[mitchmaine]

we were out in ohio last fall and dropped in to pioneer. the wengards gave us a tour in the back of the shop and got a look at the first six prototypes (?) for the homesteader. they farmed them out to amish neighbors for testing and they returned used. so well used that they could explain differences made in steering and attaching tools and most of the changes they had made. we were really impressed by their interest in making it a working, well working tool. the bugs have been worked out. if it hadn’t been monsoon season, we could have tried out one of the test models. great family. great tool.

[mitchmaine]

i’m experimenting as well here. and yes, i have turned the soil that they are starting on. at 35 pounds, they aren’t the roto-tillers you might expect in the start. i am also planning on bucketing in small amounts of fresh horse and cow manure to them to extract the remaining grain and further fertilize the ground. that also sounds like importing new weeds, but its an experiment so why not. i’ll keep you informed, good news or poor.
mitch

[mitchmaine]

andy, i think dan and jay were on to something when they mentioned the pigs. build yourself a pig tractor, and move it weekly across your field of weeds and see what happens. hogs eat sod. seed, roots and all. out comes pig manure. let the pigs farm your garden for the summer, sprinkle some rye on after the move ahead for cover, and next year you have a weed free plot of ground all tilled and fertilized. they will cover about 2000 sq. ft. before you whack ’em. you could even plant a quick crop behind them, brassicas or something. sounds like a good idea. good enough to try out. we just bought two feeder pigs to try out on the fallow side of our bean field. i’ll let ya know how they do.
mitch

[mitchmaine]

nice bit of work andy. i like the sleds. make it look way more stable. tims comment flipped a switch, and i got thinking of tools i’ve seen over the years rooting through gear in old barns. i saw quite a few old wooden harrows, mostly spike but not all, and the successful ones, and by that, i mean the ones that made it or lasted long enough for me to see, seemed to be made in a diamond shape. same horizontal layout, spread over twice the area, presumably to allow the trash to fall off the rig. maybe for stability as well, because i never saw one on runners like yours. all seemed to run on the spikes or shanks alone. they were all pretty well worn out and i never took one or tried one, so i have little experience to share. good luck there and keep posting your progress. mitch

[mitchmaine]

ethan, that is pretty scary. the world consumption of oil is about 18 million barrels per day, and two barrels can be made from a cord of wood. nine million cord per day, is that the math? Maine might look a little different in a months time.
Wind, water and sunlight. we have alot of that, right? What’s the deal? i don’t get it.

[mitchmaine]

any wisdom in burning or discing crop residue and trying to kill first weeds before plowing them down? we used to disc all the ground before plowing but time put a crunch on that and we don’t seem to get a chance. but i think it worked a little.

[mitchmaine]

andy, there is an old hd tool out there called a weeder. not sure how easy it would be to find one. it resembles a dump rake only with many more points. so many that psi is minimum, and it walks on the surface of your seed bed upsetting new emerging weeds and drying and killing the root. used after you prepare the seed bed and depending on how soon you plant, a few times until the plants reach a few inches in height. i have one modified for three point hitch and use it but even still, sooner or later, if you aren’t going to poison, then you have to get down and handweed. bindweed is our biggest nuisance. chop it five times and get five new weeds.

[mitchmaine]

hi kevin, we have been doing the same with our birds except without the plan. we use chicken tractors on skids, but find that we don’t move them as often as they should because its harder to move them. so we are building one up on an old hay rack. even though they stay sometimes too long on a patch. totally denuded clay ground springs back with a rain to lush grass. its a miracle. we have towed them up through the gardens, and put them in pennys flower garden in spring and they uncover everything and do the weeding. they are alot of fun and quite a blessing if we actually sat down and hatched up a plan for them. reading this thread is full of good ideas. thanks all.

[mitchmaine]

my grandmother used to have some 4 or 5 porcelan eggs that she used to put in under a broody hen. then she would steal the fresh one and no one was the wiser. haven’t seen one of those eggs in years. they were great just to pick up and hold.
thanks, everyone, for the helpful tips. appreciate it. mitch

[mitchmaine]

the more i stare at your peices, the more i want to clamp the beam in under the cup. i see the cast brace underneath, but the look of the cup seems to make it the outside and not the inside. the slot looks like it could work as a hanging clamp of some kind.
the horizontal hole on the very top might have been for a peice of iron rod bent to fix the pole to. can’t make out what the shackle is for at the bottom of the hitch. interesting puzzle. good luck with it. mitch

[mitchmaine]

not sure you need a tongue. we never use them with a set of harrows on trucks. loose rigging. the harrows have resistance enough to stay in place. great looking trucks. clamp them on the best you can and they will follow the evener. mitch

[mitchmaine]

hi adrienne, good to hear you. a reminder that you still own two parts plows on donnies rock wall. kens plan was to make one good plow out of them, but there might be enough left over (wheels, frame, levers and one beam) to try what donn was getting at. attatch or fabricate a shank to the beam, and lower the frame with both wheels. you might get enough depth to scratch the pan without over working the horses. seems like a three horse job, but you could throw in more horses if needed. alfalfa has a tough time in maine making it through the winter. best wishes, and hey to ken. your friend, mitch

[mitchmaine]

hey stewart, thanks for the photographs. nice farm. nice looking pair of horses. how do you farm all day with that view? i’d be staring at the water all day. best wishes, mitch

[mitchmaine]

hey karl, my neighbor has a four wheel cockshutt, all steel on rubber. nice machine. and our international is four steel wheeled with a steel body. not to old i am guessing. the amish are making spreaders with extruded plastic beds and bodys. sure would like to have one of those. imagine it. a new spreader. like i’d died and gone to heaven or something

[mitchmaine]

@karl t pfister 34012 wrote:

It has the best name in town Cockshutt ,What’s the origin of that ??

james cockshutt, cockshutt plow company, 1880’s somewhere in canada, maybe ontario

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