http://www.sfu.ca/~truax/wsp.html

http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/sound-and-vision/2013/07/five-european-villages.html

http://www.6villages.tpu.fi/

Using the scythe is however still a preferred method on steep sloping Alpine meadows.

For those of you who don’t know what a scythe is, you may know it from iconography as Father Time (Panofsky).

For rural humor, watch this youtube announcement of the Unesco supported Hay Making festival.

It is now hay cutting time in the valley and this weekend it is happening. Yesterday, the grass was cut and turned once to optimize the drying process. Today the grass, which is now hay, is turned once again and tomorrow we will shape it into rows for the making of bales.

Why now, you wonder, as did I. There is actually some TK (Traditional Knowledge) behind this. The grass is now (early June) at an optimum for certain nutrients and will be good for all the animals to eat the following winter. This hay is called FIENO. There will be a second cutting in August, called LIGOR. This hay is protein rich and is only good for animals that are milked. In other parts of the region at lower altitudes they sometimes have a third cutting, TERZOL.