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Making Hay (by a child from the Twenties)
by Bernice N. Fishpaw of DeLand, FL
“WHOA!!” My father’s voice booms from deep contained in the barn.
“WHOA!” I shout in my 7 occurring 8 voice. I pull again on the traces and the horses obey my sign and cease. Fannie and Jenny are two sturdy workhorses. Fannie is a bay. She is brown with black socks and black mane and tail. Jenny is a sorrel. Her coat is purple and she or he has a blond mane and tail. In dimension I’m hardly extra important to them than one of many annoying flies they flick away with their tails, however they do as I command with each my voice and the leather-based traces I maintain in my palms.
It’s haying time on our farm in Wisconsin. I’ve an vital half to play within the ongoing course of of manufacturing and harvesting that makes up our each day lives.
I’m perched on a two wheeled cart made out of the entrance axle and tongue of a farm wagon that has been retired. The steel seat is salvaged from some worn out piece of farm equipment. The axle has a one inch thick, hemp rope tied to it. The rope runs to a pulley on the basis of the barn, as much as a small door on the aspect of the barn close to the roof and into the hay mow. Tons and tons of recent, aromatic hay are being saved to feed our cows and horses throughout the winter when snow covers the pastures.
By means of a sequence of pulleys, the rope runs to a trolley and finally ends up connected to an enormous grapple fork. It is sort of a large 4 pronged tong. As soon as the hay is launched, my grandfather pulls the empty fork alongside the observe contained in the barn, by means of the massive, gaping hay mow door close to the height of the gable and right down to the wagon with a smaller rope. Grandpa units the 4 tines of the fork deep into the mound of hay on the wagon that stands on the finish of the barn.
By now, I’ve turned my staff round and returned to the aspect of the barn. Fannie, Jenny and I are able to haul up the subsequent forkful of hay. On the sign from Grandpa, I cluck the order, “Gidup.” Fannie and Jenny lean into their padded collars. Robust muscle mass of their again legs and rumps bulge. The leather-based tugs that join the horses to the cart stretch tight. Slowly we go ahead. 5 hundred kilos of hay raise from the wagon. Swinging gently, the hay rises to the height of the roof, connects with the trolley and glides alongside the observe. It reaches the place inside, my dad and brother wait to unfold it evenly within the cavernous a part of the barn we name the hay mow. A shout by Pa and a jerk of the journey rope by Grandpa and the hay falls to the ground.
As soon as once more my grandfather pulls the empty fork alongside the observe contained in the barn, again to the wagon with the smaller journey rope.
Time and again we do that till the hay wagon is empty. I’m a key a part of the staff as we harvest the bounty of our farm. It feels good to be vital.
I’m free now to play on my swing till the subsequent load of hay has been gathered. Fannie and Jenny aren’t so fortunate. They’re hitched to the hay wagon to return to the sphere for extra hay.
Making hay is farmer language for harvesting. It consists of slicing, curing, gathering and storing of inexperienced crops similar to grass or legumes.
On our farm our hay was alfalfa, a legume which is wealthy in nitrogen and nutritional vitamins. It’s also a fascinating crop as a result of its roots take nitrogen from the air and return it to complement the soil for different crops.
It is vitally vital when placing unfastened hay in a barn that or not it’s dry. Moist hay will begin to ferment and turn out to be highly regarded. As a result of there’s air accessible, when it will get scorching sufficient, it should burst into flames. That is referred to as spontaneous combustion. Within the 1920’s, earlier than silos and baling hay grew to become widespread, it was common for 2 or three large dairy barns within the county to be misplaced every year, particularly if there had been quite a lot of rain.
That’s the reason it was so vital to get the hay dried and within the barn after it was reduce and earlier than it rained. That’s how the expression, “Make hay whereas the solar shines,” grew to become part of our language.
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