Did Some Fall Tillage Today…

[grey]

John – looking at “Speedy” in all those photos, he/she (sorry, don’t recally the gender) sure looks unhappy. Blowing the nostrils out in irritation, crabby expression, crabby ears. Hopefully he/she settles down soon. Plowing with a “Speedy” take a little bit of the joy out of it. At least you have a good anchor horse to help keep him/her in check. I had a “Speedy” and was plowing single with her. Talk about flapping in the wind beind the plow. Neither of us were having much fun. When she finally “got it” and slowed down, things clicked and suddenly it was a joy again.

Remind us; how long as “Speedy” been in harness?

On a different note, I am very jealous of your land. Someday I hope to run a plowshare through our ground and *not* turn over rusted sheet metal, huge chunks of aggregate or concrete, half-burned logs or solid clay. Someday…

[grey]

Carl – that grubby line across the back of the shirt makes me grin. I did some plowing and then, seeing the late hour, dashed into town to the hardware store before they closed, to get some parts to finish a plumbing project. Old-timer in line behind me at the register tapped me on the arm and asked, “Been plowin??”

I was floored! I said that, yes, I had been plowing earlier that day and how did he know? The guy had a huge grin and said that he recognised the dirt ground into a stripe diagonal across the back of my shirt from one armpit up to the opposite shoulder. We went out into the parking lot and leaned on my truck and had a long talk about the local soil and plowing and horses. It was great. If it weren’t for the reek, I’d say that wearing your plowing shirt into town is a great conversation starter.

[TBigLug]

@grey 12575 wrote:

Remind us; how long as “Speedy” been in harness?

She’s been working in harness for 12 YEARS!!! lol Now you see why I get so mad at her. She knows better. I switched her bit back over to the straight bar with a slow twist from the leverage bit and that helped alot but she’s not fond of my 5 y/o she’s hooked with. I’ve chaulked it up to she’s gonna have to deal with it. She’ll get better with time. Now we have the two of them pastured togetherso eventually they’ll bond and learn to work better together. She’s not TOO bad now but she could be better.

[Joshua Kingsley]

John,
That is great that you have somone who will help you lern and share like that. The soil looks alot like mine here on the river bottom. Hard to find areas in VT where there are no rocks but we lucked out and our farm is about 250 acres of that nice sandy loam with hardly a pebble in sight.

I wish that I had a plow that was good enough to give it a try now that I am seeing the pictures I may have to add a good sulky plow and a walking plow to the dream list. It looks like a great way to work the horses. Great pictures everyone and thanks for sharing.

[J-L]

Vand that is sure pretty country you’re in. Tell me about the team you have on the walking plow there. They look to be youngsters. Also what are you guys going to grow in your plowed ground in all these pictures?

[Carl Russell]

We grow Garlic, Potatoes, and Beans for Farmers Market in the field I’m plowing in those pics. I’ve been growing there for twenty-two years without using a drop of petroleum, or anything but manure for fertilizer. Picked a lot of stone, cut a lot of brush, and even now, I’m still adding a few furrows as I can. You can see the blackberry roots in the last furrow. Tough ground, but we don’t have much land to choose from.

Carl

[TBigLug]

The field I’m in will be oats next year seeded with alfalfa for a new hay field. We also do soybeans, corn and wheat depending on what field we’re in. Most of our ground gets worked by tractor but we do as much as we can with the horses, mainly for fun. I’m working on getting our old horse drawn cultivator fixed up this winter for our garden. Might even get the old disk fixed for field prep.

[Vand]

Vand that is sure pretty country you’re in. Tell me about the team you have on the walking plow there. They look to be youngsters. Also what are you guys going to grow in your plowed ground in all these pictures?

The grey Shire mare (Sadie) was about 11 in that picture. She’s been there, done that. She’s started too many colts to count and is an excellent furrow-horse. She likes to work. The black filly (Emma) was coming 4 at the time. She’s also a Shire and one of the babies from our stud. Also likes to work (although she’s a furrow horse now)

That ground was being plowed for oats and is a project we’re involved in at a national park in our area (Willamette Valley in Oregon). It was pretty wet that year; but the ground there is really nice. I’m using my great-grandfather-in-law’s John Deere plow from the 1920’s and my harness (dad found it at an antique store and we’ve restored it…it’s about 80 years old).

I try to take a new colt plowing every fall. We usually start in November or December (driving new colts with our older/experienced horses) and then go plowing starting in February through about May. We have a few competitions and some just plowing for friends and neighbors. I have fun with it and I think it’s one of the best jobs a young horse can do.

[Simple Living]

Just thought I would share a couple of pics my son took this spring as I was plowing up the small garden up by the house. Have not had time to plow this fall yet. It does seem to get in your blood thats for sure. I’m using 2 of my Haflinger mares on an Oliver #11, no pole(all flat land here), with a 14″ bottom and a slatted mouldboard. I hope you enjoy!

Gordon

[Rod44]

Nice haflingers!

[TBigLug]

Nice looking horses Gordon. Looks like fun!

[J-L]

I envy you all for the nice dirt without rocks. I worked up 15 acres of ground here in Wyoming last spring with a tractor and disk. We hauled 7 dumptruck loads of rock from it. That was the second time it’d been planted. We plan to keep doing it until we run out of rocks (hopefully before I’m long gone) and plant a bigger spud patch along one side. We’ll see.
I found an old survey marker on the corner of that alfalfa patch that says the elevation is 7068′. Not a great place to grow much but hay. I’m sure I can make it into a good potato patch and get to use my potato plow at least.
I’ve only been able to plow once in Idaho for a day. I thought that was the best job around, at least as good as mowing. It mesmerized me watching that ground roll away from the plow. Makes for great horses too.
Job well done to all of you posting pictures of your plowing.

[jen judkins]

Nice pictures everyone. I’m enjoying seeing all the different plows. Can’t wait to get back to it. I think Ed (highway) has a lead on a sulky plow he wants to renovate, so maybe by spring we’ll be plowing again.

[Vand]

I hope that ground is better than the plowing at PCC Rock Creek.

Yes Joel! The ground is much better than PCC. We do the plowing the first weekend of May, usually work the ground down and plant the 2nd day and harvest (all horse-drawn equipment) some time in July. This is all done at Champoeg State Park in Newberg, OR. We have some other plowing events throughout the year; but that’s the big one that is hosted by our club.

See more pictures of our club plowing events at:http://www.odhba.org/Site/Home.html

Go to Photo Albums.

[TBigLug]

Finally got the videos to upload from that day. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7SVptZOQno

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpveT096GN0

[Author]

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