Haymaking as a part of Vepsian life

Revival of crafts

Vladimir Etoev shares the peculiarities of the haymaking season among the Ozyorsk Veps.

Almost every Vepsian family in the village was connected with haymaking, as almost everyone kept livestock. Cows were the main breadwinners - a large family could not survive without them. Therefore, all members of the family took part in agricultural work, especially in haymaking. In my time I had to put more than a dozen haystacks, and I want to share with you the peculiarities of haymaking among the average Veps. Of course, the technology of manual haymaking is the same for everyone, but there are still differences in terminology, climatic conditions, and tool design.

It's haymaking time

Haymaking itself usually started after the first of July and was connected with a religious holiday - they never started before Tikhvinskaya! Apparently, it was during this period that grass gained strength and vitamins. The places where the grass was mowed had a common name - reaping fields - areas where one could mow at least a load of hay and put a stack.

The hayfields must have been ancestral and had the following names in the Vasiliev family: Sondalsu, Jakovnem‘, Ruuhk, Ol'šankar, Sar’, Haračoja, Sosar' zapol'k, Kangas. They were located a kilometre or three kilometres from the village. In my time they were distributed by the state farm by lot or by the chairman. But sometimes they would put a lock on the fields - someone would come and make one or two ploughings, thus believing that he had the right to that field.

The owner of the field also mowed two slashes and then the conflict was solved by the manager or the brigadier. The point is that the fields had to be taken care of: clearing them of bushes, sowing grass, fertilising, burning and so on. The tools for manual haymaking were typical for all: scythe, rake, pitchfork, stretcher, axe, chipping hammer with headstock, bar for scythe sharpening.

Before mowing, the scythe was beaten. Usually it was done in front of a stack of firewood, sitting on a log. In the field, the scythe was beaten using improvised means.

 

Scythes and the wisdom of mowing

The scythe was used for mowing. Unlike the Russian scythe, which had only one handle, the Veps scythe has two handles and is stationary. That is, each member of the family had to make a scythe individually according to their height. The scythe itself was made of Christmas tree with a knot, which was the upper handle.

It was then dried, worked, and a scythe knife was slipped onto it.

Mowing was mostly done in the morning with a sharpened and beaten scythe. The slashes were broken immediately with the scythe - with the back side of the scythe. Then the hay was dried. In good weather with a breeze the hay was turned two or three times and then put into bunches. The next day, when the dew was gone, the bunches were spread, i.e. the hay was spread in bundles over the mown light place in order to dry it additionally and put it in a stack. The landlord prepared in advance the understory, supports and stozhar for the stack. That's when the axe was needed.

Rickers were made of aspen or birch due to the lack of resin. Then the ricker was pounded into the ground in such a way that it would not sway. For this purpose, it was fastened in a circle with several stakes with slings, fixing them to the ricker with willow rods. A planking consisting of logs and poles, on which branches with leaves were laid, was built under the base of the haystack. On such a base hay does not get wet from the ground neither in autumn slush, nor in spring when snow melts. In addition, the stack is blown from below and the hay is ventilated. This makes it easier to pick up the stack for transport.

Stack tagging is an art!

On the second day, close to lunchtime after drying, the hay is raked on both sides into windrows and later collected into bales. Then the bales are carried on a stretcher to the stack place in a circle and start throwing the stacks. Throwing haystacks has always been a man's job, but sometimes women do it. They threw hay with three-horned pitchforks. Usually, there were three forks in a household: one with a short stem, the second with a medium stem, and the third with a long stem.

First, the base is laid, on which many things depend, such as the size of the stack, its stability and the safety of the hay. The quality of the base of the haystack also determines its appearance, and the owner was judged by it. Mastery was evident.

When it was time to trample the haystack, the trampler climbed on the base and started to knead the hay and fill the middle, winding the hay around the ricker. A short-handled pitchfork was used. After levelling the site, the pitchforks were changed to medium ones and the stack continued to grow.

The principle of hay stacking was as follows. The harvester, walking along the sun from heap to heap, took a bunch of hay with three-horned forks and put the hay in the stack - two forks (a bunch of hay put on the forks) side by side, one after the other, and one fork on top of them, in the middle, closer to the ricker. The middle fork clamped the outer ones as if to hold and fix the hay in the stack. The hay was fed to the edge of the stack or under the feet of the trampler to the stack itself, so that there was no hole there. Not everyone could stand on the stack and there was a need for skill. The trampler could see everything from above and supervised the thrower. Usually there was a woman standing on the stack. She showed with a rake where to put the next windrower, where to put more hay.

When most of the hay had been swept away, the haystack was combed. The rake man took a rake in his hands and collected pieces of loose, uncompressed hay from the sides of the haystack. At the same time, the trampler held the hay with the rake from above, not allowing to tear out of the sides of the haystack extra. After sweeping away about half of the stack and putting aside the pitchfork, the troweller began to comb the stack from below with the rake. When the haystack was finished, it would take the necessary shape.

When they finished throwing the haystack, standing there was more and more terrible - there was less and less ricker left, and still it was necessary not only to hold on to it, but also to work with rakes, moving from place to place in a circle. Then supports were placed. The stomper, holding on to the ricker, helped the broomer to put the supports, standing opposite to the support. When there was only a little hay left, they began to make the haystack - to gradually narrow it upwards and changed the pitchfork for another one with a long handle. There was work for everyone around the stack: someone prepared twisted forks from birch branches; someone raked up the tracks - raked up the hay left from the haystacks.

The last hay-cells, so that they would not slip out of the forks, were stacked in an envelope: they picked up the hay from the edges to the middle and clamped it with a foot. Such an envelope was thrown last on the stack and, having slightly shaken it, the trampler wrapped the hay around the stack. That's it, the stack was swept! Twisted birch forks were fed upwards on forks, which were spread out on the four sides of the stack so that the wind would not blow the hay around. In addition, the thrower, taking a stretcher, swept the stack from all sides, tamping the hay in the stack. The tapper was lowered down from the stack on a stretcher placed against the stack.

 Haymaking in the rain

The hayfields were different. Sometimes the weather prevented the hay from drying due to continuous rain. Then the following technology was used. The cut hay was taken from the mowing areas into bundles on charpaks - stakes with limbs 1.5-2 metres long.

If the weather permitted, the hay was dried. But there were times when wet hay had to be stacked. Then it was sprinkled with salt. In general, three or four packs of coarse salt were used for one stack.

It was poured in a circle - for each row of the sweeper's rounds. The stack was controlled so that it did not ‘catch fire’ or scorch. At sunrise, in the morning, it was clearly visible if steam (smoke) appeared. In good weather, the stack was then spread and the hay was dried.

Of course, it is difficult to convey the whole technology of haymaking by hand. I have tried to touch upon only the basic methods and some differences of the haymaking season of the Ozyorsk Veps. My task is to pass on and preserve the traditions that the Veps lived by the Vasiliev family from the village of Martemyanovskaya.

Many thanks for memories and clarifications to my wife Tatyana Ivanovna Etoeva (Vasilieva) and all relatives.

Vladimir Etoev
  • haymaking – heinantego
  • haystack – panda kego
  • to lock – panda zamk
  • scythe – vitakeh
  • rake – harav
  • pitchfork – hang
  • hay stretcher – sabilahad
  • axe – kirvez
  • hammer – malat
  • bar – seraine
  • lithuanian braid – litouk
  • sharpen with a bar – hijoda
  • scythe chop – tagoda
  • dry out – kuivata
  • turn over – käta
  • heap – sat
  • scatter – levitada
  • armful, the pitch of hay on the prong – korm
  • hay straddle – sabransija, buttress – tugi
  • ricker – sova
  • fork buttresses – hangod
  • flooring – kegonsija
  • arbor – lainhut
  • trampler – Kegopalijnemez
  • hay thrower – kegonpanii
  • tramplers – Kegonpämez’
  • tied rods – kahač
  • raking up the tracks - ota satujälged
  • limb stakes (sharpaki) - hörčud

Vladimir Etoev,
Chairman of the public organisation ‘Veps Community’

en_GB
Scroll to Top
Scroll to Top