What an accomplishment, Matt. It must be reassuring to have your winter feeding taken care of already. And what an opportunity you have with the future haying trade. That's fantastic. I always struggle to get out and meet people but always glad when I push myself to do it.
Kind of a long story, but along the same lines. I made the 2 hour drive one way today to pick up some fire clay. I have a lot of potters in my town and in the fall there is a tour where 10 of these studios are kinda showcased. I saw a promotional poster of this event at the clay company and asked the owner if he knows these people. He's like yeah, they all get clay from me. So I'm all, "oh yeah, so and so's studio is right across the street from where I work, and this other potter I've known for 30 years." Then the owner of the clay company is all, "Oh, I've known him for like 30 years too. I deliver clay down there all the time, if you ever need some just let me know and I'll drop it off." Wow, I've spent a total of 8 hours driving now to get fireclay from somebody that is in my town every week. I should have chatted this guy up a long time ago. Silly me, I never asked my local potters where they get their clay. I drink my drinks from clay mugs that came from the same purveyor of my fireclay. Duh.