scythe at the barn door
I always find it hard to pick my favorite season, but clearly one of my favorite times in the summer revolves around pulling the scythe out of the barn, finding the sharpening stone, and heading down the back hill to make some hay.
About five days each year are committed to this task. The hay is then stored in the barn to dry. In the fall it gets used as mulch o protect the gardens through the winter.
Getting the swing back always seems to prompt some strange imaginations concerning the Grim Reaper, though the act of reaping for the farmer does not have the built in sense of death surrounding that hooded figure.
The other thought that always comes back to my mind is how our various lawn mowing contraptions remove us from what is in my mind a fundamental agricultural act. We need to find ways to keep the fundamentals in.
If you’re so inclined: the Scythe Supply and the Scythe Book.
Finding Play
Domestic Rituals
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