Cutting Achnatherum splendens wasn't particularly tiring, but making a decent big broom required long grass with uniformly thick stalks, along with a certain number of red willow branches to keep the brittle grass from snapping.
The price of big grass brooms had risen this year, and so had the number needed. Every household wanted to earn some extra spending money between harvesting corn and oil sunflowers. If nothing else, half a month's hard work would easily buy a set of clothes for everyone in the family.
So it wasn't just the adults working. Children over seven or eight were busy too.
After coming home from school and finishing their homework, the children went to Red Willow Flats to break off willow branches. If they brought an armful home before dark, they were sure to hear their parents praise them.
Some of the older children set their sights on the thick poles in Red Willow Flats, even arguing and shoving one another over a single pole.
It rarely turned into a fight, because those poles were beyond the children's ability to break off and carry home. They had to go back and tell the adults.
This was the third year of broom-making, and there definitely weren't enough poles. Everyone started by cutting and drying the grass, then used packing stakes and wire to bind the big brooms first, leaving the poles for later.
Thus, early every morning, the thump, thump, thump of people hammering packing stakes could be heard from household courtyards.
Some people felt their courtyards weren't spacious enough, so they made their brooms outside their gates or on the threshing ground, then brought them home afterward.
Usually, husband and wife worked together. The wife stripped the excess leaves from the grass stalks and helped out, while the husband did