Importing hay for the winter

Yesterday we hauled three tons of nice grass hay over from Yakima (Mike Drury in West Valley). Here's Don off-loading it under the barn lean-to. We couldn't find ANY to buy in this area of Montana because it was such a dry year. Nobody grew much, and what they grew, they've kept for their own animals. By next year we'll be better networked with local hay producers.

The hay is supposed to go in a special area of the barn (inside), but the barn is full of HOUSE stuff...so it won't get to really be a "barn" until we can move everything into the house. Lucky Don! He gets to move three tons of hay a THIRD time!!

Stone and Steel

It's starting to look more like an almost-finished project. The green steel roof is going on quickly. That should be done in another day or so. And stone mason Gene Carner and his helper Alanare zipping along on the cultured stone. You can see their nice chimney work in the roofing photo. In other photos, they're working on the face of our 50-foot porch (which is a cobblestone-brick pattern of stamped concrete on top). The other photo is of Don, upstairs, admiring what they've done on the chimney thus far. This cultured stone is fabulous. Unless you were in the business, I don't think you could tell it wasn't the "real thing." Needless to say, it's much more economical and goes up a lot faster.