The hay shortage and my upcoming medic tests

Tomorrow I go away for a week to complete my medic training and hopefully pass the tests. Two full days of tests including an oral exam....in German.



The exams are administered by the COUNTRY of Germany, not the state, not the city. OK then, no pressure.

I have not done anything with Mag all week because I've spent every day studying. We have this 5 page single-spaced document of questions and each page took me 9 hours.

J has been encouraging me to take study breaks, and as a teacher, I believe him. He says it's important to process and take time out every so often. I agreed, "So, no Star Trek or internet directly after studying? Just processing time?" "Yah."

With all that this week, Ani understood when I cancelled.

But she came over today to learn how to take care of Bellis and Mag while I'm gone, because even though my husband is here, they need a mid-day feeding and someone has to clean up poop. My husband would rather pay her than deal with poop and wheelbarrows in the snow and ice.

She was covered shoulders to ankles in reflective green (OK yellow) and she said Mag had a problem with it, and I said, "Good, just don't ride him like that!" But eventually he was nibbling and nudging her all over affectionately, with his eyes half closed, mouth loose.

I realized why. He was in a Futter-koma (food coma). He'd stuffed himself with hay all night and day and then the bucket and he was in a daze. Donkey too. I was not woken up by her braying for breakfast, cuz she was still eating dinner. The last few weeks her hungry bray has echoed around the town. No worries, she's so fat she looks pregnant and her hair is so long she looks like a mountain goat. When the snow falls on her, she looks pleased about it. It's amazing how robust donkeys are in Winter.

I'm ashamed to admit this but it's the truth - we've had a terrible hay shortage and I've been limiting my animals' hay intake all Winter. Because of the drought, farmers were unable to make a second or third cutting, and all the horse owners in the land are desperate for what they managed to make early in the year.

I'd never paid more than 6 euros for a small bale (think tiny bales, children can carry them. I carry them by one baling twine per bale in each hand and toss each one up to the loft and I'm a weakling. Tossing hay bales into lofts by hand is a German thing, I've learned. ). This year for those same tiny bales, we paid 10 euros each. Yah, 1000 Euros for 100 tiny bales, and each bale doesn't get us through one day.

I've been stretching them out by feeding five times per day, and my animals have taken to fighting over food and even Mag gives me grouchy looks whenever I appear, cuz he's on "food defense mode" or whatever. I send him away and make him wait until he can be polite, but his default now is to tip his ears back at me, the food bringer. *sigh*

Well last night we got a surprise delivery of 60 bales and now we have enough to make it to April.

I asked our farmer if he was part of the government reimbursement project to help all the agriculturists who lost more than half their yearly income due to drought.

He said no, because he doesn't qualify, hay farming is not his primary job. Wow.

Please try not to judge, there is just no hay to be found in this land, and Ani told me other regions have it worse. How can it possibly be worse!? When I found out how bad it was, I was happy to pay 10 euros per bale!

What would you do in a hay shortage?  I've been buying hay pellets and Speedi-beet (no-sugar beet pulp) for Mag and giving him a 5 gallon bucket per day, and I can still see his skeleton whenever I take off his blanket. So much so, that I declined to put a saddle on him. He is so frail looking. (I've competed endurance with horses with less fat but they were simply over-conditioned.)

But now, I think we're gonna make it. 

Mag spent the night with his head over the wall eating directly off the bales we'd piled up too high.

The donkey gorged herself even though she looked about to burst before we got this hay.

This morning Mag's lower lip was hanging down, before breakfast. No breakfast necessary, OK.

What a wonder it is, a miracle, to find hay this time of year.

We only have enough til April, but that's enough, cuz in April our pasture will come to life. I cannot express what a stress it has been on me, to limit hay and worry about running out in March.

If you board your horse, as I did for 20 years, you don't really have to stress about this. You assume hay will come.

For the next week I'll be gone and I can focus on my studies and not waste time worrying if my animals are hungry. They'd just better not try to gallop over that rock-hard frozen field! Thankfully Bellis and Mag seem smart enough to not romp around and break their legs when it's dangerous.

If I were paranoid, I'd lock them up, but I choose to trust their judgement.

Mag sure put on a show for Ani and me today on our path, that I'd recently covered in wood chips. The surface is PERFECT now, he can prance and gallop all he likes through our path, it's flat and the chips give slightly under pressure, unlike mud.

Mag was curious about my showing her the de-pooping process and had followed us, and when we turned back for home, I said, "Get outta our way" and he threw his tail over his back and pranced all showy back to the barn. OK then. I told her to watch you, you cannot just ram him with the wheelbarrow to get him to move, cuz he kicks. But you can tell him and he moves. 

I hope Ani can manage it, if not, J is here to support her.


I could really use your prayers about my tests next week - I got a letter from the German government that read threateningly, "If you fail any part of this test, you may or may not be able to repeat it."




So, don't screw up. (Every item those guys are carrying, I assure you they are really, heavy. And now up 5 flights of stairs!)

My brain is so full right now.

Do you know how many ways you can die from going diving? Never dive.

And wear your helmet,  when you ride things above the ground for pityssake. : )

Sorry, no need to scold. My brain is full of the consequences of everything you can ever possibly do wrong to your body.

So, stop it now. *lol*

PS  - Seriously though, if you have any questions about how rescue goes down, please ask me. I'd wondered for years, and now I know. Don't think any question is too trivial, cuz all that trivial crap is what I've been filling my brain with all week. Ahem. That super relevant stuff! No really, your body has a million ways it will try to kill you. It will also try to keep you alive.