The Art of the Romanian Haystack
WOW!  Follow the link of the OP and see a lot of <i>colorful</i> Romanian <i>culture</i>!<p>So, they make haystacks to feed the livestock in the winter.  Yup, that is a near universal need for any farming with animals, that is, a near universal foundation of the economy of the world.<p>Sooo, also in the US, we have to harvest and store hay for the winter.  So, now I remember:  As a child, late one summer our family took a vacation and visited the area where Dad grew up, in the small town of West Valley, NY, a little south of Buffalo, NY.  Dad&#x27;s family didn&#x27;t farm:  His father owned the West Valley general store, and his step father owned the West Valley feed and grain mill.  But one of Dad&#x27;s childhood friends ran a dairy farm, and I got to visit, right, just as they were &quot;making hay while the sun shined&quot;.<p>So, I rode in the wagon back to the barn:  Now the situation is different from Romania and a lot more from Europe can see with a simple Google search.  The barn was, yes, for the animals.  But the barn had a <i>second floor</i>, the <i>hay loft</i> -- right, another solution to the same problem as the Romanian haystacks.<p>The hayloft was a large flat area, a whole second floor.  At one end of the barn, there was an opening in the side wall.  And there was a pulley centered in the opening, maybe 8&#x27; above the floor of the hayloft, and maybe 4&#x27; outside of the end wall of the barn.<p>Now want to move the hay to the hayloft, a way to store the hay for the winter and an alternative to the Romanian haystacks.  So, grab maybe 200 pounds of the hay with some curved steel fingers like a hand grabbing a lot of spinach, run a rope from the top of the fingers to the pulley and from the pulley to a heavy horse, have the horse walk slowly and pull on the rope, and, thus, move the hay up to the opening on the side of the barn.  Then pull the hay into the hayloft of the barn.  For more, there can be a <i>trolley</i> system that will move the hay well into the barn and let it fall onto the floor of the hayloft.<p>So, right, &quot;make hay while the sun shines&quot; so that avoid the hay being wet and rotting -- same problem the Romanian haystacks solved.<p>Another step in handling hay can be to make <i>hay bails</i>.  Some hay bails are cylinders maybe 6&#x27; in diameter and 5&#x27; high.  Maybe a more common hay bail is rectangular -- there is a really good video of making such hay bails in<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=t2wviNS48kc" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=t2wviNS48kc</a><p>At one point the video shows that the hay bails are held together with wire.  That would be the universal repair material, along with chewing gum, called <i>bailing wire</i>.<p>Now I more fully understand what I saw in that West Valley vacation when I was a child!<p>To continue, following the URL of the OP here, can see a lot of Romanian farm houses.  They don&#x27;t look like they have Internet, TV, telephone, or electric power.<p>Not so long ago in the US:  When my future wife invited me to her home, they had a working farm.  In one respect, they were <i>modern</i> in that both parents had college educations.  But they had no cable TV, and their telephone was only on a <i>party line</i>.  The area had only recently gotten electric power.  Since then that area has become <i>fully modern</i>.<p>It does appear that in technology (A) in some ways within a few decades US farming areas were only a few decades ahead of Romanian farming areas but (B) in the last few decades the US farming areas have moved ahead much faster than the Romanian ones.<p>Then, it is not clear that the US farming area people are happier than the Romanian ones!