Hay Making

Our first WWOOFers have arrived and we are honoured that one of them, Ariana, has a family that owns an organic goose and duck farm where all the grass is cut by scythe. Quelle chance! So, new scythes in hand, she taught me how to scythe and how to sharpen the blades. And I have to say that I really enjoyed the work. It's peaceful, you find a certain rhythm, you are close to your crop and get to 'know' it, and you have control over what gets cut and what doesn't. We cut half an acre in 2 hours and our other lovely WWOOFer, Edith, took a turn at the scythe and helped with raking it all out. I was amazed at how efficient both a scythe and a pitch fork were, never having used either before. Now our little pile of hay is duly dried in the sun and stacked under a tarpaulin - just as well as we have had LOTS of rain today. I can no longer say "we've only had 6 hrs of rain since 25th March". Still, the 'drought' was perfect haymaking weather and I'll look forward to making some more.