The Hunt Is Over -- At Last

There are 22 new bales of hay in my barn right now. Bales that were not there yesterday.

As I've mentioned to y'all, I've been having a hard time finding hay this month, and the steadily dwindling number of bales in my barn were proof positive of that. My search seemed futile. Everything I found was either too expensive, or they wouldn't deliver, or I had to buy at least five tons, or it wasn't good quality... Ugh. But I needed something, so I was getting ready to spend $245 on a ton of hay that was an hour away from me. I had really hoped to stay in the $150 to $160 range, but there just wasn't anything available!

Then a friend e-mailed me, saying there was a pretty good hay dealer 30 minutes away, and their prices were good, somewhere around $8 per bale. I was intrigued, and called the hay people immediately. 

Less than five minutes later, I had bought myself a ton of clover mix hay. I hadn't even seen it, hadn't run any of my tests by it yet, but I bought it. The gal I spoke with was very confident that I would like it, and I appreciated the fact that she stood behind their hay quality. The fact that the hay was organically grown was the cherry on top. I took her word for the hay's quality, and said I would see them in my barn the next day (Friday).

Unfortunately, it rained on Friday, and the hay people said they would prefer to wait until the next day. I still had hay from my last batch, so I was fine with that.

This morning came, and along with it came my load of hay. 

Hot dawg, I found my permanent hay supplier! 

The hay was just as good as they said it was, and the goats went absolutely berserk trying to get to it, despite their overflowing hay manger full of their breakfast. The husband and wife who own the hay farm were very friendly, and their prices really couldn't be beat. I paid $150 for this stuff, and they delivered and stacked it neatly for me. I'm easy to impress. ;) 

We talked about hay, cattle and goats for awhile, and then they hit the road again. But I'm saving their phone number for sure. I've been hunting for a supplier like them for five years; now I hope to buy from them for at least another five. 

This video is of the girl's third helping of the new hay. Normally all hay goes into the manger, but said manger was still full of their breakfast! So I figured they could go ONE day with eating snack on the ground. LOL.