I enjoyed watching it, it reminds me how we used to make hay bales when I was child. It was just plain wooden box with no top, we arranged the strings and one person would stand on the hay and push it down with their feet.
I am glad you enjoyed the video, that method sounds like a nice simple system to make hay bales, a bit like the weely bin method where you climb in to the bin and stand on the hay once its filled up with hay,
We've just gotten to, after 4 years, a place where we were able to ditch the commercial feed pellet for our Rabbitry. We keep 3 separate quads (M F F F) for a total of 12 breeders we have to keep alive for 5 to 6 months of Fall/Winter with nothing growing. The amount of loose hay stored in the garage over winter was kinda ridiculous. I'm building a baler next week. The bales can stack along a single wall - and we'll have room to overwinter the cars in the garage again.
Thank you for your comments , that is good news, being able to provide all your own feed needs , a big step forwards to self sufficient living , I had rabbits for a while of and on over the years , I found the droppings very good for the vegetables, unfortunately the UK has a nasty rabbit disease at the moment and the cost of protecting them with vaccinations became expensive , so at the moment I don't have any , hope to have more soon
Thank you for the encouragement. Let's hope a true balance with nature is possible. And that we can better appreciate how we fit into the natural system of life on Earth while we have the opportunity
You look like a hillbilly from Kentucky but your accent and manners are so refined. I do hope you get to make it to Kentucky one day and see what the rest of your cousins look like. You could literally come over here with your traditional hay making style and have seminars. Great video.
Thank you , yes I expect I probably do look like such , but I am very English , my family having been in the county for a very long time family records go back to the 1500s on both sides of my family tree, although one side came on a ship from Spain in the 1580s where captured and held as prisoners of war for several years but settled and integrated , the ship was a hospital ship that ran aground on the coast 60 miles from here a place called hope cove, the ship was a part of the Spanish amarda, and thank you for your support and kind comments, i would love to spread the word of how I approach the management of my land to any that are intrested
A modern day womble. I try and give everything at least three lives some many more. Desert training. use what you have where you are. Much more on its way
Nice one Dean.!!!! Great cutting action with the old scythe!!! There's definitely a knack to it !!! My grandpa used to make bales like this , can't beat the good old traditional ways ... ❤ we use our Suffolk punch heavy horse to pull logs for winter fuel... its great to go back to the way it was xx
thank you, having the scythe as sharp as can be is the trick, that and the blade being at the right angle, I think the traditional way of doing many things such as making hay has a lot of benefits that only become visible once they are employed, I would love to have working horses doing things here, logging would be lovely to have happen in my tiny woods, I fell and cut the coppice trees with a mixture of axe and saw, with the addition of a batterie chainsaw charged by solar panels, I find it so much quieter than the other method's and very rewording, I like the Suffolk punch they are a nice horse good for woods i expect not to tall and plenty of pull, I have a fondness for the shire horse myself, I have had more to do with them I guess, perhaps one day when the world get better you could visit with the horse and pull a few things around for me.
@@TheDevonblacksmith well our old girl is 24 now and is retired from carriage driving which is what we used her for in the main... we get her to pull the odd thing out now n again but In the main she just enjoys her days out in the field 😊😍 ..
I'll be starting my last day of cutting for hay with a scythe tomorrow. I farm in the west of Ireland and its my first attempt at hay making which I'm also doing all by hand so I'm happy to learn. I'm also using an austrian scythe which I find efficient and easy to use. I'm doing pretty good for my first proper week at scything and have the technique pretty much down now. Most of what's been cut is drying now so last day of cutting tomorrow and turning with forks while it dries then on to the next phase. I'm working in a full acre site with a decent crop. Wish me luck. 🙂
@@aaronboggs9719 that's good to hear. Hope the weather start dry for you and you get a good crop. This year is down in amount for me it's been so dry it's just not grown so well. But I still have plenty enough. Happy scything
@@TheDevonblacksmith thanks. I got a great haul and the weather was good enough to allow it to fully dry and got it moved to my shed for turning before we got like 3 weeks of rain in the past month. Was pretty close to losing a lot to waste but acted quickly and got a decent haul in to prepare for winter. Quite pleased and proud of myself for that. No machinery AT ALL. A scythe, hay forks and a strong back is all it took. 🙂
I have just peened this scythe , it does make a big difference to the sharpness, yes I have one neighbour with an understanding of permaculture and sustainable methods, and another that has heavy horses although they have yet to be trained to do any work, he has all the equipment and the horses, it would be good if we could collaborate using some horse power.
@@TheDevonblacksmith I have a love/hate relationship with horses. I love the connection with animal and earth, but where I live, it’s all showing off wealth and status. Keep it up. Gandalf 😁
@@farmersimonk yes plenty of those horses and their masters around here to. But a good working horse able to make its own hay and bales would be a welcome guest.
This was brilliant! Thank you so much. I'm cutting hay this year for my pony because of the shortage and price but all we have had is rain this summer. Makes me very nervous I think I'm going to make a hay rack this afternoon and see if that will work with the rain coming this next week. Thanks again.
I know those baler boxes well! I've worked on strawbale builds a few times and occasionally suplied bales aren't good enough or get broken for some reason. We collect all the good straw and re-make a bale in one of those boxes - there the object is to create as dense a bale as possible, to a very exact size, so slightly different reason, but I've hung off the handle a few times, and tied off the strings many times. Happy days, lovely to see you using one.
The box balers seem very good at producing exactly what you need. The smaller version I talked about is to make insulation bales for a future build I have done wattle and daub and cob builds but not yet a straw bale build. But I do intend to do one here
Thank you I wish more people where interested in such ways of living but I guess the fast way of life is exciting for many and few esperance the joy and contentment of doing by hand I wish you luck with your scythe and rake it's a very satisfying thing to do it's more like a meditation than work for me
@Devon Blacksmith I don't mind a little workout. Not only is a tractor, all of its attachments and the maintenance not worth the cost of a small Homestead-- but if times get hard, I want to be able to go back to the basics. If the economy and supply chain ever breaks down like it did with COVID, or even worse -- how do you repair a tractor?
@@Denny_Dust it's a very valid point I make and or repair my tools and can do some parts for machines but fuel is the limiting factor for me if or when things stop working or become too expensive or rare. I have built a system to extract diesel oil from plastics and had it running many years ago before I started doing these videos but if I get it up and running again I will film the process I have built and used a wood gas production system to run petrol engines but overall I prefer simple tools to do jobs or even nature itself .
If he used a hammer and anvil then it would have been the same type of scythe as I use mine is an Austrian one but a lot of European scythes are the same. as the blades are not hard like the English scythe. but instead can be peened to thin the edge before finishing sharpening with a stone. English blades cannot and are only sharpened with a stone as they would crack it peened. Lovely memory's for you to have. .
i buy hay for my grandkids as they have Guinea pigs , i been thinking there has to be a simple way of doing it by hand. hopefully you do a video of your smaller bailer . thanks
thank you for the comment, I will make the video and include the building of the mini box bailer and the making of the first mini bails of hay, I hope you enjoy some of the other videos I have made, a few ideas to try with your grandkids in them.
Thank you for the comments. I had considered keeping it loose but I have a severe lack of undercover space. And fo me and the situation I have with no area that's easy to build a hay stack it works out better for me. But for others it's likely to be different. I am always interested in how others make and store hay. If you have any tips on this or any other please share them. The more we share ideas and information the more choices we have
Hay is not just a food. I use it for many things. the chickens have it in the nest box instead of straw. As less mites live in the non hollow stems. I mulch around trees and fruit bushes with it. I use it to filter water before it goes into my water tanks for the gardens. It is also a fire starting material. It's also used in my rocket stoves. And mostly it moves carbon and minerals from where they grow to where I want them. It is used in compost making systems. Vegetable growing. Lines the bottom of plant pots . Really so much more than just the cheap food replacement commonly used in factory style farming. I am sure there are books that can offer a more in depth insight into the wide range of uses of hay. It grows well here and is used to its potential. Permaculture. sustainable farming . And regenerative agriculture are now common place things and the future of food production. Hopefully this will help you to have a better understanding of why I make hay even if I currently don't feed it directly to any livestock myself.
@@TheDevonblacksmith Hay isn't good for poultry bedding because it promotes mould and fungus growth. If you use it in vegetable growing then you are just spreading seeds of grasses you don't want, I am not sure how that helps. I don't understand why you say hay is "cheap food replacement", it literally is the food that cattle eat. On a side note, do you know Roger Hallam? I think he might live near you somewhere and he has similar ideas.
@@davidwebb2318 thank you for you thoughts on what might be best for chicken bedding. As far as promoting mold and fungal growth. I haven't witnessed any in the last 16 years of keeping chickens. Perhaps we do something different that would not surprise me in the least.
As for the spreading of grass seeds once they germinate the plant is removed and added to the mulch. I cover the beds to prevent the growth of grasses it's a well used technique I believe even the mainstream farmers do the same although plastic sheets are often used. My method add fertilizer to the soil and increases the microbiology that the plants need to access non petrol chemical minerals. If you only use petrochemicals then a dead soil can still produce a lower nutritional value plant. The nitrogen in the grass is released when it brakes down and aides moisture and nutrient retention. I do not mind the grass seedlings that become food for the vegetables. It saves a lot of compost for me to make.
@@davidwebb2318 sorry no I don't know Roger Hallam. If that's the person that I believe you are talking about. We have nothing in common at all. The beliefs he has shared are total at odds to my views. And do not reflect my method of living and Working. I would imagine from your comments his views on societal governance are more closely related to your ideal as they are based entirely on the system currently in place. but would just change the driver of the same bus so to speak. My views on the changes necessary to holt and turn around the current economic and ecological collapse are a lot simpler. Thank you for your opinions and views. The very fact everything I do works is enough to convince me to continue. Much the same reasoning as you have for retaining the now much outdated methods you see as the only way to do things. As things move forward a lot of people will be left in the dark ages for a lack of embracing new information.
I enjoyed watching it, it reminds me how we used to make hay bales when I was child. It was just plain wooden box with no top, we arranged the strings and one person would stand on the hay and push it down with their feet.
I am glad you enjoyed the video, that method sounds like a nice simple system to make hay bales, a bit like the weely bin method where you climb in to the bin and stand on the hay once its filled up with hay,
Thanks so much- we’ve just cut our first hay for the chickens, and we were wondering how to bale it.
Glad it was helpful, I hope your chickens enjoy the hay
We've just gotten to, after 4 years, a place where we were able to ditch the commercial feed pellet for our Rabbitry. We keep 3 separate quads (M F F F) for a total of 12 breeders we have to keep alive for 5 to 6 months of Fall/Winter with nothing growing.
The amount of loose hay stored in the garage over winter was kinda ridiculous.
I'm building a baler next week. The bales can stack along a single wall - and we'll have room to overwinter the cars in the garage again.
Thank you for your comments , that is good news, being able to provide all your own feed needs , a big step forwards to self sufficient living , I had rabbits for a while of and on over the years , I found the droppings very good for the vegetables, unfortunately the UK has a nasty rabbit disease at the moment and the cost of protecting them with vaccinations became expensive , so at the moment I don't have any , hope to have more soon
I like your methods. You keep doing you and others can do them. In the future they will probably be asking you for advice. Blessings to all 🌏
Thank you for the encouragement. Let's hope a true balance with nature is possible. And that we can better appreciate how we fit into the natural system of life on Earth while we have the opportunity
You look like a hillbilly from Kentucky but your accent and manners are so refined. I do hope you get to make it to Kentucky one day and see what the rest of your cousins look like. You could literally come over here with your traditional hay making style and have seminars. Great video.
Thank you , yes I expect I probably do look like such , but I am very English , my family having been in the county for a very long time family records go back to the 1500s on both sides of my family tree, although one side came on a ship from Spain in the 1580s where captured and held as prisoners of war for several years but settled and integrated , the ship was a hospital ship that ran aground on the coast 60 miles from here a place called hope cove, the ship was a part of the Spanish amarda, and thank you for your support and kind comments, i would love to spread the word of how I approach the management of my land to any that are intrested
I'm enjoying watching how you're able to make best use of what's around you, reusing and repurposing.
A modern day womble. I try and give everything at least three lives some many more. Desert training. use what you have where you are. Much more on its way
Happy hay making Smithy, I shall be thinking of you on Sunday, I'm off to the Scythe Fair
I shall realy miss it again this year say hi to all that know me and have fun
hope you had a good time at the scythe fair
Nice one Dean.!!!! Great cutting action with the old scythe!!! There's definitely a knack to it !!! My grandpa used to make bales like this , can't beat the good old traditional ways ... ❤ we use our Suffolk punch heavy horse to pull logs for winter fuel... its great to go back to the way it was xx
thank you, having the scythe as sharp as can be is the trick, that and the blade being at the right angle, I think the traditional way of doing many things such as making hay has a lot of benefits that only become visible once they are employed, I would love to have working horses doing things here, logging would be lovely to have happen in my tiny woods, I fell and cut the coppice trees with a mixture of axe and saw, with the addition of a batterie chainsaw charged by solar panels, I find it so much quieter than the other method's and very rewording, I like the Suffolk punch they are a nice horse good for woods i expect not to tall and plenty of pull, I have a fondness for the shire horse myself, I have had more to do with them I guess, perhaps one day when the world get better you could visit with the horse and pull a few things around for me.
@@TheDevonblacksmith well our old girl is 24 now and is retired from carriage driving which is what we used her for in the main... we get her to pull the odd thing out now n again but In the main she just enjoys her days out in the field 😊😍 ..
I'll be starting my last day of cutting for hay with a scythe tomorrow. I farm in the west of Ireland and its my first attempt at hay making which I'm also doing all by hand so I'm happy to learn. I'm also using an austrian scythe which I find efficient and easy to use. I'm doing pretty good for my first proper week at scything and have the technique pretty much down now. Most of what's been cut is drying now so last day of cutting tomorrow and turning with forks while it dries then on to the next phase. I'm working in a full acre site with a decent crop. Wish me luck. 🙂
@@aaronboggs9719 that's good to hear. Hope the weather start dry for you and you get a good crop. This year is down in amount for me it's been so dry it's just not grown so well. But I still have plenty enough. Happy scything
@@TheDevonblacksmith thanks. I got a great haul and the weather was good enough to allow it to fully dry and got it moved to my shed for turning before we got like 3 weeks of rain in the past month. Was pretty close to losing a lot to waste but acted quickly and got a decent haul in to prepare for winter. Quite pleased and proud of myself for that. No machinery AT ALL. A scythe, hay forks and a strong back is all it took. 🙂
Nice hat!
Thank you, it an important tool in this weather
Fascinating, very informative. Loved it!
Thank you for the kind words. Making hay by hand is a tradition that's as old as farming itself yet Its cutting edge technology...
I have my scythe but really need practise. Must call in to see you when you’re making next 😁
it would be nice to have an extra scythe when cutting, what do you have an Austrian style or English ?
Fantastic! My scythe needs a good peening. You are lucky to have a neighbour with similar interests in getting away from heavy machinery.
I have just peened this scythe , it does make a big difference to the sharpness, yes I have one neighbour with an understanding of permaculture and sustainable methods, and another that has heavy horses although they have yet to be trained to do any work, he has all the equipment and the horses, it would be good if we could collaborate using some horse power.
@@TheDevonblacksmith I have a love/hate relationship with horses. I love the connection with animal and earth, but where I live, it’s all showing off wealth and status.
Keep it up. Gandalf 😁
@@farmersimonk yes plenty of those horses and their masters around here to. But a good working horse able to make its own hay and bales would be a welcome guest.
This was brilliant! Thank you so much. I'm cutting hay this year for my pony because of the shortage and price but all we have had is rain this summer. Makes me very nervous I think I'm going to make a hay rack this afternoon and see if that will work with the rain coming this next week. Thanks again.
Awesome
Thank you for the supporting words. I am glad you enjoyed it.
most impressed, most excellent bale
Thank you they seem to be nice bales. Do you use one of these box bale makers?
I know those baler boxes well! I've worked on strawbale builds a few times and occasionally suplied bales aren't good enough or get broken for some reason. We collect all the good straw and re-make a bale in one of those boxes - there the object is to create as dense a bale as possible, to a very exact size, so slightly different reason, but I've hung off the handle a few times, and tied off the strings many times. Happy days, lovely to see you using one.
The box balers seem very good at producing exactly what you need. The smaller version I talked about is to make insulation bales for a future build I have done wattle and daub and cob builds but not yet a straw bale build. But I do intend to do one here
Fascinating.
Thanks for the window into your world.
thank you Ihope you enjoy the videos
You deserve more views. And I think you've inspired me to get a scythe and a rake... may try baling one day.
Thank you I wish more people where interested in such ways of living but I guess the fast way of life is exciting for many and few esperance the joy and contentment of doing by hand I wish you luck with your scythe and rake it's a very satisfying thing to do it's more like a meditation than work for me
@Devon Blacksmith I don't mind a little workout. Not only is a tractor, all of its attachments and the maintenance not worth the cost of a small Homestead-- but if times get hard, I want to be able to go back to the basics. If the economy and supply chain ever breaks down like it did with COVID, or even worse -- how do you repair a tractor?
@@Denny_Dust it's a very valid point I make and or repair my tools and can do some parts for machines but fuel is the limiting factor for me if or when things stop working or become too expensive or rare. I have built a system to extract diesel oil from plastics and had it running many years ago before I started doing these videos but if I get it up and running again I will film the process I have built and used a wood gas production system to run petrol engines but overall I prefer simple tools to do jobs or even nature itself .
This is amazing!!!!
Thank you
That is a good idea and looks very satisfying to do, thank you
I do enjoy the whole process. Scythe to bail
Love it, thanks for the video. Can you show the knots you use for tying off the bale?
I just use a half bow knot so I cab pull the one loose end to open them up
@@TheDevonblacksmith thanks.
I used a scythe as kid, my uncle used it a lot more... Old neighbour use to "sharpen" the blades for scythes, using a hammer and anvil...
If he used a hammer and anvil then it would have been the same type of scythe as I use mine is an Austrian one but a lot of European scythes are the same. as the blades are not hard like the English scythe. but instead can be peened to thin the edge before finishing sharpening with a stone. English blades cannot and are only sharpened with a stone as they would crack it peened. Lovely memory's for you to have. .
when the Sun shines...
Indeed. it's definitely hay making time at the moment.
i buy hay for my grandkids as they have Guinea pigs , i been thinking there has to be a simple way of doing it by hand. hopefully you do a video of your smaller bailer . thanks
thank you for the comment, I will make the video and include the building of the mini box bailer and the making of the first mini bails of hay, I hope you enjoy some of the other videos I have made, a few ideas to try with your grandkids in them.
How sharp is the scythe? Razor?
Hi. Yes the scythe is razor sharp. It is kept very sharp when cutting grass or hay.
Why not put it up loose? would be less work
Thank you for the comments. I had considered keeping it loose but I have a severe lack of undercover space. And fo me and the situation I have with no area that's easy to build a hay stack it works out better for me. But for others it's likely to be different. I am always interested in how others make and store hay. If you have any tips on this or any other please share them. The more we share ideas and information the more choices we have
I don't get it. why do you make hay when you don't have any animals that eat hay?
Hay is not just a food. I use it for many things. the chickens have it in the nest box instead of straw. As less mites live in the non hollow stems. I mulch around trees and fruit bushes with it. I use it to filter water before it goes into my water tanks for the gardens. It is also a fire starting material. It's also used in my rocket stoves. And mostly it moves carbon and minerals from where they grow to where I want them. It is used in compost making systems. Vegetable growing. Lines the bottom of plant pots . Really so much more than just the cheap food replacement commonly used in factory style farming. I am sure there are books that can offer a more in depth insight into the wide range of uses of hay. It grows well here and is used to its potential. Permaculture. sustainable farming . And regenerative agriculture are now common place things and the future of food production. Hopefully this will help you to have a better understanding of why I make hay even if I currently don't feed it directly to any livestock myself.
@@TheDevonblacksmith Hay isn't good for poultry bedding because it promotes mould and fungus growth. If you use it in vegetable growing then you are just spreading seeds of grasses you don't want, I am not sure how that helps. I don't understand why you say hay is "cheap food replacement", it literally is the food that cattle eat.
On a side note, do you know Roger Hallam? I think he might live near you somewhere and he has similar ideas.
@@davidwebb2318 thank you for you thoughts on what might be best for chicken bedding. As far as promoting mold and fungal growth. I haven't witnessed any in the last 16 years of keeping chickens. Perhaps we do something different that would not surprise me in the least.
As for the spreading of grass seeds once they germinate the plant is removed and added to the mulch. I cover the beds to prevent the growth of grasses it's a well used technique I believe even the mainstream farmers do the same although plastic sheets are often used. My method add fertilizer to the soil and increases the microbiology that the plants need to access non petrol chemical minerals. If you only use petrochemicals then a dead soil can still produce a lower nutritional value plant. The nitrogen in the grass is released when it brakes down and aides moisture and nutrient retention. I do not mind the grass seedlings that become food for the vegetables. It saves a lot of compost for me to make.
@@davidwebb2318 sorry no I don't know Roger Hallam. If that's the person that I believe you are talking about. We have nothing in common at all. The beliefs he has shared are total at odds to my views. And do not reflect my method of living and Working. I would imagine from your comments his views on societal governance are more closely related to your ideal as they are based entirely on the system currently in place. but would just change the driver of the same bus so to speak. My views on the changes necessary to holt and turn around the current economic and ecological collapse are a lot simpler. Thank you for your opinions and views. The very fact everything I do works is enough to convince me to continue. Much the same reasoning as you have for retaining the now much outdated methods you see as the only way to do things. As things move forward a lot of people will be left in the dark ages for a lack of embracing new information.