How's your woodpile/hay ?

My Dad used to say that you needed half your hay on February 1st
to make it through the winter (Ohio). Anybody running low?

Out of wood. Have been for about 6 years! Hay I've got. More than half left.

Rick

I have 10 1/2 cords bucked up & stored under roof & 5 1/2 cords ready to be bucked up this spring. I'm in good shape considering I burn about 5 3/4 cords a year.

I'm watching the hay close,but I think I'm good. I've got plenty of silage.

hay close still got some got grass stockpiled soon as the weather gets better get the critters out
wood pile any nice day go out and add to got a good start on next year
snow pile over 8 ft anybody want some ? remember last year and no rain

Enough wood for a week or so, hay should just make it. Between dad and I we have burned 22 cords of wood so far. Tried working in the woods Saturday to get more wood. Nasty in the deep snow. Called a neighbor who is a logger and having a truck load of 8ft hauled in this week to cut up.

Used last of dry wood yesterday, more outide under the snow.
Hay, not sure but probably have to get more by March.
SWMBO doesn't seem to like being that prepared and it really upsets me

Hay is fine, we only use 80 bales a year and sell the rest in the summer. Enough wood to get through late spring or summer sometime, we burn wood year round for hot water.
Zach

Wood plenty Hay plenty.. started this process years ago on the wood. Have a building just for the wood keep on palets and inside to keep longer. I have one large elm that im working on this winter..

Hay i try to keep enough on hand for 3/4 year of feeding.. even on a terrible drought I figure I can put enough up to feed my critters but wouldnt have much to sell..SPRING...just around the corner!!

I have plenty of wood but pile is melting at alarming rate. I try to keep at least a years supply ahead.

Sold a barn full of hay last weekend put it on swap and shop everybody who has horses is out. Get one or two with a sop story can I pick some up and pay you next week when I get paid As for wood first year I had to go and cut some more to burn for the winter.Always try to keep a year ahead.

Have not been involved with hay lately, supply at the other place is probably fine, they get it in increments now, not like before, where we would stockpile it, the one barn, roof or moisture used to spoil some of it, fix the roof till you find bad hay again, given that, it gets delivered now.

I should have split another cord, but at this point, the seasoned supply is right where I figured it, close, but I have 2 other "stashes" under cover, (reserve LOL !) so if it gets close I have that and dry tops in each of my log piles near the house, which by now is at least 2 years worth once split. I hope we get some decent weather so I can be done with that well in advance of the usual spring activities.

This is the first year in several that I have been able to not have to depend on cutting/splitting wood during the heating season because its needed now, whereas I bring in up to a cord at a time, stack near the stove to dry out. So nice to fill 2 wheel barrows, in/out of the cold quickly, till the next refill.

Well, Leave her have her wood and hay pile. Then have another pile of wood and hay for you. No more being Cold, Hungry, or Upset.

Hay- more than enough. Was able to extend grazing season into Dec. with cornstalks and a field of turnips. Didn't start feeding hay full time (daily) until a few weeks ago.

Doing fine on hay. I will probably let a few go the last of Feb or early March. Have around 15 or so big rounds and a good 100 squares.

Got plenty of wood for the stove and and hay for my herd but had to stop selling for a while until I can check inventory to see how much surplus I have.

Right now I can not see more than a few feet because of the blowing snow. Had to throw some square bales into the run in part of the barn so that the beefers won't need to be out in the wind.
Weather guessers say 2 more days of this stuff before we get a little break. This global warming is really great.

Got plenty of wood for the stove and and hay for my herd but had to stop selling for a while until I can check inventory to see how much surplus I have.

Right now I can not see more than a few feet because of the blowing snow. Had to throw some square bales into the run in part of the barn so that the beefers won't need to be out in the wind.
Weather guessers say 2 more days of this stuff before we get a little break. This global warming is really great.

First year I stored hay in our barn, lost about 13 squares. The warm hay was causing condensation on the underside of the un-insulated sheet metal roof. Condensation would run down the sheet metal til it hit a purlin. It would collect there until there was enough to drip.

Went to a fabric store and bought a bunch of terry cloth (towel fabric) and attached strips to the purlins to absorb the moisture. That solved the problem. Since our hay storage area was small, the underside of the roof was easy to get to when full of hay, this worked for us.

Lots of wood , and hay to sell. Just need to find a buyer , not much demand this year.

I've got enough hay for another 50 days, trying to stretch that by feeding ground rice straw with corn glutin, dried distillers grain, minerals, molasses added to it. I have another pasture with ryegrass in it, but the lack of moisture has kept it from growing much. That same lack of rain kept my hay volume to half of normal last year.
Wood I don't use, propane tank is at 38%, should last, filled in the summer.

i should be in good shape with hay i have some small squares in barn some big round bales bought if the roads ever get so i can get it hauled home.
lp gas good question i contracted some late summer, but i don't know how much of that i have used.
friend of mine ex s-i-l delivers lp gas for local coo-op last gas not contracted was 2.45 per gallon they have been told next delivery from supplier will be .35 cents higher

Thats a real disappointment when surprised like that. I can appreciate the fussing with the fields like you and James have posted photos of here, it all starts with a nice stand of hay grasses. Though its not easy work, I still did not mind putting up a limited amount of small squares, like I was doing a few years back. Had I the ability on my own, I'd still do it, really something to appreciate when you feed it, in our case, with all that these horses do put up with, nice to give them something they really like. Between the weather and other situations, it can be a struggle to get that done, and secure it.

One barn is old and though still in use, part of it rebuilt, toss up between maintaining it given the old roof that likes to leak and or demolishing it, start over, just out of the budget I am sure. The other is a large arena, good roof, much newer than the other. They put a vapor barrier down, then pallets, it has 2 large doors at each end. The arena footing material has to be kept moist enough to not make dust, between that and I'll say moisture in general, it too was not a good place to store hay. I did 400 bales of nice 2nd cut, with lots of clover, even the regular hay guy said that is nice stuff. They put a few thousand in there, with room on top, I brought up an elevator and put all that nice 2nd cut up high on top. I still lost some of that and it was dry from the field, I baled it and stacked it twice, you could tell, the up side on bales on top were dusting, molding, only on that side, with the work I put into delivering this, very frustrating indeed. Knowing better than to even try to salvage any questionable bale, with what could be lethal to a horse, I did put it aside and used it for mulch when I replanted a small pasture, + the garden, no weed seed in it, so all was not lost. Frustrating enough to get that nice hay into a wagon and off the field only to have that happen. No safe place to store larger quantities without significant loss, and my biggest problem, which was if any of it got past hired help, whom was educated in detail about it, horses are fussy, good chance they won't eat it, but that mold dust is not so good either. The only time we could store it is when mold can't grow, like now, bitter cold. When we had horses here, barns had good roof's hay mow above the stall areas, never recall this problem ever, inspecting and sorting through compromised hay. It also made a lot of extra work.

That's a good solution, I have re-directed water and protected that vapor condensation away from stacks of hay from the underside of the roof. The stack does make it easy to do that, you are right up close to the underside of the roof.

Just did the count yesterday on the hay, and looks like we're going to be a month short (obviously more if the weather doesn't cooperate and we have to cut late this spring)

We lost a couple hundred square bales in one storage shed that leaked bad during some real nasty rain storms in the fall.

Stacked about 8 bales high, water ran straight down through every last one of them.

Lots of black hay, all had to go.

If anybody in MA has extra, let me know! Getting hard to find any that's not spoken for.

Need it for horses and cows. Cows will eat anything, but like something a little better for the horses.

I've used about 1/4 of my hay, (I ran short last year, made DAMN sure that wasn't going to happen this year) and about the same on firewood.

Plus I'm a year ahead on firewood anyway.

That's a good question! It seems its always a balance? I have plenty of hay this year, in 2012, after a wet 2011, I was down to 25 bales, when the weather finally cooperated and I could mow hay. Last 2 years I've had plenty of hay and firewood, this winter it will be close with the firewood, but as long as we don't get real deep snow, I have a bunch of standing dead I can go cut. I also have logs from January 2012 that I never got time to cut and split, so if the weather warms up a bit ill cut split that and leave in in the basement by the wood boiler to dry out. Than ill start all over again this year, I'm already behind, I haven't ordered logs for next fall yet! Doooh, or what Homer Simpson says. Lol

Got hay in plenty, unfortunately, so do all my customers. I'm gonna have to beat the bushes for somebody that needs some.

Firewood, plenty, BUUT, still stacked out under tin. The first half that was stacked in the woodshed is history, and I need a day that isn't below zero and the wind blowing to move the rest.

Kitchen wood is a different story. The wood that I have left is too long for the cook stove, and not nearly long enough to cut in half. My sister has some shorter wood that I can split finer and use. I just have to replace it before next winter. Again I need half way civilized weather to do it. It still beats cooking with $4.00 plus propane.

Woodshed emptying fast. Most days are three-armload days. Down to about 7000 square bales. Not selling as fast as last year, but in the last couple weeks, sales have picked up. Here in s.w.Pa, Dad always said that: Should have half your feed left on Feb 1.

(quoted from post at 20:24:31 01/27/14) Woodshed emptying fast. Most days are three-armload days. Down to about 7000 square bales. Not selling as fast as last year, but in the last couple weeks, sales have picked up. Here in s.w.Pa, Dad always said that: Should have half your feed left on Feb 1.

Click to expand...

This year I beat that! I will have only used about 1/3 of my hay by the first!

Don't burn wood.

Rick

I'm 2 months behind on everything this year due to the crazy wet summer. Woods fair, we're cutting a lot of standing dead wood yet. Hay is iffy, maybe we have enough or maybe not. Gonna be close.

Only thing left is the boys. Hay more than enough might have to start burning it..

(quoted from post at 15:55:50 01/27/14) My Dad used to say that you needed half your hay on February 1st to make it through the winter (Ohio). Anybody running low?

Click to expand...

More than half left, in fact just got another 100 bales a few weeks ago. It had been sitting on the wagon at my guy's place since Sept. He couldn't get it delivered until now. Feel pretty good that we'll have plenty.