One Down, 99 More to Go

This is one of our weekends when we're closed for visits, which gives us time to do the basic ranch chores that just have to get done. In between other chores today, we picked up the first of 100 tons of grass hay we're buying from our next-door neighbors.  For the past couple of years we used big round bales (1,000 lbs +/-) and moved them with the tractor and a round bale spear.  We'd pull off the hay by hand and feed to the horses that way.  For a lot of reasons, we're switching back to small square bales this year.  'Small' being relative, of course ... these bales are about 70 lbs each. 

So we hitched up the flatbed trailer and drove over to our neighbors this afternoon to pick up the first ton fresh from the fields.  What you see on the trailer is that ton ... 28 bales total.  Because we converted our hay barn to a horse barn two years ago -- it wasn't big enough to hold more than 25 tons anyway --  we will store about 90 tons in our neighbor's hay barn.  We'll take about 10 tons initially and pick up the rest throughout the winter.

In case you're wondering, each ton costs $95, for a total purchase of $9,500.