Hey! No Hay.

The drought has hit Central Texas pretty hard. HAving horses, this always freaks me out because I am worried about getting hay. My usual source (who is also the neighborhood source thanks to my big mouth) can't grow it because of the no rain issue. The feed stores are up to $9/bale (I remember when I was getting it in the field for $2.50/bale 5 years ago). There just does not seem to be affordable coastal horse hay anywhere. I bought 40 bales of tifton from a source who had to get rid of it because he is moving. The horses took a few days to get used to it but they are eating it now. They get alfalfa trucked in from New Mexico when I can get it. They only get that once a day. It costs $21-23/bale for a bale that is $110 pounds. I can make that last a week or so with the 3 horses.

They take longer eating the tifton so they are not eating the trees as much. That, in and of itself, is another issue. The horses strip the bark off the trees and then you lose your good shade trees. I want to shout at them, "Hey dummies! You are going to kill your shade and in the 104 degree weather you will be really sorry!" I strategically wrapped a bunch of them with chicken wire so the horses could not get to the bark. The wire is fairly invisible to the causal passerby. There are still the trees they will be killing but then I will have some firewood and a sunny area for more grass to grow in the front pasture.

They are banned from the front pasture now because the rye is starting to come up from the 2 days of damp weather we finally have had. It should last until May once it comes up if I am careful to keep them off it. When I think back to how much grass we had before the horses and how often I had to cut it, I can hardly believe that it is gone. Part of me wishes we had fenced the front yard so we would never have to mow that as well (that is about 250 yards square).

Such is residential farm life. I would not trade it for city condo life at all.

The Chicken Farm

Have you ever been to a chicken farm? I went to one today where the chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys and peacocks were all free range. The owner is a man from Bordeaux, France and he lives in Central Texas now with his wife and toddler.

I actually got to go because this was a photo assignment for 7:30AM (!) ten minutes from my house. Yes, I live near a chicken farm, now I know. I got there and after I opened the gate the watch peacock would not let me drive to the house. He kept darting in front of my car. I knocked on the door and discovered that I woke up the farmer. A rarity I am sure. He over slept he said, but got out the door and showed me around. Turkey on the roof of the coop, ducks and chickens living together, complete fowl anarchy.

He told me stories of how fast chickens grow, and what wildlife eat them. I didn't know that owls only eat the heads and necks and leave the rest. What a waste! He recently shot two bobcats he thought might be brothers because they kept raiding the yard. He kept the bodies to sell to a taxidermist. What a frugal idea! We talked about how the French like seeing heads on fowl at the market but Americans do not. How is compost heap is kept wet and cooks to 114 degrees so it breaks down the dead bodies of the chickens that are killed by owls.

He had a jack russell terrier, a black lab puppy and a young runt pig that he and his family took in. The pig and the terrier would snuffle the chickens. the puppy and the pig kept nosing my legs to where I was not sure who was there. The pig would stick his snout in the back of my knee so hard that my knee would buckle when I was not expecting it. Still he was cute.

Tomorrow I go back for the slaughter. He plans to kill and process some ducks. Not sure how photogenic that will be. He also is planning to make duck legs with fries for me to shoot. I hope I get to taste as well! He used to work at one of the best Italian restaurants in town. I am confident he is a good cook.

We shall see!