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Hay Storage Solutions

FarmWife is worried about rising prices of commodities, and she's sorry that she only has one acre of grass. Luckily, we live in a place where hay is affordable, high in quality, and easy to come by in July and August. Our storage limitations, however, force us to buy hay in quantities of less than a ton.

FarmWife wants a barn so that she might buy a year's worth of hay every summer. Her carpenter-husband has the skills to build one, but the money to prepare a site, purchase materials, and get the thing permitted are another matter!

I, on the other hand, am worried about how my tummy will feel by a quarter after three. I think she should immediately give me all the hay in her possession, and I will take care of it for her. The Volvo hay mother seems perfectly able to continue disgorging two or three bales a week, as has been its custom, and FarmWife is silly to hide them away on the milking porch when she could be having me tend them in my shed. Why look to the future when there's a hungry mule here today?

FarmWife also thinks that I could do with fewer calories, but then there is that amendment which prohibits Cruel and Unusual Punishment in the United States. I think reducing my hay would definitely qualify.

FenBar

Comments

  1. BifMarch 10, 2011 at 3:33 PM

    Oh, FenBar,

    Mother here. I must admit, I read the title, looked at the lovely photo with clever angles, and BWAHAHAHAHAAHAHA'd so loud, I think the neighbors might have heard. It occurred to me that perhaps I had misinterpreted and I was simply making inferences and being rude, but the post content reassured me that in fact you would like to put it in storage yourself.

    Thanks for the best laugh of the day... maybe even the week!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Calm, Forward, StraightMarch 10, 2011 at 6:11 PM

    Mulishly clever Fenway! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousMarch 11, 2011 at 3:23 PM

    Oh how well I know that drill. Last summer my landlord decided he needed to (finally) go ahead and repair my lovely old pre-turn-of-the LAST - century barn so my 6 horses now live in a converted machine shed (so their stalls are now 18 ft wide x 30 feet deep!). In my old barn I had storage for 12 tons easily, 14-15 if packed to the gills. Now, I have room for one or two. When my landlord started work on my old barn his contractor messed up and the barn partially collapsed so it will be another year before I can get back in. In the meantime haying season is 90 days away....down here we pay about $3/bale for 55-60 lb bales of good valley grass if we pick up in the field when baled. Buying stored hay is double to triple that price. You should do the math and figure out the amortization rate for building a hay shed - the cost drops pretty dramatically in a short time when compared with differential hay prices!

    ReplyDelete

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