Do You Remember: Bringing the harvest home

Early morn

Threshing machine

Baleing machine

Both arrive

Our for the day

Reaper has gone

To other farms

Share expensive equipment

Cut the costs

All pay to the pool

 

Four tractors

For the day

One to drive the thresher

One for the baler

Two to cart the corn

Three men

Two with pitchforks

On the cart

First layers load by hand 

Pitchforks unit to high to reach

Trailer full Off it goes

Man still on top

Next trailer with its loader

Continues to collect

The dry sheaves of corn

 

At the farm trailer stops by the machine

Sheaves  thrown to the deck

Cut the string

Throw into the open mouth

Seed falls into the awaiting bag

Chaff spews onto the ground

Fed by pitchfork into the balers

Awaiting jaws

Squeezed and pushed

To a cubic shape

Two strings to tie

Lifted out a rick to build

Later moved into the barn

 

Even time last bale is out

Ladies come with food and drink

No time for musical frolic

Bed and rest more work

Tomorrow

Reviews

[emmajoy]

' .. Chaff spews onto the ground ~ Fed by pitchfork into the balers ~ Awaiting jaws ~ Squeezed and pushed ~ To a cubic shape ~ Two strings to tie ~ Lifted out .. .. .. '

Wonderful and, as i've read/seen on screen or in press, a right girt description of how it was time after year after need. There's good basic down to earth language in your poem, charmingly accurate/ Hard work done at a good pace, each man or group having a task to carry out till the vital work's done. I love tales or/and poems of times like that. Sure. great modern machinery has taken over hours of sweating, aching labour, but even though a hundred times easier - will and can never create a picture in the mind's eye. Thank you for such a wonderful post.

[Wild Rose]

Thank you emma for you review - Uncles farm - I was about 12 YO I could lift the sheave to help build the stooks (get my arms scratched) We (kids) were lifted on to the last (low loaded) trailer to ride home 9The man who did the loading stayed with us for safety)
The modern machines cut and thresh toe corn leaving only the chaff and stalks to turn and bale - Next field - They are huge

[emmajoy]

Loved this piece, the past has much to answer for in so many ways,

[wordman]

the worst job as a kid i ever had was loading hay all day
loved the write

[Wild Rose]

I got a holiday job Stacking bales (10 acre field) Five high; six to the base - to be picked up by a fork with sides made to squeeze them in to stack on a trailer - one man operation to load the trailer

[wordman]

we had to hand pick them up and stack

[Wild Rose]

I just built the stacks

[wordman]

well it`s all hard work

[Wild Rose]

I just said to myself it was a training exercise and I got paid to do it - saved a night in the gym

[wordman]

not bad ,and you learned from it