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[sjc <indexer AT fairpoint.net>]

EarthNSky wrote:
> When is 'grass season' up there?  Same question for Lynn...
>   
First of May until snow flies.  Grass grows better in cooler weather, at 
least the kind they use here.  Usually about the first of November when 
the days get too short, which is the limiting factor here.
> You guys are also lucky in that it doesn't get too hot up there. 
That's exactly why I like the scythe, I can start at 4 or 4:30.  With 
the mower I had to wait until the darned grass was pretty well dry or it 
made a vicious mess but grass is much easier to cut when it's turgid.  
So by the time the sun hits "high" I'm either working in the shade or 
inside.  I rarely go outside during the middle part of the day in the 
summer now that I don't have much stock around here.
> > I mow 3+ acres...with lots of trees and obstacles.  There are other
> > areas which can only be weed-eated due to large rocks.
> >     
I don't do it all anymore but used to do the yard, about an acre 
counting the part where I had between house and perennial beds,  plus we 
(sometimes the boys helped, sometimes I had something else I'd rather 
they did) had over the years from 2-6 acres we cut in hay.
> how do you trim?
By keeping the blade very sharp and starting the stroke carefully.  I 
can get every stalk and leaf of grass out from the bottom of the chain 
link fence with it, and it takes a smidge of the time I used to spend 
with the joint-jarring string weeder.  It's also a handy deal for going 
around rocks and up against rock walls, of which we have several around 
here, this being as we are sitting on a state-sized chunk of breaking-up 
granite.  Get a new crop every spring :)

I was mulling the whole thing over as I washed dishes tonight and I 
realize that one of the main things about it that appeals to me it that 
I feel much more like 'part of the process' of the place than I did when 
I used a mower.  It's a much more 'involved' way of thinking, for me, 
than the mower was:  using the mower seemed more like "keeping things 
under control" and "getting a job done" than scything.  When you are 
scything, you can still see, hear, participate in the process---the 
mower for me was a mere tool that often maddened and always maimed.  I 
hate to wrestle with anything but it seemed the mower was loud, 
demanding, had to be on several levels, dealt with.  The scythe seems 
more a partner and the quieter mindset I have when I use it (as compared 
to the mower) goes down a lot easier for me---not mention that it's 
pleasant exercise that doesn't shake every arthritic joint in my body 
into submission.

Keep at it, Lynn; it gets easier fast, and the better you get at it, the 
more effective the job, and more pleasant and satisfying the feeling of 
just-right, productive  movement.  I have scoliosis badly enough that 
it's caused me to lose several inches of height, and I can still 
comfortably scythe.  When I've taught folks the 2 things they seem to 
lose sight of is setting the cant of the blade (in the Peter Vido part 
of  The Scythe Book there's a good description of how to set it) and the 
main thing is:  you want the heel of the blade to JUST clear the ground 
if not lightly riding on it.  For grass/yard, I let the heel just glide 
maybe a quarter inch off the ground, out in the rougher part of where I 
mow down the lane and along the road where rocks fly into the grass I 
hold it a shade higher so it I contact a rock it contacts on the bottom 
of the blade instead of the cutting edge.  I usually do a walk-by up 
there to make sure there are no hubcaps or big metal trash first, hiding 
in the tall grass.  Poison ivy grows rampant up there so I don't do it 
every week, just when it gets tall enough that the cut-off pieces pretty 
well lie where they land instead of flying around and getting in my 
shoes, or wherever.

Now I'm off to bed, the better to leap (haha, maybe 50 years ago I 
leapt!!) out of bed with the phoebe in the morning.  Her babies are 
about ready to fledge, I noticed this morning.

SJ