Bay Haven Farm - home of OldDominion Stud
Cleveland Bay Horses - Grass-fed Beef - Thanksgiving Turkeys
On the verge
As we find ourselves greeting the dawn of November, it is clear that Autumn is finally here for good. Colder nights make for a morning fire in the fireplace. Nothing quite like the quiet of morning, a good cup of coffee and the smell and sounds of the fire crackling from within the hearth behind me.
The three cords of wood still sit behind the house partially stacked. I would say I have made it through 1/3 of the pile with 2/3 left to go.
We have not yet had to put any hay out, surprisingly. I think I recall our first round bale drops are usually done at some point during the month of October. We have significantly fewer amount of mouths grazing out there so I suppose there has been more grass to go around. There is a ton of lush grass our front 5 acres; but I am hesitant to send anyone out that way as we have some older fence on one side that has a bit of a lean to it. One push from a cow or horse body and we’ve got....well, no good for sure! Debating a pre-winter fence fix or postponing until spring. It is only about a 40 foot section so not major surgery.
So we are on the verge of needing to put hay out. Yesterday, rather than dropping a round bale I moved Circle, Chagal and Fortuna to the 20-something acre field still full of good grass. They are sharing with the cattle at the moment; but with 20 acres they seem to spread out pretty well.
Part of the plan this weekend will be to disengage the giant bush hog from the back of the tractor, stow it away for winter and put on the bale spear. For this I need the Farm Hands help, the bush hog is pretty cumbersome to remove. We will be ready for any future necessary hay drops.
As November creeps in we start thinking more about the upcoming turkey harvest fest. Down to just 10 turkeys left; we have had two more claimed in the last 2 days. No doubt they will all find a table to rest on by Thanksgiving day! As always though, there is much preparation to consider for the event. The workshop needs cleaning up, the barn tidied up a bit, propane, food prep, bonfire prep, .... make sure I did order turkey bags.... lots of little details. The usual crew is back on duty this year and we may have a new young recruit joining us who is a friend of one of the Farm Girlios.
Tuesday, October 30, 2018