We are starting to fill the hay up with first cut hay for the winter. I have to admit that I am never at east after August 1 if we don’t start loading up the barn with hay. There are few sweeter feelings for me when the first chill comes to have the shed filled with firewood and the barn filled with hay.

For the first few years I lived her with animals, I did the silly outlander thing of buying richer second cut hay for the sheep and donkeys. That, many farmers have told me, is like feeding the animals Thanksgiving Dinner every night, it fattens the animals up, often beyond what is good for them.

Alfalfla-rich second cut and constant feedings of grain are not healthy for equines or sheep, they do not replica the food in their natural environment,  it is not  healthy for animals to be overweight.

We’ve found a wonderful source of hay – Brian and Sandy Adams from the Up and Over Farm in nearby Shushan. It is great hay, the bales are big and tightly twined (material for the next Fiber Chair, soon to get underway.)

It is still hot and stick hair, but one day soon we will feel the first sharp chill of autumn and then, winter.  The grass will begin to fade, it will yield less and less nutrition.

We will be ever so grateful to have this hay in the barn. My goal every year is to start feeding hay to the animals in early November. Sometimes we get that far, sometimes not. Today we got 30 bales into the barn. Brian and Sandy are good people to work with, Cassandra, the Cambridge Valley Vet Tech who works so lovingly on Red, is their daughter.

If they can raise a daughter like that, I guess right that their hay is top notch. We ordered 90 more bales and Sandy promised to have them in the barn “before the first snow flies.” Sweet words for me to hear. I see in the photo that Red was peeking around the corner, keeping an eye on me as usual.