At Last!

[cue Etta James]

The hay is done!

We baled our third cut this weekend- about 140 bales. It is the best hay we've made all year and the most relaxed. We weren't worrying about rain (apparently we're now in a draught), we weren't rushing to beat the rain, we just took our sweet time knowing we had another week of beautiful, warm, dry weather. Afterwards we sat on the porch looking at the clean field, revelling in the fact that it will be another eight months before we have to worry about hay again.

The last wagon load of the year. Plus the (former) fence line

We also started ripping out the fence around the back pasture. We built it a few years ago but with the last batch of really ornry pigs and the goats we housed two years ago (as a favor to a neighbor...never again), all of that did a number on the fence. We also want to make it stronger to better keep in the cows. We spent most of Saturday pulling up posts, digging new posts and mowing the fence line (or, former fence line, I guess) We also decided to cut down a couple of big trees. I believe they are cotton wood trees and they really are sh-t trees. They're a really soft wood so everytime the breeze blows we lose branches. They are also the last to leaf out in the spring (and quite spindly, they grow, like, 12 leaves) and the first to lose them in the fall. They were ugly and in the way, so down they came. I had the job of clearing the debris; of which I had a lot of fun tying a chain around the trunk, lifting it with the tractor and bringing it to the brush pile. Unfortunately we didn't get a picture, but there is another one that needs to come down so I will try and show you all how amazing I am in some later post.