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
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
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
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
Spring is well underway, the grass is growing and the Yellow Rattle Rhinanthus minor is germinating in the hay meadows. It is also germinating in profusion in many of the areas that we mulched with grass and hay from Cae Mari Jones last summer and autumn. Yellow Rattle (Rhinanthus minor)
Bramble the Hebridean ram enjoying some hand made hay Above is a picture of our Hebridean ram tucking into a rack full of hay that we made in the summer. It is very satisfying to see the sheep enjoy the fruits of our labours. We will be getting our taste
Broad leaved plants in the hay Phil mowed for an hour early this morning. I then spent almost two hours spreading all the hay that has been cut so far. We have just (4.30pm) bought in the hay that was cut on Monday. There is a lot of Cat’s Ear