Pirates!

We can just about store 50 bales of hay, and this is what it looks like safely packed away. As we were down to the last few mouthfuls a fresh batch was delivered today by a new supplier as true to form yours truly had misplaced the phone number of the haymaker and sidekick who would deliver 50 bales for a small charge (read cost of another 15 bales) The not so dynamic duo would rock up in a battered white van and trailer and together (read me) we would unload and store precious cargo.
Me being easily distracted by anything shiny and completely unable to concentrate on counting and talking would rely on the honesty of hayman and looking back the conversations were peppered with thats 10 so far, theres a good 25 there mate and so on interspersed with stories of how he deflowered a woodsman's daughter in these here parts many years ago. Had he not been a wizened farm type he would have been a pirate. His colourful conversations and dodgy maths probably explains the picture below, for having owned up to losing the newspaper advert with hay-pirates number (and getting other people to search their recycling for the right back issue) I phoned a number I thought would be his and found an entirely different vendor. He would deliver 50 bales with no charge for delivery (winning already!) and when he arrived today with compulsory mutant sidekick, just after the most unbelievably harsh downpour and thunderstorm, I set about the task of beating the weather.

Once the usual store was full I was left with 10 spare bales. Now there were three left from the previous supplier, but I used one as a bonus meal for the critters to give a bit more room, so it was a surprise to find I could only get 38 bales in the store. Even though I had packed them in the same formation as before, so the "extra" bales cannot be due to these being larger therefore taking more room. Yes I know 38 stored and 10 in the pic still makes 2 less than 50, 2 more were given to greedy critters while I pondered the hay conundrum. These "spares" were eventually stuffed in a disused goat house after the merits of sticking them in Renatta was dismissed and the goat house cleaned out. 

The horses were so grateful for the bonus dinners that they took a break from their demolition work.