Veinot wins, Redden third in scything contest

By Lawrence Powell

Spectator

NovaNewsNow.com

While Perry Veinot of Lunenburg County took first place again, Lawrencetown’s Peter Redden wasn’t far behind with a third place finish at the 5th annual Maritime Handmowing Championships held August 23 at New Ross Farm Heritage Museum in New Ross.

Veinot won over a field of 23 contestants from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

The championships were part of the Museum's weekend of demonstrations, events - including the New Ross Farmers' Market - and contests that attracted more than 600 visitors. The focus was on making hay as it was done in the past -- and still is on many small farms across North America.

In another contest offered for the second year in a row, the farm's own Carmen Legge beat out dozens of contenders in the open hay-on-a-fork competition by hefting 61 pounds of hay on a pitch fork, 35.6 percent of tare weight.

It was Veinot's second consecutive win in the annual handmowing contest that is sponsored by Rural Delivery magazine in partnership with the museum and with support from dozens of businesses and individual crafts men and women who provide prizes for all contestants.

Covering the 25-foot course in under one minute, with a swath width of five feet, nine inches and leaving a stubble length averaging six inches gave Veinot a 50-point winning score. Coming second (48 points) was another Lunenburg County resident, Thierry Msika, while Redden, a veteran contestant having competed every year since the beginning, came in third.

There were plenty of younger mowers including Kim Gezer who is 14. At the opposite end of the age spectrum came Dave Miller, 97, from Fall River, N.S., competing for the fourth year in a row.