Mowing and stacking Hay

Mowing hay is an important job on the farm.

In olden days  we  started mowing in the month of June and it  could last  thru Sept.

Mowing now isn't anything like it  was when I was a kid growing up on the farm  .


Now a day's you can mow as much hay in an hour, as you could do in two day's with a team of mules .

Our mules worked all day, stopping only, occasionally  for a little rest .

You needed dry weather for harvesting hay and once you started mowing, you tried to finish as soon as possible.

Some times it was hard to find a few days with out rain .

As the old saying goes..." you got to make hay while the sun is shinning....that's pretty much true for the farmer.

When your  mowing  was finished.... the hay needed to cure for a day or so .... or until it was brown and dry.

Stacking the dried hay around a wooden pole was the next step, that helped protect it from the elements.

The stacks started big at the bottom, and tapered off to pretty much nothing at the top, making it  shed  rain.

Now a days the hay is rolled up into large roles and it does the same thing.

Mowing and stacking hay was Hard work,  but was  a needful thing, for the live stock to have food.

During a good hay year we might have as many as five or ten stack to get our live stock through the winter.

Farmers today might need 100 roles for their operation  due to a much larger scale of farming.

Until next time,  God Bless.


My Meditations by,    Coleman