Notes from Maine - 2024/09/29

Last Monday, the hay guy called. I like to go into winter with at least 300 bales up in the attic of the barn. It’s not enough to get the monsters through the entire winter, but it at least allows me to coast through a couple months if the barn gets snowed in. The rest of the time I’m picking up a truckload at a time. When I built the barn, the attic was big enough to hold six-month’s worth of hay. The barn didn’t get smaller, but over the years the horses got bigger and hungrier.

I already threw 100 bales back in August, so I needed 200 more. That’s a full day of stacking, lifting, moving, throwing, and stacking again. The final 30 are the hardest. For those I have to carry them up a ladder and fit them in like puzzle pieces. This year I wore a mask, long sleeves, work gloves, and jeans. If I don’t I get rashes and a cough for a few days. I’m slowly growing allergic to the stuff.

By sunset, the last bale was in place.

With all my precautions, I was fine the next day. Plenty of water and a couple Advil before bed made sure that I wasn’t too sore, but each year I wonder. Will I still be doing this in a decade? I could get one of those hay elevators, but where would I put it 364 days out of the year? Those only solve one part of the problem (the lifting). I would still have to load the bales onto it, run it until they’re clogged at the top, and then climb into the loft to stack. Elevating the hay isn’t even the most time consuming part of the process.

Some different version of me might consider hiring someone (gasp!) to stack the hay. Can you imagine?

I should figure out a way to get the horses to do the work. Attach a pulley to the ridge beam and string a carrot up over Earl’s head? He would probably run off and tear the barn down behind him, dragging a significant chunk of the roof and kicking up a dusty cloud. Maybelle would be right alongside, cheering him on. An easier solution would be a second barn with ground-level storage. Rodents would get in there, I bet. One good thing about the loft is that I’ve never had a mouse, rat, or bat problem up there (knock on wood). 

Last week I talked about starting the kitchen island. I’m happy to report that it’s perfectly serviceable now. Peace accords with the counter people have been stalled, so I had to settle on a butcher block top for the moment. It’s nice, but I don’t think it would be durable. Doors and drawers are next on the agenda, although I should really consider the upper cabinets at some point in the near future. There are details there that I’ve been mulling over for a few months now. It would be nice to move them from the theoretical to the physical realm before I forget all the decisions I’ve already made.