the hill to tackle the barn loft. In addition to a bunch of old windows that I'll need help getting down if I don't want to shatter glass everywhere, there are three dozen or so mouse-nibbled cane bales and some alfalfa stored who knows when up there. It's no good trying to get anything done with the horses in there, they just want to eat whatever I throw out. Unfortunately, I only managed to get about 10 or so of the cane bales and a some of the loose stuff pitched out the loft door before the wind picked up enough to start whirling the dust everywhere.
What I did manage made a substantial enough pile, though - I was impressed that the cane bales mostly stayed in bale form despite the drop and some of them only having one remaining string. Given my track record with small squares, I expected them to explode on impact. It took about 6 trips with the Bobcat, but I managed to get it all dumped in a bare spot beyond the fenced in area to the north of the driveway. I collected a large audience of cows in the process. Apparently, tractors - or anything that sounds like a tractor - mean food, and since the cane bales actually still smelled sort of like food, they figured I was feeding them. They just couldn't figure out why the panels were in the way...
I'll have to wait for a day with no wind, or only a minimal one out of the south to do more. On the plus side, I saw no signs of either snakes or live mice, so apparently time and the cats are taking care of one or both.
Since the sun finally decided to come out and warm things up slightly, and the time change means more daylight, I left the horses up a while longer today. They were waiting for me near the gate, and it didn't take long to get them hooked up and heading down. The wind was blowing pretty strongly, but just before we hit the one spot where the shoulder drops away, I thought I heard something behind us. Just to be safe, I pushed Thunder and Rufus over and swung Sunny and Amyra around so that we were all on the verge with the exception of Rufus's hind end and facing back up the hill so they could see what was coming up behind them. Good thing, too, as it turned out it wasn't a car. It was a truck pulling a 20' bale hauler. Empty, and very loud.
And once again, can I say how thankful I am that I have four farm-raised horses? The sum total of movement was Rufus stepping sideways so that his hind end was in the ditch with the rest of us. The truck slowed down some, the driver doing some gawking at the crazy lady with four critters attached, all staring back at him, and rattled on past. I clicked and treated them for being so sensible, and, after a suitable period to let the truck get on down the road so I could hear if there was anything else about to come down the hill behind us, we got back on the road and clip-clopped our way on across the bridge and down the driveway with no further interruptions. Whew!
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