The last of Cae Mari Jones has been cut. Some of the patches that had a lot of Knapweed in have been used to mulch various areas of perennial plants. We have also made a couple more racks, managing to wilt the hay sufficiently between the showers. The patch of
The bulk of the cutting on Cae Mari Jones has been done now. The major task at the moment is dismantling the racks and bringing in the hay when ever there is an opportunity. One dry day is usually enough to ensure any wet from the rain dries off the
It has all been very busy the last couple of weeks, hence no posts for a while. Hay making continues on Mari Jones, all using racks now because of the unsettled weather. We carried the hand bale press into the field two weeks ago. It is good to bale up
Life seems busier then ever and I haven’t found time lately to post updates on the hay making! Here is something I wrote last week and have just got around to finishing. Thursday 24th July. We bought in more of the hay mown during the week, plus two more racks.
The hay making continues to make progress across Cae Mari Jones, with Phil mowing more every morning. Last night we bought in the first of this area of hay. We have run out of space to stack more hay inside without compromising the other functions of the barn. So we
Due to a technical hitch, I haven’t been able to post for a number of days, so here is a rather long update on how the hay making has been progressing. Tuesday 15th July We built four racks in the evening, using about a third of the hay that was
After the Social Mow on Sunday, Phil and I began work on the cut grass with the intention of making hay from it, given the unsettled forecast. We began about 3pm on Sunday afternoon. It had been overcast most of the morning, but by this time the sun was shining
We had our annual Social Mow on Sunday. A couple of people had camped over the night before and we began mowing soon after 8am. We didn’t have blazing sunshine, but the cooler, damper conditions did make the mowing easier. Phil and I mowing together We were joined by others
On Wednesday 9th July we ran another full Introductory Scythe Course. It is always interesting to learn about where our course participants have come from and what they intend to use the scythe for. This time it included controlling bracken and brambles, maintaining a permaculture garden and a plan to
On Wednesday (25th June), Philip and two volunteers cut a section of hay knowing that the dry weather was unlikely to last long enough to fully cure the hay. This is the situation when we use hay racks. Racks can be built with hay that it not dry enough to
“Mackerel Sky, Mackerel Sky, Never long wet, Never long dry. The weather is changing so it is time to bring in the last of the hay that is ready…. Bringing in the last of the hay at 8pm this evening …..or put hay that needs longer to cure up onto
With this lovely period of settled weather, we cut the first hay of the season on Tuesday 17th June. Phil and I rowing up the hay together in the late evening Our usual pattern is to cut relatively small areas of grass each morning as long as the weather window