Farmers at one time produced all the fuel to put their crop in and harvest the crop. Hay. Hay to feed their horses. Horse power in its true sense.
I was fortunate to work on our farm when horses were still used by my father and grandfather to do part of the farming and ranching.
My first job was picking rocks. My father, Elmer Evenson, would hitch a team of horses up to a low, four-wheel wagon and my father, my grandfather, George Evenson, and I would go out into the plowed fields and pick rocks. My father would say “whoa” and the horses would stop. We’d fan out and pick up rocks and put them into the wagon. I believe I was only about 10 years old, so my father would pick up the bigger ones and I would get the smaller ones. Then he’d say “getup” and the hose team would move forward until he’d call “whoa” and we’d start the process again. Once the wagon was full of rocks we’d go to a rock pile and unload the rocks. Lunch was brought to the field about 10 o/clock in the morning by my mother. My mother’s buns were so good and often served with cherry Kool Aide. We’d continue until noon and then go in for dinner at our farmhouse. We would have a short rest after dinner and then go back out to the field.
We had an M Farmall Tractor that was used to cultivate, drag the seed bed and pull the drill to seed the crop. Wheat, barley and flax were the main crops. This was generally finished up by the first week of June. That was a good thing, because it always seemed that when the National Guard came to Camp Grafton for their 2 weeks of field training the first part of June and fire their cannons over East Bay it would rain. The carnival also came to town and set up south of the Great Northern Depot. It was always a muddy mess walking in between the vendors, games and rides.
Near the end of June the temperatures would warm up and the sun would be high in the sky and it was “Time to Make Hay.”
The horses were harnessed up and it was time to start cutting grass in the hay sloughs.
After the grass dried in the sun and wind for a few days, it made great hay. The horses were hitched up to the hay rack.
This is a picture of my Grandfather, George Evenson, and his team of horses hitched up to the hay rack in 1955.
The hay rack was used to pile the hay in rows for loading into a hay wagon. After that was done, the horses were hitched to the hay wagon, which would be loaded with hay and hauled to our barn. A hay trolley (like the one on display at the Black Paws Brewery) was used to hoist the hay into the hay mow. The hay trolley was quite an inventive piece of engineering.
The hay could then be kept dry all winter and stuffed down the chutes to feed the cattle in the lower part of the barn.
It was great fun for my brother and I to crawl up the ladder of the hay mow to the hay trolley and we’d grab the rope and then jump off and ride the trolley to the far end of the barn and drop into a pile of hay. The original zip line.
Hay conditioners, round bailers and grapple forks on tractors complete the work now. No need for a hay trolley, wagon or horses. Those were “the good old days” – but the new equipment sure makes it an easier, faster process.
collin@gondtc.com
