Picture of the day - August 18, 2006

"Making Hay While The Sun Shines"

Click image to enlarge A couple of days ago I featured a picture of an antique mowing machine and hay rake sitting in the edge of a field beside the Virginia Creeper Trail in Abingdon, Virginia. The process of mowing and storing hay using those implements was quite a task that required long hours and plenty of sweat for man and beast alike. Today, the process is a lot faster and easier - especially for the beasts... Back in May, Glen and Tonnie were out on one of their frequent dune buggy rides through the northeast Tennessee countryside when they saw a farmer baling hay in a field that lay right beside the road. They stopped and asked the nice man if they could take some pictures showing the process of making a bale of hay, and he said "sure". Glen drove the dune buggy right out into the field where they began snapping pictures as the hay baler went about its business. Tonnie took the resulting images and created the beautiful "scrapbook" page shown above! As you can see, the days of "pitching" hay onto haystacks the old-fashioned way are long gone, and the task of hand-carrying rectangular hay bales to a moving wagon, then up into a barn loft like we did during my childhood years is well on its way out as well. Today, the hay is cut, raked and baled into large, round bales that are easily moved around and loaded by a tractor with a long spike attached to it. Even though the entire hay-making process and most farm work in general is now performed using powerful machinery, working on a farm still makes for a long, hard day. But modern farm implements have made that day a lot more productive, much safer and infinitely less exhausting - especially for the beasts! Picture Of The Day Homepage | Submit a photo More Interesting Articles