Musings of an Apprentice Mower
Posted By Randy on June 16, 2011
Illustration from Fastolf Mater’s Book of Hours (c. 1250) – Source http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/MEDscythe.htm
“A goodly man the mower is,
With sinews tough as twisted rods,
A form of manly grace is his,
A head as trenchant as a god’s
“A man of thought; the harvest o’er,
Its heats and triumphs left behind,
He rests, and gives himself once more
To pleasures of the heart and mind.”
~ from Scythe and Sword by Obediah Cyrus Auringer ~
Living as we do on the edge of a mixed forest of Pine and Birch, what Mrs. LFM and I charitably refer to as a “lawn” lies shaded beneath the canopy of lofty old Maple trees and consists of a coarse assemblage of plant life that is predominantly NOT grass. Everything grows at different rates, some things grow out instead of up, but we love it because, best of all, it’s tough enough to withstand the wear and tear inflicted by the Household Light Cavalry, otherwise known as our pack of Dogs.
To get to my point, all this jungle greenery still needs to be kept in check so our enemies have fewer options by way of hiding places, and the last few years of power mowing have only served to highlight that a better option needed to be found. Particularly so to be in keeping with our step by step process of getting away from complex technologies that don’t represent an improvement over older and simpler solutions. A herd of Goats really isn’t a viable path right now, but scything is, and so last week, after much research, I employed that ancient tool for the very first time in my life, and also for the first time actually had fun mowing a lawn.
Growing up in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, seeing men scything fields was hardly uncommon, and I remember one old timer who never used anything else to mow his lawn. Well, while I have many miles to go before I can even hope to reach his level of seemingly effortless mastery, I aspire to one day be such an old timer.
There will be more to come as my study of this ancient tool and the art of its use progresses, and I seem to have picked the perfect summer to start. Mrs. LFM and I live an easy drive away from the Ross Farm Museum Living Heritage Farm which is located near New Ross, Nova Scotia, and offers an immersive experience of life in this province circa 1817. I figured, who better to turn to for getting connected with scything expertise? I was neither wrong nor disappointed!
My e-mail to the Ross Farm general inquiry address was promptly answered by a very helpful Ross Farmite named Joan Lenihan who informed me that her facility will be hosting the Maritime Hand Mowing Championships on 27 August 2011 on which date the place will be overrun with scythe experts! Needless to say, we’ll be there to get as much of that on us as possible, and document it here at LFM for those of you who are interested but can’t make it on the day.
As an afterthought, the ever helpful Ms. Lenihan followed up with a link to a video from the Farm’s YouTube channel that shows scything by two previous competitors, one of whom is competition champion Perry Veinot, a man in his 90’s. I’m including that video here, and I hope you enjoy the south shore accents of these two gents as much as I did.
Randy,
Great video, and do I miss those accents.
They put me to shame scything, I was never that good as a kid.
Cheers,
Cyber
Let’s just say that I will NOT be competing against these guys this year.
Hi,
I enjoyed the post! I would use my father’s scythe when I was a young boy. Then, last summer, I had the opportunity to mow again with the scythe, while visiting a friend’s place. Excellent exercise! Whew! Let’s just say, I wouldn’t want to do it for a living…. 🙂
All the best,
Laurie
I played the video for Mrs. LFM who grew up in Bridgewater and speaks flawless English, but still needed me to interpret the lingo for her. I’m thinking a subtitled version for people who didn’t spend their larval years marinating in that accent might be a good idea!
omg, I can barely understand a word!!! 🙂
Troy, you grew up in these parts. Why do you need subtitles?
[…] The LFM scythe arrives and lies assembled on our kitchen floor where Milo eyes it dubiously. Fear not the blade for it has a guard on it, and everybody’s calm. We love this thing, and you can’t have just one! Its snath length is perfect for the hillside that is our “lawn”. […]
Randy,
This is wonderful! I actually can understand the accent. It is VERY different from anything I’ve ever heard, but it is strangely similar to mountain “dialect’ in North Carolina and Virginia. The trick for me to understanding them is, of course, to figure out their pronunciations, but more, the rhythm of their speech. It’s almost a subconscious process to do the translation at that point.
I was very impressed, also, to watch them mow, and to see how they maintained their tools. If I didn’t miss it, it sounds like they make their own hones from native stone. Is that right? Important when you realize that they spend so much time sharpening as they mow to keep it moving smoothly.
Thank you Arthur. You are obviously a man of considerable linguistic sensitivity.
You are correct; the stones they were talking about were harvested at Whetstone Lake which is located about a half hour drive from where Diana and I live. About 20 years ago I led my Scout Troop to that location for the same purpose, and each boy created his own stone for maintaining his field knives. It’s been on my to do list for a while to go back there again.
[…] who comes here knows that Mrs. LFM and I use a scythe to mow the part of our yard that we actually want to be able to see over. Since I taught her to use […]
[…] Championships, hosted annually at the Ross Farm Living History Museum, last June in my article Musings of an Apprentice Mower. At the time I stated that Mrs. LFM and I would be attending what was then the 8th annual iteration […]
[…] you follow us here, you’ll know my love for the scythe. You’ll also know I have an equal appreciation for pretty much any implement with a blade, […]