[dominiquer60]

Like Tom, I know a couple people that have farmed and pulled. They had the most success at moving any heavy load with a team’s heads up. One described a good team of shorthorns that he had, ” they would crawl up under that yoke with their heads high and get a good lift on the load to start it.” Does your team have any problem with dandruff on their neck where the yoke rests, this can sometimes be from over working or from mites and it can be painful while working them. Just a couple things to look into….

[dominiquer60]

I have a 455 which is a certifiable single plow at 8″. I have the 1899 catalog and can check it for you when I get back to VT (I am in FL too), but you may have to remind me, I forget easily:)

E-Z Trail, 9575 Salt Creek Road, Fredericksburg OH 44627 has 3/8 plow bolts for $.25 each, but you will have to write to them, I can’t find a phone number in it any where in their catalog.

If you search for a thread here about “Ben’s Mill” he heats up carriage bolts and pounds them into a mold to re-shape them into shoe bolts, maybe the same can be done for a plow bolt.

[dominiquer60]

I like the thought of having the agenda, minutes, reports and other related documents in one thread for each meeting date, it makes them easier to reference and less thread congestion.

[dominiquer60]

I thought this was part of a dream that i had the other day, oddly it was the same day I fell asleep doing taxes with the TV on 🙂
He did a good job standing, I would have been tempted to bolt with Alec Baldwin so close.

[dominiquer60]

I would be the first to raise my hand if only you were within a days drive of me 🙂

[dominiquer60]

I can see how designs like these would track straighter than a stoneboat. Hummm….. I can also see how a tool like this would be great to use with a young pair of steers not just a single horse.

[dominiquer60]

This has been a great discussion.

I first learned with a goad on the first two teams that someone was nice enough to let me try out. I had heard from a few people that the twisted ash whip was the best tool. I had both a 4′ ash goad and a used and curved twisted whip made by Ray Ludwig. I felt comfortable using the goad (or a longer riding whip when they were younger) on my steers, but I started having a problem with my near steer when hawing away from the manure pile back onto the road. I had tried once before to use the whip with the lash but ended up frustrated with frustrated steers. Once the problem by the manure pile began I gave the lashed whip another try. I got back behind his shoulder and when my Abe started to back haw and jump the chain, my lash found his hind end in a hurry. Once he realized I could reach much farther with the lash, he was no longer a problem. I still wasn’t very good with the lash, but the extra reach helped eliminate some problem behavior, so I tried to stick with it. I had problems wanting to us the whip stock as a goad at short range and ended up finding the crack in the whip stock that I was warned about upon receiving it. Earlier I had also broken the tip off of my good goad.

So here I was with a shorten goad and an nice lash. An old black boot string and some electrical tape bonded the two together and I have been in love ever since. I have the whop effect when I need it (which is rarely) and I have the flexible range of the lash, I also have a ton of medium range that is not as wimpy as the buggy whip that I also tried at one point. This combination may be non traditional, but I made due with what I had and love the results.

[dominiquer60]

The rates are up to date, we just need to add the yearly rates and deadlines to complete the package of information.

[dominiquer60]

Some of the above advertising information is out of date, I cannot edit the rate sheet in pdf format so I have asked Jean to do so. If she can, she will be posting the most up to date advertising info soon which will include the new yearly (discounted) rates and the 4 quarterly deadlines.

The above information was what Lisa wrote originally, we no longer send out 1,000 copies at a time and Feb 7th is an obsolete deadline.
I plan on updating the advertising content when I get my computer back from repairs.
Thanks for your patience

[dominiquer60]

Communications Committee Meeting 3/6/12

Website(Jen)- Jen talked with David about developing a new combined website, David’s laptop was stolen and together with the amount of projects that he has right now, he will not be able to give our organization the attention that we need right now. This likely works out for the best, Jen will have more time to focus on this project in the fall. Chris Hill is again reachable with an updated email address. Jen will focus on getting him to stop palpay charging us for non-profit donations and to change the membership categories. Jen will also get an estimate for putting an eStore together for us. We will focus on updating the current website since it is what we have to work with for a while. Erika will work on Advertising, Ethan Support, Pam articles. Jen will plan the eNews so that we can look over it before each meeting and edit/ad to it before she sends it out, this will be a regular agenda item.

Membership (Ethan)- Some people on DAP.com mentioned that they have not gotten the latest newsletter and it may be related to membership obtained at the Athol event. On 3/3 Ethan sent out some drafts of letters with regards to reminding people about their membership, everyone please read them and response within a week so that Ethan can edit and move on to contacting people about joining/renewing memberships. Ethan has been working on copy for a brochure and contacted Sean about helping him with brochure layout, Sean has not responded. Ethan may barter some tree work with a design teacher for help with the brochure layout. We talked about making the logo a Comm Comm issue, but decided that, like the mission statement, it is an organization issue and that those that wish to can participate in the conversation.

Sponsorship- Everyone please choose 4 parties from the potential sponsors list and post your 4 on DAP.com under the thread started for this by Jen. Please contact your list to encourage sponsorship, or at the very least membership or advertising with us.

Help P&E promote clinic- Ideas to promote the plowing clinic include: weekly refreshing of Facebook page, contact local papers (at least for event coverage) Press release that can be used for Country Folks etc., trade advertising with LIF/MOFGA, NOFA, classified ads in farm bureau papers or NOFA online classifieds. Push the fact that there is $300 funding for an young/new farmer for participation in the clinic, must have animal and plowplow to do the clinic, submit a statement as to why they want to do the clinic. Send submissions to Kevin, deadline April 1st. Post to DAP.com, Facebook and PR article.
Suggestion made to P&E to have advertising info well in advance for big events, for example to advertise the Gathering in Summer MOFGA or SFJ we need to have info in spring to submit to these publications.

Newsletter (Erika)- content was discussed
President- Jen
Editor- Erika
DAP.com- Mark
Perry Farm- Neal
NE Logging History- Ethan done
Womans Land Army? Ethan
Organization Networking- Ethan
Spring Wood Bee- short and sweet, emphasize the social and the community building of the event coming up
Maybe something about looking for sponsorships?- Reva??
Doc Hamill- Jen?
Using horses to build roads- Pam
Clinic article for summer issue- Erika

[dominiquer60]

My beef had no horns and were great for pulling anything without wheels. Here is a picture of one of Howie’s Devons in a single yoke with britching, the link is the third one down next to harness http://softchalkconnect.com/lesson/files/2PEXjrOsLHiz5k/TexttoSelf6.html.

If I had kept the working beef team I would have had britching made for them so that they could hold and back a load comfortably. There are some that use britching on a horned team because it seems a little kinder to them, I suppose it depends on the situation and work at hand.

Go for it if they are handy, I am sure you will be able to get around not having horns.

[dominiquer60]

If longer handles are more comfortable for you than it will probably work better for you on your end, they have no bearing on what the point does other than steering.

It appears that there is some funding for a new/ young farmer to attend our Plowing Clinic with Sam Rich, if you were able to get these funds and manage a ride for your horse, many of your questions would be answered there.

[dominiquer60]

That is what I suspected. Just from the bit of gravel road work with my young team I can see that too much can be a bad thing.

This picture has another neat feature, the pads under the strap that hold up the britching rope. They are like the padded panels on the underside of a saddle to keep pressure off the spine and to prevent sores there as well.

Thanks for finding the better thong sandal photo.

[dominiquer60]

Reva has chosen her 4-5 as well

Elinor Randall Keeney VT
Eileen & Paul Growald VT
VT Grass Farmers – Jenn Colby VT (unless anyone knows her)
Kristin Wilmer – Northeast SARE U Conn
Blue Slope CT

Does anyone know anyone at Tillers International or I will do them?

Any questions for Reva should be emailed.

Thanks

[dominiquer60]

I am going to do the same

Wellscroft
Solar Fest
Green Mountain Feeds
Florist (someone Lisa recommended)

If anyone knows any of these folks well I will gladly swap out for another.

[Author]

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