Caving

NW Oregon isn't supposed to look like this, right? Actually, we do dry out and turn brown every summer, but summer came early this year with record low rainfall and record high temps. The horses and sheep have been on full hay rations for awhile now. In the photo above, Blaise, Sarai and Bramble are off searching for something tasty, but they will join Vienna and Bree at the hay piles soon enough. (Vienna could stand to step away from the hay; she already looks preggers!)

We had some sheep and horse hay left over from last year. We knew we'd need more horse hay and bought what our closest source had available; we hoped we'd have enough sheep hay. (The horses get coarser, single-cutting hay; the sheep get second- or third-cutting orchardgrass hay.) But even with feeding the wethers and ram the finer-stemmed horse hay, my stack of orchard grass looked woefully inadequate. So I called my "sheep hay guy," one of the few local growers who irrigates in order to get more than one cutting; he had 50 bales left. I caved; they are being held for us. Good thing sheep sales were good this year!

That's it for today from . . .