Tarping Hay and Saying Prayers

In the evening after our winter hay supply arrived, I needed to scramble and get some of the hay covered. Unfortunately, we don’t have enough space for all the hay to be under cover so we had to do some rearranging. You don’t think tarping hay would be all that difficult but when you’re doing it in the dark and alone, it can get a little hairy. The first area to tarp wasn’t too bad. I didn’t have any problems hopping up onto the stack of hay but had to watch my head to make sure I didn’t bang it on the shed roof. I was able to get most of that pile tarped without any problems. Then it was on to the other two rows of hay.

The hay we purchase are big squares that are 3x3 and stacked two high. So silly me, instead of getting the ladder (because it was too far to lug back to the shed and it was already 9:30pm when I started, I went the old “hick” route and grabbed a pallet and turned it into a makeshift stepping stool.

The way we had to stack the hay made it a bit more difficult. Usually this stack is completely undercover but just needs the front covered. Instead we added another two bales so the hay was sticking out. There’s a small “wall” (hard to explain) so there was about a foot between the top of the hay and the bottom of the wall. I had to slither my way under the “wall to get back to the other hay and throw tarps. I had to slither my way back out to tarp the front of the hay. That’s when I realized that maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. Here I am, alone with no cell phone and if I fall, I’ll fall onto concrete. Or the bales could tip and crush me if the tumble down. And of course I’m doing this all by the light of the full moon. At least there was a full moon because half way through tarping the hay, the flashlight just quit. No warning that the battery was giving out. It just stopped and everything went dark. It’s my typical luck. But in truth, it was easier to work with the light of the moon than to hang on to a flashlight and try to scramble around on bales. Once I was done with the second pile of hay, I had to go to the next stack and do the same thing again using my pallet as a ladder. I made sure to say my prayers when I was up on the hay! It’s always an adventure when dealing with hay.

(I'll post pics later so you can actually see what I'm talking about).

When my hay guy was here, I asked if he’d put the three round bales that we had from June into the drylot. I didn’t figure they were any good but the horses could eat on them if they got bored. Sure enough, instead of hanging out in the pasture, they are devouring the bales. Well, actually just one of the bales. Guess it was a lot better than I thought. But this way, with 24x7 access to pasture and a round bale, maybe everyone will be fat and sassy.

Tomorrow is the first day of the Prairie Village Threshing Jamboree. I’m planning on taking Chaos to help park cars. It should be a good learning experience. It’s the first time in 12 years that they are able to use the steam engine locomotive. We’ll see what Chaos does when he sees that big  smoke breathing machine coming down the tracks.