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.