Hand mowers alert!
Annual scythe contest August 22

There's a beautiful scythe from Lee Valley Tools standing in the corner of Rural Delivery's library and board room that can hardly wait for Aug. 22, date of the sixth annual Maritime Hand Mowing Championships to be held once again at the Ross Farm Working Heritage Museum in New Ross, N.S.
That scythe, one of dozens of prizes, is soon to be joined by a large gift basket from Halifax Seed Co., and a hand-crafted scythe from hand-mowing guru Peter Vido, a "children-suited version of the scythe because," writes Vido, "such cannot be obtained from any other scythe source in NA."
Other wonderful prizes have been requested and promised, but then prizes are only dessert for an outstanding six- or eight-course banquet of activities unfolding that Saturday in New Ross. That's the weekend Ross Farm rolls out all the old tools hauled by horses and by head-yoked oxen for making hay on a 19th century farm.
Add the weekly farm market in the Ross Farm parking lot on Saturday, and the traditional New Ross country fair just up the road, (or down, depending on whether visitors are coming from the Annapolis Valley or the Halifax and the South Shore), and you can imagine the pile of people that will be descending on the village that weekend.
But wait! There's more! It's a K-Tel moment!
These past five years of the hand mowing championships ­ only contest like it in Canada for all we know ­ an average of about 24 mowers have signed up. All well and good. This year we want to beat that number by a considerable margin. Our goal is 35 mowers. Blame Vido and author Bill McKibben ("The End of Nature") for the target that, times 10, equals 350, a significant number to activists calling for climate change action. It's the number of parts-per-million C02 in the atmosphere above which scientists say we shouldn't be going.

350 ACTIONS
This fall, Oct. 24 to be exact, has been chosen as an "International Day of (climate-change) Action." In response, thousands of 350 actions are being planned around the world. Gearing up, the Vidos already have mowed out a mammoth "350" and smiling face in a field of what looks at a distance like dandelions. Vido invites anyone listening to join in with scythe-related activities because the scythe, after all, is human-powered. No belching engines or oxen or flatulating equines needed to drive this hay-making tool!
And so, the target of 35 mowers registered for the Maritime Hand Mowing Championships.
Vido wonders if anyone can gather 350 mowers come fall. He figures if nothing else they'd make it into the "Guinness Book of Records." I figure they could carve out a "350" somewhere on the South Shore of Nova Scotia clearly visible to thousands of passengers aboard jet liners spewing foul exhaust as they pass o'er-head traveling to and from Europe.
At Ross Farm there will be other activities as in past years. The hay forking competition is great because all ages get in on the action. Although we have not yet talked with him about it, we are hoping that John Herygers will once again help with demonstrations of peening, harvesting grain with a sickle, bundling, and standing it in shooks. Piling hay on a tripod for drying in the field has been another popular demonstration that we might turn into a competition of sorts; see how much hay can be piled up by teams of three.
There will be food on site, and a horse and wagon shuttle bringing visitors from the museum parking lot.
Keep an eye out for posters and maybe some ads. Also we will keep our website at www.AtlanticFarmer.com updated with any new developments.

DON'T BE BASHFUL
If we're to sign up 35 mowers, there's no room for being bashful. Come one and all. We will have a couple of loaner scythes for anyone wishing to try their hand in the competition that involves mowing a swath 25 feet long.
Anyone wishing to sign up should email us at dvledit@eastlink.ca; send a note to Hand Mowing, care of Rural Delivery, Box 1509, Liverpool, NS B0T 1K0, or phone 902-354-5411. As always, everyone's a winner, everyone gets a prize.
For more information about the 350 International Day of Climate Change Action follow the Climate Change link at www.AtlanticFarmer.com. DvL

Veinot wins 2008 scything contest
Record 23 contestants enter 5th Annual
Maritime Handmowing Championships

NEW ROSS, NS: Aug. 24, 2008 -- Perrry Veinot from Northwest, Lunenburg Co., N.S., won over a field of 23 contestants from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in the 5th Annual Maritime Handmowing Championships held Saturday. August 23, at the Ross Farm Heritage Museum in New Ross, NS.
The Championships were part of the Museum's weekend of demonstrations, events - including the New Ross Farmers' Market - and contests that attracted more than 600 visitors. The focus was on making hay as it was done in the past -- and still is on many small farms across North America. In another contest offered for the second year in a row, the Farm's own Carmen Legge beat out dozens of contenders in the open hay-on-a-fork competition by hefting 61 pounds of hay on a pitch fork, 35.6 percent of tare weight.
It was Veinot's second consecutive win in the annual handmowing contest that is sponsored by Rural Delivery magazine in partnership with the Museum and with support from dozens of businesses and individual crafts men and women who provide prizes for all contestants.
Covering the 25-foot course in under one minute, with a swath width of five feet, nine inches and leaving a stubble length averaging six inches gave Veinot a 50-point winning score. Coming second (48 points) was another Lunenburg County resident, Thierry Msika, while Peter Redden from outside of Lawrencetown in the Annapolis Valley, a veteran contestant having competed every year since the beginning, came in third.
There were plenty of younger mowers including Kim Geser who is 14. At the opposite end of the age spectrum came Dave Miller, 97, from Fall River, N.S., competing for the fourth year in a row.

Handmowing results (top five)

1 Perry Vienot
2 Thierry Msika
3 Peter Redden
4 Ron Gass
5 Carmen Legge

Hay forking results (top five placings)

Open

1 Carmen Legge 61 pounds 35.6%
2 Walter Larder 56 pounds 25.9%
3 Martin Stiles 60 pounds 25.0%
4 Daren 23 pounds 23.2%
5 John Herygers 31 pounds 22.7%

Under 12

1 Rebecca Cunningham 33 pounds 31.0%
2 William Austin 13 pounds 26.3%
3 Megan Redden 14 pounds 24.6%
4 Brandon Cunningham 10 pounds 21.7%
Tie for fifth
5 Peter Van Schie 17 pounds 20.7%
5 Georgia Van Schie 17 pounds 20.7%



Rural Delivery magazine's Maritime Hand Mowing Championships were once again held at the Ross Farm Museum, New Ross, N.S. on August 23, 2008 - from noon to late afternoon. Sponsored by Rural Delivery, Lee Valley Tools, Co-op Atlantic and others. For details contact Rural Delivery at 902-354-5411, or email dvledit@eastlink.ca.


Sponsors welcomed

This past year, Lee Valley Tools once again signed on as a sponsor for the Maritime Hand Mowing Championships, providing an Austrian-style snath, a scythe blade, and sharpening stone with scabbard as prizes for participants in the Fifth Annual contest.
In past years many other companies and manufacturers have kicked in with prizes which are won by all who take part. We welcome sponsorship in this way. Prizes may be manufactured goods or home-made or crafted items. In return for helping out, the names of sponsors are listed at the event and on a prominent advertisement in Rural Delivery (alongside our story and photo gallery from the Championships). To take part, contact us at dvledit@eastlink.ca, or phone 902-354-5411.


Ross Farm Museum hosts Maritime Hand-Mowing championships