This last week of beautiful weather has given us a good start on the seasons hay making. Phil has mowed every morning from Saturday 28th May until Friday 3rd June. The cut grass has been spread and rowed daily, taking about 3.5 days to dry. The first hay was bought
It’s a weekend of firsts – we had our first beginners scythe course of the season yesterday and we started the first hay making of the year. Phil also found the first orchids in the hay field. The first was in bud……. and the second was starting to open. The beauty
We are pleased to be stocking traditional British-made wooden rakes from Rudd’s rake factory in Cumbria. Light and strong they are used for many purpose, including raking gravel, collecting autumn leaves and, of course, haymaking. Below is a lovely little video that gives a taste of the family firm, and here
For the last few years we have built an outdoor haystack. This serves as an emergency backup for the indoor stacks should we need additional animal feed in a really severe winter. Its primary purpose is to “store” mulch material for use in the garden in the spring, as there
One of my personnel markers of Spring is the moment when the sheep refuse even the sweetest hay in favor of the new grass growth, sparse as that may be. Thoughts then start to turn towards making the next crop. One of the first annual tasks in the hay meadow
While researching Welsh scything terms I came across the Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru, a wonderful Welsh dictionary run by the University of Wales. Whilst checking on more mundane words such as “haystack” and “scythe” I came across a rich seam of specific historical terms. Under the word gwair (hay) there were
What a beautiful week of summer we have just had. Autumn activities were put on hold and we grabbed the opportunity to make hay while the sun shone. The shorter Autumn days meant we were often working out in the fields at sunset, sometimes finishing rowing up in the dark.
The late summer weather has not been easy haying weather. If we waited for 4 or 5 days of sunny weather in a row, as is commonly suggested as needed for hay making, we wouldn’t have made much! In fact, there have only been two occasions which might qualify
The haycocks made on Thursday were spread this morning to finish drying and then brought into the barn this evening. The green mowings from this morning and yesterday were spread and then rowed up again. All ready for the next lot of rain due to arrive by tomorrow morning…….
Phil was out on Thursday doing what is probably his strangest mowing job to date. We had a call last week from a local weed management company asking if we could help them out. A local gas storage facility needed overgrown vegetation cut from within the compound as the ageing
On Sunday evening, the “Tai Chi hay” cut on the weekend course was rowed up to hold it safe over the forecast drizzly days. Monday was damp as expected and Tuesday was even wetter. On Wednesday, Phil spread the hay to dry it as much as possible with the help
What a busy end to the week we had last week! Thursday and Friday were a mad rush to finish off and bring in the hay that we had saved from the rain last week and that which had been cut on the Introductory Scythe Course on 4th July. Then