This is hay turning 1940-50 style! First it was cut into swathes by the horsedrawn mower, in June, left to dry, hopefully in the sun, for a few days then turned over for the underside to dry. That was the plan, at least, but in Scotland you seldom get a run of good drying days and often the hay was turned only for the rain to come on and the process had to be repeated, often several times! Here we see the hay being turned by hand--well with a fork! All of us children who were old enough to hold the tool were drafted in for this task, even my grandad, to the left, helped out.
Only after it was completely dry was it collected into heaps with a sweep then built into ricks and left to dry further, till it was carted into the yard to be built into even bigger stacks. This was before we had the use of a baler.
It was after the ricks had been built that we went on holiday , for a few days at first, then eventually, after my father decided that holidays weren't so bad, we had a fortnight away camping in the Highlands or West Coast.
This is "camp" on one of the first holidays. We had a big wooden box, tied by a piece of thick rope to the door of the boot, which opened downwards, filled with all the provisions and home baking to keep us fed. We three children were squashed into the back seat alongside all the bedding and clothes. Jack, the youngest, I seem to remember sat on a tin biscuit box! Mother took her pinny and there were always boiled potatoes for dinner, cooked on the little primus stove.....so, of course, there was a container of paraffin and a bottle of methylated spirits to get the thing started.......no mattress or beds, just the hard ground, but eventually we had lilos..oh. the sheer luxury! Mother sewed sleeping bags out of woollen army blankets, which weighed a ton! There were no seats of any form.
This was another year, different car, but dad still sporting his holiday gear--voluminous tweed trousers with the strong gallowses (braces) well to the fore and no bonnet, well, not unless it became colder or rained, which it did fairly often. The first tent belonged to Grandad and was of uncertain age and with a tendency to leak but then one year, father splashed out and we had a new one from the Army Surplus Store. It had a fly sheet------and a veranda---so much more room when the rain was on! The drawback was it weighed a lot and was bulky, especially when wet, and took up a lot of precious room. The tents were always strapped on to the car between the front mudguards and the engine, one either side.
After one particularly wet holiday dad bought a caravan and then we were cruising (as they say)!
For more reminiscences from others, and to join in,click
here.P.S. For the record, here was the order of stages in haymaking (in Central Scotland, at least)
Mowing, drying, turning, sweeping, rick/cole building (in the field), drying, carting in to stackyard to be hoisted up, bundle by bundle with the grab on the very tall (seemed like 100 feet high to me then!)"hay fork"to form huge stacks and finally, eaten overwinter by the stock.
I wish we had taken photos of all these stages but just didn't think about it then!
This is the profile of the face of the "Sleeping Warrior" also known as Benarty Hill which stands on the southern side of the loch. (The photos are now out of order, but at least I have been able to add some text now).
This photo, taken by my brother, Jack, shows The Warrior lying on his pillow.
This field where the children are playing,is part of my elder brother's farm (where we were brought up) and now houses quite a few holiday chalets, a sign of the need for farmers to diversify. The view across the loch is beautiful.
Looking north with the Ochil Hills in the background and the 100 acre island in the middle of the loch. The ruins of an ancient monastery can still be seen but the only activity here now is the grazing of some sheep ferried over in a boat. A neighbour, who had grazing right some time ago, once ferried cattle over in a makeshift raft, nearly coming to grief because of the cattle panic-ing, but they arrived home before him!
