A relic of the past

Sometimes a trip to the woods reveals something not often seen. This is one of those somethings. It's an old hay mower from days long past.

I remember as a child back in the early 1960s climbing up on such an iron seat and imagining I was mowing hay. Little did I know that I would never hold the reins to steer the mules that might pull it.

Long rotted away is the wooden draw tongue that was longer than the mules that would have been harnessed one on either side of the tongue. Because those old time mowers were made of heavy iron, they take decades to rust away even while sitting out in the weather.