[dominiquer60]

I have been out of the media loop, have any of these letters made the media or made an impact in the discussion? I wish I had been able to make the time to have made more of impact as an individual, and I hope that all the thoughts from those of you that did put pen to paper (then into pixels) have been heard.

[dominiquer60]

I agree with sustainable being about how I see myself fitting into and effecting my environment, generally I think local, but I keep the big picture in mind too. I know that I put an emphasis on nutrient cycles when educating customers or in passing conversation.

Once on Facebook a friend of a friend was putting down eating any meat because the way it is produced is unsustainable and they said that cows were bad for the environment. I pointed out that feedlot and CAFOs are unsustainable and buying meat from these places promotes bad methods. Then I pointed out that even if I use the best most organic methods and grow vegetables in the same place every year with out animal manure, that is a bad method too. If I have enough animals grazing forages to meet my fertility needs and enough land to rotate my crops (veg, grains and sod) then this is a better method, one that keeps trying to strike the balance between harvesting the suns energy through plants and returning it through manure management. If the farmer’s goal is to raise meat then chances are there is a better way to do it, if the goal is to raise animals as part of a small scale agricultural system the chances are more likely that there is less of a negative impact by this farmer that views meat as a by product of a diversified system. It is a simple argument, but one that I use with mainstream vegetarians and vegans that so far has left them without too much left to say.

I am caught up in “symptoms of the culture” as well, but rather than constantly reminding myself that the earth is over populated by resource consuming humans that are bound to consume our selves extinct, I choose to think about my impact on the now and the local. If I unplug my cell phone charger it will consume a fraction less energy, if I resist the temptation to drive across my fallow lot I will reduce the amount of compaction by a fraction, if I eat bean based protein when I eat out I will not be supporting big Ag meat production. Of course there are larger decisions to be made as well, but I think that those of us that are in tune with the little things tend to make better bigger decisions.

In short I think that part of attempting to define sustainable as a human is making decisions that minimize our negative impact while allowing ourselves to live. But Geoff if there are volunteers, the earth takes all kinds 🙂

[dominiquer60]

Sharp looking mule, welcome to DAP!

There are other mule folk here so hopefully you feel at home. Feel free to ask questions, but remember to try the search option above, there have been many topics covered, and yet so many remain to be discussed 🙂

[dominiquer60]

Old truck springs can be cut, heated and welded to the needed diameter.

[dominiquer60]

“This seems like it would prevent kicking but might mean the stocks would only “fit” adult oxen of a particular size, and might be less useful for young or especially large or small animals.”

Stocks seem useful for shoeing any bovine and trimming unruly feet or animals, but for young animals handled from a young age to lift their feet stocks are not necessary.

I can see that you would want stock for your older team, but if you start young steers lifting their feet at as young an age possible, taking a rasp to them every 4 to 8 weeks is no problem. My steers let me lift feet anywhere at any random time, they are a pleasure to work with, I made lifting their feet part of our daily routine the day that I brought them home.

Best of luck finding the right size for your stocks, sorry that I am not much of a help with your quest for “average” 🙂

[dominiquer60]

For example,

I really enjoy having common meal times where we all get to sit around and share ideas over good food. Events like past NEAPFD, MOFGA’s Low Impact Forestry and our Gathering have done a good job of this and I would like to see it continue.

Oxen have been a hot topic in the media and short in participation in our events, it would be great to have a strong and diverse presence of Oxen Topics, types of Oxen and their Teamsters at this big 2013 event.

[dominiquer60]

For marketing purposes it is good to include the questions:

What state are you from and how far did you travel?
How did you learn about this event?

Knowing how far people travel to our events let us know where our audience is and knowing where they learned about it lets us know what marketing efforts are most effective.

Thanks,

Erika

[dominiquer60]

5 days without power, only because we are the last 2 houses on the line furthest from the substation. But we did manage to take advantage of no power on the lines and harvest a few cord that WERE leaning into the road.

I just heard from a fellow DAPNet member on the Chesapeake Bay, they didn’t even loose power, but they did get 11 inches in the rain gauge, no flooding either and they are only 8 feet above the bay.

I hope everyone else has fared well, looks like the high population densities had the worst of it.

[dominiquer60]

I don’t know if you thought of this possibility, but I imagine shipping older cattle is less risky than young stock.

I sure if you contact Dulcy at Tillers she can tell you about the 2012 animals available.

http://www.tillersinternational.org/tillers/store_cattleforsale.html

[dominiquer60]

Here is another NY GOL opportunity

October 27 & 28, 2012. Game of Logging Chainsaw Safety Training. Greenwich, NY. Looking to learn the proper technique for felling trees? Learn safety techniques, sustainable forestry management, and more. With funding from Farm Credit East and the Washington County Soil & Water District, the class is offered at a greatly reduced rate! For more information and to register, visit http://www.washingtoncountyswcd.org.

[dominiquer60]

Is guess this is one case when it is good to have a tall horse. Thanks for posting the picture George.

[dominiquer60]

This is a marketing tactic that the NY Farm Bureau uses, for my county it was $65 for new members and $75 for returning members joining by a certain date, $80 after the set date. I think that it has helped them gain some new membership, and is perhaps slowing the rate at which their organization is declining (supporting gas drilling is really hurting them right now, serves them right).

A discount may work for individuals or like minded organizations, but I am not sure that I see many other draft organizations paying money to join a group that is not related to where they are and what they do for activities. Yesterday I spent the morning listing other draft organizations here on the forum, if they had some sort of apparent goals or mission I included that with the link. It seems like many have the goal of keeping the public aware about draft horses and keeping an old tradition going, and for the pulling groups, treating animals properly. While these purposes don’t line up exactly with ours they are related. I wonder if having an in kind membership for smaller draft orgs makes sense. The purpose would be to share contact and event information. For example the NY Percheron Association has an annual clinic, usually at Morrisville College, if we were in kind members of each others organizations then we can have them on our link pages and include this event on our calendars, and they could do the same for us, having us as a link and putting our event on their calendars.

I think that I am drifting somewhat away from the topic that you started Donn, but this variation of your idea above would also aid in beefing up our networking goals that Andy has resurfaced. We could have a couple organization membership levels, an in kind level to share contacts and events and perhaps a more involve one like you suggest where we offer a higher set of benefits such as discounted rates.

Regarding the low intro rate, $20 is fairly reasonable already, the funds brought in from membership barely cover the newsletter costs as it is, never mind the cost of keeping the forum even with a volunteer administrator, or all of our other expenses.

I am just brainstorming aloud here, I am interested to see where this conversation goes.

George, working together with the NOFA’s and the like would be great.

[dominiquer60]

The next couple days were hard, but after dealing with a heal spur and plantar facetious for a year I will take being stepped on any day.

It can happen to any of us, and anyone who says they have never been stepped on just jinxed themselves 🙂

[dominiquer60]

I checked, it would thrill them to have draft animals used on their farm, any kind is welcome as long as you are willing to use a tractor as well.

[dominiquer60]

Grey it was not as extreme as a pulling shoe, but certainly designed for extra purchase. He knew his foot was not on a desirable surface, but the pressure from the trouble maker was greater than the colorful words and smacks on his rump.

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