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Tracing the Scent
There is a particular spot on one of the Trust paths that often smells rather, well, unpleasant. I walk by frequently when we have stock in the far field and the source has been puzzling me since the summer. At
Water and Winches
Water at the Trust comes from a spring on the land. The spring is below the main areas of water usage, so is pumped up to storage tanks in the Red Barn using a ram pump. We store the water
How many words for hay?
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
Waxcap Time
Every autumn we look out for the attractive and highly coloured waxcaps (hygrocybe spp), spindle and coral fungi on the farm and at our local churchyards. Worth a search but harder to spot are the strange looking earthtounges. These fungi are
Scything in Welsh – Pladuro yn Gymraeg
The “Cymru” in Scythe Cymru is, of course, the welsh name for Wales. A month ago I was talking about scything with a reporter from Lingo Newydd, a welsh language bi-monthly magazine for welsh learners. I have been learning Welsh
Autumn Harvest – Bracken
In autumn the scythe moves from harvesting grass to bracken, a task to which it is well suited. We harvest the bracken both to control it in the fields and to use it as a resource on the farm and
Last of the Hay making
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
Late Summer Haying and Mowing Grains with a Scythe
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
Hedge trimming with a scythe
Today was one of the Dyfed Permaculture Farm Trust’s regular workdays. One of the tasks on the agenda was trimming the hedge banks of the access track. The middle section of the track, already rather narrow, was beginning to worry