[Andy Carson]

Good for you Jen! What bait did you use? That is such an open area, I woudl have had to think and ponder positions as well. When I’ve used my spear, the animals where in what they thought were protected positions (In a gap between hay bales, or under a bench) where they felt safe. they stayed put there baring teeth but not really even growling much. It allowed me to “attack” from a suprize angle and aim really well. In the open like this, I wonder if the coon shifted back and forth to face you as you move about so as to not give you a broadside. I would have possibly been tempted to thrust caudally from an entry point near the base of the neck on the left side, probably with a slight downward angle so that I can put my weight behind the thrust and really drive it though the ribs and out the other side into the ground. It would be really hard to know what the best angle would be without being in the situation, though. What entry point/angle worked for you?

[Andy Carson]

I just had a question about this coultervator I built a while ago. I only used this a little bit, so can’t give a really complete review, but here’s my thoughts. You really do need all that weight on this to cut through corn stalks (and it still pins many!), but this is the only crop residue that I have dealt with that really needs a coulter and weight like this. I haven’t had corn stalks in my field for a few years now, and am predictably less interested coulters proceeding shanks. I think a better design for this without the coulter is to forget the wheels and handles and make a multi-gang implement of skids with adjustable height. I like the one I use with my oxen (see below). I would probably just make a slightly smaller one for a single horse. Nice thing about these c-tine implements is you can add or subtract tines easily if the draft is too high or too low. The handles on the coultervator give OK control, but the blocks make it a bit top-heavy. It kinda takes a horse in the front and a horse in the rear. I couldn’t run it all day for sure. An hour will make your arms sing. When this type of work was new to me, I thought this kind of exertion was fun. Honestly, I still think it’s fun, but i alo realize realize that exertion like this is not sustainable and not an efficient way to get the work done. I think a well designed implement should be easy to operate and this tool simply isn’t. Moreover, this is a tool designed to deal with a situation (unchopped corn stalks lying in the field) that I simply don’t have anymore, and doubt I will ever have in the future. In my current setup, I can’t imagine how corn stalks wouldn’t end up in somethings belly, so having a tool to deal with them seems like clutter. I ended up recycling the parts into other tools, so it was a “waste” or wood, and not metal. Waste is a loaded word, though, it was great experience and I’m glad I got a chance to try it out a bit. Hope this answers the questions…

Here’s a link to the tool I like better. It’s still easy and simple to build yourself.
http://www.draftanimalpower.com/showthread.php?5223-secondary-tillage-tools-and-concepts

[Andy Carson]

Looks great. I guess head yokers start with neck yokes until the calves have horns big enough for a head yoke? Are those brown swiss? It seems you work with many different breeds of cattle. Do you simply like the variety?

[Andy Carson]

Nice looking pup, Carl. It will be interesting to hear when and on what he starts to make an impact. Just out of curiosity, did your Jake tend kill critters or focus more on chasing them away? Mine only actually kills groundhogs by himself, and tends to chase and bail or tree (if possible) everything else.

[Andy Carson]

I have no doubt my dog helps a lot too. Are you planning on getting another dog sometime soon, Carl?

[Andy Carson]

yes, 5 to chose from including a set of twins

[Andy Carson]

I was washing barrels today and noticed a pinhole in the bottom of the barrel I lost grain in. I wouldn’t have noticed it but the paint on the inside of the barrel chipped away when i was spraying and i could see a tell-tale rust spot on the bottom. I think this hole was the cause of my spoilage, not the storage technique. I still made a mixing table, but it is useful. The barrels work great as long as they don’t have a hole!

[Andy Carson]

@near horse 35813 wrote:

Actually, I did see it demonstrated but it was in some nice ground that had already been worked up. Seemed to do a nice job but you know that good soil structure/moisture makes most tillage practices “gravy”. These folks operated a HD market garden operation out of Walla Walla. Let me see if I can find their names and perhaps you could contact them for a first hand account of the good and the bad.

Also, I have at least one picture but I can’t seem to clear my picture “cache” here on DAP and I’ve maxed out my useage. Ant thoughts there?

Thanks for the thoughts. I am definately attracted to the s-tines and have little doubt that they will work well in my soil. I have more concern over the effects of the roller baskets. I can build something with s-tines pretty easily, but if I want the rollers too, I would probably just buy it. So most specifically, I was kinda wondering about the difference between just s-tines + harrow in a separate operation vs. the cultipacker combo. These things are not cheap, and as I feel I can do the same thing with an additional quick harrowing, so the price kinda made my mind up for me.

I ran out of space for pictures a while ago too. I started to upload photos to facebook, then add them to DAP using “insert image” then “from URL” then I cut and paste the URL from facebook. Because it’s already uploaded to facebook, I can add as many as I want and with high resolution. I think some people can simply drag the images into these messages, but that technique never worked for me.

[Andy Carson]

I was thinking more of an implement with wide sweeps, that have more of a horizontal cutting action. The oscilating hoe also has verticle arms to’rewch below the surface, and sharpening makes it substantially easier to push.

A wheel hoe is tons more efficient than a traditonal hoe. Can can do at least twice as much area as a traditional hoe, and without any strain on the back. I honestly bit off a bit more than I can chew with a wheel hoe this year, but it’s still a good tool. I need to figure out how I can bring some animal power to help me cultivate, but I’m still limping along. The wheel hoe is a good tool for the limited power one person can generate. I think I will always have use for one if only cleaning up after bigger tools. I made the mistake of buying an earthway wheel hoe at first. It was cheap, but was a waste of money with thin tube steel construction that I ripped up fast. In my opinion, it is not designed for serious work.

[Andy Carson]

Thanks Geoff, did you happen to see it in action? I like the s-tines for sure, but wonder how effective the crumblers/basket harrow are. Any opinions on these?

[Andy Carson]

So a pair of bull calf twins were born with this cross I wanted. I can think of advantages to twins, as I think their bodies and temperament would be as closely matched as possible. One twin is smaller than the other one, and i wonder if they grow out of thus or not. I think twins often end up a little smaller than singles. Is this true? If so, is the effect strong? Are twins more difficult to work single when needed?

[Andy Carson]

Nice photos rod, thanks for that. I like the sign “not a mule”! Do you know who makes that red S-tine harrow/cultivator with the rolling harrow shown in photo 50? Does anyone know a price on that tool?

[Andy Carson]

Oh, OK, I’ll keep on the new topic of this thread. I also find it to be a fascinating discussion. I was going to share some thoughts, then thought I would try to get it back on the topic of chicken predators… Now I am too tempted.

OK, Geoff, I think your new argument against the use of a spear is just very thought provoking and I think a decent argument. No, I would not kill a horse with a spear if I had a gun as an option (although it would be my first choice if I could pick from a non-firearm weapons). And yet I feel just fine about killing raccoons and possums with it. Why the difference? The honest truth is that it is different to me because it feels different to me. Is it because the horses is 100 times bigger? This is definately a factor, but I would also choose the gun over the spear to kill a 20 pound pet dog. Is it because I can handle the dog or the horse so as to insure a very accurate gunshot with no damage to my property? This is another factor, but again this isn’t all of it… Is it that I have plenty of time to get the rifle and load it without the animal running off or unjuring my dog? Again, this is only part, but I could have simply grabbed a rifle instead of the the spear. Granted, I am not very comfortable keeping a loaded rifle next to my door, but I could figure out ways to make this safer in my mind. Is it because I don’t want to wake up my neighbors and have to explain what I am doing? This is another big factor, but again, if they knew I was shooting a raccoon most (not all) would be fine with it and even if the other one calls fish and game, I am not breaking the law. Still, who wants to invite inspection and scruteny from inflexible non-thinking dogmatic “This is the right way” law-enforcers? I would rather keep it quiet… Still, I could take the cage to the back of my property and shoot it without anyone bugging me about it later, so this is only part of the answer for me. Another part is that I feel I have a duty to provide a high degree of care to animals I have chosen to bring into my life and my house. I made no such pact with these critters who invade from outside, and I apply my moral/ethical/humane standards that pertain to “hunting,” rather than killing of domestic animals. For a a more detailed discussion of spears as hunting weapons, see the below section entitled “spears as hunting weapons.” I put this section below because there really isn’t a need to compare the effectiveness of these weapons to make my point. For me, it is the combination of all these factors that make a spear the weopon I grab when I go outside to check things out. Anotehr factor is that I can use the dull end as a makeshift goad, to herd chickens, to keep goats from escaping, or simply as a walking stick. It is in many ways a choice of conveniance as a more deadly replacement for the shepherds crook I broke killing a possum. It is my choice alone and I try to not judge others who are doing similar things.

The most difficult thing with these types of ethical/moral choices is the statement that I do “not judge others.” This is true in “normal” situations, but if I saw a person throw a live cat in a fire, I would think of them as a monster and would probably (depending on other factors) try to stop it. Is this the right thing to do? I feel like it is, but I don’t have a logical, internally consistant and all inclusive rule that explains why this is a case where interferring is the “right” thing to do and also explains when interferring is just speculation and prejudice on something you simply don’t know. Even though this is not internally consistant and in some ways doesn’t make tons of sense, I am not bothered by it. I think that all of us who kill animals have come to some sorts of tenuous rationalizations of why and when and how it is OK, and why and when and how it is not OK. Being perfectly honest, I doubt any of them make perfect logical sense.

Spears as hunting weapons
Spears meet and surpass “acceptable” standards as hunting weapons for large game, much less a raccoon. See reference below, which calculates the kinetic energy, momentum, and sectional density of a heavy spear (like mine) and a light spear (like Jen’s) to various other weapons, including a 30-06 and a 357 mag. You can see the heavy spear has almost 30 times less energy than than a 30-06, and 6 fold less energy than a 357, but who is killing animals in traps with a 30-06? This is, by the way, the only gun I own. A 22 is a much more accepted “standard” killer of varmits in traps, and I calculated the enrgy of the 22LR at 103 ftlb for a 40 grain bullet moving at 1080 fps -practically identical to a heavy spear and inferior to the force generated by a light spear. As is explained in the article, total energy is only one factor that is important in killing, which makes sense as by this measure alone a heavy spear is less powerful than a light spear. Other important factor is momentum (how much force does it take to stop the projectile) and a heavy spear has nearly 3 times the momentum of a 30-06, and over 30 times more momentum than a 22. A spear also has almost 8 times the sectional density (ability to penetrate) as a 30-06 and is over 18 times more sectionally dense as a 22. So, all together, a spear is superior is every way to a 22 as a hunting weapon, and is compareable to some rifles in some aspects. So, we may need to revisit the thought that a spear is simply inferior because it doesn’t have gunpowder.

reference:
http://www.thudscave.com/npaa/articles/howhard.htm

[Andy Carson]

I have never been able to trap a fox, and I’m glad I haven’t had an problems with one so far. My multistrand electric fence has really cut down on the predator pressure. That said, there are definately still ways through or around the fence for a small animal, and I still have to be vigilant. The most obvious way around the fence is to go 200 yards to the south, cross through a field fence, another field fence, travel 200 yards back through through an open field with no cover and get at the chickens. This assumes some thinking on the part of the coon, but I feel that raccoons do not want to risk that 200 yard trip through an open field when they know a there is a dog around and there is no place to hide. The other hole in the fence (for a raccoon or similar) is at a gate close to my neighbors house, but she has 5 barky dogs. My point is that if you know where the critters are coming from and going, a multistrand electric fence can make a big difference, even without fencing the whole place, especially when the ways around the fence is not desirable for one reason or another. It doesn’t compeltely eliminate them, but thins them to the point that that trapping/shooting/patrolling/guard dog can more easily clean up the few that figure out how to get around. I set my trap for several days to catch the skunk that figured a way through the fence and sprayed my dog. I haven’t seen any sign of a skunk either, for more than a week. I figure my dog harrassed him enough that the skunk doesn’t want to come back. It was touch and go for a while, but I this my dog (who is a little over a year old now) is going to turn out to be a good guard dog after all.

[Andy Carson]

Wow Carl, possibly 3 raccoon in 3 days. And I thought I had raccoon problems… Sounds like yours are much worse. What are they getting into? Chickens? Feed?

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