[mitchmaine]

hi erika,
27 degrees here yesterday. suns higher and with the roadsalt, the roads were looking a little wet, and some water was running off the eaves on the south side of the barn and i heard some crows and i got that same feeling you got. i think we are gonna make it.
john, as far as porridge and mush, i had to eat that stuff every morning of my life and if i didn’t finish, my grandmother fried the rest up for supper. and i swore if i lived through it i’d never eat another bowl ever. ironically, it probably is one of the reasons i survived, and now i like it again, but can’t for some reason eat it every day. ha, here’s to cornmeal, oats and longer shadows.

your friend, mitch

[mitchmaine]

a long time ago, a man named albert cray and i partnered up in the woods.we pushed wood up in the same pile. he sold the logs and gave me half and i sold the pulp and gave him half. if it was on odd number his wife kept track and knew who got the extra penny each week (honestly). if a skidder broke down we both worked on it and the money came out of the woodpile. if one of us got hurt (and it happened) we paid each others doctor bills. all on a handshake. if you want someone to trust you, you have to trust them first.

[mitchmaine]

Hi george, nice scoot. I like the stake pockets. I’m rebuilding an old scoot now.
This has to be a very primitive tool. Refined by time and as efficient as could possibly be. Differing in locale by small degrees, but one scoot looks pretty much like them all. And all the scoot builders over the ages have tried their own ideas and tossed out the bad ones that didn’t work.
Unfortunately for us they left no record, except for the scoot as is. That said, I thought I might try something a little different, probably tried hundreds of times and rejected. But no one left word as to why, so I have to try it to find out why. Instead of putting on the traditional 4×4 shoe, I’m trying a 4×6 on flat, beveled like a true moccasin runner (without iron) to see if it floats a little better in deep snow (which we have). The locals pinned with 1” oak pins drove up through the shoe and runner, split, wedged and driven home. Trimmed off top and bottom, it wears with the shoe and drives out pretty easy.
i posted a photo in the gallery of the runners.
Nice job on your scoot.

mitch

[mitchmaine]

in summer, they pasture and pull grass all night. in tie stalls during the day with as green a hay as we got to match the grass. a handful of grain to get them through the door and more when they work. water all the time. reverse in the winter. like john says, “works for me”…good luck and enjoy them hosses”

[mitchmaine]

we must be having the same kind of a day. somewhere in the mid- seventies, ( can’t remember pulp prices) i was cutting and delivering two cord four foot fire wood for $60. per day when welders at bath iron works (highest paid blue collar job in the state) made $189. a week takehome pay. cutting wood, even without bennies, was a good way to make a living. and we both know whats happened since.

[mitchmaine]

there was a variation of those cuts used around here by a few choppers. my neighbor for one. it was an undercut like carls humbolt cut with a short angled top cut like geoffs making a wide 90 degree open face that literally fell out of the cut. if you cut the top cut first you could look into it while cutting up under and see when the chain cut into the topcut so you weren’t cutting too deep into your hinge from the front. you could make a deeper face without wrecking too much wood and have a wider hinge. but it was a lot of work and meant a slightly taller stump. just another method that i’m not necessarily recomending. just for the record.
mitch

[mitchmaine]

george,
is there anywhere handy that you could cobble up a log brow to help you load your scoot? or sleds? looks to me like there is only three flat spots in the whole state, and two of them were made with a shovel. two men were always used to roll logs. its not you and your peavey, there’s just a missing man.

mitch

[mitchmaine]

another thought and easy to tie. double up your line and make a simple figure eight knot and use the loop left over to hook into. easy to tie and break.

[mitchmaine]

hey george, i think i’d stick with the bowline. either end. the beauty of that knot is you can always break it.

[mitchmaine]

hi al,
interesting harness that you have there. looks like a cross between a d-ring and belly backer. nice looking horses. look like sweethearts. you’ll have them a long time.

mitch

[mitchmaine]

good morning, john.
i think working with horses (in the woods or whatever) is its own reward.
and sharing those experiences with “like minded folk” is fun. and can be rewarding in the sense we can build up each others courage, etc. blah, blah, blah.
trying to justify doing it with folks that don’t know what you are talking about, or don’t just get it, is a waste of good time that could be spent with the horses, which it’s what its all about anyways.
in the end, its just us and the animals, and the best stuff happens when you’re out there alone. thats how i feel.

[mitchmaine]

@near horse 23979 wrote:

Hi John,

My other “name” is bunchgrass – name of our farm Bunchgrass Farm. I only was tipped off to the arborist site when Lance (I think) started this thread. Hopped on over, read the posts and spoke what I felt (of course, I had to register first) – glad you thought it didn’t stick out too much.

hey, bunchgrass. read your post over on arborist. interesting that they thought uncle pete, cutting his firewood, was really horselogging back in 1955. must have been the picture. somebody ought to post the photo of brad johnson in the other thread and see if they think he’s oldtimey. he can be our uncle brad.

[mitchmaine]

i think the damage comes from the fact that wheeled tractors make ruts and when momentarily stuck, spin their wheels. the ruts become waterways and then the erosion.
animals punch up the same ground. it settles out, grasses over, and you seldom know they were there.

[mitchmaine]

@Carl Russell 23891 wrote:

That would have been a good idea:o…. clearly beyond my thought process last night. We could have pulled downhill too:(. I’ll have to keep that in mind for next time:rolleyes:.

Carl

Took an extra hitch the other day, cause it was so cold that morning. Got a late start. When we got out of the woods, the sun was down but still light out. Sweat was turning to ice, and I banged myself in the mouth twice trying to undo the belly girts. I was cold and tired and still had to feed and water and rub down the horses. Lynn miller could have been stuck in the driveway and he’d a had ta wait til morning for a tow.
Anybody thinking about snatchblocks at that time of day would have got a gold star. Pullin out Erika deserves a nod too.
Well, ok, maybe lynn miller.

[mitchmaine]

a worn out set of skidder chains makes a good supply of nose rings.

[Author]

Posts