Hay!!!!!

No really..... Hay! It's hay day! I want to join the "ton" club, but I just don't have any where to put it! Sooooo I'm off to buy by the bale and it ain't cheap! You would think that living in Oregon with all the rain and stuff, that we would have lots of cheap hay, especially grass hay, coming out of our ears. BUT.... grass hay at the feed store is almost $18 a bale!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I buy from a dairy farmer and it's still $12 a bale (and not that great IMO) I'm really frustrated by this, when my filly has good hay, I am a happy girl and when she doesn't I am a grumpy girl. When I find good quality hay I want to buy in bulk so I know she is going to get good quality hay for 6mo at a time or longer. As it stands now I can buy for a week at a time, maybe two and the quality varies so much that I want to scream! I guess I need to work on my hay "networking" so maybe I can find that "golden" supplier to keep us "on the up" all year round! Good quality forage is an important issue for most horse owners and I'd love to hear from people around the country. What do you pay for hay per bale? Per Ton? What type of hay is available to you and what are the differences in prices? If your horses are on pasture, do you need to suppliment with hay?
Also regionally what do you feed? When I lived in California I fed a 50/50 Alfalfa/Oat hay mix to my QH gelding and Mustang filly. Here in Oregon I've fed grass hay only (with strategy and supplements) Our horses count on us for what they eat and I feel I've done a pretty good job when my filly cleans up at her feedings,but when she doesn't, it's on to another hay search!

*sigh* Taking pictures......not my forte!

I love taking pictures! And it's especially cool when your blogging to have lot's of picture to illustrate what your talking about. I love certain blogs for the great photos that are included in them, such as Pony Girl Rides Again. I aspire to take such great pictures myself, but always seem to fall short of those aspirations! The funny thing is I've taken some darn good photos of my past horses using of all things, a disposable camera! But since making the leap to digital I usually end of with blurry images about half the time. I'm really hoping that I can at least partially blame the camera :) but since I've only ever owned the one and don't know heck of a lot about them, I don't know if that will fly. I would also like to partly blame Lily, she has not mastered the "freeze and don't move a muscle for at least 30 seconds so I can take a lovely picture of you noble profile" command. We really need to work on that. So what I often end up with is the photo above.......noble profile cut in half, but at least it's not blurry! Yeah I know the dirty halter isn't so noble, but you know... I was going for one of those nitty gritty no frills kinda pictures (yeah right!) If anyone out there has any tips, PLEASE, tip away. Any camera suggestions too! My current model is a Konica Minolta Dimage E 500 if that means anything to anyone? Feel free to tell me how it's the worst digital ever made and that your surprised I was able to take any decent pictures with it at all (j/k) For those of you that are taking those fabulous pictures keep them coming so I can keep aspiring to do better!