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  • From: sjc <indexer AT fairpoint.net>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Hayloaders was Re: Buying a Scythe
  • Date: Mon, 30 Mar 2009 14:18:47 -0400

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
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