[Billy Foster]

I had one shoulder done and I am glad to say I feel 90% better, glad I took the time to have it done. It took a while to heal, hurt just to wiggle my toes for a while. At least you don’t have to hike those hames quite as high as some :-).

[Billy Foster]

Marshall
To start with it sounds like you have your priorities in the right spot. Family and enjoying life with them is a really important piece of being a good person/father/spouse/friend. I did not always put that as a priority in the past. From the posts you have put on this site it is obvious that you could not give up farming of some sort or working with your horses. Putting up your grain for the year with your horses would certainly keep you busy and I bet you would not mind not making the tractor repairs or paying for fuel.
Not to get off track but are you still using Hafflingers? I do not think I ever saw a picture of your teem.
Billy

[Billy Foster]

On your web site you said you were treating Bracken, do you mean Bracken Fern? Are you using glyphosate or 2,4,D? Have you had success using this method?
Billy

[Billy Foster]

Slick set-up. Tell me about the pony.
Billy

[Billy Foster]

Jody I sent you an email
Billy Foster

[Billy Foster]

Mitch I think if I had turned them home they would have picked it up. I got them out early Sunday AM to get a little work done before it got to hot out. I was paying particulate attention to their attitude and how hot they got. As soon as the sun broke above the tree line the temp started climbing and we called it a day. I noticed a few things Sunday morning. They were slow going down the road and were a little anxious about getting back into the field, i.e., a little head flipping and hitchy. After a pass or 2 they were getting used to the work and were not much of a problem. Every time we passed the entrance to the field they would get “unorganized” and slow down. I think the work we have been doing lately has been uncomfortable on them and what I am seeing is there “dragging their feet” but going to work . I made a few more passes but ended the work before it got to hot. I tied to head home before they were really hot and tired. Thanks Carl and Mitch.
Billy

[Billy Foster]

Thanks for your thoughts Carl. Concerning the heat, I am seeing the harder working horse performing as you say, working harder and getting hotter as we go. When we are at the point where I decide he is getting to hot, and it is time to call it a day, I am hardly able to keep the two in latteral alignment. Next time I will watch him more closly and perhaps give more breaks earlier on. Do you ever water them out in the field, i.e., bring a bucket of water with you?

Billy

[Billy Foster]

It looks like we have more hot weather coming so they will get a few days off any way. I still would be interested to hear other peoples thoughts

Billy

[Billy Foster]

Rod44
Saw the donkeys mowing, really nice team! That was a really nice mower they were pulling as well. He was saying that it pulled really easily, much better and the 6′ he usually uses.
Billy

[Billy Foster]

George
IMHO These are my thoughts
Like a good number of people I have a full time job in the city and full time job on our farm. Trying to balance all my responsibilities is really tough. I find a bucket tractor helps out a lot for speeding up work when needed BUT I really try hard to use the horses for every job I can. I figure the more they do the better, and faster, they will be able to work in the future. I am always looking at what we do and how we can do it with less labor or maybe not do it at all if it is not cost effective.
Owning old equipment is one of the reasons I got into using horses around our place. The money I have spent working on equipment is much more then the initial cost of the equipment. Time is as much a commodity as money and the time lost because of a break downs always hurts.
I no nothing about it but being out in Amish country all last week I saw more than one team pulling a PTO cart with a mower conditioner. They sure did lay down a lot of grass and alfalfa.
Billy

[Billy Foster]

We just got to Michigan. Long ride from Maine but we are excited about seeing all the equipment tomorrow and Saturday. We stayed near lancaster PA on the way in and drove around seeing some of the farms out there, very impressive what they are doing with horse power. If anyone is going I hope you have a great time, I will have plenty of pictures to share after for those that can’t make it.
Billy

[Billy Foster]

I am one of those people that always has the same amount of work to do…more that I could ever finish!! My life is about managing priorities.
As far as working the horses goes: I am usually able to work the horses one day during the work week but most of the work they do is on the weekends (I have a full time job away from our farm). I wish it was different than this but with all I have to do every day that does not require draft power I just run out of time. On the weekend I will have a list of chores that I need the horses for. I harness them in the AM and tie them at the barn until I need them. I don’t take their harnesses off until I am done with them for the day. Since I do not work the horses much during the work week I can collect a bunch of smaller chores for them even if I do not have a big job. For me if a horse could be used for a particular job I try very hard to use them for that job, even if I need to be less efficient the first few times I do it. I do not make excuses of why I shouldn’t or can’t, I set the situation up so they will be successful and get the work done. I figure they will be better for it in the long run and I will be able to be more efficient because they will be easier to use for whatever I need to do.
As far as general efficiency is concerned: I try to make every step count. I think we all burn up a lot of time just walking from place to place on our farms. I used to use a 4-wheeler because it was a faster way to get around but have stopped it because it does not fit into our core beliefs. Planning out your steps not only for the job you are working on, but for the next couple as well. I wore a pedometer for a while and was pretty surprised when I would walk 4 or 5 miles a day on the weekends.
Another issue I pay attention to is food. I make sure I do not skip eating and drinking, I slow down fast when my “tank” gets low. Just like with the horses I will try to work as efficiently as I can so I can continue to work for the entire day, not burnt out by 3 or 4.
I pick at a lot of jobs. Even if I just put a couple screws in or pick a couple rocks as I walk by, eventually it will get done if I keep working on it.
Think about whether what you are doing is going to matter in a couple years. You may be wasting your time doing a particular job if it is not going to be anything in the long run. For example: I have a field that needs lime desperately and the ferns are really bad, I would spend time mowing them down with a brush mower and even pull them out for hours, eventually I realized I needed to focus just on getting the lime on that field and eventually it would fix itself.

Just some of my thoughts
Billy

[Billy Foster]

We know the different barks as well. Their is no doubt when a dog is around the sheep!

Billy

[Billy Foster]

Anyone have any experiance running a rotory mower with a ground drive pto fore cart? I am thinking about it and getting a 3rd Haflinger for the times I need a little more power. Donn did the pto cart you built out of a mower gear work well?

Billy

[Billy Foster]

Truth is I will most likely use whatever I find first. Yes I did find a pole. I used a pole for a pioneer forcart modified a little. I figured if you were able to cut out a pole I would still be interested in it since I am in need for another for my disc. If you find yourself sawing out some poles put my name on one of them.

I found an old post about guards that had some talk about using a few open guards on the inside. This makes sense since it would not clog as easily I suspect. I will have to keep my eye open for these as well. Donn mentioned Pea guards in the post…I suspect these are pretty hard to come by these days.

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