April 24
Conditioning Day #5.  We're getting into a comfortable habit of feeding the bales.  I'm usually a stickler for following directions, but they did not get warm water today.  So, we've noticed that the birds have an unusually high interest in the bales.  Ever the optimist, I just assumed they were gathering nesting materials (of course there's enough materials for several pterodactyl nests).  Scott had to burst my bubble by suggesting that they may be finding seeds. Seeds you say?  But that's why we have STRAW, not hay, right?  Ah, but there it is on page 42 of the book: ""Make sure you get 'harvested' straw bales.  In rare circumstances the straw gets cut and baled without having the seed heads harvested, which means the entire bale would sprout and grow 'hair' and you would have a Chia pet..."  Did we ask for "harvested" bales?  We did not.  Oops.  So perhaps not the weed-free experience I'd hoped for!  Live and learn.  Oh, by the way, the internal temp of the bales is 68 degrees (compared to ambient air temp of about 45), so our bacteria are cooking!