Homestead mailing list

[sjc <indexer AT fairpoint.net>]

Lynn Wigglesworth wrote:
> This is a lot like mine: http://www.tractorshed.com/contents/adpic99452.htm
> It's the same idea as yours...it is drawn behind a wagon, and the 'fingers' 
> (hooks on yours) move the hay up the machine and over the top onto the 
> wagon.
>   
When I went looking for photos I was again amazed at how inventive folks 
have been over the years.  The ones with the wood lines were the sort I 
used to see in VA when we first moved there, and I see today there were 
lots of other sorts, including a bunch that seemed to be sort of 
one-of-a-kind....fascinating, all the different ideas folks have had. 

And after all that, for just a few acres, we ended up here mowing with a 
scythe, bringing in loose what would fit in the barnloft, and making 
haystacks in the field of the rest---all more pleasant work and better 
suited to our rocky, wet-in-places, hillsides.  A couple of pitchforks, 
a manure fork, one mule (or some years, one goat) & harness, one wagon, 
one scythe, a couple of saplings.....

Not the way we made our haystacks, but last year Gene Logsdon wrote a 
piece about simple haystacks, looks easier to learn/do than the way we 
did ours (learned our way from a Polish exchangee), also each stack a 
little bigger; I've thought I'd give this method a try if ever I do hay 
again:  
http://organictobe.org/index.php/2008/08/26/cheapskate-haystacks-for-contrary-garden-farmers/

If one's only working with a small acreage, it beats having to acquire, 
maintain, and store equipment, at least for me. 

SJ
**
**