[mitchmaine]

hi tracey, interesting idea and one you should work through. lots of good ideas already.
another rig that you might be interested in making, for pulp and sap, is a cart that is pretty common around here. i have one, and it is basicly two 2wd truck front ends. invert the axle and bolt a 2″ hardwood plank to each u-bolt pad fore and aft. 6-7′ is a common wheelbase. weld the kingpins solid on the rear x and weld the tie rods on the front x to the pole swing for auto steer. build any kind of body on the planks or not. pile four foot wood side way on the planks with stake pockets at either end or lash a sap tank same way and your in business.

[mitchmaine]

hi george,
thought i might mention that the length of the front tug is pretty important to the adjustment of that type harness. and it isn’t adjustable so it helps to get it right when you buy it. not impossible but quite a job to fix.
i picked up a used bio d-ring a while back and never could get it fit to my team. i shortened up the front tug twice before i got it right. the front tugs were too long and when trying to snug the horses up in a pole, they (front tugs) would pucker out, and even under a load weren’t showing the strain like they should. pretty sure thats why i bought the harness so cheap.
i have an old set in leather that i used way back, and the tugs measure 22″ pin to pin. my new set that i adjusted by “feel” are even shorter by an inch. that might be pushing it but they tighten up just right for me.
les barden or carl russell might be a better source for the math, but i’m just saying it could make it a whole lot easier getting a harness fit for your team in the first place. i think i cut atleast 3-4″ off that set of tugs to get it fit.
your hames are set into the collar so thats a given, its the d-ring that should be placed in the right spot. if your jack saddle and girt are where they ought to be, the length of the tug is the measurement between the two.
a harness maker who knows d-ring should know, but you have to be sure he does.

[mitchmaine]

Paul Harvey gave that farmer speech over 30 years ago. He wasn’t selling trucks. But he sure was selling nostalgia. That farmer he was talking about was hard to find even back then. That’s why we all heard it, sat up on the edge of the couch and paid attention. We know that guy. What ever happened to him. It was you dad. Or your grandfather, or neighbor. The honest one, that always gave it up straight. The one you could count on when everyone else was gone.
Why can’t people be like that now? There are people like that now. We probably all have it in us. I think it is the world around us that has changed. We don’t seem to have a real culture or a set of values anymore. But nostalgia sells trucks and people buy antiques and build timberframe homes.
That’s why i (we)work horses, isn’t it? we are(I’m) just looking for something real again. The best days are the ones out in the woods or fields alone with the horses. No parades or cameras. Just you and a working team doing real work. That’s when its best. I loved that ad. I didn’t even know what they were selling when it was over. I missed the truck thing, but I was sold.

[mitchmaine]

“you can make a small fortune farming, you just have to start with a large one.”

[mitchmaine]

hi mark,
penny retired and is home all the time, so the place is very warm. looks like we will have the wood we need tho’.we can always borrow from the sugarhouse if we have too.
we are sitting on a small mountain of hay. i have to guess everyone else is too, cause no one is calling. i’d like to move some of that.
i like an open winter for skidding wood. much easier chopping, and i’m hoping that any pest wintering over in the garden soil are freezing their butts off. in the end, you get what you get, like it or not. hoping you get your snow.
mitch

[mitchmaine]

i have one horse that likes to chew and he will stretch for grass. it might be the most annoying thing a horse does for me. drives me nuts. i just use bale twine. loop it through the bit ring and cinch it on either side and tie them together behind the hame tops. not very pretty but works like a charm and we have lots and lots of twine.

[mitchmaine]

hi ben,
i was wondering if you had ever thought of three horses? they don’t all have to match in size and colour, but a third horse for plowing is a really great thing. i didn’t understand it till we got one and then its hard to go back. and then if the job doesn’t require the extra animal, pull one out. you always have a reserve horse it one gets abcess or something.
harrowing, spreading manure, there are a number of jobs that go easier with three. come to think of it, all jobs go easier with the three. plowing is a good example, cause youhave so much horse that yonever have to stop.
the disadvantage is caring and feeding more mouths. back before the second world war when our state was horse powered, most of the work was done with small drafts 1400-1500 lb. it was hard to find a 23 inch collare in all the piles of old harness i went through.
(this advice and 10cents willstill get you a coffee downtown) good luck there, mitch

[mitchmaine]

hey wally, we used old dump rake teeth. spring steel, holds its perfect shape to pass under a log. just heat up the end and put a tight hook in it, use the coil end as a handle, they can’t be beat

[mitchmaine]

i cut our fields back one spring and it was all young popple. the stuff i cut in the pasture was stripped clean of bark by our horses. popple is in the willow family. wonder if it doesn’t ease their pain or sooth their guts somehow? like aspirin or bute.
the old farmers around here used to cut sod with roots and dirt attached and throw it down for the cows with the same results. the stuff just vanished. salt, minerals?
every old barn had a root celar for turnip and pumpkins for cows. no body does that anymore. the old guys are gone along with a bunch of their secrets.
what end of maine do you come from?

[mitchmaine]

Do we believe that a forest of trees is an ecosystem in and of itself? And that animals live in symbiosis with the forest exchanging carbon and oxygen for mutual gain? And then that any disruption in the forest ecology is natural as long as what ever the resulting “damage” is left to decompose and become part of the forest still.
Then it would be safe to assume that any time wood or other plant material was removed from that system, it would compromise the sustainability of said forest.
So, any logging would represent an impact., low or high. The minute we enter a woodlot and extract limbwood, weare imposing impact and have subtracted from the natural system and have compromised it. And low impact would only represent a term or condition representative of the system at play. Low impact could apply to skidders and heavy machinery if the job or results were good compared to the normal conditions of heavy machinery. And the same would go for animals in the woods. Low impact would be the same applied to the normal conditions of animal logging. Since normal in each parameter is so different, it would also be assumed that low impact of horse logging would be “better” than low impact with a chipping crew. Perhaps we are misusing the term, or our expectations should be explored a little further.

[mitchmaine]

if its old enough, they used to heat and draw out the points. heat them up red hot, and with a hammer, pound each side with a side blow to draw out the point. as it was starting to cool, you just tapped the point taking off the edge and giving it a brad point that would hold in the wood. you weren’t supposed to file them.

[mitchmaine]

you did it again carl. you have a way with words for sure. its a gift and thanks for sharing more. i noticed on his obituary he and i are only three days different in age. we share nothing except the same space in time, although it made me curious about him and your text made me wish i had got a chance to meet and know him a little. thanks carl.

[mitchmaine]

it sounds like he made a good life for himself after his early years. any more stories you can remember about him would be greatly appreciated.

[mitchmaine]

language is great. i love it. communicating with someone else, especially in text alone can be tricky, but great as well, when you connect.
in the end, your work has to speak for itself. all the words in the world can’t help a botched job.

[mitchmaine]

nice quiet pair of horses george. gotta like that

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