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["Lynn Wigglesworth" <lynnw1366 AT hotmail.com>]

We've also cut hay with a tractor-mounted sickle bar, then raked, windrowed 
and collected by hand and pitchfork into the bed of the pickup. Now I just 
do the areas around the house; that's why I want the scythe.

I dug around and found our old website. It's old and clunky, but has some 
photos and videos of us using the hayloader (scroll down). It's my 
neighbor's hayfield; the nicely manicured lawn is his. My farm is the one in 
the background across the street (with the barn that in in bad need of 
paint). Sorry about the video quality.
http://home.ptd.net/~bhelfric

Lynn Wigglesworth
Tioga Co. PA

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "sjc" <indexer AT fairpoint.net>
To: <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Monday, March 30, 2009 2:18 PM
Subject: Re: [Homestead] Hayloaders was Re: Buying a Scythe


> 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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