It was easy to forget the summer drought as our Melville neighbors experienced flooding, landslides, and vibrant pastures as a result of the fall rain. But as our family purchased our first cow/calf pair and tried to source local hay, it became apparent how the weather had affected our normally extremely productive hay crops.
Though we were not able to source Melville grown hay, we were able to secure local bales from a family farm on the other side of the county -for a premium price of course.  Once delivered those hay bales were unloaded and tightly stacked quickly with help from 3 strapping men and we waved a thankful farewell to the friendly farmer who delivered. 

As we began moving on with our day, Hubby Dearest began looking for his cell phone.  As luck would have it, it was NOT in the pickup, the shop, or the barn, but vibrating innocently from within our haystack. 
We stared in horror at the perfectly stacked bales and feared that the slender smartphone had slid through the stack into the pallets at the very bottom.  With a sigh Hubby Dearest and my Father Dear began disassembling bales attempting to find a cell phone in a haystack. 3 layers of 70 pound bales later, they found that dang phone and began restacking.  Even Hubby’s exasperated look and intentional irritated sighs (directed my way) weren’t enough to dampen my excitement for the arrival of our first cow/calf pair the next day!
It felt like Christmas when Mable and her calf Molly arrived at dusk and were ushered into their pasture corral that a neighbor let us borrow.  Even after 10 hours of trailered travel they were calm, approachable, and responsive to a bucket of oats. These well-bred heritage Dexter girls were healthy, happy, and loved by their previous owner and I was so excited to have my first breeding stock I was practically skipping! 

A few days later Mable and Molly have eaten from my hand, let me pet them, and have officially become part of the Melville Farms family!