Call that rain? Nowt but a bit of dampness in the air..
Thankfully it was nothing but showers and the seven students who turned up for their Learn to Scythe course had a great day. That was partly thanks to the lovely bit of Sprint Mill meadow which had been earmarked for the course - I was quite jealous to not be mowing it with them.
With us on the course was Akii from Japan who explained that the scythe is completely unknown there. Farming of cattle and sheep is relatively new there so there was never a need to make hay for livestock and hence the scythe wasn't needed. He and Angela have a small meadow in Scotland and took home on of my scythe kits to manage that so possibly he'll spread the word back in Japan too.
I also brought out my 'sharpening stool' so Angela didn't have to kneel down but still got the benefits of my improved sharpening method.
With the clean sward everyone was getting a nice clean cut and mowing very well. Here's Steve in action, great use of his legs and getting a full swath.
Altogether another fun day proving the benefits of the scythe. Hopefully we'll have better weather for the next day or two and the grass will be made into hay.
A wonderful day! Steve is a great teacher - knowledgable, insightful, patient, funny... Tough love of the most useful kind. Thankyou. Angela & Akii
ReplyDeleteAn inspirational and enjoyable day. I have previously sweated and sworn as I have strimmed a half acre sloping meadow each year...but yesterday evening I spent a very therapeutically relaxing 3 hours scything and have cut about half the meadow. This evening I will complete the job and over the next few days the cut grass will be hand-bound into hay. Of course, I am still learning, but Thank you Steve for teaching me the basics of this remarkable skill.
ReplyDelete[…] And most recently drove 700 miles around the east coast of Scotland from Ayr, through Cumbria and back up through the borders after a workshop near Kendal: http://scytherspace.wordpress.com/2013/06/28/scything-in-the-rain/ […]
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