…and the cattail is ready.
Good things come in threes.
With visions of typha angustifolia and typha latifolia dancing in our heads, we fueled up and headed to the marsh for a few weeks of cattail harvesting for our thatched roofs.
A few tentative steps through the muck…
This is what we call in the vernacular, suck mud.
…and we’re in like Flynn.
It’s pretty simple, actually. With sharp sickles, we cut paths into the marsh, laying down the material in an orderly fashion. Later on, it’ll be easier to bundle. Grab high, cut low, shake out the dead stuff, lay it down.
Cutting by hand makes it easier to lay the cattail down just so.
After bundling, carrying follows. It’s the home stretch.
Michael getting bundles in before the tide.
Maybe carrying thatch looked like this in 1627:
Sometimes our younger guests think we literally use cat tails when we thatch.
And resting, like this:
Tom nearing REM (brandt) stage sleep. Didn't Bruegel paint this?
Disapprove if you must, Goodman, but it was a LONG day of cutting…
Looks like I'll be carrying him out too...
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Plimoth Plantation has two great new blogs:
So Dramatic a Blog chronicles the research and preparations for the performance and filming of the museum’s interactive theater drama, So Dreadful a Judgement, which takes places just days before the start of the King Philip’s War in 1675. This is a powerful play about a pivotal moment in history.
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What’s it like to be a 21st-century interpreter at a non-profit museum fleshing out the life and times of a long dead 17th-century character? They Knew They Were Pilgrims is your VIP ticket to the behind-the-scenes workings of Plimoth Plantation’s pilgrim staff. They are as diverse, creative, and funny a group of people as you will ever meet.
Tags: 17th century house, pilgrim house, Plimoth Plantation, thatch
Thanks for the plug! (And don’t get stuck in the marsh.)
That looks just like cutting and bundling corn (only more wet). One day the bundles seemed unusually heavy, finally realized that my terrier pup was doing his best to keep them in the field. There is a nice rythm and satisfaction to that kind of work, isn’t there?
Those terriers! Maybe there was rodentia in your corn! There’s def. some rhythm using our sickles in the marsh, John, but our cutting is less systematic than scythe-mowing hay. We cut alleys and rooms of cattail, as opposed to larger cleared swaths, so that makes for a lot of turns and angles and a bit less rhythm. It’s very much like a maze out there, and occasionally we’ve turned down the wrong path on our way back to shore…
The cattail is less wet than it appears. There’s also a lot of spent material mixed in, which we shake out. It seems the marsh was ready to harvest a little earlier this year-we could have easily started in mid-July.
Do you cut and bundle your corn by hand? As always, it’s good to hear from you.
I’ve been doing lots of research on reaping grain, hay, etc. I have a really good article about hay cutting by my friend Allen Yale if you’re interested.
Absolutely, Rick. Send along a link if you would and thanks!