I love living out here. The weather is getting cooler and now we can once again enjoy the outside. It felt so good this morning I brought a table outside and we had coffee as we surfed the net listening to the breeze and the squirrel munching in the live oak tree beside us.
I know there is so much more productive things I could be doing and to be honest I just don't care. I am enjoying sitting here on the front porch. Maybe nothing external gets done but my spirit sure is lifted.
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I take that back. Something productive (maybe) is getting done just not by me. The person leasing our property for hay cut a couple of days ago, raked it up yesterday and is baling today. I am watching them work. Makes me tired knowing they are probably using more money in diesel then they are getting out of hay. Then again with the hay shortage in Texas as they are it might just be a necessity.
You can see the effect of the drought here in NE Texas. We live about 1 1/2 hours SW of Texarkana. The fields haven't had enough rain to recover. From afar they looked green but when you walked into the field and looked down it the coastal was sparely growing and mostly you saw bare earth.
Update: They just finished baling and it looks as though they got aroun 80 square bales. For a small operation like mine that would be enough. For some it is just a start.
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Despite all the hardships of this past season and of course we are still far from being out of the woods. I am enjoying my day. Enjoying the fresh air of the outdoors in a place I dearly love.
We get the small bales here in Colorado for $5.50 each. Some places here are selling them for $8 because of Texas. Good thing we have friends who put the welfare of our animals over profit.
ReplyDeleteWe have been getting Texas hay for $9.25. We were told earlier this week when we got 4 bales which is all that will fit in our car that this was the last of the Texas hay and the cost will be going up as the next stuff will be coming from the Dakotas.
ReplyDeleteSmall squares are going for $11 and up here in the Brazos Valley (central Texas). You can find it for $9/bale but it's old or moldy at that price ...okay for cows, dangerous for horses. We paid $125 each for large squares (~800 lbs) a month or so ago ...it's prairie hay all the way from the Dakotas but it was all we could find. Personally, I dislike the big squares. They are cumbersome, hard to move, and don't weather as well unless you can keep them in a barn. This 'prairie hay' is yucky compared to the local coastal my horses were used to. But today I got a lead on some big rounds (~1000 lbs) for $110 each, delivered. Woot, woot! Last year, I would have been offended to be asked to pay that price ...but now I'm happy dancing just to have decent hay!
ReplyDeletePray for a wet winter and a NORMAL spring, people ...I can't say enough ...pray for rain!
We will, HossBoss. Here in south central CO, we will send you plenty of snow. We are hoping for a wet winter so we can start to incorporate prairie grass into the greasewood, chico, and tumbleweeds so that we can have our own source of some of the grasses for our growing herd of boer goats.
ReplyDelete@ HossBoss - I am glad we don't have horses. Goats and sheep are enough. Thank God they love leaves. I am glad you found hay!
ReplyDelete@ Mudbug - Send it on. Normally I detest snow but I'll take precepitation almost anyway I can get it.