Reduced Harvest


The grass is gathered in and converted into these marshmallows of silage. The problem is there are only half as many as there should be, due to the hot and dry summer. The problem is made worse because it's the same all over Sweden so winter feed is going to be much more expensive.
I just mentioned "hot and dry"; last night, as forecast, it rained all night and really hard. We could hear the rain hammering down on our roof, and when you can hear the rain through 30 cm of sawdust (traditional insulation) you know it really is chucking it down. This was excellent news for the firefighters but even so there were still columns of smoke rising from the fire site this morning. One helicopter remained all day, waterbombing different parts of the hill, and the firefighters had the whole area ringed in with hoses. Now, at 8 in the evening, it really does look like "our" fire is out.  Everyone living nearby breathes a sigh of relief!
As did our garden too after the night of rain. Plants that had been wilting were joyfully upright, filled with all the water they needed. We'll see how the grass reacts, both in the fields and on the lawn.
Now we have another week of hot sun forecast with the chance of rain next weekend...