Monday, June 22, 2009

Surprise!

The other day I took a little video of riding Baasha through our field. It's really no fun to ride there cuz the hay is up to his withers and it's probably not good for the hay anyway. So, just this once I crossed through it and captured it on film. Good thing, cuz it would all change soon.

Yesterday I went to catch Baasha and Lo and Behold the hay is cut! Must have been when we were at church, dangit, we missed it! I caught Baasha, took one moment to gaze out at the strange emptiness, and ran to get my man.

I couldn't find him! I called in his office, in the house, no answer.

He was out in the front yard picking red currants. (They are the hops-like plant that I couldn't identify this spring. The photo is from the other day when he was out there - we're out there a lot lately.) He must have heard the tinge on my voice when I said "I want you to see something" cuz he said, "Did they cut our hay?" !!! YES !!! COME LOOK!

Wait, let me get my camera, hold Baasha. I ran in the house as fast as I could.

Amazing. All that grass, lying down in pretty rows. What a weird feeling it is! I wonder if any neighbors saw us grinning and gaping in awe at our newly shorn field.

Perfect timing too, cuz in 10 days we'll be in America and I wanted to get Baasha out there in the big field before we leave. I'm gonna move one line of step-in posts out into the center and divide the 5 acres right in half, so that we can keep the rotation going on as Paradigm's Jason recommended to me.










My man held Baasha for me as Baasha helped himself to the hay.












Here I am wearing the world's most unflattering shirt. (Don't click.)






I ripped that hay out of his mouth and said, "It's really not good for you at this stage!" My man laughed cuz he's never seen Baasha with so much food in his mouth.

Later I returned to gaze out at the field, and saw a black cat hunting in the center, inspecting what new life has been exposed. A white chested hawk drifted in circles above the field, free for the moment from the harrassment of crows. A deer was on the opposite side of the creek, and Baasha was grazing in his favorite grazing strip.

I'm so glad I got to watch the neighbors across the street get their hay cut, cuz for me it was a fascinating process. Hopefully I'll get to see them turn our hay and package/bale the hay (not sure if it's gonna be hay or silage yet). These last few weeks everytime a tractor goes by (and they do a lot here) I would listen to see if it stopped at our gate. I'm so happy it's haying time, cuz it's annoying to have a field you can't really use while hay is growing. I haven't even strung up the electric wire yet cuz I didn't want to walk thru shoulder-height grass to do it. (The posts are all in and capped though, finally!)

Why didn't we notice right away? There is a strip of trees between our house and our field, sadly, blocking our view to our pasture. Darn those trees!

I can't get enough of this new life and I'm constantly re-enchanted by the happenings around this place. Counting my blessings every day.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jason's advice on rotational grazing will be good - we too do that at our barn. Two of my older horses are going to live with Jason and Melissa at the end of this month - just a week now!

Leah Fry said...

Glad to hear you're visiting the States soon. How long will you be here and where will you be traveling once you're here?

Fantastyk Voyager said...

wow, that is some tall grass!
How fun it must be, to be able to grow your own hay.

lytha said...

Kate - I checked out your blog today - how nice that your lovely pony and mare get to go to Tennessee!

(He is really an intriguing looking pony - what color is that?)

He'd really look great retiring at OUR place, if you don't mind the shipping price?

Leah - We'll only be in the states for one month, but I'm so excited about it! We'll be stopping in New York and we have two trips to Oregon planned. We need to get up to Canada again, cuz once is not enough for my man, and the rest of the time just Western Washington.

You know what I miss right now this moment? Food that is truly spicy when the package boasts "HOT!", "VERY SPICY!", "FIREY HOT!" and such. That is always so disappointing - how much cayenne pepper I have to add to things that say "SPICY!" on the label. Sheesh.

FV - It is so fun! Amazing how that just worked out - the man who I bought hay from, I just asked - "Hey, will you make hay for us on our field?" and he said "Sure!" and he gets most of it cuz we can't store that much. We get what we can store, maybe 75 bales, and the rest goes to him for his work. That was really such a blessing because I couldn't have planned that - I assumed we'd be buying hay.

AareneX said...

Great-looking hay! Poor Baasha, doesn't get to eat any (yet). Will he bale or "roll" the hay the for you? Oh, how exciting.

But the big question is: ARE YOU COMING TO RENEGADE this year? It's on July 4th--a good day to spend in the Nat'l Forest because there's no fireworks allowed, and I hate fireworks.

So, will we see you there???

Melissa-ParadigmFarms said...

Jason and I were away for a bit and I'm catching up on my blog reading since I'm behind. Very interesting about the different attitude towards worming, although having spent some time in Europe on horse farms I was aware that they thought we way overdid things in that department.

I have to agree with you, a freshly mowed field ready for baling is a beautiful sight!

allhorsestuff said...

Oh! That is a thing of beauty forsure!
Bet you are excited to be int he states for a time..you will misss your grey boy though!
Kac