The Haystack

There is also a whole Haystack component to Edwardian Farm, which would pair nicely with -- and fit chronologically between -- haymaking in Laura Ingalls Wilder's books and the title Haystack by Bonnie and Arthur Geisert.

Straw is what's left over when you separate the wheat / barley / oat heads from the stems. Straw is not food. Hay is food. It's grasses, legumes, or cereals which have been simply cut down and left whole to be fully nutritious when it is given to animals. Our rabbit gets hay as part of her daily diet.

When we were learning about building a straw bale house, our special guest explained that you can't build a house with hay bales, because you will have way more problems with animals trying to get into your walls to eat them!

Since hay is the food for your animals all winter long, it is of vital importance to store it in the correct fashion. In the documentary series Edwardian Farm, they get started building a hayrick straight away in September, in episode 1 (22:22 - 37:00), and then are terrified when they think it has all been ruined and won't feed their livestock when it's needed in an unusually harsh winter. January is episode 5 (2:00 - 4:34). February is episode 6 (7:11 - 15:44). April is episode 8 (12:10 - 13:55).

To be honest, I didn't really like Edwardian Farm when I first watched it. It felt so close timewise to Victorian Farm, which I had watched immediately beforehand and loved, that I couldn't really see the differences between them. I couldn't figure out why they bothered to make it. But now, seeing the Edwardian Era (1901 - 1914) in the context of the time period between the Industrial Revolution (1760 – 1840) and modern technology, I think it's really interesting! I think U.S. History is so busy with the American Revolution and the War of 1812, and then it is straight on to the Civil War, that the Industrial Revolution doesn't get as much time as it should. Maybe

Mr. Lincoln's High-Tech War:
How the North Used the Telegraph, Railroads, Surveillance Balloons, Ironclads, High-Powered Weapons, and More to Win the Civil War
by Thomas Allen and Roger Allen

I look forward to finding ways to make the Industrial Revolution interesting! I did learn a painting for it (using indigo) in my Waldorf teacher training.

As Zac and I work our way through the series by Laura Ingalls Wilder, I'll come back and add notes for myself as to the book titles and chapters where all the haymaking takes place. They haven't gotten out to the prairie yet!

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