Hay time

It's that time of year again.  Yesterday I hauled 90 bales of hay and stacked them in the dairy barn by myself.  Where are helpxers when you need them? :-)  Now the dairy goats are set for the year on hay.  This should last them an entire year.  I am getting another load of 90 next week for the cashmeres to have as an emergency stash in case the weather is bad when I need to go get a big square bale for them.  I think I'm done with little bales, at least with the main crew.  It is too much work to stack them anymore.  I am pretty sore today, tomorrow will probably be a bit worse.  Little squares are too labor intensive.  Sometimes I wish I had a tractor that was big enough to move the big bales and stack them, but it's only use would be for that, we live on too steep of a hill to be able to use it anywhere else.  So that would be a big waste of money to have a tractor for only one use.   I will just haul them one at a time and use that one up, then go get another one.  I go to town once or twice a week anyway, might as well haul home a bale of hay at the same time.
  We are having some really nice summer weather this year.  Not too hot, rain when needed, at least so far.  Who knows what August will bring.
  The goat kids are all growing and doing well.  Their cashmere is starting to come in pretty good.  Some of the adults are getting a good coat already, they are pretty warm on the sunny days that heat up.  Haven't got any good pictures of anything on the game cameras lately, just deer and the goats.
   We've started butchering the meat chickens.  We have to wait till the bees go to bed before we can do them.  So just before dark, we are out there.  Can't do too many at a time that way, but we don't have anyplace to do them inside out of the bee zone.  That is on the list of projects, building a butchering room that is bee proof.  The meat chickens taste so good, I like them much better than the dual purpose egg laying/meat breeds.  These are easy to raise, and if they aren't over fed, don't have leg problems.  These are still running around and catching bugs and following me every time I go out.  I only feed them a lot the last week so they have a final growth spurt to get big enough to butcher.  I keep reading about how they only take three steps and lay down, but mine aren't doing that.  They are very active.

I've got my store on Square all up and going.  I have everything listed on there now, as it's easier to buy from there.  It says I only ship in the USA, but I'll ship internationally if you email me and tell me you'd like something.  PayPal is the best method to pay with if that is the case. Click here to see  My new Store 

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer and staying cool in this heat wave!