permaculture

["John D'hondt" <dhondt@eircom.net>]

Our experience seems to be exactly the same Mitch except maybe that we don't 
always have the sun. Even with light rain or drizzle we keep more than warm 
enough though and we usually end up quite dry.
Pity that so many here in Ireland prefer petrol "strimmers" these days for 
road side work and sit on mowers for anything more. One advantage is that 
what you cut with a scythe can be easily collected with an hay fork and used 
to feed goats or rabbits or compost. And a scythe is many times faster than 
these noisy strimmer machines that maul everything to a pulp.
John


Hey John -

For me it's completely terrain, vegetation and obstacle dependent.  75%+ of
my scythe use is around newly planted seedlings on fairly steep ground with
more woody material, so it's mostly arm work.  On the flatter, wide open
spaces with more vegetative material it's mostly torso.  In the flat spaces
where I know there are rocks, stumps, etc. it's a combination of the two
techniques as well as having learned (the hard way) where the blade-trashing
rocks, etc. are lurking.  I also use two different blades depending on the
task - a shorter, stouter brush blade is more appropriate for the arm work
in the more confined/brushier spaces around the seedlings.  A longer, finer
grass blade is more appropriate for the torso work in the wide-open,
grassier/vegetative spaces.  My brush blade gets way more quality time than
the grass blade.

An aside - I love using my scythe.  For sure, there are those spring rush
days of extreme physical and mental fatigue when I need the ipod to provide
a little extra motivation.  But when I'm a little more rested and a little
less harried and the blade is freshly peened and the birds are calling and
the sun starts peeking over the tree line and I really get in the groove...
there's nothing else I do out here that leaves me simultaneously
sweat-drenched and completely calm.

Mitch Triplett
Tri-Pearl Family Forest
Member - CCFFA/OSWA, OTFS, BLA, OWC, and FSC


-----Original Message-----
From: permaculture-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:permaculture-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of John D'hondt
Sent: Monday, August 26, 2013 2:32 PM
To: permaculture
Subject: Re: [permaculture] â-¶ VIORICA TOMOIAGA - Vai saracu Vasalie -
YouTube + Traditional Scything!

A few things that struck me in the video but most of all that the man
scything uses his arms and not his back. I was thought to scythe by torsing
the complete upper body and keeping the arms fairly stiff. And that works
fairly well for me allowing me to cut about an acre of heavy vegetation a
day on flat land. These days I spend more time scything particular weeds
like thistles and bracken on steep land dotted with irregularities of buried

stones and I do use the arms more than the back.
Using the back puts more power into the swing and you could shatter the
blade if you hit an unseen rock.
Anybody else who has experience with scything and can comment?
John

> VIORICA TOMOIAGA - Vai saracu Vasalie - YouTube + Traditional Scything!
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V20_y1-uf0k
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