Old Time Hay Equipment

It sits in the corner of my shed, it’s been there for fifty years. My kids sometimes ask what it is. My son-in-law asked once about it. My grandkids don’t even ask because Grandpa has a shed full of mysterious “old stuff that he likes to talk about,” and they don’t want to get me started.

So what is it? As any old time farmer will know, it’s a harpoon hayfork, the kind that lifted loose hay from a hay wagon with a series of heavy ropes and pulleys so the hay could be distributed in the barn’s hay mow. This was before the days of hay balers, choppers and other fancy equipment used in haymaking these days.
I grew up using a harpoon fork just like this. Being the oldest of three sons, after our team of horses pulled a load of loose hay into the upper part of our barn, it was my job to set the hay fork. My dad always worked the hay mows, making sure the hay was stuffed into every corner. My younger twin brothers had the task of driving one of the horses that was hitched to the end of the hayfork rope. I rammed the harpoon hay fork into the loose hay.

After I set the fork, I yelled to my brothers, “ Okay.” The horse tightened the rope and a huge load of loose hay left the wagon for the upper reaches of our barn. If I had set the fork correctly.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: The work was hard, but haymaking provided many good memories.

UPCOMING EVENTS:
--Sept 8. 10 a.m. Mt. Horeb Library, Once a Professor.

--Sept 14, 7:00 p.m. The Local Store, Eau Claire. Simple Things and Old Farm Country Cookbook

--Sept. 21, Evening, Wisconsin Writers Association Meeting, Milwaukee. Keynote Speaker

--Sept.22. 9-2:00 p.m. All Writers Workshop, Waukesha

--September 28, 5:00 pm. Platteville Farm-Town Dinner Meeting. Speaker

--October 6, 10-2:00 pm, Dregni’s, Westby. Book Signing

--October 7, 1-4 pm, August Derleth Center, 300 Water Street, Sauk City, Guest Speaker.

--October 13, Wisconsin Book Festival, 3:00 pm. Wis Historical Society Museum on the Square.

--October 20, 6-8:00 pm. American Legion Post 306, 518 Water Street, Green Lake. Fund Raiser for Princeton Public Library. Phone 920-295-6777 for ticket information.


--October 21, 1:00 pm. Readers Realm Bookstore, Montello.


Purchase Jerry’s signed DVDs and books from the Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fundraiser for them):

Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.org
www.wildroselibrary.org
Phone: 920-622-3835

DVDs: His latest Public TV show, One-Room Country School is now available. It’s based on his book, One-Room Country Schools (also available). Emmy Winner, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps (based on The Quiet Season book.)
Jerry Apps a Farm Story (based on Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old Farm books.)
The Land with Jerry Apps, (based on the book Whispers and Shadows,)
Never Curse the Rain, (based on his book with the same title)
The library has several of Jerry’s signed books for sale including Jerry’s newest nonfiction books, Once a Professor, Every Farm Tells a Story, Living a County Year (reprints), One-Room Country Schools, Never Curse the Rain and Old Farm Country Cookbook, and his novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. Also Wisconsin Agriculture: A History, Roshara Journal (with photos by Steve Apps) and Telling Your Story—a guidebook for those who want to write their own stories.
Contact the library for prices and special package deals.