Haying

The days seem to be slipping past us in a blur these days!
The fields are growing like crazy so we have started to cut some of them with our ancient Massey Ferguson tractor.

It's definitely not state of the art and in fact there isn't anything about it that is even from this century! *grin*. I picked up the sickle mower a couple of years ago when one of the old time farmers here was selling off some parts and with a little tlc we got it back up to snuff.

Essentially it's like a giant bar of scissors. Each of the teeth has as a smaller triangular section that slides on the bar from side to side through the larger triangle and as the grass gets caught up in it they slice it off clean. It moves at lightning speed once it is engaged and they have been known to take off fingers in the blink of an eye so to be quite honest it scares me just a little when I'm nearby as it's running.

It does a fine job cutting and takes down nice big swatches of grass at a time.

I wouldn't let anyone get real close to the field while the mower was working so my spectators had to watch from afar as I backed them up as it got closer to us :)

I just love the smell that fills the air after the fields are cut. It's not the same as when you cut your lawn it has this amazingly sweet scent that I just don't know how to describe. If only I had smell-o-vision so I could share it with you *grin*.

All done for the day and taking her back to the shed. You've got to love the old girl.... over 50 years old and still takes a licking and keeps on ticking :)

~ Rosina