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

I just started using my new scythe this week. I used it to mow the areas 
around the house and barn for hay; it's the only hand tool I've found that 
doesn't chop the grass into little pieces.. I have WAY too much lawn and am 
slowly converting most of it to garden beds or 'hay field'.

There definately is a learning curve to using a scythe; I tried for a couple 
of hours then came in to watch a couple youtube videos of people 'doing it 
right'. I went out and tried for a couple more hours, and think I'm getting 
the hang of it. I can sure tell when I do it right; it feels good, cuts 
well, and lays the hay in a nice pile to my left (maybe one out of every 3 
strokes is 'right'...but I'm getting better). I was tired, but it was the 
kind of tired that goes away quickly and didn't leave me stiff at all.

Scythes are so quiet; I can hear the birds chirping, and it doesn't throw 
vegetable matter all over me like the string trimmer does. And like Susan 
Jane, it's bliss not to have to fight with the mower or trimmer. Engines, 
even small ones, and I don't get along.

Lynn Wigglesworth
Tioga Co. PA
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "sjc" <indexer AT fairpoint.net>
To: <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, May 22, 2009 2:37 PM
Subject: Re: [Homestead] Ideas


> EarthNSky wrote:
> > ...I really need to mow today and all the neighbors are gone. I have 5
> > hours of mowing to do and it looks like it will break out into rain any
> > second.  I'm frustrated.
> Well, I was too, but I fired the blasted mower (actually, declined to
> have it repaired ONCE AGAIN!) and now use the scythe...quieter, more
> pleasant exercise, doesn't chew up my toads and only takes about 20%
> longer than mowing did.  Plus which I can do it early in the morning,
> dew or no, which is when I really prefer to work outside in 'grass 
> season'.
>
> I used it for the 'big yard', about a half acre, at first, but now, as
> the kids have moved around the world, I mow less and less area--not much
> call for a volleyball court anymore, or ball-playing areas, etc, so now
> I only mow an area that if put all together would likely measure about
> 100' each way, square, plus paths to the garden (200' or so by one
> swath-width), the outhouse, and the root cellar (another 100' or so, one
> swat wide).  Whole thing takes little time:  not even worth getting out
> and fighting with a mower, not to mention the maintenance on the
> bloomin' thing; the scythe requires nothing I can't do myself, on the
> spot.  Plus which with the scythe I trim as I go...and that's what
> really ate up the time before.  Counting trim time, I don't spend as
> long doing with the scythe as I did with the mower, by a long shot.
>
> The only negative has been that I have to shut the dog in his yard and
> he hates it, but not a good idea to be using a scythe around
> critters/little uneducated 2-leggers.  He gets over it the second he's 
> out.
>
> SJ
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