Ottertail Country

Ottertail Country
Ottertail South

September 30, 2009

Haven't seen this for a while......

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Here is something that hasn't been done at the Ottertail for many years!! A local farming family, Nels Holm and sons Neil and Lars, cut and bale hay on other peoples land, so in June I asked them if they would like to do the hay at home. They said sure, but it won't be for a while....




One Sunday afternoon in mid August, Peg and I arrived home to find the grass all cut on the field! The following afternoon one of Lars' daughters arrived on the tractor above and proceeded to rake the hay into windrows. I watched the tractor bounce around quite a bit as the field is very rough after many years of non-farm type activity.





I headed up to the upstairs 'north-looking' windows and took a couple of photos.





By this time there is not much left of the wood piles in the field.





A little later this rig showed up and the baling began. Now these are not bales like we used to make here. These contraptions wind the hat around and around until it almost fills that thing. Then it wraps plastic wrap around them and spits them out on the ground.





We ended up with eight big old round things out there. Hey, Bob, do you remember cutting these fields with your Allis B and the old horse mower???? Ah, those were the days......





About a week ago, the Holm crew showed up with a couple of trailers and a tractor for loading those big bales. They are all gone now and it just looks like a huge, shaggy lawn out there....


I gotta go, Carlo


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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Enjoyed seeing the pictures of the estate!! I see that the hydrangea bushes I planted on the North and west corners of the house were blooming. Great!!!!

Lucy

Anonymous said...

wow!!! that's neat!

NYRB

yram said...

Neato! nice pics of the place. where do the hayers live?

Carlo said...

The Holm folks all live a few miles west of Ogema on old 86, ten crossings road,etc.

They did not get a ton of hay, but if they keep cutting every year, it will get some better, I guess. This same crew also worked up Gary and Virginia Nelson's fields and planted corn. It did pretty well. A small agricultural return, I guess....

bobandjanm said...

Yes, I remember cutting hay there with that old mower. Corners involved turning out wide to the left just ahead of the corner, then a hard right while pulling the right hand brake to get the sickle back into the swath. Sometimes someone would have to sit on it and lift the sickle in those corners to prevent it from plugging up. The black birds would go nuts and crowd in for the grasshoppers.

I also remember that it took a special technique to run bare foot on the fresh hay stubble. Don't know why I ever felt a need to do that.

Your fall colors are great. Northern Wisconsin's birch, maples, popples etc. have more brilliant colors than the mainly oak and hickory woods here. Ours are a little more muted, and have their own way of standing out. We have not reached full color here yet.

Hello to all.

Cousin Bob