Windrows

Today, the farmer finally mowed the timothy that covers the front yard. Next comes the rake for windrows, then the baler. Gail plans to take a couple of bales for wintering the garden; the farmer gets the rest. There might be three hay harvests this year.

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To a city dweller, this all seems so bucolic. It might be a royal pain in the ass, as well, but I have no clue. It must smell nice, though.

You're a lot wetter than we are. It's a rare year that we even get two cuttings around here.

Fun fact: the local school's vo-ag teacher named her oldest son after that grass.

What a great front yard. :)

My father's name was also Timothy.

Great picture!

I had to look up the word windrow, I don't think it is a word used in England although I am not sure what the English word would be for 'a long line of raked hay, corn sheaves, or peats laid out to dry in the wind.' Despite all that it does look like a typical English farmers field, perhaps we might have a blackberry hedge instead of trees or a dry stone wall as a field marker in the North.

I am not of farming stock but I have heard that it is nice farming practice to cut a line down the middle of the field to allow small mammals to run for cover to the sides, although I am not sure that this makes good sense.

I helped a friend gather in the hay once, he had hired a baler and these bales of hay, about 2 feet by 4 feet long, were dotted around his 5 acre field without any means of bringing them into the barn. Four of us carried almost 40 bales of hay on our backs, I was younger then, walking up a hill with a bale of hay is no easy task, oddly, the dogs we had with us thought this was great fun and ran around laughing at the game. The farmer had some good ice-cold cider, cheese sandwiches and crisp green apples ready for us when we had finished.

There is something very satisfying about doing a days hard work that doesn't involve writing or numbers or emails or phone calls.

heeeeeeeey.

I've spent time stacking bales behind a tractor pulling a baler. I think the bales just about outweighed me.

My name is Timothy, my folks like the New Testament more than farming I think.

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Originally Posted by Fermata

I had to look up the word windrow, I don't think it is a word used in England although I am not sure what the English word would be for 'a long line of raked hay, corn sheaves, or peats laid out to dry in the wind.' Despite all that it does look like a typical English farmers field, perhaps we might have a blackberry hedge instead of trees or a dry stone wall as a field marker in the North.

I am not of farming stock but I have heard that it is nice farming practice to cut a line down the middle of the field to allow small mammals to run for cover to the sides, although I am not sure that this makes good sense.

I helped a friend gather in the hay once, he had hired a baler and these bales of hay, about 2 feet by 4 feet long, were dotted around his 5 acre field without any means of bringing them into the barn. Four of us carried almost 40 bales of hay on our backs, I was younger then, walking up a hill with a bale of hay is no easy task, oddly, the dogs we had with us thought this was great fun and ran around laughing at the game. The farmer had some good ice-cold cider, cheese sandwiches and crisp green apples ready for us when we had finished.

There is something very satisfying about doing a days hard work that doesn't involve writing or numbers or emails or phone calls.

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My husband, who is a farmer's boy, tells me that the proper way to cut hay is to work in from the outside until there is only a small patch of standing grass. Then you get off the tractor and walk through that patch, chasing off all the rabbits and birds that have retreated there before finishing the field. The day of the small oblong bale is almost gone, though some are made as stables prefer them, I am told. The rest is made into huge round or oblong bales, moved by machinery. I'm all in favour of machinery doing the heavy lifting.

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Originally Posted by FredRydr

Today, the farmer finally mowed the timothy that covers the front yard. Next comes the rake for windrows, then the baler. Gail plans to take a couple of bales for wintering the garden; the farmer gets the rest. There might be three hay harvests this year.

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love it.....lots of deer on tree line in fall

And today, two days later, it's gone.

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Small round 'roll' bails?

I particularly like the equipment.