Haystacks are everywhere. Big haystacks. Some ranches have hay sheds, just posts and a roof, and many of them are full and have hay bales stacked way out past the buildings. Other big stacks are on high spots at the edge of fields where the cattle will be fed in the winter, or where they are handy to get a semi for loading and selling. We don't get a lot of rain or snow, so storing hay inside is not absolutely necessary as it would be in wetter climates. Some stacks get covered with heavy tarps, others with a layer of older bales, and some with nothing at all. They keep their quality quite well, being nice and green and sweet smelling 2 or 3 inches in from the exposed surfaces. Most of the big ranches have gone to the big bales that weigh about 1000 pounds. They are quicker to bale and handle, but require more machinery. One of our neighbors does custom baling as well as doing his own hay for about 500 cattle. He couldn't do that with a regular baler that makes 100 pound bales.
The ranches right around us have cut and stacked most of their hay. Up here in the dry hills we seldom get any second cuttings except for alfalfa. Down in the valleys where they have a long irrigation season they will get 3 or sometimes 4 cuttings. They get their water from the river, we get ours as runoff from the mountains via a creeks and into our ditch. Smaller ditches come off the main one to supply the ranches. When the water level in the creeks reaches a certain level, they turn off the ditch and save the water for migrating fish. That happened a couple of weeks ago. The mountains are just bare rocks now.
Here in my garden, I have dug out the onions and they are drying on the ground in the sun. No rain in the forecast and most mornings there is no dew at all, so they should cure nicely and keep well into the winter. I hang them in mesh bags from the ceeling beams in the basement where the temperature stays at about 52 degrees. My corn has not started to tassle yet. We are anxious for corn. No ripe tomatoes yet, but lots of zucchini and other summer squash. I sold some of that at the co-op today.
Daytime temps are near 90, nights about 55. Normal year for here.
