This is the old fashioned way of putting up hay.
Do not know where or when this picture was taken, but probably in
Arkansas. Picture was in Hester Ricketts Flud's keepsakes and given
to me after her death.
The men are stacking the hay in the barn located unknown place
but probably in Newton County, Arkansas.

When I was 11 we lived on a cattle ranch at Ft. Bridger, Wyoming
and we used horses to do our haying.
We mowed the hay with a side-cycle mower drawn by a horse
Then we raked the hay with a horse-drawn rake into long rows.
Then Dad came along with a "scoop" made of wood,following the rows
of hay. He would scoop the hay up into piles.
We would then take pitchforks and fork the hay up onto the
horse-drawn wagon.
The horses would then pull the load of hay to the barn.
The barn had a protruding roof on the front.
The hay would be taken off the wagon in a roped bundle and swung up
into the barn's hayloft by means of a rope and tackle.
We also had a barn with a hole in the roof.
We put the wagonload of hay beside the barn and pitchforked the hay
into a large hole.
My brother and I would jump on the hay to make it slide down into
the barn and remember well sliding down a hay tunnel into the barn.
Was scared as we were not supposed to slide down into the hay, cause
we could have suffocated.
That's the way I remember it from my young age of 11....many moons
ago in the 1940s.
I mowed hay; drove the rake and helped pitch hay at 11 years of age.
Rode horses....lived on a beautiful ranch in Wyoming.
No electricity. Drew our water from a well
Washed clothes on a washboard
All kinds of birds and wildlife. Loved it there.
Used to walk down a road to the mailbox and wait for the mailman
who looked like Robert Taylor
One day while standing there, two deer came about ten feet from me;
I held very still so I could see these beautiful creatures.
Ahhhhh, to be living on that ranch again.
Even though we would have to wade through snow in the winter and put
stove soot under our eyes to keep the snow from blinding us
(we had no sunglasses back then)we loved it there.
My very favorite place of all to live.
And I have lived in many, many places in the Western United States.
Been there....did that

Evelyn Flood
E-mail me:
[email protected]