is one of my favorite farm tasks. For some reason to me it is relaxing to drive the tractor up and down the field and check out nature on a sunny day. It shouldn’t be relaxing though since it is noisy, you have to constantly check the tractor, the mower and the field for trouble, and you get jostled quite a bit.
Walker in tall grass
In case you do not think there is high drama with farm life, the other day when I was mowing there was all kinds of bird excitement. First the crows came, but the barn swallows kept attacking them. Then a bunch of red-winged blackbirds showed up and were pecking in the mowed grass (something I had not seen before). Then one of the crows picked up a rodent I had scared out of the tall grass. He brought it to the edge of the field and dropped it from being harassed by the swallows. Then immediately a red-tailed hawk flew over toward where the rodent was dropped, but the red-winged blackbirds chased him away. Then a bald eagle found another rodent and swooped in.
He landed on it and then ate it.
Rather quickly another bald eagle flew over, casting a large shadow over me. But the swallows chased him away. The first eagle stood there for a long time, presumably looking for other tidbits.
He stood there so long, Walker went over to check him out. They have surprisingly similar coloring.
The eagle then decided to hang out in a tree instead.
I have mixed feeling about bald eagles. They were nonexistent in my childhood in the Pacific Northwest but now I see them almost every day. They have killed my ducks and chickens. But they are amazing to look at.
So we keep mowing and watching the dramas unfold. Thanks to a long rainy spring the grass is taller than the tractor now.
We have two more fields to get done, and it is supposed to start raining tomorrow morning at 4 AM. I mowed from after the animal chores were done into the afternoon, and Tom is out there now while I type this for you. There is no way we will finish so what doesn’t get down will have to wait until the rain stops, as will the garden, weed-eating, etc.
Do you do anything with the grass or just let it lay there? Does it regrow well for you?
Since we have a lot of swamp grass we just let it lie and the grass grows well around it. But now that we are finally getting successful at eradicating the swampgrass were talking about getting haying equipment.
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What do you use ? I am trying desperately to not used chemicals……
For the swamp grass we rototill the field and replant it in the fall.