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Saturday, January 10, 2009

Oh for Heaven's sake!

We're still in the deep freeze. This is getting a bit ridiculous! We don't get cold like this for days and days on end and frankly, we aren't prepared mentally for long cold spells like this starting in December and rolling on through well into January! BRRR!! We woke up this morning again to Minus 21...sheesh.

I have to take a moment to thank a good friend of mine for supplying me with some wonderful compressed bales of flaky timothy hay. The bales come in on a van from the lower-48 for hay sales to horse people, but there were a few bales here and there in the van that were dirty...as if the floors had been swept up and the dirt baled with it. When you take the bales apart and shake them out, dirt falls out of them. No, not mold, just earth. Not good for horses or any animals indoors, but fine if you take the time to shake out the flakes onto the snow-covered ground for the sheep. They love it! You know how sheep don't like stems, well there are no stems in this stuff! So, she's been selling the hay to me at a reduced cost so the sheep can keep their energy up especially since we're at the end of breeding season. They are eating VERY well! The bales weigh 60 to 80 pounds each, and although heavy to pick up are so small it makes them pretty easy to heft around. So in this cold we've at least had the luxury of feeding everyone some really nice rich hay and that's kept up their energy and health.

They say it's suppose to get into the 20's next week, that the cold snap will be over with soon and we'll be relatively warm again. We all here can't wait!!!

3 comments:

Deborah Niemann said...

Congrats on getting some good hay! It's getting harder to find down here, because a lot of farmers would rather grow corn since the price went up so high.

BTW, if you have a minute, pop over to my blog. My LGD has a torn ACL, and I'd appreciate your advice, since I know you have a ton of experience with dogs!

Stay warm! And remember, spring really does come eventually.

Gone2theDawgs said...

I have looked at that compressed hay and wondered about it....definitely would help with storage space!

I'm sorry, did you say warm spell? 20s? You are a true Alaskan!! :)

Ebonwald Cardigans said...

did you freeze solid? I miss your blogging!