Square sucks, round rocks!

We off loaded, from our truck, a thousand pound bale of hay last night. It is funny how these darn animals know that our square bales are not as good as the round ones. Let me back up here, and tell you how it came about that the square bales are not as good as the round ones. When we baled our square bales, this summer, we had the misfortune to have a rainfall after the hay was on the ground, which means that it had to dry again before the hay could be baled. Then unfortunately we had a lot of wind. The hay got sunburned and became dry and yellow. Good hay, for those of you who don't know, is dry and green. I was surprised when I first saw that the hay was rolling off the round bales and after the initial little bit on the outside, that was golden, it was green inside and yes, it was dry. But our square bales sit there and look sad because they are just dry and yellow. They look more like straw than hay. We have 250 bales of the square stuff sitting there. Problem is, that the animals just look at it, lie on it, nibble a little, and then pee on it and walk away. They just don't like it. Now anyone who has animals knows that the idea is to not let them starve especially if you are keeping them for meat, which we are not. However, food shortages and below standard food can cause breakages in their fibre. So good food is necessary if I want the best fleeces possible. We are left to buy round bales from a neighbour who had more successful timing during haying season.

It's funny how thngs that are true for animals are true for people as well. I went grocery shopping yesterday and bought a 20 lb bag of flour. OUCH! At $17.99, (last year I paid $6.99 reg. and $4.99 on sale) you have to wonder when you should start buying ready made bread. I said as much to the cashier and she agreed but then said that she couldn't give up homemade bread for store bought at any price. Now while I agreed with her I began to wonder if there was a way that I could go to the farmer and buy wheat cheaper rather than waiting for it to be picked up by a truck, driven to a plant, where it is processed, and bleached, and who knows what, and then trucked to a warehouse, where it sits and awaits transport to my grocery store. I would be willing to pay a pretty good price for a twenty pound bag of wheat. With a one time investment of a good grinder, I could grind my daily bread for a heck of a lot cheaper than what I am making it now. Makes you wonder when you pick up that bag of flour off the market shelf who is profitting from my purchase. Either way, homemade bread beats Wonder bread any day. If you think of Wonder bread as square and homemade as round, square sucks and round rocks! Those animals, they know.