Thank You!

September 15, 2023

An anonymous private foundation (with exquisite funding tastes) bridged the gap between what we’d raised with our GoFundMe account and what we needed to cut hay for our sheep and to store it for the winter. GoFundMe raised enough money for us to cut the hay but we didn’t have what we needed to repair Hill-Stead’s Horse Barn so we could store the hay. In the meantime, we perfected the art of making haystacks for the Museum, which was fun but wasn’t going to provide the sheep with their winter hay. This latest gift happily pushed us over the finish line.

During the Horse Barn’s heyday (sorry, I couldn’t resist), the hay was stored in the hayloft above but rebuilding that area would have required a massive amount of structural work – so we opted instead to rebuild the section between the horse stalls on the ground floor. The large double doors will provide us with easy access to both the hay and the sheep below.

In a race against time, a heat wave, and incoming storms, we cut the hay and while it was drying in the field, we replaced the rotten floor joists and missing flooring. Having cut the hay with our modified brush hog, we raked it into tidy windrows with our new hay rake and used our Frankenstein-esque buck rake to gather it all and load it into our trailer. Then, turning the clock back a generation or two, we pitchforked the loose hay into the barn.

The horse’s names are still visible above their stalls and though it’s been a hundred years or more since “Ned”, “Dave” and “Jim” toiled to get their own hay in for the winter, I’m sure they would have recognized hard work when they saw it and applauded our efforts. (Okay, maybe not applauded in the literal sense but at least pawed the ground and snorted in excitement.) So, thank you! To all who helped, encouraged, donated, and supported us along the way, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts and the depths of our newly stashed hay pile.