Haymaking the old fashioned way

putting up hay at the Living History Farms

I was very excited to get to visit the Living History Farms in suburban Des Moines during my recent trip to Iowa, because they were having a demonstration of making hay using tools and techniques that would have been used about 1900.  Putting up hay is one of my most vivid memories of growing up on the farm:  my first “real” farm job was driving the tractor to pull the rope that lifted the bales of hay into the barn.  Later I worked up in the hay mow stacking bales.  It is surprising how similar the 1900 haymaking was to what I experienced in the 1960s.  I’ve posted the photos from my visit on Flickr.  Click on the image above to get there.

Iowa State Fair pictures posted

I have posted my photos from the recent pilgrimage to the Iowa State Fair on my Flickr site.  I was there on Friday, August 9, 2008. Click on the image to get there.  (The lady seemed hot, but she wasn’t very talkative.)

Living History Farms pics

Here they are! The pictures from our visit to the Living History Farms in Des Moines. The special event of the day was a re-enactment of an 1850 wedding, with costumes, fiddlers, dancing and a wedding reception with lemonade and a butter/currant cake baked in the fireplace.

Iowa trip pictures

From Thursday, August 11, through Monday, August 15, George and I were in Iowa to visit my family and do all the tourist stuff. I’ve started posting pictures. I did two batches on flickr.com. The pictures of the Iowa State Fair are here and the pictures from our whirwind tour of southwest Iowa tourist sites are here. There is commentary with each photo.

Still to come are the photos from the Living History Farms in Des Moines.

It was a fantastic trip. The weather was not too hot, and although there was a bit of rain (the first they’ve had in six weeks) it did not stop any of the planned activities. More reports to come.