Hay Mission Accomplished

Today was our big "hay making day", although it was probably better described as a hay collecting and stacking day!  Thanks to our volunteers, we've got lots of lovely photos of the day! 

We were so lucky to have so many willing helpers...Hazel Ann and Graham did the mucking out in the morning, and by 11am we were joined by Hugh and Jane (who foster Ebony and Apache).  Roger arrived shortly afterwards with his son Jonathon, and they were armed with the flat 8 and their tractor with an extra big trailer.

The flat 8 saves so much human work because it carries 8 bales at once and makes loading trailers in the field so much easier.

The ponies had to keep safely out of the way, so they moved to several locations throughout the day.  We were trying to make sure they don't eat too much grass.

Bobby and Dan stayed up at the far end of the field

Topsy ended up keeping an eye on things from the stable - it was nice and cool in there and she was quite happy - she had a good view as there's a window in the side of the stable too.

With the team of 7, Ted tractoring, and Laura and Jenny providing support, by lunchtime we had more than half of the 769 bales stacked in the barn!  A brilliant effort.

Can you spot the chicken disappearing into the haystack??!!!

 Hugh and Jane left us at lunchtime, and in the afternoon we were joined by a fresh troop including Paul and Cilla, Pete and Stella (who foster Munchie) and our volunteer Mel.  This worked really well!   Roger has been amazingly good to us - he was with us all day today with his tractor and equipment and he has his own farm and livestock to look after...we really appreciated his help.

We were finished by just after 4pm...time for all our brilliant volunteers to have drinks, cake, biscuits, quiche and sausage rolls for their efforts (courtesy of Ted, Jenny and Laura).  We were finished much earlier than expected and our friends Catherine and Edward who had offered to come down to help in the late afternoon could be stood down!  We are so lucky because not only do Ted and Jenny give us the use of their premises for the ponies to live, they donate all the ponies' supply of annual hay - a most valuable gift.  Now we know that even if it snows all winter (which I hope it doesn't!!) the ponies will have enough food to eat!

Faye's mask attracted a few comments but she says it's the best thing ever for hayfever sufferers!  It filters out all the dust and pollen spores.  She was able to work all day with the hay without a single sneeze or snuffle for the first time ever, and it's so nice to finish haymaking without feeling like you have a full blown cold and without lungs full of hay dust!

Although the "haymaking" was finished, that wasn't the end of the work!  We were so pleased to see Margaret and Gill who came to help get the ponies sorted with their dinners and sort out the hay soaking for tomorrow.  Margaret kindly donated some new feed bowls to the ponies so some of them had their herb supplements in them.  Graham managed to sort out some tarpaulins to hang over the new stack so that the ponies don't reach over the barn wall to help themselves to extra hay rations!! Hazel-Ann worked on getting the electric fences all back in the right places.

 ...And then it was job done!

Faye and the ponies would like to say another big THANK YOU to EVERYONE who came to help today!

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