The oats got yesterday to dry, and today they were mowed by string-trimmer. They will dry on the ground overnight, then tomorrow we will rake them by hand, turn the windrow, and dry another day, or two, if the weather grants it, but then they will have to be ricked on hay-drying racks in the truck lane through the garden, to dry more slowly out of contact with the ground and all the molds that will begin the process of making our oat hay into humus if we aren’t careful. We will probably use saw horses and stock panels to create something between the Polish hay ladders, hay tripods, and the hay fences of Caledonia; the object is simply to keep air circulating through the slow-curing hay until time and weather give up and let us put it in the barn.
make hay while the sun shines! we are learning sooo much 🙂 put up 174 bales in our loft tonight, thankful for a 75 degree evening and an old squirrel cage fan to keep air moving a bit as we grunted and heaved this winters food into barn peek. “and your storehouses shall be overflowing” means a bit more to us since being out here on the land. press on!
No one can accuse you of being lazy 😉 Thanks for sharing your farm life with everyone!! xxxooo cita
all my heart — Shawn and Beth Dougherty The Sow’s Ear shawnandbeth@att.net onecowrevolution.wordpress.com twosisterscreamery.wordpress.com
Hard enough work with traction, never mind by hand! Interesting to know you use the oat stalks as feed, we will have ours chopped by the combine to rot down and feed the poor soil. Any suggestions for a late crop or green manure to follow on after oats?