Can’t straw be sent by regular mail? I used to get straw from Cold Spot via regular mail. it’s more expensive than by-pass (which is about 48 cents/pound). How heavy are the bales? I just did a USPS “calculate price” test using these parameters: Weight: 55#, Dimensions: 48 x 18 x 18 -priority mail says $45.03 for shipping. If it’s $22/bale (cost of bale + burlap bag) we’d be looking at $67.03 per bale. This was from Fairbanks to Ruby. Postage price calculator says the same cost from Fairbanks to Tananna. How many bales do we each need at each location? I was thinking we were going to try to use 1 bale for 3 stops – half a bale, sweep up what we can, half a bale, sweep up what we can and the swept up stuff for the third stop. That would mean we’d just be sending 6 bales to each location – Manley(in case the road isn’t open and we have to send straw there) , Tananna, & Ruby. Maybe I’m not understanding something but if we can use regular mail to send straw that might be the best bet – I’m guessing the post office would just hold on to it until we arrived – or if we have someone in each village that will collect it we would send it to them.