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| My work commute is pretty, and walk on passenger fares are reasonable. Purchasing deck space for a semi truck and paying the driver for his time? Not so reasonable. Photo from bcferries.ca |
Guess who lucked out today and found a local hay supplier?! Me! I'm so excited. They live only about a km from where I board, the hay is gorgeous, and so much cheaper than trucking it in. There are only about 50 square bales per cut in "my" field, but I've asked to have first dibs from now onwards. 50 bales times 3 cuts a year should just about do my 2 ponies for a year.
Since this whole getting hay thing wasn't planned in advance, I loaded it in the truck and stacked it all in the barn myself. The pic below x 3 reps = a good workout!
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| I swear it really took me 10 minutes to load these and maybe 90 minutes to do the three trips to get all the bales off the field and into my barn. Because I was like: |
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| START THE CAR!! |
Good find! Hay is always included in board around here. It means I have to find barn owners that I agree with on hay quality but at least I don't have to source it myself. Current BO grows some of her own hay which is nice.
ReplyDeleteIt's really the best of both worlds if the barn owner grows good hay!
DeleteHay is included in board here but I’ve sourced it myself before and it was one of the most stressful parts of owning horses. That’s awesome that you were able to find some locally!!
ReplyDeleteFarmers don't seem to be much better at business than the average horse professional :)
DeleteIt looks almost exactly like a Washington State Ferry and and and, yes, if you bring your horses aboard, and you have a horrible experience because the tide was too low, and you scrape off your electricals (so no brakes on re-entry) - they will hopefully be as kind as ours and pay your entire repair bill: ) Never again. Check tide schedule first. Or, just never again! But what fun it was......I had my three horses in my trailer downtown Seattle waiting for me to get off work, and then we floated to the island in an unforgettable, almost perfect experience: ) Not a story I can tell in Germany with anyone truly grasping it.
ReplyDeleteI think I mentioned before we had an incident last year where the whole underside of the trailer hung up on the ramp..ughh. Our ferries here are pretty much the same as the Washington ones, but they've got a lot more amenities. It's always a political hot topic...tax payers usually bitter they're paying for "cruise ships" for the tourists when the locals just want basic transport like the Washington state ferries.
DeleteHay is part of my board, but this year the weather made it REALLY difficult to get hay :-( We actually ended up paying a hay surcharge this year because of it.
ReplyDeleteI feel like locally I've never heard anyone say it's a great year for hay, always a bad year and higher prices, lol
DeleteNice find! Hay isn't exactly hard to get around here, but where I'm living, I struggle to find decent rounds. Everyone is bailing large squares. I can't use large squares. I was using a guy for years, even after I moved, and paying a larger delivery fee (basically $50-60) for hay because he was my only consistent supplier. Then I found someone on craigslist selling some leftover rounds and bought them from that person cheap (they delivered) and that person remembered a local guy who sold rounds. Thankfully he took us on and while his rounds are not wrapped all that well (seriously, I can't explain his bailing twine use--use as little as possible?), he reserves hay from me, from the same field each cut, and always makes sure he has enough for his regulars before he sells to "outsiders." Small rounds are always 40 and large rounds are 50. I used to love the large ones with 3 large horses they would get me 2 weeks, but now with 2 and a mini, a small lasts me 2 weeks whereas the large is just too big and tends to go bad if we have sideways rain... The hay is consistent too. Small squares are always $5 and its the same hay as the rounds. He basically never changes his prices. So I can switch back and forth and sub in small squares when I need to/am too lazy/rushed/unable to get a round out. It's not the best hay, but it's consistent horse quality grass mix and have 2 VERY easy keepers, I don't want anything richer. I supplement alfalfa cubes (weight for one, fluid purposes for the other) and my senior also gets some chopped hay.
ReplyDeleteSide note about my hay guy, each time he drops off, he checks in with how they're doing with the hay, if they're eating faster or slower, just to make sure he's keeping up with my supply. I don't pay in advance either. One time they weren't eating for some reason, he came out looked at the hay (granted, that day, weather broke, and they all started chowing down), but he's very on top of things.
I need to move where you are! We can't even get rounds here, I wonder if they fit more small squares/ton on a truck? It's normally the 100lb plus squares, anyway.
DeleteAre your arms sore? lol
ReplyDeleteMy shoulders were killing me the next day :)
Deletehay is the bane of my existence now. I am going to have to drive to NE to get some decent hay this fall or something. I am buying TSC compressed hay to supplement the Bermuda but ugh. Pricy.
ReplyDeleteGlad you found this!! YAY and you go girl. NOTHING Is sweatier and hotter than loading/unloading bales of hay! :)
I was buying those compressed squares last fall...so expensive! Good luck, here's hoping you find a good supplier close by.
DeleteI hate slogging hay bales, lol!--we used to bale our own hay and I had to pick and load about 1000 bales. But that feeling of having good quality hay secured for your horses is so worth it!
ReplyDeleteI love the feeling of having a full barn!
Deleteha i love it ;)
ReplyDeleteMy upper body would be killer if I loaded and stacked hay every day!
DeleteThat would be a heck of a workout! My BO grown their own but when we're on our acreage I'll have to figure out getting my own supply :)
ReplyDeleteI'm so excited for you to get your place! I've got the same dreams, so I'm always crossing fingers hard for you :)
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