After a month of gorgeous, dry weather, the rains have come back reminding us of the cool, damp summer just past. Luckily, we did our third cutting of hay just in time before the weather turned sour. Ben trucked the bales up by the barn a few days later, and we have over two hundred piled three rows high along the east side of the cow palace. Making the dark rain clouds seem a little less ominous are the beautiful reds, yellows, and purples (yes, the white ash leaves turn a shade of purple) of the hardwoods covering the surrounding hills. Dennis, our forage supplier, came by today to see just how many bales we will want from him and when he could start hauling them down. We'll probably take another four hundred from him, and he'll start hauling in a few days.

 

With the weather pattern of "one day sunny/one day rainy" repeating itself, the cows and heifers take advantage of the sunshine when it's out. This afternoon, the yearling heifers and steers were all grouped together on the hill just off the barnyard. They looked very peaceful, soaking up the rays and placidly chewing their cuds. On the other side of the barnyard, Tony the brindled Angus steer, was king-of-the -mountain on a pile of dirt. He looked very majestic up on his perch. While the animals enjoyed the sunshine, I did some housecleaning.

I headed over to the Horsebarn to make room for the square baler that was currently parked inside the dairy barn behind the feed bunk. Shafts of sunlight came through the pine board siding and lined up side by side on the concrete floor. I swept the floor and rearranged the equipment inside the barn to make room for the baler. The rain was still holding off, so I ran the baler over from the dairy barn and settled it into the back of the Horsebarn. Now I would be able to start feeding hay to the cows inside the barn in the feed bunk during these rainy days and nights.