The Farmer's Life

We don't have boarders and rain, but we're an operational hobby farm.

Carrie did not like the quality of grass from Kyle. It had far too much foxtail in it for her liking, so we had to find another source. The people who provide grass to Jeff and Sonya were a drive, but a great price.

Unfortunately, they sold out.

Carrie loaded up and drove to Bedford, VA a couple of hours away to a hay operation that met her specifications.

She brought some of the old hay to make it clear what she didn't want. 

"Yup. That's crap," was the reply. "My hay is much better."

Carrie liked what she saw and the farmer had help load up her trailer. She did all the hauling, but guess who's job it was to unload everything?

Kyle had cleared out almost all the old bales, but there was still cleaning to do.

Shane helped (willingly) with sweeping out all the old hay while I cleared hay and swapped out broken pallets. 

Shane couldn't lift a bale of hay for more than a few steps and went in to watch some TV when he was done. I was carrying bales in hand until I spotted a wheelbarrow that had been left behind.

The horses watched with interest. They're eating machines. Maddy scratched her butt on the side of the barn and the show went on.

I cleared "the good stuff" (at $9/bale) from the back of the truck and then found "the basic stuff" (at $8/bale) filled the trailer from floor to ceiling.

It took a couple of nights to unload it. I would go out and do some work after getting home with Shane at 6 and a short dinner break.

After Carrie hurt her foot (stress fracture), I started to help more with feeding the horses. The first time I did it freaked her out (it was a surprise), but she warmed up to the help.

We make the feed ahead of time, so everything is ready when it's meal time. Then we make the mixes for the next feeding while the horses are chowing down. There's a whiteboard with all the mixes for each bucket listed out. I still messed up the first time or two, because I didn't know which feed was called which and which scoop went with what.

This is Nib's feed bucket. She came with a bag of sweet feed that's she's being weaned off of as the bag empties. It won't be replaced.

We've experimented with several different methods of feeding the horses. A few things have remained constant:

• Sam gets food first, because he's a pig.
• Nibs gets food second, because she'll chase off Maddy
• Maddy gets food last, because she's bottom of the hierarchy. 
• Turn-out is in reverse order: Maddy first, Nibs second, and Sam last (More on this later).

To see if it would be less work, we experimented with putting the feed buckets outside the stalls. 

It worked once. Sam realized he could wolf down his meal and then push the ladies away for extra helpings.

Remember that picture of Nib's feed I showed earlier? Scroll up if you don't.

Well, the first time Shane pushed the ladies out of the way, Carrie shrugged and said, "That's what horses do." 

This is true.

However, Samwise realized Nibs had sweetfeed and the second time we tried feeding them without stalling he left his own meal much earlier to shoo her away. Instead of getting her scraps, he grabbed half her meal!

I pulled the bucket to see how much he was getting. When I realized it was such a large portion, I pulled it hoping it would teach him that he wouldn't get bonus feed. However, Captain Stomach never forgets a successful meal. 

The next thing we tried was to feed Sam in a ground bucket outside while we stalled Nibs and Madison. Sam's always been a pasture pony, so he was the most nervous about being stalled.

It didn't work, because Sam still dreamed of extra helpings. Whenever he finished, he would camp out at stall doors. He could be shooed off, but whenever Nibs or Maddy came out he would circle back and go into their stall if I didn't close the door as I led them away. Nibs bumped her door one day, so it shuts finnicky. I didn't shut it as I led her away and Sam snuck on in.

Which leads us full circle. We stall all the horses when feeding. We scoop poop, refill hay, and prep the next round of meals before we turn them loose again. It helps to get Nibs drinking water or eating hay otherwise you'll have a horse sized shadow when trying to turn out Sam.

They all get along mostly well in the field. Sam and Nibs are definitely a pair. Maddy is definitely the lowest on the totem pole. The other two (particularly Nibs) will chase her around and push her off at times. Sam will sometimes try to push Nibs around, but I've seen Nibs assert herself  if he pushes too far (and she'll even kick! Thankfully, without anything close to a connection).

One day, Shane and I noticed our neighbors had a large combine rolling around. The same combine must have hit up and down the highway, because there are suddenly houses that can be seen where they were hidden before. It's a little surreal watching something from Mighty Machines working just outside your window.

The horses weren't bothered by the work, but there was a haze in the air of particles after the work was done. I tried to take a picture of Carrie one night while she was refilling a hole Nibs dug (and rolled in). The flash reflected all sorts of particles in the air that I hadn't noticed.

We thought we were going to get rain, so Carrie wanted to hook the spreader up. She tried to use the gator at first, but we didn't have the right hook up. The mower worked. The spreader worked. The rain never came.

We need to take the arena drag out and use it to break up poop piles in the fields, but without any other rain on the horizon motivation has been low.

The automatic watering holes have been a time saver. No hauling and refilling buckets!

However, there seemed to be a leak in one the other day.

It looked like it was leaking from the top.

I could hear water running, so I opened up the top. The bobber looks much the same as a toilet's. Carrie pulled up and the water stopped filling. 

I went out the next day, heard it filling, and pulled up on the bobber. We talked about what we might need to do for a repair and then the problem went away. Maybe it will come back or maybe it won't. Perhaps it was related to the heat wave we were going through? I couldn't tell you.

At this point, I'm used to helping out more with the horses. I timed myself one evening and it took me 22 minutes to walk down, do everything, and walk back to the house. Carrie may want me to help work the horses eventually, but that'll require a lot more education.