Tag Archives: alfalfa

A Spring Morning in the Pasture

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I was going to write this post about ewes and their lambs but found a lot more subjects to photograph–not all sheep.954 Lorreta and triplets Loretta and triplets.Ginseng and lambsGinseng and twins. Look at the horn spread on that ram lamb. They all have lilac coloring.15020 headThis is Foxglove’s ram lamb, also a lilac.Melinda and 15055Puddleduck Melinda and one of her lambs.11086 Alexandra m Alexandria.851 ElizaEliza.DSC_6065It is balloon season. Rusty is hiding in the barn.DSC_6066 These ewes were waiting for me to change the fence and let them into that tall grass but I was distracted by other things. Do you see the bird on the fence behind them? Don’t look too hard for it. See it below.Western KingbirdI looked it up. Western Kingbird. I know my birder friends will tell me if I’m wrong.Western Kingbird (1)I think there is pair nesting nearby. I was mowing the pasture later in the day and they followed the tractor catching bugs. They would zoom off toward the trees and then come back for more. DSC_6083 Balloon getting lower. In the meantime…Hawk with prey…I saw this hawk being harassed by another bird.Hawk with prey (1)I didn’t know until I zoomed in on the photo on my computer that the hawk had something in it’s talons. Hawk with prey (2)

DSC_6085 Balloon has landed and now I can change the fence.DSC_6089 Happy sheep.

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Gravity is our friend

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Gravity is a big help when it comes to moving 30 tons of hay into the barn.

Chris moved into “favorite child” status as he spent the day moving part of my 6 stacks of hay into the barn. I spent most of the time moving accumulated stuff to make room for the hay, moving pallets, and using gravity at the top of the stack, but I got to take a 2 hour break when I had people here for a weaving class.

This is Chris on top of the fourth stack.Here is what 10 tons looks like in the barn.

Gravity is a big help for my part of moving hay, but Chris gets to do all of the anti-gravity part. He moved about 17 tons of hay today…only 13 to go!

 

 

Green Gold

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It’s time to make a deal on winter-time hay. Here is the hay I’m going to buy.

I’m getting 5 stacks (80 bales each). This is what the rest of it looks like:

 

 

When you scape away the outer sun-bleached leaves you see the green beneath. This is very fine-stemmed hay and there will be minimal waste when feeding. Sheep don’t like coarse hay and they leave a lot behind. At the price of hay this year, these stacks are like gold. The price of hay is a good reason to sell off excess sheep before the winter when I need to start feeding hay instead of pasture.

 

This the field where the hay was grown.

 

And here is a close-up of the plant when flowering.