Ingenuity

Daily Note

Every day, a photograph, a poem. Another farm and harvest photo from our Saturday drive around the area, stopping at Coulee City, WA for this image. It reminds me of all the things many take for granted. Scott used to bale and stack hay bales as a teenager. Most people don’t remember that back-breaking work– let alone those smaller bales or the word “haystack,” which is the name of erratic rocks around here because they look like the old haystacks.

So this machine is a hay raker — this one turns the hay and leaves it in windrows, rows of gathered hay to dry until just the right time to form into bales for stacking for use or sale. The driver has raised the rakes and brought in the windrow formers so he can drive on the highway since his job is done for the day. You can see the windrow on the right side of the raker.

Anyway, those who want to go back to the 1950s really don’t mean that. It’s just a slogan to lead you into memories of good times, when really there was a lot more work and struggle in those times. I’m one for progress forward. How about you? I want to make America great for all.

It’s not a great poem, but… it’s what I was thinking about while watching. So thankful we still can grow food for us and for animals and that we have the machines and people to do so.

Ingenuity

With trees in our yard
as autumn calls
the leaves to fall

And rakes in the shed
are taken out
to gather leaves about

See fields of cut hay,
a raking, turning need
for animals to feed

So thankful for the agricultural rake
From those with ingenuity
To design a rake for field suitability

A rake to turn the feed to dry
And gather into long windrows
A baler follows along the rows

Gone the days of hand thrown bales
As modern machines now replace
The humble tool called the garden rake.

Sheri Edwards
092122 266.365.22
Poetry/Photography
Photo: Outside Coulee City, WA

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