Tuesday 20 July 2010

Hay 2010

Hay piles on the top of the Castañarina meadow all ready for making this years hay stack and last years hay stack at the back.
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We’ve been cutting and harvesting hay over the last 15 days and yesterday we made our traditional hay stack. With the hay stack finished that’s the end of the hay harvest for 2010 and the end of the hardest period of work on the farm.



Cutting the hay with a mechanical alum scythe. The hay from this meadow was bailed

Cutting the hay with a scythe. All the hay for the stack was cut by hand (with a scythe or strimmer)


Bringing the cut and dried hay with a pitch fork to make the “balagares” or hay piles.

Hay piles and the old hay stack with the Picos in the distance.

The 5 meter Eucalyptus post dug deep in the ground used as the centre support for the hay stack. The pallets around the base are to keep the hay of the ground and get good air circulation under the stack.

Hay making is hard and thirsty work!

The hay is piled around the central stick and by continually walking and standing on the hay it slowly gets compressed.

A platted hay “rope” is tired around the top to help stop water drip down the centre pole. By continually raking the sides of the stack the hay is “lined up” and this helps the water run of it, like a thatched roof.

This year and last years hay stack. You can see how the sheep have eaten around the bottom of last years stack.

The finished hay stack and a collective sigh of relief.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

despues de echo el trabajo a descansar, muy buena la vara de hierba,(TRABAJADORES)

Welcome

Hotel Posada del Valle is a small hotel in Asturias Northern Spain surrounded by its own organic farm and where we are passionate about organic farming, food, and sustainable livelihoods. In this Blog those of us who live and work at Hotel Posada del Valle open a door to share with all of you who are interested in what we are doing.