Sharpen up for cuttin' contest!

BY SARA KEDDY

Transcontinental Media

NovaNewsNow.com

Dueling grass-eaters, stubble and style, threshing and flails. Old-fashioned it may be, but hand mowing with scythe and sickle is a fine art.

Ross Farm hosts the fourth Maritime Hand Mowing Championships Aug. 25 and organizer Dirk van Loon of Liverpool is expecting a full day. “I think we’ve got about 15 registered competitors now, and we’ll get another flurry as it gets closer.”

On the list already are “three of the older fellows,” van Loon says, pegging them in their 80s, and one even at age 93. “Most of the ones that really know their stuff are older, but there are some younger folks. I don’t know where they pick it up.”

Ross Farm will be a busy spot, already hosting the community’s weekly farmers’ market and the museum’s own weekend showcase of hay-making with horses and oxen.

Watch and learn sessions

From 10 a.m. on into the afternoon, there will be a chance to learn and watch methods for the proper use, adjustment and sharpening of scythes, using both whetstones and peen hammers.

At noon, the hand mowing contest gets underway. Defending champ Hank Bosveld of Kings County has yet to be heard from, van Loon says, but several past champions and experts in the field are expected. “We’re going to have three divisions this year - youth (12 and under), open and veteran (75-plus) - although anyone is welcome to sign up in any or all categories and see what they can do.”

Competitors are timed and judged on the width of swath, length of stubble and style. They may use either the North American of Austrian-style scythes.

Ross Farm’s own Darren Russell has “thrown down the gauntlet,” claiming he can beat any scythe-wielder with his gas-powered weed-whacker. Two years ago overall champion hand mower Fairlight Vido, 15 and mowing barefoot, won out in a similar challenge. While times were similar, the scythe was judged to have done a better job.

In addition to the weed-whacker/scythe challenge, there will be a team grain harvesting contest, another to see who can get the most hay on a fork, plus demonstrations of hay stacking and loading and of grain threshing using old-fashioned flails.

Anyone wishing to compete in the hand mowing championships is asked to preferably call van Loon before Aug. 25 at 354-5411 so he can figure out competition timing. Spectators and museum visitors are encouraged.