[mitchmaine]

thanks, thats good to know. guess i’ll have to start getting rh

[mitchmaine]

We probably all let get caught up in “getting’ er done”. Harnessing is an important part of the process, and if we need to adjust a hame strap or take a link in the tugs, its part of the job or process. No big deal. So maybe adjusting the horse is equally important, each day. Not saying its as easy as adjusting a strap and not saying I actually do it, but I think we all do it with or without knowing it. Making it a conscious part of the process is the important part. Donn made a coment back awhile ago about saying “line pressure” too much, or was it no pressure? Not sure, but it ought to be part of a daily list we all make up to suit ourselves while we work. And donn, I don’t think you overuse that phrase. I like it and don’t mind being reminded that the process is really what its about. Just an observation.
mitch

[mitchmaine]

April fools day. And no foolin’ we are getting socked. No’theast wind and a foot of wet heavy snow on 6”wet mud with no bottom. But right in the middle of one of the best runs we have had in years. A gallon and a half per bucket per day for four days. Eleven or twelve gallons syrup each day for us. And a good medium to boot.
Taking the day to bottle syrup and clean and wash up. Two neighbors trucks stuck in our fields pulling over to pass. Looks like they have been abandoned for a spell. Looks like we have weather for another week or ten days. Firewood is the next challenge. We are going through it pretty fast. May have to start ripping sheathing off the sugarhouse.
Hope everyone is well and happy and making sugar.

mitch

[mitchmaine]

Hi john, glad you got the chance to get your girls out to promote animal agriculture. It was a total shock to me to find so little horse powered farms in uk. And I still wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. I thought true, maybe a country so small with such a large population would probably have to be as economical as could be to grow the most yeild per acre of whatever crop was sown. But then I had to stop and wonder why or if animal power didn’t provide the same yield and that the economics was really money and about one man being able to make a living on thousands of acres instead of hundreds. And then about all the jobs lost to all the people who could be making a living on a smaller scale. If the crops grown and sold are mostly for global trade for oil, say, then where does the real food come from. And if that’s an import, what is wrong with the picture. Too many unknowns here, but putting your own people to work would be an economic plus whatever the crop. Keep up the good work there and spread the word. If you caught one kids attention and ear that day, all was worth it.
mitch

[mitchmaine]

hey geoff,
have you floated his teeth lately? he might have an eruption back there where you can’t see and your girl might have struck a nerve on the horse accidentally. don’t know, just a thought but i’d look there first.

[mitchmaine]

have you folks heard about the new proposed grading standards? fancy or light will remain the same, but the new medium will be all of the old medium and halfway down the dark grade. and the new dark will be the lower half of the old dark grade plus all of the old grade b. and then very dark is all the rest which would have been the old c syrup grade. and all syrup will be table grade. as long as it conforms to taste.
they wanted to standardize all grading systems into one simple system, but it sounds to me to be replacing a complicated system with another complicated system. i mean complicated by way of explanation to a buyer.
but it sure shows the move to darker syrups.
we ask $62, $35, $20, and $12. regardless of colour.

i have a young pair of colts collecting this spring. they are full of it and have horsepower to spare. yesterday, i put out my back trimming. so today i didn’t look forward to fighting them in the woodlot with the pain i’m in. but i had to. and i also had to switch over to a four wheel cart, cause we have lost so much snow. it is no fun to ride either. but with really no strength to hold back the horses, they seemed to sense it and tiptoed around that sugarbush careful as could be????????? any ideas about how tht happened?

mitch

[mitchmaine]

hey julie, sounds like you are saying you might give that two acres up for the summer?
maybe you could do it up right and have a spring plowing event and invite “them that wants” to come help with the job.
three of us with teams plowed up a couple acres up here last fall, and it was a great day. cold windy and rainy. lots of food.
just a thought. it would make a better seedbed. i was thinking you might just want to scratch in you seed and not disturb your pasture too much.

[mitchmaine]

hi julie,
you could try discing as soon as you can get on it, and work it til you break up the sod and bring up the soil. sow your seed and spread your compost and disc the seed /compost into the soil. straighten out your harrow and use that to roll and pack it. should get a good catch. tim’s right about keeping animals off it till it gets hold. good luck with it.
mitch

[mitchmaine]

@jac 25799 wrote:

Thats a neat idea Lancek. I remember a guy had one in the SFJ.. what is a “walking beam” though ??. I like the twin wheel idea a lot.
John

john, a walking beam unit is one axle with two wheels in tandem (not dual) on each side and the walking beam is the yoke between those two wheels. the wheels are independant of the two on the other side so it can walk over hummacks and rough terrain. i still may try it. i like the idea of being able to swing the horses and line the arch up with the hitch.

[mitchmaine]

Hey lance, really like your cart. If you look in neapfd photos of elmin mitchells forecart, you’ll see the same cart made around here for 25 years. There are 5 or 6 closeby. All good except the fairlead is quite high, and prone to tipping over on corners or when you are winching in from the side. All things that can be dealt with, but that’s time and money. And they all seem to articulate making them hard to back in the woods. Also can be dealt with.
But your cart, using a walking beam, takes weight of horses, and with your low hitch for the cable improves stability.
I would be really interested in hearing how it works out for you, good and bad.
I have a set of walking beams here and I need a project.
Does your winch have a gear reduction for holding the wood up? Or are there dogs on the winch? And does a electric winch free spool? Never used one.
Nice looking cart. I’d like to use it for a week.

mitch

[mitchmaine]

scotland and maine must be in the same time zone.

[mitchmaine]

hi john, nice looking furrow. looks like you got that plow figured out. give her heck, mitch

[mitchmaine]

when you drive those pins in, file a little notch in the head so you can twist it if you have to to make sure its square to drill through. my pins are old and had a dish in it around the bolthole to catch the tip of the drill as you bored your hole. you might try countersinking the bolthole in your pin to do the same thing.
carl’s right. the sleds have to work. loose is good.

[mitchmaine]

still have a lot of snow in the woodlot. sounds like mark made a quarter of your crop already. we don’t really need a heat wave, but its raining now.
climate change?
any of you test your sap yet? wondering how sweet it is compared to other years.

as dad might say, “drink heavy and hope for the best”

[mitchmaine]

i think you have to make them, brad. 3/8 soft carriage bolts. heat them up and drive them into a countersunk hole in a peice of hard steel. easier than it sounds.

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