California Barn Life

I moved over 4,000 pounds by hand this weekend.  No, I am not kidding. My neck and shoulders can bear witness.  Both are screaming at me, and their language leaves a bit to be desired.  I didn't get a before picture, but image all five bags back on the pallet and then stacked 8 layers high.

The pallet started with 50 bags.

I unstacked each bag and set it on my tailgate.  Once there were five bags on the tailgate, which was one layer from the pallet, I climbed down to the ground and placed the five bags onto a pallet in the barn.  Each bag weighed forty pounds.  I placed fifty bags on my tailgate, 2,000 pounds.  I then placed those same fifty bags on the waiting pallet, re-stacking them in the same way that I took them off the first pallet.  That's 2,000 pounds again.  In total, I moved 4,000 pounds.

I am on the last layer.

50 bags of pellets, 40 pounds a bag, ready for the winter.

You're probably asking, what kind of pellets are they?  They're pine pellets. I use them as bedding in my horses' pens.  I typically spread one bag in each pen each Sunday.  Here in the central valley of California, we don't worry much about the wet, instead we fight the dust and hard ground.  The pellets provide some loft to our sandy footing, and they help absorb the wet from urine.  They also help reduce the dust, especially if they get sprayed down with some water.

The last pallet I bought lasted a bit over 6 months.  I got that pallet at a discount, but each bag still ran $5.00.  For this purchase, I had a rebate card from Lowe's so while these pellets were actually more expensive, I only paid $3.82 a bag. That's pretty cheap for stall bedding!