Get ready to be sweaty! The heat & humidity that has been plaguing the midwest is moving our way. Many of us will top out in the low 90s for highs today, and it will be turning much more humid by the end of the day, too. "Triple-H" (hazy, hot, humid) weather will be with us through the rest of the week and into the start of the weekend.
There could be an isolated thunderstorm or two on Thursday as a weak, dying front comes through. Otherwise, we'll stay dry until Sunday when a more serious cold front starts coming our way. That front will bring some relief from the heat & humidity by the start of next week.
Noticed in the Selectboard Minutes that Paul Langelier was taking some time off to do haying and I have also seen several others go by the house with some of those big round bales all wrapped in plastic.
Makes me feel very, very lucky as I look back on my childhood days when weather like this was the height of the haying season. We all worked out in the fields. We had three horses and while my Dad mowed with a team of horses and the horse drawn mower, my oldest sister would rake the hay that had been cut the day before with a dump rake. Mother & I would start tumbling the hay and after Dad got done mowing and my sister got done raking they would join us to tumble the hay, so that it could be pitched onto the big wagon and brought to the barn. My sister would drive one of the horses to unload the hay from the wagon that pulled the hay off the wagon and brought it to the other end of the hay mow. Mother would hook the big fork into the hay and then the horse would pull it up onto the track near the roof and send it on to the other end of the hay mow. It took about 4 loads with the big fork to unload the load of hay. Dad and I were in the hay mow and he would spread the hay and I would pack it down by walking on it.
I am sure this probably means nothing to most of you as my explanation is not that great unless you have seen it done. Big changes nowadays from 65 or 70 years ago.
We drank plenty of water that ran constantly, 365 days a year from the pipe that filled the cows watering trough. No fancy meals on days like this, but I do remember eating a lot of baloney and potato salad. The beverage of course with the meals was some nice ice cold unpasteurized milk.
I plan on spending my time either in the house in the air-conditioning or else sitting under one of my big Maple Trees in the front yard, however, as I look out, it does not appear that there is much of a breeze out there.
Meanwhile, to all of you, drink plenty of water and do take it easy in this Hazy, Hot and Humid weather.
Above is a photo of some horsedrawn sickle mowers
A Dump rake
This is a Harpoon Fork and would not take as big a load as the Grapple Fork shown below
Above is the Grapple Fork which usually would unload a load of hay in 4 swipes. Both forks were attached to rope threaded through pulleys, hooked to a horse outside the hay mow. A small rope was hooked to the trip that would drop the hay where you wanted to drop it in the hay mow.
