Friday 16 January 2009

Hay

Posted by Rosie

We had lunch outside yesterday:




But then we did have a small patio
heater to keep us warm ;-)



We finally got round to clearing out what we thought was not a great deal of hay from the loft space above the Old Bakery. We slightly miscalculated how much was there and a few hours later we were still chucking ancient bales of hay out of the door and resorting to using the digger to move it to the fire site.

Goodness knows how old it was but some of it was made into stooks tied with straw. It was therefore no good for anything except burning but I did cut the string off some bales as it was traditional baler twine which is much nicer than the modern stuff to use in the garden.

And thank you Adam for your help - this being the same Adam who helped us out last year ........ moving hay out of another barn!!
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4 comments :

  1. Compostwoman17 January 2009 at 01:06

    Arrrggghh !

    composting, mulching, putting down as paths, laying down in hen runs to keep their feet clean!

    Oh so many other uses!


    BUT I do understand how nice it is to burn stuff, also...

    Compost the ash though wont you? please? just for me?

    ReplyDelete
  2. A Green and Rosie Life17 January 2009 at 09:58

    CW - I fully understand what you are saying but it was a case of having to clear the barn and having no where else to store it ..... but in another barn we have a couple of hundred bales stored and another barn full of more loose stuff. We needed to clear this barn in order to start renovation work so a bonfire it had to be.

    When we arrived, the barn that will be converted into one of the gites was stuffed full with over 5000 old bales. They were not good enough quality for the sheep and we needed them cleared to get into the barn so the local farmer took them for his cows. Then when we needed fresh hay for our sheep he gave us a free big bale of fresh hay and a large dollop of farmyard manure. No money exchanged hands and both sides were happy.

    I'm looking to compost all of our grass cuttings this year - I have a lot of cardboard stored - will the ash be suitable to act as a balancing dry matter?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Compostwoman17 January 2009 at 13:07

    Ah, sorry! (oops)

    I thought it was a little pile or a bale or two....

    I didn't realise the sheer scale of the hay mountain!

    Must have been quite a sight :-)

    Cw x

    ReplyDelete
  4. A Green and Rosie Life18 January 2009 at 20:14

    CW - don't worry - as Simon knows, if I could keep more of the hay I would!! If only you were closer you could have come and got some of it.

    ReplyDelete

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