[mitchmaine]

carl makes good points. its difficult to expect animals to be thinking in terms of trust and so on. that is abstract thought. neither do i beleive that they try and hatch plans to escape or cause trouble. i think they work on food and security. simple as that. getting them to do our work depends on providing them with security. when they aren’t getting the program, it might not be so much about their learning as it is about our teaching. then what? do something different. try it again another way. i can’t feel confident when i hear specific methods of training animals. you do this and this happens or you do that and that happens. it never works out for me that way. animals are as different as people are and i beleive that. keep trying different things, and when something works, keep doing that, and if it doesn’t, well, keep trying new things. this is starting to sound weird even to me, but i think there is truth in it, so good luck and keep an open mind. mitch

[mitchmaine]

hi jared,
i used to cut wood fulltime. hated snags just like everyone said. i cut each one as i passed it and maybe cut it in three peices. they rot pretty fast and are almost gone when you cut them.
i don’t know how big this pine is where you are, but i always remember how fast pine pulp added up. better than any other northeast tree. and if you aren’t chasing logs and have nothing else to thinlk about but a pulp pile, i might be tempted to cut it. we all know that the mills aren’t paying anything for pulp, but in fact, they actually are. you won’t get rich, but mixed softwood up here is $21 a ton, or(4300 lb.) or $45.15 per cord.
you could utilize the wood, use your horse, clean up you woodlot, have some fun, that must be killing a bunch of birds with one stone yet. just a thought, mitch

[mitchmaine]

neal,
i have an odd selection of jd/syracuse points, some new, mostly 12 “. look for numbers on the back of the moldboard or the share and we might match up some.
mitch

[mitchmaine]

hi stewart,
if both beams are bent similarly, that’s a good sign. it would be tough to spring two beams to match. if they are bent inwards, meaning in over the moldboard,or actually apart from the other beam, then its a two horse plow. And your draft should be dead center on the end of the beam for a pair of horses.
if they are bent inwards meaning towards each other as they are slung under the frame,which sounds more like what you are saying, then its probably a 3 horse beam. To hook two horses to that plow the clevis on the front of the beam should point outwards towards the wheels or over the moldboard, and the draft should be out to the end of that clevis.
The economy for the last few years is poor enough that steel prices looked good, and lots of cast iron farm machinery got broke up for scrap, and the result is less junk(treasure). But I bet there are still a bunch of these plows dotting the stonewalls in back pastures where the junkers can’t see.

[mitchmaine]

stewart,
i hope there is a photo of my oliver to see. if so, notice the stub pole. and the one bracket attached to the inside. the other is with the pole extension. which clamps on to the side of the pole with long through bolts. its on the inside, which is the two-horse side of the stub pole. without a diagram or photo to go by, i can see it would be easy to try and set your pole up where the stub pole goes, and it would never work well, no matter how hard you tried to adjust it. also, our home made hitch clevis. i beleive that the true (original) slider was just a figure eight link that slid across the hitch. but the roll is common now. if you see a two way plow on a stone wall here in maine, you just assume its a oliver, and find out later. thats how many there were around. and that means, to me, that it must have been a very popular plow. mitch

[mitchmaine]

hello stewart,
i can’t see what is or isn’t there on your plow, but i can say that the pole is only a stub pole attached to the plow. it is only about 3-4 feet long. the pole extension bolts on one side or the other of the stub pole and that is the adjustment for two or three horses. bolting on the inside of the stub pole lines the pole up with the center of the plow and that is the two horses set up. it uses two steel brackets about 4″ wide to bolt the pole to the stub pole with. handy to have but can be made.
you can also make the hitch yourself. save some money. the tough part is coming up with the roller, but if you keep your eyes open, one will show up. i could post a photo of my nplow if you need.
mitch

[mitchmaine]

hi ian,
welcome to DAP and good luck as well. we had a welsh cob for a short time. passing through so to speak. but pound for pound he outpulled any horse i ever owned. if he’d weighed a ton, he could have swung my barn around. i still have harness peices laying about that he made smaller. best wishes and good luck with your cob. mitch

[mitchmaine]

hi evan, not sure i mentioned it during your visit, but the stalls in the old barn where i have the heifers tied, was our old horse barn. the stalls had a tie up and plank floor under a leanto, and the horses were never tied. they came and went on their own time. food and water was up in the stalls. a splash of grain brought them in and harnessed on the floor and off we’d go. similar to your idea and worked great. the disadvantages was rain and snow coming off the shed roof landed right where they passed into the stalls and it was a mess sometimes of the year. we are so far off the road, dead end road to boot, that after haying,we could just let them go and graze in the fields without fencing, but lots of cars and people on the road now prevent that. don’t know about your area, but maine is rich in bugs, flies, and offensive creatures. bug dope don’t put a dent in it. good luck there. mitch

[mitchmaine]

pushed syrup through the pans with some water yesterday. 102 degrees in the sugarhouse! all cleaned up now with a report of snow on monday withsome 20 degree nights? so the buckets are still hanging and we will see what might happen.

ed, congrats on the fine color. we didn’t do anywhere near that good a job on grade. and who knows what a season is anymore. we haven’t made a hundred gallons in any of the last 5 years, and this year, we are at a pound and a half per tap. strange times. and i hear it in about five or six separate threads here. haven’t got dust yet, bill, but the ground is drying out some fast. its hard to predict some kind of a short future anymore and that makes growing, haying, sugaring and all difficult.

on a positive note, animals all healthy and working is a pleasure with them. i look forward to seeing them and receiving their greeting each morning.

[mitchmaine]

Anyone still boiling? We are still sugaring. Ran yesterday, Collected and boiled this morning. High 70’s. 90 degrees in the sugarhouse. Making grade B. Warmer tomorrow? Gonna cool down (supposed to)this weekend. Hope for another run. Getting late now. One very strange weather pattern. What next?

[mitchmaine]

@Countymouse 33546 wrote:

Over a dozen good sessions and one bad one. Actually, only the end of yesterdays session was bad, but it was very bad.

hi andy,
what if the one bad session was actually the good one? what if you looked at it like all the good sessions were ok, but it was the bad session that actually taught you something about your critters or yourself as teamster? you have to have good sessions or you might not keep at it, but it is the challenges that get you thinking. maybe?

[mitchmaine]

“sounds like” your second cultivator (12″wheel) could be a wheel hoe, or a hand cultivator, meant to be used by hand close in by the plants. you move it like a wheelbarrow and work the tines in and around the plants. just a guess…..can you post a photo?

[mitchmaine]

hi neal,

great plow. hard to tell from the photographs, but looks like a jointer bolted to the beam of the plow? it would take some horse to plow very long in heavy maine soils pulling a 14 inch plow. seems like it should be a team plow. elmin will make a good mentor.
mitch

[mitchmaine]

hey bill, if we wrung out the evaporator, we might get a third a crop. sap was weak running barely 2 percent and lots of sand. syrup was dark but wonderful flavor. we collected in the rain yesterday. i guage the end by road conditions in the woods. but the frost is still coming out of the roadways. hoping for a few more runs. i hear about 60 degree weather this week so maybe thats that. we won’t have to work very hard putting up wood for next year. looks pretty muddy and dismal around here, but that can change in an instant. i’d like to be plowing soon. good luck with your spring chores, mitch

[mitchmaine]

Still boiling? http://www.mainemaplekitchen.net Scroll down to our journal.

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