Last week, I was wanting to buy hay for the sheep, not that they need it now, but they will do later in the year and during the winter. I had found in the past that you have to buy, or at least reserve, hay in season or risk it being no longer available. Accordingly I rang M. Migné, our previous supplier, to arrange some, only to find he had retired! I asked if he knew anyone else and he recommended another farmer in Villemain. However, he was not happy to deliver so we had to borrow Ian and his trailer to collect the bale. M. Migné had supplied round bales, which, although heavy are at least movable by rolling, but the new bales were the square ones, not the little bales we are used to but the great big bales the farmers use now... We went to fetch it on Friday and M. Michenaux put the huge bale in Ian's trailer as lightly as a butterfly landing-- but he did it with a Manitou front loader. Returning to Mort Limouzin it was by no means obvious how to get the enormous, heavy bale out of the trailer and into its stowage in the open barn... All the more so as Ian has cracked a rib and couldn't help. We unhitched the trailer in front of the barn and left it overnight to ponder. We had the idea of asking Phillipe to help/advise but began to realize that even his muscular frame couldn't lift half a ton of bale.
In the end Kim and I decided to do it the long,but safe way. We cut the lashings round the bale and peeled off successive layers of the hay to place each in its place. An hours hard work had the fodder transferred and all was sorted. I really don't think there was any other way, the barn being too low to get a tractor and front- loader in. All's well that ends well, and the sheep will have plenty to eat next winter!
Bye for now going to rub each other's backs!
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