Historic Hood River
Hay Wagon
5-26-2016
Notes
Back when most transportation and construction was horse-powered, producing enough hay to keep all those horses well-fed must have been a full time chore. Brothers Dane and Harry Kemp are loading up a hay wagon. Dane is on the left, and Harry on the right. They are both buried in the Pine Grove cemetery, so perhaps Charlott knows where they farmed.
Charlott
I am not certain where they farmed, but think it was closer to Odell than Pine Grove. I know the Odd Fellows Hall in Odell is the Kemp Post. I know their father was an Englishman and older when he came to Hood River.
I do associate with loads of hay prior to baling. I recall as a child being with my Grandpa and uncle on the very steep land that the hay field was on above the ditch in Pine Grove. He used his little cat tractor with the cleats on it for better grip on that steep hillside. Never went up and down, as I recall, but back and forth with the contour of the hill.
I loved to watch how they took the hay into the huge hay mow in his barn. The hay fork came out the front and grabbed as much hay as it could. At the back of the barn the little tractor then pulled the hay fork up and through the big door, the hay was dropped and hay hook brought out when the little tractor backed up to grasp another load. Oh yes, "NO you don’t go up in that hay mow and ride that hay fork. It is VERY dangerous." You want to make a bet????? That hay hook was always tied up high against the studs. We were mountain climbing children…….studs didn’t mean a thing to us…….
Kenn
My era, we never saw a tractor. I was too small to fork hay up onto the wagons so my job was to drive the horses that hoisted the hay up into hay mow.
Marilyn
My experience with hay was forking hay bales onto the wagon and then stacking by hand in the dutch barn. Hard work. Sure was glad I didn’t have to do it on a regular basis.
L.E.
Most of my experience with haying was raking into wind rows and driving the truck between the baled wind rows while hay crew threw the bales up on the truck. Sometimes getting yelled at for going too fast.
I did spend time in the back country of Canada where they still used horses for haying. Forked the hay into shocks, threw it up onto a wagon, then used a derrick to pull the load into a stack.
I am glad I had that opportunity.
Methods of farming is something that changed rapidly. I once told my dad I wouldn’t have a clue how to harness a horse. He said he could do it blind folded.
In one generation it had changed that much. At the end of my dad’s haying career, he was driving a self propelled loader that he drove and picked up the bales. Then he drove it to the barn dropped the entire stack of bales.
Kenn
Most hay was hoisted up into the hay mow from outside one end of the barn. An exception can still be seen at the historic Phillip Foster Farm (Eagle Creek Oregon on the Oregon Trail/Barlow Road) where it was hoisted from the wagons inside the barn. Noticeable is the very high door on one side of the barn to admit loaded wagons, a normal door on the exit side.