I was wondering what I was going to post on the blog for today when our friend and neighbor, Jim D., called this afternoon to say he was coming over with the first haywagon load to put into our hayloft. I turned to Kate and said, "Well, I know what I have for the blog now…."
You may remember that Jim was the fellow who built all the ramps for the dogs last year when we first moved in, as well as our horse sheds, and he's helped with lots of other projects since then, including providing much of our firewood for the first winter and growing all the hay we feed out. There is so little that Jim can't do, in fact, that Alayne and I joke we should have a T-shirt made up that says "1-800-Call-Jim".
The trick with growing hay in New England is dodging frequent summer rains; weather is always an issue with putting up hay anywhere, but in this climate it's particularly challenging. So you kind of have to get your hay done whenever you get a long enough break in the weather, baling what you can before the next rain. Jim's already got about 1,800 bales stacked in his hay barn, but we will get about 800 bales put away in our hayloft. The wagonload today had about 230 bales on it. The total crop we will buy from Jim will be about 5,000 bales, with the rest stored in his barn.
That's Jim on the side of the wagon, feeding bales onto the hay elevator that's carrying them up to Kate, standing in the loft door. After taking the photo, I joined Kate in the loft, and we managed to get the wagon unloaded and the bales stacked in under 20 minutes. Compared to when Alayne and I last did this, on a 94°day (34° C) a year ago, today was much nicer … 10 degrees cooler with a light breeze. The loft was hot, but not an oven. Nevertheless, I'm sure Kate was thinking, "Could you please put down the camera and hurry up getting in here?!?"
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The current Shelter Challenge started on July 4th and ends at midnight on September 18th. Grand prize in this round is $5,000, plus $1,000 for weekly winners and $1,000 for state winners. There are also other categories … please see the Shelter Challenge website for details.
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