This past weekend, we purchased our first load of hay for the winter season. Hay seems to be not as plentiful this year as it was last year due to the rather dry mid-summer months that we had. We typically feed our animals grass hay during the winter, but this year, we’re going to try a mixture of grass hay and alfalfa hay. I’ve never stacked alfalfa hay before, and I made a *HUGE* blunder when we went to pick it up.

I have allergies. They manifest themselves as hayfever and asthma, and I’m allergic to a great many things. Things like, dust, pollen, mold, etc. Alfalfa hay, because of the small leaves, seems to crush up into dust pretty easily, so moving around the bales can get quite dusty. Here’s the mistake: I didn’t bring a dust mask. I stupidly decided to go ahead and help stack it into the trailer anyway. I paid for that mistake all evening long after it set off my allergies. I was fortunate in that I didn’t end up in the hospital or anything, but I was miserable for the remainder of the evening. I’ve bought a new package of dust masks and will have them handy when we go pick up some grass hay next weekend.

Live and learn….

–Pete