Stocking Up

After considerable nervous watching of the weather, multiple phone calls to Jeremy about how the hay is coming, much nail-biting when it was clear weather for three, but not four days, Jeremy called on Saturday. He wanted to bring a couple of loads of hay.

Jeremy, his brother or cousin (I can't remember!) Casey, Jeremy's father, and four children ranging in age from 5 to 13, showed up with the hay wagon. One of my favorite things about Jeremy is that he lives about 2 miles from here, so he and all the kids were riding on top of the hay---grandpa and Casey were using all the room in the truck. Oh, my really favorite thing about Jeremy is that he delivers and stacks. Because he does it all summer, it's much easier for him than if I did it---just once a year!

The kids were troopers, pushing bales off the trailer, and shoving them along to grandpa, who slapped them on the elevator. This stretched horizontally into the hay barn, where Jeremy and Casey waited for each bale, picking it up and swinging it onto the stack, four bales high. All told, they delivered 3 loads of 133 bales each. That, along with the 127 they brought a week or so ago, is all the hay we need for the year. So it's nice to have the barn full, with a bit more than 500 bales.

The price of hay is up, by roughly $1.25 per bale. I suspect everything will be more costly this year. We have flooding and record rain, cool temperatures and snow here, cutting into the farm economy. But it costs what it costs, and it's up to me to figure that out at my end. Jeremy needs to beagle to make enough to stay in business, make great hay for me, and buy pink cowboy boots for his little girl.

I sent him away with my thanks, and $40 extra to get the kiddies some ice cream. He said, 'No, I'm going to pay them.' a little offended, and I said 'I know you are, and I'm going to buy them some ice cream!' offended right back at him. So he laughed, and took the kids for ice cream. They earned it!