Having a hay day

This winter it's been problematic trying to find a source of round bales of horse hay that can be delivered. Economically and storage-wise, I prefer to feed the big rounds all winter to my hairy nags. I purchased five bales back at the end of September, but the grower turned out to be very dishonest. He advertised one price, it was more when I called (the advertised price was for "cattle hay" he said), and by the time he reached my house the price had gone up yet again. Delivery cost also had increased from what I was quoted on the phone. The quality of hay wasn't as nice as I was led to believe. Overall, the experience left a very sour taste in my mouth, and I didn't purchase anymore hay from him.

I utilized all of my normal pathways to continue my search for round bales. While I found plenty of big rounds for sale, no one offered delivery. One guy advised that I rent a trailer and pick it up myself. In theory, that doesn't sound too unreasonable. The associated costs add up quickly, however. My truck is only a half ton, so it is certainly not designed to pull more than one heavy round bale at a time without straining the transmission (maybe two if they are smaller). That would mean anywhere from three to five trips back and forth to deliver the hay to my house. The grower's place was located 60 miles south of my house. Any way I looked at it, the logistics didn't pan out.

Meanwhile, with near-record low temperatures and a few blizzards, my furry kids burned through five bales in no time (and what they didn't eat was quickly buried in snow). I needed to pick up the tempo of my fruitless round bale search. I called even more random strangers as well as good friends who also had horses. Have I ever mentioned before that I hate cold calling strange people? Part of my social anxiety.

Having no luck on the big round quest, I contacted the hay guy (Bill) for one of my friends and arranged to have some squares of brome and some of alfalfa delivered to tide me over. I had Bill offload my last batch of hay at the end of the driveway where it was cleared of snow. The ponies were able to break out a couple times by reaching over the electric wire in their desire to raid the hay supply. My electric fence had been rendered useless by piles of snow burying the wire in various locations. My roundpen was also out of commission due to a huge mountainous drift that covered more than 75% of the pen and blocked the gate from closing, so I couldn't shove the horses in there for holding. I'd never seen so much snow since I moved into my house.

I reinforced the area of fence by the hay with a couple more wires. Damn smart ponies.

That hay didn't last long, and I had yet to locate what I needed for the rest of the winter.The ponies had to eat. In desperating I called Bill again, and he had a solution for me. He would bring over his Bobcat and clear out my roundpen so that we could place square bales there, out of the reach of the horses and not tempting them to trample over the fence. Some hay would go in the garage so that it wouldn't spoil in the spring thaw.

If you look up the definition of "lifesaver" in the dictionary, I'm sure you will see Bill's name there.

Bill's word was good as gold. This past Sunday he brought his crew of two nephews and one other relative (can't remember the relation) as well as his cute little four year old boy, Austin. The Bobcat scoffed at the challenges presented by high, heavy snow drifts. In no time at all my roundpen was again functional. Most of the hay fit on a tarp in the garage. It's amazing how quickly the work went by with plenty of help!

Now I'm set for the rest of the winter. It did cost a lot more than using round bales, but I don't have to worry about this hay disappearing under layers of snow. Bill's square bale prices were extremely reasonable for the area, and each bale was very heavy and with sweet-smelling grass. I purchased 2/3rds as grass hay and the other third as alfalfa. If I'm still here next winter, Bill will definitely be my hay guy (although I'll ask him to package rounds for me).