Things to do while the sun shines
For those who tuned in late: our house is in the middle of a 30-odd acre hay field.
We have sold our hay, and leased the next 3 years of hay, to the guy who raises cattle on the field next door. Hay sales are always a bit of a burden to us. (a) as emigrants and city slickers we aren't plugged into the hay-buying network (b) our hay is unfertilized, none-too-weed-free crap. In the past we've been able to sell what we had because there were droughts on and hay of any quality had some value. Last year there was a wet spring and huge amounts of available hay.
I should mention that no-one can or does make a living from hay. A year's income from a given acreage of hay, with good rain and low fertilizer prices*, might just about pay its own property taxes in a year plus a few pizza's worth of profit. But about those property taxes -- the tax rate per acre is _enormously_ lower for agricultural land than residential. If you want wide open spaces around you (and why else live 15 minutes from the place you buy a gallon of milk?) using those spaces for agriculture is the only way.
This deal, this year, is mostly worthwhile to our neighbor because crappy though it is, our hay is one gate away from the cows who'll eat it. But in forthcoming years, leasing our hay means he'll fertilize, kill weeds, and generally take care of our fields for a small fixed sum (paid to us) and all the hay (for him.) It might be different if we had the skill, equipment, or time to do the work ourselves, but the answer is none of the above. Sum X might be slightly less than we'd net on baling and selling our own hay, but our land will be in better shape and we won't have to mess with it. If he makes a profit on the deal too, good for him. That'll make him want to sign another hay lease next time.
After a succession of nice warm open-all-the-windows spring days, we're having some cold rainy crappy ones. This weekend will probably be sort of an introvert dream vacation, i.e. staying home puttering around and not going anywhere. We are sufficiently introverted, one way and another, that this is sort of nice for us.
TBF
* I'm joking. Fertilizer is petroleum-based. Organic options are hugely more labor intensive; see the time, money, skill we haven't got remark.
We have sold our hay, and leased the next 3 years of hay, to the guy who raises cattle on the field next door. Hay sales are always a bit of a burden to us. (a) as emigrants and city slickers we aren't plugged into the hay-buying network (b) our hay is unfertilized, none-too-weed-free crap. In the past we've been able to sell what we had because there were droughts on and hay of any quality had some value. Last year there was a wet spring and huge amounts of available hay.
I should mention that no-one can or does make a living from hay. A year's income from a given acreage of hay, with good rain and low fertilizer prices*, might just about pay its own property taxes in a year plus a few pizza's worth of profit. But about those property taxes -- the tax rate per acre is _enormously_ lower for agricultural land than residential. If you want wide open spaces around you (and why else live 15 minutes from the place you buy a gallon of milk?) using those spaces for agriculture is the only way.
This deal, this year, is mostly worthwhile to our neighbor because crappy though it is, our hay is one gate away from the cows who'll eat it. But in forthcoming years, leasing our hay means he'll fertilize, kill weeds, and generally take care of our fields for a small fixed sum (paid to us) and all the hay (for him.) It might be different if we had the skill, equipment, or time to do the work ourselves, but the answer is none of the above. Sum X might be slightly less than we'd net on baling and selling our own hay, but our land will be in better shape and we won't have to mess with it. If he makes a profit on the deal too, good for him. That'll make him want to sign another hay lease next time.
After a succession of nice warm open-all-the-windows spring days, we're having some cold rainy crappy ones. This weekend will probably be sort of an introvert dream vacation, i.e. staying home puttering around and not going anywhere. We are sufficiently introverted, one way and another, that this is sort of nice for us.
TBF
* I'm joking. Fertilizer is petroleum-based. Organic options are hugely more labor intensive; see the time, money, skill we haven't got remark.