B4'
I-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July 30,1994
Onbei
a farm
-And o
hazar
Joyce B
One week before, there was no
thing there but a few scattered,
loose, boards and a broken
bale or two of alfalfa hay.
Now, standing atop the stackin
the old bank bam center straw
mow puts your head up near the
main barn beam. These fresh,
shiny bales, packed tightly within
the strawmow dividers, are the
winter bedding supply for the
weaned heifers and baby calves.
High up on the bales, in the sha
dowy, lofty reaches of the old
bam, has always been one of my
favorite places to pause for a
breath during bam chores. Espe
cially after scrambling to the top
up a stairstep of bales.
But, just filled, the mow has no
stairway, just sheer, shiny sides.
Only other way to the top is to
climb the straight-up ladders built
into the haymow walls. As old as
the bam itself, the ladders are
made of inch-plue-diameter
wooden rounds. The rough-edged,
shaping-tool strokes that formed
them decades ago have long been
smoothed by pairs of feet going to
the top.
At the top, one must swing one
self from die rungs, up and over
the large, squared bean that forms
the upper edge of the mow’s side
wall, then scramble onto the top of
the bale stack. Going down entails
putting that same procedure into
reverse swinging one foot out
over the beam and onto the top
rung, then working backwards to a
final drop to the bam floor, while
hanging on real tight.
Our youngest found a better
way.
When he announced that he and
a friend were coming to do some
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rappellilng on the farm, my stom
ach knotted up. Rappelling sort
of rock climbing in reverse.
Swinging out from the top of a
high point and letting oneself
down with ropes. A sport in which
you can gel hurt if not careful.
But, then, that’s true of just about
anything.
He had first tried rappelling in a
tall tree and wanted to progress to
a wall. Byu the time all personnel
and gear were assembled, the wall
which was outside was wet
from a gentle thunderstorm that
had swept down on the afternoon.
Whew! What a relief for this
Mom.
Who should know better. Next
thing I knew, the rappelling had
been relocated into the high
and dry of the old bam.
From the top of the just-filled
straw mow. At least the straw-lit
tered wooden floor of the bam
seemed a slightly safer landing
spot then the concrete at the foot
of the prior site of choice.
His friend Jen was persuaded to
be belted into the harness and
swung out over the side of the
mow, walking herself down the
side of the slrawmow. She made it
look relatively easy. This was too
good a chance to pass up.
“Can I try?"
They belted me into the nylon
harness, which fits over one’s
“fanny,” and fastens at the front of
the waist to the rappelling rope
withi thick, aluminum hardware. I
climbed the ladder to the top of the
strawmow and donned a pair of
thick gloves our son handed me.
Then he instructed how to put my
left hand high on the rope above
me, my right hand below on the
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rope as the “brake,” put all by
weight into the harness and swing
out into thin air.
In other words. Mom, “sit on
it.”
It worked. I swung out from the
beam, and with a couple of jumps
down along the sides of the bales,
descended to the floor.
Neat! And not very life-threat
ening from up in a strawmow.
On the other hand, the very idea
of swinging out from a mountain
side cliff, hundreds of feet above
rock-strewn landing spots cush
ioned only with boulders, sitting
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my weight in a nylon harness hung
onto a rope, with no brake but my
own hand, brings justs one
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Rappelling.
Think I’ll stick to getting my
“heights” kicks by scaling the
strawmow ladder.
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