Broken Scythe
July 18th, 2013 · 2 Comments · Posted in farming
This tool shouldn’t break, should it?
My pasture chores lately consist of coming behind the sheep with my scythe and mowing what they have not eaten. In tall grass and weeds, the sheep find plenty to eat close to the ground. They also strip the succulent leaves off long stems. After a few days, what’s left are scattered clumps of stems and weeds they won’t eat. These I cut to the ground where they eventually will decompose and feed the soil.
I was in the middle of mowing one such empty paddock when my trusty scythe suddenly failed. Near the heal of the blade where it attaches to the long handle–the “snath”–the metal had simply snapped in two. I could only stare in disbelief. How could it break? It’s forged from iron and steel. As far as I know, this is a tool that should last a lifetime.
After I had recovered from my shock, I began to think of all the abuse my scythe had taken, cutting through fields and fence lines strewn with rocks and hidden logs. Yes, I had hit some of them. Some of my swings ended in the dirt. Was I somehow to blame for my scythe’s demise?
I contacted the company in Maine–Scythe Supply–and they immediately offered to replace the blade under their warranty. They requested photos and a description of what I was doing when the blade broke.
Mowing with my scythe
I was reassured, but faced a stark truth: Without my scythe, very little of the important work around this farm was going to get done. I rely on this tool to cut a path for the electric netting that defines the paddocks for my sheep. Cutting grass and weeds for the sheep as well as around around our electrified perimeter fence–battling milkweed in the upper pasture–tops my work agenda every morning. Suddenly I was at a standstill. The failure of this one tool brought home more forcefully than ever a stark truth about our farming venture: it’s just me out here trying to tame all this foliage.
Well, that certainly puts things in clear focus. We are not so much farmers as solar energy managers. Our ruminant livestock live in symbiosis with plants whose role in life consists of one thing: turning solar energy into food. The animals eat the grass and turn that same solar energy into meat.
I’m told a new blade is in the mail. It can’t get here too soon.
Q: What does the Luddite do when he breaks his scythe?
A: Fires up his solar-powered weed-wacker.
Great image, Bob. I’d love to see a solar-powered weed whacker in action