YAY! The new hay finally arrived today. Apparently it rained so much Sunday the workers couldn’t get into the field to get it out until today. We were scraping up hay that had fallen on the barn floor from the center section (not where the horses and goats are) to put in the manger. We were going to be in trouble if the hay didn’t come today, as rain is expected tonight and storms tomorrow. We use big round bales (well, not the very biggest size, I think ours are about 4 feet wide and 5 feet high, as opposed to those 5’x6’. Round bales, first designed and produced back in the 1970’s by Vermeer out in Iowa, are rolled and then finished off with netting to hold them in place. Round bales weigh upwards of 600 to 1100 pounds, depending upon size and density. They shed water pretty well when set the right direction. However, once they are opened (as in, the netting is cut away and either horses or cows are eating from the side) they are vulnerable to rain. We have the hay guys line up the bales on pallets in a long row moving away from the hay ramp, and then hand-roll the bales into the feeder one by one. In the winter, each mixed grass bale lasts us about a week for our four horses and dozen or so miniature goats, plus oddments for the bunnies