I am conflicted about the scythe. I see it as the opposite of the weed-whacker, that foul, noisy machine that wrecks my body, emits noxious gas, and makes me feel like a soldier. With a handtool I feel like just one part of the ecosystem. Instead of the capital being in a machine, I gain human capital by learning a technique. I exercise a pit. The handtool requires less infrastructure, just a whetstone, while the machine requires gas, oil, and a mechanic. The scythe may be less efficient, but the equation looks different when you consider how long one spends fixing the weed-whacker. Scything, I want to someday clear land as efficiently as a weedwhacker, but come out calmer at the end of the task than I would with the machine.
This "someday" musing has been a big part of WWOOFing. Getting exposed to many tools, techniques, and farms is a good way of seeing what works and what doesn't. And it gets me thinking about whether I'd want to be a full-time farmer someday. (Is a piece of good land within walking or biking distance of climbing too much to ask?)
So, would I use a scythe on my own field? When I'm WWOOFing, opting for the scythe over the weed-whacker is an obvious choice because I'm doing a set number of hours of work. But if I'm trying to clear land for myself, would I just get a weed-whacker? I've used well-designed and powerful ones, back-wrecking slow ones, and one that was so chintzy it was almost disposable. The most solid scythe is less expensive than the crappiest weed-whacker. Could I rely on the rhythm and "flow" that's possible (but far from inherent) in the handtool? Or is it best just to beast it out with a weed-wacher? I feel so alienated by the machine.
There are other considerations, of course, like how much land I'm clearing and how often I have to do it. And the scythe is plenty hard on my body, too. The steep land at Paola's farm is killer on my back, which ached all morning. When I finally rested it at siesta it seized up. Painful! Doesn't seem sustainable. Scything, like so many things that give me "flow," can either be beautifully focussed, or injurious.
Plus there's the question of whether electing to use handtools is a bit precious, a bit for the hoity-toity farmer. Or it could be a way of keeping overhead low and not going into debt. If it's part of a mindfully-run system, I wonder if it could work, leaving everyone calmer and happier that using a machine.
ROMANCING THE SCYTHE
ReplyDeleteThe rich man opts for the scythe (leisure, romance, creativity, and let's not forget AUTHENTICITY).
But let's also not forget the authenticity of the middle-class farmer riding his John Deere, or the Mexican migrant using his bare hands.
In other words, class and class-context mean a lot. If you were WWOOFING in Kansas might you prefer the fast-and-loose farming machined? And the bumpy 4x4 sunset rides through cornfields, beers in hands? In Italy, though, it's the hot sun, the hills, and the scythe.