Time for Hay

April 9, 2023

Hello again,

Well, we're back on track with all of our equipment working properly and I wanted to catch everybody up on what we've been doing for the last two weeks.  Last week's Letter Home concentrated solely on the hike that we did in the Las Vegas National Wildlife Refuge, but I never got the chance to also talk about the other big news and that was our big hay delivery that we got.  We need to get our hay delivered about every six months or so and the only other product that we get, cultured alfalfa forage, we get a whole tractor trailer load of about once a year.  This time was the hay and we had 400 ordered: 150 bales of alfalfa, 150 bales of orchard grass and then another 100 bales of 50/50 alfalfa-grass mix.  Last time, in the fall, we got a total of 300 bales and the barn was a little fuller than now, but we got it all in there.  This time, we got 400 bales with a nearly empty barn and I'm pretty confident that I probably could have stuffed another 100 bales or so in there one way or another.  As always, we got our hay from Mallette Hay Sales in Las Vegas and had our friend, Russ Mallette, and his wife bring it out to us.  They have a full-sized trailer that they bring with a big forklift that they pull behind it that weighs 17,000 pounds just by itself!  Usually, they unhook that before coming all the way into our twisting and turning driveway and drive it in separately: Russ in the truck and his wife on the forklift.  Russ is quite the fabricator/mechanic/troubleshooter-extraordinaire and took a very simple forklift attachment and turned it into this huge rack full of hooks that can grab 21 bales at a time.  For instance, since I had the barn completely cleared out this time, Russ was able to make 20 short trips between truck and barn to fill us up.  All I had to do was to have my mountain of pallets ready and then throw them down a few at a time so that the hay wouldn't be resting on the ground.  Well, we made short work of that and before we knew it all the hay was in the barn and we had a chance to chit-chat a little and catch up on things, sharing many of our shared and mutual experiences from growing up and spending most of our lives in a feed store.  Then, they got everything loaded back up and headed back out to the ranch road, where they could couple the forklift back up to the truck and trailer and away they went to get breakfast, before later heading down to Albuquerque to pick up another truck that had been in the shop for a few months.  I went right back to work and then later on before dark used the tractor to stack our remaining 200 bales of forage and 40 or so bales of hay right in front, just within the drip line from the roof of the barn!

In other news, Valentin and I have been moving all of the boss's potted plants from the old house up to the new house and nearly broke our backs in the process, having to lift some seriously huge ceramic planters.  This was an enjoyable break, though, from me cleaning and scouring every day and him having to constantly be working with stone.  Also, we've been removing most of our remaining equipment and supplies out of the house itself and have been relocating everything into the tractor barn.  The tractor no longer fits in it and it's choc-full of just about everything that you can think of from this build that can't get wet.  There's also nearly an acre of old beams, posts, metal, lumber, boxes of fasteners, etc., that are in what we call the Boneyard.  Sooner or later, when the house is done, there's probably going to be just as much work to get all of the remaining material sorted through and taken care of: some of it goes back to the architect, but the rest is the boss's and we need to figure out how to either sell it or repurpose it here on the ranch.  Erin and I keep working on the landscaping and I've now spent 3-4 nights over the last few weeks mowing with a big, walk-behind brushhog after work until dark.  Erin has sneaked in about twice as many weedwhacking sessions, getting them done during the day before she has to go clean here on the ranch or do one of her gigs in town.  Little by little, we're getting things whipped into shape and, apart from a few red flag warnings already, have been moving right along with getting everything done in a timely manner.  Most of my mowing thus far has been in-between the boss's house and the pond, which will be our new residence in a few months' time, and we're super-excited to have a huge yard again to play in.  Well, let's not get too excited... any plans for a volleyball net or anything like that are going to have to account for the dozen or so cacti that are hidden randomly around the yard.  Watch your step!

So, again, I have compiled a new batch of photographs for everyone to peruse.  First up, a shot I took of the moonrise the night after the full moon...it was too blurry to leave as is, so I doctored it up a little bit.  Then, a series of ten shots from our big hay delivery: first, the barn empty for the first time since we've been here; next, all the stuff that I had to move to empty it; then, the truck pulled up along our dumpster; next, a closeup of their lettered front door; then, Russ's wife getting the equipment ready; next, Russ pulling his 8 ½ ton beast right into the barn; then, how neatly he's able to stack the bales with his custom rack; next, a shot of him rolling in with another 21 bale row; then, a shot showing how he can also stack them vertically, to maximize space; and, finally, everything in the barn with the new in the back and the old stuff out front...filled right up to the brim!  Next, two shots of me and Valentin in action, moving the gargantuan planters one at a time.  Then, a shot from our soon-to-be wraparound porch showing the freshly mown yard between the house and pond.  Next, one of my favorite shots from San Jose when we go in to get our mail, with the afternoon sun usually blowing up the end of this old barn right along the road.  And, lastly, when we were in town the other day for our hike, we drove right in front of the Amtrak station and snapped a shot of it...let us know when you're arriving and we'll be waiting out front to pick you up!

See you soon.