Going Hay-Wire
The traditional way of drying hay in Norway is to rake it into a bundle and hang it over a line to air dry. This method was only succeeded by silage (fermented grass in the marshmallow balls) 15 years ago. When Moose was a lad the hay was mowed down with a tractor and then it was gathered into bundles and hung all over the field for drying. This method is still viable today but is very reliant on good sunny weather and nice breezes. And I think hay racking looks rather pretty.
At the moment most of our hay is still made into silage for the sheep in Winter but as we now have rabbits we thought to experiment with going back to the traditional way of hay making. It was surprisingly fun rolling the hay and hanging it, and very rewarding. (I don’t know how fun it would be doing a whole field though.) I’m sure this is a more healthy way of feeding the animals as the hay stays crunchy and doesn’t have any added chemicals (silage uses lactic acid to help it ferment). Even when the hay was dry and we packed it into bags it smelt yummy. Our bunnies are going to love eating this Winter.
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The Arctic Circle is an imaginary line.
21st January is soldagen (the sun day) when the sun officially returns to Tromsø.
There is always something beautiful waiting for us around the corner.
Norwegian fjordings are from the draft horse family.
The walking-street takes you from Central Station to the Royal Palace.
Knowing what will keep your baby warm in Norway is common knowledge passed down from mother to mother…
Be thankful you’re only doing a small portion of your hay harvest the old fashion way. We used to do whole fields this way and it was a lot of work. Sometimes the weather on Tysnes would co-operate and we could let it dry in the field after cutting without hanging it on wires. We used a horse drawn mowing machine with a three foot cutting bar on the more level fields but had to cut the steeper areas by hand. We really neede those long hours of daylight to get all the work done.
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from L-Jay:
We are doing a small section this year. Next year we’ll probably try a whole field…lol. But the rabbits love our fresh hay.
I was told those white bags of hay in the field are called “tractor eggs” in Norway.
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from L-Jay:
Yep, but to Australians they look more like marshmallows…lol. the ‘tractor eggs’ got their name by how they are made not what they look like, which will be discussed in a future post.