A Place for Everything, and Everything in Its Place

That is so not the case with me.

When I lived in the suburban house, I was extremely organized. I didn't have a lot of storage space, but I had shelves and things streamlined "just so."

Here it is completely the opposite. I drive myself crazy because nothing is ever put in its place. I have boxes left to unpack. I was sweeping the floor today, and I wondered aloud why I even bothered. The house never seems to get cleaned. I don't know if it is because things truly don't have a place, or if it's because the walls aren't finished (it will never LOOK clean until that happens), or if it's because we are busier outside and with other priorities and don't have time to clean and put things away. Maybe a little of each.

In any case, it drives me absolutely nuts. So crazy that I have a screaming session at least once a month and threaten to throw everything away. I have found FreeCycle, and will definitely put it to use!

Michael Knight told me today that I don't blog enough. He says he's getting bored.

MK, how can my lack of organizational skills and facilities interest you?

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Have you ever been upclose to a big round bale of hay? I really had never been until I became the proud owner of 14 of them.

Truth be told (and it always is around here), before I met B, I dated a farmer for 5 years. I nearly married him. But those details are a story for another day... My point is that I spent some time on his farm. I drove the tractor and baled hay. I helped him stack hay in the haymow. I helped him milk cows, or at least kept him company.

But the bales I helped with were the small, square kind. These big round bales today are totally different. I suppose it's not very exciting for someone who knows all about them, but for me it's a new experience.

They are big. HUGE. A small bale is about 50-70 pounds. Yes, the small ones can be a little heavy, but for the most part relatively easy to handle. A few weeks ago I unloaded and stacked 15 bales by myself in about 15 minutes. Not a big deal. A big round bale is 1200-1500 pounds. (Mine are, anyway.) They are taller than I am, I can't see the top of them. You can't move them without a bale spear or without dragging them behind a truck or something. Since we have 14 bales of grass hay, and we're buying alfalfa, we decided to cut down on the alfalfa over the winter and feed the grass hay. We have a bale in the pasture, and two in the barn. It's not the easiest thing to do, but we tear hay from the bales several times a day and cart wheelbarrows full of hay to each of the horses. It's like a big spiral, but not uniform. My forearms are really cramped and tired after pulling 6 wheelbarrows full of hay.

It looks as though we will not use even half of the 14 bales this winter. Do you want to buy a bale or two?