Little Bang Theory

Field Work. August 22, 2011

There’s something basic and good about working the land.  Plowing and planting, tending and harvesting, mowing and baling.  It’s back-breaking work, but it’s rewarding in a way that only participating in the natural cycle can be.

I encountered Andy on my most recent visit to the high meadows of Windsor, the scene of some of my favorite Western Massachusetts landscapes.  The gate to the stone road leading up over the hill was open, so I drove right in hoping to connect with someone, ask if they minded me being there with Elliot and the gang.  Andy was up to his elbows in hydraulic fluid, doing the knuckle-busting work of getting sleeping farm machinery up and running.  Turns out he’s the guy who tends this Fish and Game property so it’s productive, rather than returning to the tangled wild.  He invited me to shoot away, just don’t drive out into the fields (check!) and don’t get locked in when he leaves.

So I set to shooting, getting a hay wagon in waiting:

…and what they turn the hay with in the field, I don’t know the name of it (* “tedder,” from jomegat in comments):

Anyway, it fluffs and dries it, weather permitting, before baling.

Andy got his old Allis Chalmers up and running (his newer rig was broken) and set to work mowing under charcoal skies:

…while I scurried to get a parting shot of some Goldenrod before it met The Reaper:

It was a New England afternoon with its Wyoming moments; I like that kind of weather.

All of these shots are courtesy of Elliot, with considerable shift on the hay wagon and tons of tilt on the rest.

He’s a good boy, that Elliot.

And approaching home, a nice sunset from the bridge over the Deerfield in the center of town:

And that’s that.

G’night.