Conference 7.286::home_work

    Can you use straw?  Hay is edible and expensive.  Straw should be
    cheaper.  Quick check: if it's green, it's hay.  If it's yellow,
    it's straw.  Most hay, except for salt marsh hay could contain seeds
    that will germinate, if that's a concern.
    
    Chris

    You might try to find hay that has "spoiled" while it was stored.
    They usually sell this as mulch hay for gardeners. Spring should
    be a good time to find some and it should be cheaper.
    
    Nick

    I recommend using straw also, but I believe it's MORE expensive.
    I did my lawn over last fall and covered it with straw over the
    winter. When pricing both (hay and straw) I found straw to be
    consistently more expensive than hay. Usually about 20-25%
    At the time, neither was readily available, I bought it at Agway
    for 5 bucks per 60 pound bale. In the spring it was considerable
    cheaper, however.
    Where do you live? I can recommend a few places around Litchfield
    NH, if convenient.
    
    John
    

    
    The idea of hay here worries me. I presume that it is for some sort
    of water break? Beware that hay ROTS straw does not! (to speak of)
    I'D be mighty wary of using hay for any job of the type you mention.
    
                 Chris H

    I belive the idea is the hay bales act as a filter and prevent
    dirt and sediment from filling a pond,ect. The bale allows some
    water to flow thru but stops the dirt.
    I would thing hay or straw would do the trick so go with whats
    cheapest. I watched this in action while they built cx03 and when
    they took out the bales they had nice mounds of dirt and silt
    piled up next to where every bale was located.
    Dont ya love beauracrats.....
    
    -j
    

    I am not sure that it will cost less, but the DEQE allows builders
    to use cloth fences during construction next to wetlands. When our
    house was built, the contracter put up 100-150 feet of a heavy white
    cloth, nailed to cheap furring strip stakes. We had to leave it
    up for 1 year, and it was still very tough when I took it down last
    fall.
    
    Unfortunetly, I threw it out otherwise we could recycle it to your
    project :-(

    Good luck,
    VCS

I'm amazed at the flurry of activity this note started.  It also pointed out
how UNCLEAR I was in my description.   8-)

I do indeed want hay because as an earlier reply mention it DOES rot.  It acts
only as a filter and is a temporary measure to keep mud out of the wetland.

I've talked to a neighbor who keep sheep and again as stated there is usually
damaged hay available (ie usually got wet).  She said there is a place in Hudson
Ma that may have a good deal on some but she couldn't remember the name.  The 
best she could do was "something Berry Farm".  Any clues?

As for price, she said "good hay" (for feed) usually runs around $3 a bale and
she thought a reasonable price for wet hay could be around $2 or so...

-mark

    	Coming from Maynard to Marlboro today i saw a sign for "something"
    Berry Farm on one of the back roads. The easiest way for me to give
    directions to you is:  Take Rt 62 from Maynard?Stow towards Hudson.
    Where 62 T's just East of Huson Center turn left away from Hudson
    and watch for the signs on the left. 
    
    I came from Parker St down 27 and took a couple of roads I knowof
    but don't know well enough to give directions. The Farm is in the
    Lake Boone section of Hudson if its the same farm 8^)
    
    Good luck
    Art

    Mark,
    
    To echo several other people here, you should look for "mulch hay";
    it will be cheaper than the stuff you'd feed livestock (because
    it's been damaged by wetness or whatever, such that it's lost some
    of its food value, or might even make the livestock sick);  it
    might go as cheaply as $1/bale, but maybe as much as $2/bale.
    
    I saw an ad for some a week or two ago in a weekly newspaper in
    the Fitchburg/Leominster area -- have to try to dig it up.
    
    Dick
    

Perhaps I should have closed out this note last week.  I did indeed buy mulch
hay.  I paid $1.75/bale plus another $.25/bale delivery.  The only thing that
surprised me more than seeing the first cord of wood I bought was seeing 50 
bales of hay!  Unbelievable!  I'm sure relieved I didn't consider picking it up
myself.  It would have been a disaster.

Anyhow, I managed to get them all spread out and staked down in about 2 hours
and approved by the conservation commission.  So now I wait for the backhoe!

-mark

    Mark, would you consider telling us your source for the hay?
    
    Dick
    

No probem.  It was Dave Elidias (I think that's close to the spelling).  He's
at Top-Of-The-Hill farm across the street from Nashoba Hospital in Ayer.

-mark