[dominiquer60]

My wheel hoe from Johnny’s work so much better when sharp and I try to keep it that way. I was in Michigan Monday “antiquing” at a bone yard caller Roeter’s. They have a ton of old tractors and vegetable equipment, I spent at least an hour in the old Planet Jr pile and another hour in the cultivator/plow/culitpacker heap, literally a pile of metal. I found a lot of old sweeps, some loose and some on shanks. What I found was that the wider sweeps with wings that travel level for weed killing seemed to stay sharp or keep sharp by use. The old arrow point shovels that travel at a more aggressive angle seem to wear hard and round out easier. A rounded shovel or sweep is less effective and I can imagine a harder pull. I think if I had sweeps or shovels that rounded out bad it would be time to take the grinder to them and reshape to the best of my ability.

[dominiquer60]

Dose this mean that Threshold has bull calves for you???

[dominiquer60]

That is really unfortunate that VT is so small farm unfriendly with Health Insurance. For anyone reading from NY, Healthy NY seems to be the best that I could find, they just go by your 1040 gross adjusted income.

[dominiquer60]

Here are a few pics that I took. http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151101385919042.503943.679389041&type=3

Andy I bought the 5′ Shipshe Cultimulcher that Maynard brought to MI, it was about $2000, but he took a little off for being a demo model. The baskets are nice for leveling and breaking up any clods that you may have. I will add a couple pictures to the link above that show some before and after shots. We used it when we got back on some weedy ground that will attempt to grow pumpkins in and it did a decent job given the fact that it is meant to kill much smaller weeds. I would like to put a more aggressive point on at least one row of s tines. I have used the tractor version of this implement for years and like it a lot for seed bed prep after plowing and for stale seed bed and bare fallowing. Robert Shipshe does make a 3′ model for a single horse, this may be a size that would work for your donks, there is a picture in the link above.

[dominiquer60]

What an adventure Michigan was! Here are a few photos located on my facebook page, sorry that I can’t post pics here.
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151101385919042.503943.679389041&type=3

[dominiquer60]

We don’t have a booth, we have newsletters and brochures on a table at the information booth.

[dominiquer60]

We made it!

If any one wants to meet up my phone number is on the DAPNet boxes under the information booth tables, the tables on the porch, not where the DAPNet brochure and Newsletters are. I am going to try to take a lot of pictures too.

[dominiquer60]

Robert,

The brand name mulch layers are slick, I am at HPD and can’t wait to see them go tomorrow, but they are certainly too much for a pair of donks. Tristan and Ann’s methods are probably a much better bet for you. For anyone else interested Nolts and E-Z Trail manufacture raised bed plastic mulch layers and they are happy to call you back and talk about them. Others carry raised bed plastic mulch layers, but to my knowledge they are generally dealers of one of these two brands.

[dominiquer60]

I had to use a collar on my dog, he lost his recall at one point and was mainly interested in greeting vehicles that slowed down or park in his patrol area of the moment, even if it meant crossing a very busy road. I certainly had to use the long prongs that came with the collar, contact is key, good batteries too. It worked fairly well and my dog is manageable without it for years now. Since then the collar has taught a cattle dog not to attack horses that were being driven by her owner and a golden retriever to avoid tackling and humping a small child. Collars can certainly be an effective tool.

[dominiquer60]

Finally got some pictures up

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151060833914042.499489.679389041&type=1.

[dominiquer60]

Just measured the truck, a 5′ Schipshe cultimulcher should fit if blocked up over the wheel wells 🙂 I am looking forward to my first visit to MI, especially since it will be shared with many liked minded folk. We are hanging around Sunday waiting for Roeters to open first thing Monday morning. Does anyone have any lazy Sunday activity suggestions for the area between Clare and Grant? I was hoping to pick cherries, but I understand the frost did a lot of damage this spring.

[dominiquer60]

Thanks Tim!

Jean does a great job putting it all together. I am also thankful for all the work that Lisa McCrory and Louise Battalen did with the first newsletter, they gave us a great model to follow and make our own. Of course pretty is only part of it, I think that the content is evolving well also. I am grateful that folks like yourself Tim, the Van Ords, Doc Hammill, and many others are willing to take the time to contribute to raising the educational quality of our content. All the writers did a great job this quarter, the diversity was wonderful.

If anyone would like to contribute content to our newsletter please send Jean your document and we will fit it in. We are always looking for advertisers as well. Our goal is to have the newsletter pay for itself through advertising and sponsorship and we are still aways off from making that goal, but thanks to sponsors like Anne & Eric Nordell we are certainly closer to our goal this year.

Enjoy, support and contribute, that’s how we get it done!

[dominiquer60]

That may be why farmers had large families too, so the kids could trade off steering while Father drove the team 🙂

[dominiquer60]

Mine are getting better about driving from behind. I use halters with chains that tighten under their chins, I am having the next pair made so that one comes off the near side and the other (custom) comes off the off side. I use a set of single lines and tie their heads together. If they really wanted to take off they could, but that would be some effort on their part and they are usually not up for such antics. When Andy gets a pair of calves this is a good thing to teach them how do, it will be more of a challenge with the older team, but think of all the possibilities if you can get them driving from behind. Otherwise Andy needs to meet up with a good electrical engineer and devise a self steering sensor for an ox drawn cultivator 🙂

[dominiquer60]

Thanks for sharing your experiences. I found an article from Ireland that claimed that parasites can be responsible for a poor coat, but not to blame for poor shedding, I’ll buy that. They are starting to let go better and I am sure that if I had spent time on it everyday they would have been nearly done by now, but I have been away for weeks at a time so hopefully next year I can stay on top of it better. I am looking forward to the horse shows coming to VT in July and August then I can give them some attention and training. In regards to minerals they have been on a good hay, a small amount of heifer pellets, kelp meal and salt fortified with Selenium ever since I have brought them home as calves, until this summer when they started on pasture with mineral supplements (kelp, salt, a clay mineral, 2:1 and 1:2 for P and Ca free choice). I can believe that they have gotten enough Se, but will look into Cu amounts in these supplements also, I am not too worried but I am glad that there is a test available. Thanks Vicki and others!

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