Hey, hay!

We have been raising rabbits for meat for almost a year and having gone through a long, cold winter now, I have tallied the costs and they don't look good. When it comes down to it, the way we raise rabbits in wood shavings in a hutch, with a tractor for access to fresh weeds and grass is too expensive. Either they have to go or we have to find a better way.

Sometimes when we ran out of bedding last winter, we would use some of the rabbit's food hay as bedding for them,and it worked fine. We ran out of hay but I got to thinking about the insulating properties. You drop a glob of hay in and the rabbits break it up, chew some and stand on some. They make a nest out of it and sleep in it. Rabbits are very clean animals and I have read if you keep them clean they will not have problems or parasites. We need to cut out the wood shavings and switch to hay. Hay is $4.00 a bale and wood shavings are $8.00 a bag. The hay is half the cost and lasts twice as long.

My next problem was getting hay. Lots of farms advertising hay but none deliver and especially not under ten bales. My van is in the shop and anyone I know with a truck lives too far away to make the journey worth it. Then my husband came home and for about the third time told me his co-worker really would love some of our fresh eggs. At this point I normally say "ya ya, but we have more orders than we can fill" and fob him off but then I remembered this co-worker keeps horses and we had bought an emergency bale of hay from her last year. The light bulb went on.  I proposed a deal. One carton of fresh eggs per week for one bale of hay per week. They each sell for about $4.00 so it seems equitable provided those involved don't mind the work involved.

This is how my husband came to be transferring a bale of hay on a busy downtown street in the city into his tiny hatchback while at work. Luckily the co-worker has a hay bag which makes it less messy and much easier. I love that we are bartering eggs for much needed hay and I equally love that city people on their way to work or school or wherever will see a well dressed man carrying a bale of hay down the city street. If every action causes a ripple in this world, what kind will that cause? At the very least I hope it makes people think and wonder. At the most I hope it makes people have their own "light bulb" moment and realize you can do something different and " farmy" while still being a city dweller or worker.

There is something about a barter deal that makes a person feel good. It goes beyond simple economics because once you have a deal that means something to someone, you are connected to them. The more neighbours I barter with, the more connected to them I am. I so enjoy this barter feeling that  I am dying to see what else I can trade for something I need. I may have too much hay pretty soon, but I am betting there are neighbours who may need it...