@Baymule , quite the picture of the culverts being washed out from under the pavement.
Well, we are sitting here "waiting" for whatever weather we are going to get.
Y'all will think we are crazy, especially
@greybeard because he is very familiar with hay making.
We cut 8 acres on last Sunday afternoon. It was orchard grass that has pretty much cured on the stem so to speak. With all the cold, and a couple of frosts, it had stopped growing. We were waiting, and hoping for a sunny spell. Took a chance, cut a little better than half the field. Tedded it out on Wednesday to shake the dusting of snow and droplets as it melted. Very breezy which was good. Tedded it on Thursday afternoon but it was a mix of sun and clouds. Sun came out Friday morning, tedded it out as soon as the sun dried the chill off. My son then raked a few rounds that late afternoon because it was dry. I noticed by noon it felt dry, almost crunchy. We worked 18 baby calves this morning, shots, banding and eartags, then I went and finished raking. He started square baling at about 1 and made well over 350 square bales. 225 loaded on the flat bed trailer for delivery in the morning before we get weather ( they say it won't start til after 9 or 10 a.m..) and another wagon stacked and loaded to the top. I picked up about 8 or 10 bales...2 were a little heavy, and the rest had just fallen off the wagons and a couple had some johnson grass in them. He had a friend that had been wanting some hay come get about 15 or 20 that didn't fit on the wagon. The cows were pulling it off my truck as I was trying to get it into the barn.... and they have 2 big rolls out and a partial bale I had put out from a broken square bale earlier that day. They were in no way hungry, but they sure were liking this "freeze dry cured hay".
In the meantime, he finished cutting the other 6 acres and about 5 acres across the creek on Friday, and it is about half "freeze dried" so if we get the sun and 40-50's next Mon Tues and Wed...I will tedd twice, and then rake and it ought to be ready to bale on Thursday.
No we do not normally make hay this late. But these fields were quite tall and we just did not have the time to get them made when we were pushing to get all that other hay made the week before Thanksgiving. We need the square bales for customers, and it really did make up pretty nice. It's not as "green" as it would have been before frost, but it is not as hard to dry once it stops growing and all like now. And the color doesn't tell the whole story as it is sweeter when it stem cures like this as the moisture goes down but the sugars don't. Since first cutting was a late first cutting, it is a decent 2nd cutting, with good growth.
So I would really like if we don't get much out of this storm tomorrow, and then it can rain/snow next weekend. Would actually rather see snow so that the ground can soak it in a little slower than rain this time of year.
One good thing, those couple of heavy bales won't get much molding with the cold temps. We have been down in the 20's the last couple of nights and days barely hit 40 for a few hours. I will get them fed out to the calves in a couple of days, so am not worrying about them heating or getting moldy.
