There are so many things that we love about the fall. The brilliantly colored, Virginia fall foliage. The smell a wood fire on a cold day. And best, a barn loaded with fresh hay.
Despite our sparse first cutting, the fall cutting surprised us by coming in 300 bales higher than we anticipated. Also, a generous farm owner in Amelia has donated the hay from his 10-acre pasture. Thanks so much, Jay! This means that we are going into the fall with nearly all the hay we’ll need this winter to feed our horses, which is about 2000 bales annually. There is nothing quite like that knowledge to make you all warm and fuzzy inside- except maybe a cup of hot chocolate.
Of course, we still have our crew of dentally challenged horses who can’t chew hay, so our other goal is to ensure that we are also supplied with lots of senior feed and chopped forage. Note: Okay. Yes. We cheated. The above picture was taken last year. But the hay field really will look like that in about three weeks.