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
Internet weather forecasts make weather watching while hay making a different game from the past, with multiple updates during the day and hourly predictions. You can still get caught out though. When Phil started mowing last Friday (26th June) a relatively stable period of weather was forecast. This slowly changed
Phil got back from the West Country Scythe Festival last night. He was back out mowing for hay first thing this morning. Essential parts of an early morning mowing kit! Coffee sweetened with honey from our own bees As usual, much fun was had at the scythe festival and during
What unusual hay making weather it has been. The wind has blown from all four quadrants and has now settled in the North. We have had at least two June grass frosts this week, including one last night (emergency fleece has been deployed in the garden to protect tender crops!).
We started bringing in hay on Saturday, and bought in more Sunday. With tonight’s hauling, we have quarter of an acre of herb rich hay safe in the barn. Hay spread in the sun. The most recently mown at the top, down to hay ready to cart at the bottom
Here is Phil mowing in the Top Field early yesterday morning. The crop is shorter then usual after a cool spring, although it never grows very long on the majority of this herb rich meadow dominated by Rough Hawkbit (Leontodon hispidus ). We have about quarter of an acre down
With rain forecast, we got the May hay up on racks yesterday afternoon and evening. The short mowings from the early cut made for racks that look quite different from our summer “hairy monsters”. A neat little hay rack
We had our first Scythe Course of the season on Saturday. It was a really excellent day. The course was full with participants both local and from further afield. As well as the scythe teaching there was plenty of interesting conversation over lunch and tea breaks, covering scything and grass
Last summer, after filling the barn with hay we built an outdoor hay stack. (See here). Here it is when freshly built. We meant to put a tarp or something over it to protect the top and help it shed water, but we somehow never got around to it. Over