Photo by Muffy Aldrich
The Modern Guide to The Thing Before Preppy

Tuesday, July 20, 2021

Haying Season

Photos by Salt Water New England


 

19 comments:

  1. 2021 is a bumper crop in the Conn northwest corner.

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  2. That poor Farmall tractor is getting a workout. Someone should have checked the tire pressures on that trailer! That little cub can handle it, will still be working hard everyday for another 50 years with a little bit of love. The McCormick Farmall Cub, a true classic.

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  3. I do believe this is the first time I have seen a farmer driving a tractor in a white shirt and khakis. Hey, looking good is the first half of everything.

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  4. Hay bales! Haven't seen those in years. It's funny how certain aromas can stay with you. I can still smell the fresh hay up in the loft where my sister and I used to clamber to throw down a few bales at a time before feeding the horses and ponies below. Good times!

    Best Regards,

    Heinz-Ulrich

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    1. At one place where I lived, there was a shed across the road that was full of hay bales and yes, it did have a memorable aroma, which was different from new mown grass. It was owned by someone who also had an antique business and there were a number of really old wooden coffins ("coffin-shaped") stored there. That was sixty years ago.

      My father was a prisoner of war near Munich and was sent to work on a farm, having grown up on a farm in Virginia. He liked to tell about bringing in hay on an ox-drawn wagon.

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  5. Tis the season! Thank you so very much!

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  6. Hard to tell. But what are the farmer and his passenger looking at? Is there a small dog sitting on the trailer, on the corner, directly behind the tractor?

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    1. I think he's making sure the trailer doesn't bottom out on the road.

      I worked on a potato farm in central NJ for 10 years after graduating college. We baled alfalfa at least 3 times every summer. It's been 46 years and I still miss it. But at this age, pretty sure now I'd be the one driving the tractor and not throwing the bales on the wagon.

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    2. That front left tire really needs attention

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  7. I don't hay, but am surrounded by hay fields. I mow our pastures with a 1952 Ford 8N. One of my favorite tasks. I'm often accompanied by several barns swallows feasting on all the bugs I kick up.

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  8. Haying was done early in our corner of the world due to an unusually warm, dry spring. So much work, thank goodness for tractors and hay elevators. When we visited Amish country one year it was quite the sight to see the men doing it all by hand - while dressed as dapper as the above farmer, except in black and white.

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  9. Just look at that stone block foundation! Marvelous.

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    1. Yes. Very solid foundation. Recalls the capstones on the cemetery in a Goshen, Conn. some are two feet thick, at least as tall and well over 12 feet long. Worth the ride to have a gander.

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  10. Few things smell better or are more evocative of summer than fresh cut hay. Thank you for sharing your lovely photographs.

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  11. I love the smell of the outdoors in all the seasons: fresh hay, cut grass, flowering trees, the smell of snow, ocean, the woods after a good rain, I could go on. All so exhilarating, renewing. --Holly in PA

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