Phew! What a weekend we had! Life on the farm has been slowly getting into a routine which generally involves one weekend inside (cleaning, grocery shopping, fixing things), the next outside (mowing, barn chores, fence fixing), the third doing something fun with Wyatt (beach trip, hiking, swimming) and the last I’m too tired to move and remain lazily in the hammock.
This past weekend was farm weekend and it was a doozy.
It started with an early morning ride on Cruze Saturday. I’ll get more into him in another post but he was an absolute angel from tacking to riding to untacking. He was the horse I tested and fell in love with. Tough love for the win.
After that it was time to tackle the tack room move. The office is nice because it has a ceiling and door plus is right next to the cross ties at the entrance to the barn. I started clearing out all the garbage tack left behind by the old owners.
Then it was scrubbing the floor, ceiling and walls with the broom. If the main electric box wasn’t exposed I would have brought the hose in but electrocuting myself wasn’t on the to do list.
With that done I mixed up bleach water and wiped everything down that I could. It was so much nicer than when I started. My next step was to clean all my tack in the current room, but I needed to stop when the hay guy texted me to say he was coming in.
So…I may have no idea how much hay we need. I ordered 150 bales and it didn’t sound like much but when I saw the truck pull in I gasped.
Dusty made fun of me the entire time we moved and stacked it. One for ordering so much hay for three horses on enough pasture with winter grass that we likely won’t feed hay at all and two for cheaping out on $0.50 a bale ($75 total) and not paying them to bring someone to stack it for us. Moving 15,000 pounds of hay in 90% humidity is no joke. Note to self: in three years when I need hay again, pay to have them stack it.
By the time we finished that chore I was done for the day. Wiped out. Kaput. We had to run some errands and I was planning a landscaping project at my office, but there was no way that was going to happen. Instead we ate tacos at the new taco place in town which is my new obsession. Bang bang shrimp tacos forever. It helped that our waiter took our order and then went home leaving us behind. After waiting 30 minutes we asked a random waitress to find our waiter and when they realized he left, the manager came over and comped our entire meal plus gave Wyatt desert. Free tacos are even better.
Sunday was mowing day. Thankfully the pastures don’t need it as the big one is resting, but it still takes three solid hours to do the “yard”. Dusty hopped on the tractor and bush hogged the next section to be added as pasture. Next step for him is fencing. He is a bit mad at me at the moment as I’ve changed the pasture plans to make three instead of two but the horses aren’t using the pasture space by the pond and I keep having to mow it and then watch it get unused. The new plan is to cut off the back pond pasture from the large one, then take out the lane between it and the second pond pasture making that one large back pasture. It will give us three pastures to rotate.
After spending the morning mowing I declared the afternoon fun time and spent it at my parents’ house playing cards and joking around. I was exhausted, dehydrated and sore but it was good to knock so much hard work off the list. We have visitors coming in a couple of weeks, so our normal life rotation will be thrown off as we clean the house getting ready, but having them here will force us to stop working and relax a bit which is never a bad thing.
The Roaming Rider 
I can totally relate to the unique exhaustion that results from stacking hay! We typically order a stack retriever load at a time (96 bales) and that amount wears me out! But, having the horses at home is worth every drop of sweat.
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It really is!
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I ordered 200 bales my first year at our farm and it lasted me FOR TWO YEARS. That was with two donkeys and a horse the first year and just a donkey and horse the second. Last year I only got 80 and we had a hard winter (not year round pasture like you) and I was scrambling at the end to find any kind of hay to tide me over until the pastures started growing again.
I think you’ll be fine! LOL.
My big suggestion is that you hang up inflated brown paper bags to keep the wasps away. I lost a good portion of that second year of hay because wasps decided the hay was perfect for a nest.
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We will have hay for a looong time to come. Good thing it is gorgeous hay. Thanks for the advice!
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what kind of hay. If i come visit I will buy some off you and you can make a profit 🙂 LOL if it isnt Bermuda Remus would write the check himself. 🙂
Isnt it amazing how TIRED you are with a farm? I only have one horse right now but all of us sleep like the dead (the horse, the dogs, the husband and me LOL)
Glad Cruze behaved!!
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how do you get rid of wasps? My pest guy has been here twice and i keep spraying the stall walls and I STILL HAVE WASPs. they are red angry ones too. I CANT KILL THEM? What do the paper bags do?? thanks
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The paper bags make them think there’s already a wasp nest there. They’re incredibly territorial so the idea is that you trick them into leaving because another wasp hive has already set up shop.
I feel for you with the wasps thing! My barn was practically unusable while they were there. I would yank a hay bale off and run until they calmed down, then come back and spray the exposed nest with poison. It was slow going, the nest was extensive and they’d just burrow in further each time I exposed more of the nest.
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How adorable that Wyatt got in there and helped you. And impressive. I don’t think I can move hay bales around.
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He is always involved in everything. Whether we want him to be or not 😉
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Sounds like a kid!
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So glad you had a better ride with your new guy but $.50 a bale?! Depending on type we pay $15-$32 per bale.
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It was $0.50 a bale stacking fee. The hay was $5 a bale for a 100lb square bale. Still way cheaper than what you are paying. What type of hay and how much for that price?
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Whoops! I should read more carefully. Still what an amazing price! I am so jealous!!! If I drive out of the area (about 2hrs) for a deal I can get Bermuda @ $17.50 per 100lbs bale, Alfalfa @ $17.50 per 105lbs bale, 5 way @ $19.50 per 100lbs bale,Teff @ $20.00 per 100lbs, Orchard @ $26.00 per 100lbs bale and Timothy @ $30.00 per 100lbs bale. This is with me picking up, loading and unloading myself.
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150 bales? I am not jealous!
I AM jealous of you having access to 150 bales. We are in a serious drought here at the moment
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Oh no 😦 droughts are scary. We have been 3 out of the 5 years we have lived here and it is no fun to worry about hay and water supply. I hope the rains find you soon
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Yeah, sadly a harsh reality of living in a desert country but it is very stressful when my horse reacts so severely to the most easily accessible hays.
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I’m sweating just reading this! Glad Cruze was a good boy!
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Cruze redeemed himself big time
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Omgosh I’m tired just reading this haha – that’s a lot of hay to move and stack !!!
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I thought Hubby was going to kill me
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