August 12th

As far as learning new things, maybe it was best that we didn’t make it to Norway because we’re getting to see a good bit more done here. Carter had hoped to help Harrie with making his hay, but the weather didn’t want to cooperate. Finally we got some sun, so it was all hands on deck to get the hay cut and stacked. Harrie took the horses through the field and cut all the grass down and left it to dry, and then they have another machine that the horses pull that fluffs it up to allow it to dry better.

The hay after it was cut.

Then we all followed with pitch forks, making sure that it all got turned well. After a couple of days of re-fluffing and drying, it was about ready to stack (especially since it didn’t look like the rain was going to hold off much longer). Carter even got a chance to drive the horses around to fluff the hay…he’s really getting a lot more comfortable with working the horses.

Carter driving Tricia with the "fluffer"

Doesn't he look like a natural?

Once all the hay was all fluffed and turned one last time, they brought another machine down to cut the grain (they grow most of their own grain for all the bread that they make). I’m not sure how long it has taken them to accumulate all of their farming implements, but it seems like they have a horse-drawn tool for everything. The one for the grain, cuts the grain and ties it into small bundles and spits the bundles out the side. Once all the grain was cut, we went through the field making stacks out of all the small bundles which were then covered with plastic to protect them from the rain.

 The bundles of grain all lined up (and Evan and Jonah)

 Mona making stacks of grain.

All done and covered!

Then there was all the hay to stack. Harrie drove one of the horses through with another tool that sorted all the hay into rows to make it easier to collect, and then all of us were out in the field with pitch forks to build up the piles of hay. Who knew there was so much to making a hay stack? They have to be the right size, they have to be built up in layers or they won’t stay together, and once the piles were made, Harrie had to come around and actually form the stacks. To form the stacks he would pull out a layer of hay from the bottom, then comb it down from the top, so that all of the hay on the outside is running down. This makes it so that it will keep the inner hay as dry as possible in the rain.

Needless to say it was an incredibly tiring couple of days and we were exhausted when it was finally all over (and wet too since it rained on us before we were totally finished). I believe Carter and I were both asleep before Evan that night. But even though we were tired and sore, I am really glad we were able to see the whole process done.