I had breakfast with Simon this morning, he was munching his hay, I was eating a piece of toast, it was cold and companionable. We are just really getting into regular hay feedings, the grass is still green this week, but some hard frosts are finally killing it off, turning it brown.

The outer pasture turned out to be a good idea, the brush, apples and meadow grass there gave us an additional month without having to put out the hay Each year is different, the weather is different and I am always surprised by how much three donkeys and five ewes can eat. The longest my grass has ever lasted was Thanksgiving, that was two years ago. Climate change is felt by anyone with a farm and animals, it was just a few short years ago that the first storms came in mid-October, and the weather has driven the hay farmers to distraction, it is either too wet or too dry.

Simon doesn’t really care of course, his second cut hay looks good and green.