The practical side of yard life
The morning the hay arrived
Fictional yard diary · Ellie and Rob
Ellie and Rob clear the barn, lose an argument with the wind and discover the value of a pencil behind the ear.
The hay arrived ten minutes before the rain, which would have been perfect if we’d been ten minutes more organised. Rob had cleared half the barn. I had moved the same wheelbarrow to three different places, each of them apparently in the way.
A delivery with an audience
From the paddock, Bramble watched the whole operation with the interest of a horse who had never contributed a penny to the hay bill. We had agreed where the driver would stop. It looked generous on paper. From the gate, with a trailer behind the truck and a puddle where the verge should have been, it looked rather less generous.
Two bits of chalk
Once the bales were in, Rob found a bit of chalk and marked the older stack so we’d use it first. I wrote the delivery date and the bale count on the board by the door. Last winter we’d both been sure the other one was keeping track. This time there was a number we could both read, even if neither of us could find the pencil.
The quiet bit afterwards
We stood under the barn roof with tea while the rain came across the field. The whole yard smelt of grass and wet coats. Bramble had lost interest in us and gone back to staring through the gate. As far as she was concerned, all that rushing about had produced exactly what she’d expected all along.
Back to the Yard Journal · Read next: Buying hay bales for a horse yard