25 Replies to “Old Fashioned”

  1. We must be part of the same generation (in agricultural terms!) – I too get a sudden rush of nostalgia when I see the rectangular bales, but I think that’s all it is – nostalgia. If the circular had been the original I’m sure we’d all be bemoaning the loss of its natural curves.

  2. How practices have changed in my life time: from hand stacked stooks, to rectangular bales (so easy to handle) to round bales needing machinery to locate them . Such satisfaction from tossing the (rectangular) bales from the trailer to the ground!!!

  3. I saw a gooseneck trailer hauling square bales just this week. We live in marshmallow land for the most part, but these square bales evoke such wonderful, late-summer days.

  4. You are right. I use to load some (we called it throwing them) at my uncle’s farm when I was a teenager. They’re not light. Get you in shape, I’ll tell you that. Nice to see them again. “Some genius is always changing things.”. The new system is better, of course, but I still wish we had the old style.

    1. True, true. Did you drink “switchel” the haymakers drink? Water, vinegar and honey or molasses. The original ‘Gatorade’. It rebalances electrolytes. I use it on hot summer days when I’m gardening.

  5. They look surprisingly modern too–an artist’s installation–but also prehistoric, a hayhenge: time compressed, “beauty ever ancient, ever new.”

  6. wow…that brings back memories…years ago my Mom and I raked up hay into windrows before the neighbor came with his machine to make our
    hay into neat little rectangles like these in your photo. I can still see, smell, taste, feel the hay dust as it engulfs me. 🙂 Thanks for the memories 🙂

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