Hay Day

Today I've got to go buy some more hay bales at a feed store in New Freedom. They cost about $4 each. I'll buy four bales. I don't like to buy too many at one time - maybe next time I go buy some, it'll be better quality or a little different. I wish that I could take a hay class. I have no idea what a good-quality hay looks like. The stuff I have seen looks just like the bales of straw that I buy. I guess that I'm hoping that one of these days when I buy one of these bales it'll look like "good-quality hay"; I'll say to myself, "Now that is good hay, Jeanne!"

I have decided not to buy straw anymore. I empty out the hay feeder each day and spread it over their sleeping area. Just using that gives me plenty of bedding to use. I kill two birds with one stone that way! I muck out the bedding about once a week and will use that hay as a mulch in my garden beds. The goat berries that I sweep up daily are taken to be sprinkled around my plants. This process makes me feel more like a sustainable liver.

Got three instead... I took the van so had to get what would fit. Available to me is this Timothy orchard grass mix. I have been able to get alfalfa hay, but that is only available in those gigantic round bales. The one I bought was dusty and parts were moldy. The goats didn't seem too keen on it. I don't think that I'll buy more alfalfa hay unless I can get the small square bales like these. Instead of the alfalfa hay, the girls get alfalfa pellets as a great source of protein in their diet.

Close-up of the hay. After the last bales that I got from a different place, this bale looks greener, more grass-like, and smells better. Maybe I'm learning more than I thought...