It’s that time of the year when I start to feel more and more tired, burnt out (probably been cooking and baking too much), overwhelmed that the whole year has gone by already. New Year’s and my birthday come in quick succession, which is always a double-whammy!

Today, it’s back to work at my desk job after a week of vacation, but I’m more wore out by round bales than anything! We can only ever get our hands on a couple ton of small square bales each season. The rest of the feed has to come from round bales. We were blessed that our back 5 acres yielded a bountiful amount of round bales this year, but boy are they a pain. (Most of the aging farmers around here only have round balers, having sold their square balers long ago due to their aching backs. Round bales are just as annoying, unless you have cows!)

So far, each year I have our farmer friend (the one with the tractor) put the bales on their flat sides so I can peel hay. We don’t have a tractor, so we can’t feed in round bale feeders. So, I peel hay morning and night and stuff hay nets. And I get tired of it.

This year we even had the bales put on pallets, so we have less hay waste. I made a stupid mistake and had the Husband buy medium weight tarps instead of heavy duty. So, a couple of days ago the Son (he is home from college on holiday break) and I went out and had to re-tarp with heavy duty tarps. At least is wasn’t very hard work.

Well, it is when Orange gets in the way! Anyways, this is also your introduction to our newest feline, Orange. Someone dumped him off at our house. He is very obviously someone’s very annoying house cat.

He is always jumping on us (parkour-style), trying to get into the house through whatever door you are trying to go through, walking in front of you and suddenly flopping over with his belly to the sky begging for tummy rubs (as you wildly try not to fall on him because he tripped you), fights all the other cats, paws on the outside of the window while we eat dinner making us feel guilty, etc. We took him to the vet and got him neutered and all of his shots.

He now lives in the barn with his very own heated bed. He leaves me dead rodents just inside the barn door. He is a walking curse; none of the other cats can be outside when he is outside as he is a bully. He loves a good cat fight… *sigh* However, he is very endearing and is constantly playing with me when I’m out in the barn or at the bales doing my chores. He is a good cat, but would have done better in a one-cat household.