Filed under: June 2018 | Tags: balage, cattle feed, custom hire, experience, Hay, horse drawn, logs to lumber, neighbors
June 20, 2018
Monday morning I was up early. I started raking three small fields of hay that we used for “baleage” This hay was baled while still green or “wet”, then wrapped in plastic. The bales resemble large marshmallows. I started raking at 5:45 am, right after chores were done. I wanted the morning dew to raise the water content on the wilted hay. The good bacteria turn the bales into yummy sweet smelling silage! My Amish neighbors did the baling and wrapping.
My closest Amish neighbors, use tractors and very modern equipment instead of draft horses like me. This sect is much different from my Old Order Amish friends to whom I am most accustomed. In any case, the neighbors came by and made my balage. It cost me less than one payment on the equipment I would have to buy to do this job myself. It makes economic sense to hire this job done. We made 42 bales, enough for my supplemental winter feeding, in two hours!
I have always tried to look at my farm from a profit and loss perspective. Often times it is better to hire jobs done based upon time, equipment needs or the scope of a job. I tend to be hard-headed at times. I get myself into a project where hiring a man to do it, would have cost less, been done faster and probably had a better end result as well. Pride can be a wicked thing. I have learned a lot from experience…usually I learn the most from a bad experience!
Here is another example of hiring a neighbor and making use of salvaged goods. The lumber in the above photo was sawn for me by a friend. The logs were from a pine tree that blew down, A bitternut hickory growing in the wrong place and a dying sycamore next to the sugarhouse. Some of the hickory will replace the floor on my horse drawn work sled. The rest of the hickory and the pine, will become the north wall on my back barn overhang. The sycamore I had cut into live edge pieces to make benches for visitors to the sugarhouse.
So, it has been a great week so far. Thanks mostly to neighbors, numbers and salvage!
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RicelandMeadows 
I love the smell of silage! I first experienced it in the Netherlands on holiday, my initial reaction was, “What is that incredibly awful smell?!” As I grew used to it, it grew on me 🙂 Now it smells fertile and rich to me (almost good enough to eat).
Comment by jennyrecorder June 21, 2018 @ 7:45 pmJenny, in the bags you can’t smell anything for a while, then it emits a sweet smell almost like a baking pie. When I pull off the wrap, even on the coldest winter days, it smells wonderful. You can even drift on the aroma, all the way back to a sweet summer memory!
Comment by ricelandmeadows June 22, 2018 @ 12:14 pm