Makin' Hay

     I think the saying "Make hay while the sun shines" refers to bailing it....which you definitely want to do when there is no rain in the forecast.  But, before you can bail hay, you have to grow it...which is really what "Making Hay" is all about. For growing you need rain to get the seeds to germinate, and then warm sunshine to help it grow.  The warm sunshine we have had....but the rain has been scant at best.

     Here, the horses are enjoying some hay.  Because Zorro was going nuts confined to a stall all day, we started roping off (with hot electro-braid) small areas where he could be out in the sun and graze, but not run and re-injure himself. 

He also really likes to be with Amiga.

     As you can see from these photos, the newly planted pasture is just starting to grow.  There is new orchard grass, clover and alfalfa emerging amid the already existing tenacious weeds.

     I had heard it is best to do fall planting of pasture by mid September, so before we had finished the picnic shelter I started on this project.  On the south side of the barn and all around the round pen it needed planting because our neighbor who planted the fields for us could not get his equipment into those areas.

     The first thing I wanted to do before planting was to move the round pen about 3 feet NW.  Before I could do that I needed to move in more dirt to raise the ground level even with what was already in the round pen.  When we had the water way dug, some of that extra dirt was put where the round pen was to make it level.  They raised the SE end probably 4 feet.  They put a lot of extra dirt to the SE of the round pen.  So, I spent hours moving loads of dirt from one place to the other.  Thankfully we have a Kubota tractor which helped tremendously with this task.

 
     In this photo, the round pen has been moved.  The dirt on the inside near the house had to be leveled and smoothed to keep the nice riding surface.  The dirt on the outside I graded as I dumped it, in order to get it to slope away from the round pen. 

     The bare spot (without weeds) in this photo is where I got all the dirt from the SE side of the round pen.  The level area outside the round pen had been on the inside of it.  Now that the round pen has been moved, there is a nice level path to ride on around the outside.  The dirt had extended out at that level and then there was a steep slope down to the original pasture.  Basically I made it a longer more gradual slope by removing the dirt that had extended straight out from the round pen.  It took awhile to get it grated and smooth.

     Once the round pen was done, with all the dirt where I wanted it....I was now finally ready to "make hay".  The first step in this process was to get the dirt loose so that the seeds could take root.  This required a lot of raking....no easy task where there was clay or packed dirt from numerous trips over it with the tractor.  I just raked and chopped at the clumps to break them up and loosen the ground.

     My fowl friends did a lot of digging and scratching but were of no help because they were in the way and were actually churning the ground where Joe and I had already planted.

     Spreading seed was next, and sounds easy enough, but the high winds on the first day actually made it a bit difficult.  We did not want grass growing inside the round pen.  Also, when the silly chickens saw the seed bucket, they came running and were of no help.



     After the seed comes a loose layer of top soil to hold the seed in place....and hide it from the chickens.













       Getting loose top soil was no problem because we had a pile of it in the garden.  But spreading it thinly was quite time consuming.  We also had the chickens to contend with and even the barn cats thought this fresh dirt made a great place to.... uh.... fertilize. 

    


     Dan was great help with this whole process, spending hours spreading soil.

     As Dan worked, I followed with the layer of hay.  Using hay to make hay.  Some of our bales had broken so we had plenty on hand.  I spread it in a light layer over the dirt to help keep the moisture in so the seeds would
                                                                                   germinate.  The

chickens also thought this was great to pick through.  The high winds the first day made it very difficult because it kept blowing the hay away.




   

     Once we were completely done with the planting process, we fenced off what we could, in an attempt to keep the chickens out.

     Finally we ended with the watering process, which we will continue with until we get rain or the seeds have germinated.  We did get a 30 min down pour after the first night of planting, but have not had any since.  We had started planting with the south side of the barn and then worked our way around the round pen.  Each day we completed each of the planting steps in a new spot in an effort to get things growing and to keep the chickens out.  Here you can see that the seed by the barn has started germinating.  We had put the rock in along the drip line earlier.

     After almost a week from when we started here on the south side of the round pen, you can see things are starting to sprout.

     Around to the north where we finished last....it still needs time.  But notice in the back ground, how the pasture is getting greener.

     And look here at how well the new hay is doing.  This is taken from 150 looking south down our whole water way. 

     After planting all the orchard mix in the pasture, next I tackled all the bare spots in the yard with regular grass seed.  I had already planted around the picnic shelter, the other large area was in front of the garden.  We had taken all the dirt that was piled there that we needed, so then we moved the railroad ties back to the north side, dug them in, leveled the garden dirt, and planted grass seed north of the garden.

     I also finished off the pile of gravel that has been sitting in the drive for a long time now, moving it to the north front of the garage.  Once again the chickens came to help.  Uggh.

     We have continued moving Zorro around to various little "runs" where he can be out and eat.  As small as the areas are, the grass doesn't last long, so Joe keeps moving the grazing pens. 

     Here, Amiga and Zorro are relaxing together on a cool, early fall day....watching the the hay grow as their full bellies digest what they have eaten of it.