Sunday, July 05, 2009

Fireworks and Hay

We went to see the fireworks in Braham, MN on the 4th of July.
I tried to take some photos, but as usual, didn't read any directions beforehand, I just tried to wing it. I should have changed the settings to a higher resolution.The one below reminds me of a flower...
Toward the end of the display, they started coming two or three at a time...

And here's another familiar July scene:
Last week we unloaded the wagon and loaded our truck and trailer, then unloaded the truck and trailer stacked about 340 bales of hay. It left us both quite stiff and sore, but as usual we were hoping to get it all under cover before any rain came. We hired the neighbor boy to help us out since our own two grown boys were in the cities.
Stan pulled one of the big wagons home from the land (14 miles), but even with it only half full, the it was swaying all over the road. It was pretty scary, so we had to do things the hard way. We got two full wagon loads for our share of the crop. It's been so dry here I'm already feeding it.

The past two years we've had big squares made. They are so much easier, requiring very little of us. We still have 6 big squares left from last year, which I think will still be good. So now I just need to get about 100 bales of good quality hay for lambing next spring and get my flock down to around 20 sheep. Then we should be all set!

9 comments:

  1. I think your fireworks photos turned out VERY pretty!

    I raked up grass clippings in the back yard last night. Got 2 big bags...

    ;-)

    It's a good thing I'll be back down to 10 ewes!

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  2. I like the fireworks pictures - especially the green one!

    We do big round bales here, and they are so much easier to handle than the small square.
    I cannot get over your hayfields! So flat - ours look like rollercoaster rides in comparison. :^)

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  3. We're just getting started with sheep this year. How many small bales will a sheep go through in say six months of winter? They've been eating like pigs for the past two days and it's started to make me wonder if we have enough hay.

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  4. Hi Christine, good luck with your new flock! The number of bales they will go through depends on what kind of sheep they are and how big your bales are. A good rule of thumb for Shetlands is about 2.5 pounds of hay per day per sheep. So if you have 20 sheep a 50 lb. bale would last one day. Hope that helps!

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  5. Hi Lisa, actually our front hayfield (in the photo) is a big sloping hill with the pole shed at the bottom. :-) But yes, it's nothing like the terrain at your place. It's like "Little House on the Prairie", wide open spaces and lots of big skies. Quite a contrast to our home place with so many trees so we hardly ever see a sunrise or sunset.

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  6. Oh, to be all set with the winter's hay! You're far ahead of us....

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  7. Enjoyed your blog. Loved the sheep pictures!

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  8. Your fireworks photos turned out great! I wish I had hay already... ;)

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Getting ready for Christmas Markets!

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