[Gabe Ayers]

With HHFF the differentiation or separation from conventional approaches of forestry practices starts with defining our practitioners as “Biological Woodsmen”, not just “horse loggers”.

We (HHFF BOD) awards a “Biological Woodsman” certificate at the completion of an apprenticeship that certifies that the apprentice is approved by the board of directors to certify to all that:

(fill in the blank with name of BWM)

has fulfilled the requirements of

Biological Woodsman Certification

including worst-first single tree selection, directional felling, animal powered skidding, and restorative forestry management.

dated and signed by the mentor and President of the BOD

These are very highly prized documents for the few folks that have them.

This is not a simple proposition, but it is a way of separating ourselves from conventional loggers and foresters.

I will add that I also am a forester and find little support for the forester community. There are few foresters that will support our work. We should work with those few for sure, but I have to say:

If conventional foresters had the answer to what is really sustainable forestry nobody would be asking the question, they all would already be doing it.

I don’t make this statement to incite a discussion about conventional foresters but to encourage the development of the DAPFI group effort as a whole with or without the presence of a “forester”.

We are all able to read what most conventional foresters have to say about horse logging. It is generally not good and not the source of real support we will need to make a living doing “good forestry”.

On the other hand, we don’t want to exclude anyone that is willing to help everyone doing this work to be successful.

As far as I know there are only few “foresters” in the country that are actually practicing horse loggers – Carl Russell, Andy Egan, Chad Vogel, Josh Bissette and myself. There could be more that I am not aware of, there always is more going on out there than I realize. Maybe Scott is another “forester” for this list?

[Gabe Ayers]

“I wonder if this organization can help to inform horseloggers about using certain methods of forest management as a way to separate them from mechanized forestry?” – quote Carl Russell.

This is exactly what we at HHFF have been doing for over 10 years now.

I appreciate the set up Carl with that question. I think another issue that Carl and I have in common is that we have written about most of this stuff many times before.

If this group were not about supporting a different type of forestry than what is practiced conventionally I would want nothing to do with it.

Animal power is the superior form of low impact overland extraction of logs. Yet, the silviculture is the most important aspect of what we do and that separates us from mechanized harvesters.

The separation from mechanized methods should help us procure or find timber to work on/in and could help us market the products of our work as coming from more sensitive extraction methods and better forestry.

That is called establishing a “source differentiated identity”, making sure the consumer knows your products are not the same as ordinary forest products. The classic example is organic food versus chemically grown food. This is exactly why we started the DRAFTWOOD program. http://www.draftwood.com This approach has generated some premiums for the values of our products for many years and certainly could be a part of every “animal powered” loggers marketing if they wanted. It is not a get rich quick scheme, but a way to find somewhat better markets than hauling it to the local mill and taking whatever they will give you for it….

We certainly haven’t found DRAFTWOOD markets for all the material (tree species) we harvest in the practice of Restorative Forestry.

This is what Tim Lancek and I have been talking about helping him get started in Missouri. It could work anywhere. It may not be for everyone and as Carl and others prove you can just be a good forester and good horselogger and have more work than you can do too….

It is something HHFF brings to this group as an example, everyone has to make their own decisions. We will be glad to share it.

So here we go into the next chapters in this international animal powered forestry group.

Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving, we are off to work a little today and maybe work off some of that turkey and mashed potatoes. We have a few snow flurries blowing around, it is really wintery now even in the Southeast.

This may be a sub group thing for this group and I volunteer for that part if there is such a motion.

[Gabe Ayers]

R,

Horses generally are thought of as being faster than oxen, but they don’t do any useful safe farm or forest work while running.

As a youngster getting started you should take the time to visit with some proven teamsters that use both oxen and horses.

Where are you at in Va. maybe we can recommend someone for you to visit with?

No media is like the real thing, go be around people actually doing this work.

[Gabe Ayers]

As a former teacher who now farms and works in the woods with horses, I find it thrilling to hear about folks who are trying to learn these skills. There are many other more lucrative ways to make a living, but few more fulfilling and more demanding than working with horses on a farm or woodlot setting. Two of the goals I have for my own work are gaining the skills and knowledge of the generations before us before they are gone, and also helping to pass on what I have learned to others who are committed to this work. I think there is no substitute for a mentor who can teach you how to do it right. I encourage anyone who wants learn to work animals to reach out to folks who have these skills and are willing to pass them on.

[Gabe Ayers]

Rural Heritage Magazine is now selling the DVD series we had on the Rural Heritage Show on RFD-TV.

It is entitled: Restorative Forestry Techniques.

I think I may have posted this here before but things tend to fade into the past as they are bumped down the list by more recent post.

So if you are looking for a holiday gift for that house bound horseman, muleman or drover, this could be a good one.

If anyone does get this DVD please let us know what you think of it.

[Gabe Ayers]

Well despite the obvious finite reality of oil running out and being beyond the peak production heading towards the downhill side of availability – no one really knows exactly when it will all be gone, used up, not available. But we all know that it will not last forever.

So given the inevitable absence of oil I suspect we will come up with another liquid fuel of some sort to transition modern society into a different labor saving and therefore addictive fuel.

Since that is not the business I am in, my thoughts are more about the reality that animal power is a superior way of addressing human needs now and in the future for many reasons. These reasons are listed many places so I won’t repeat them here. Probably the least expressed one is the redefining of the human component being a useful part of the work.

Sure, someone may come up with a remote controlled electronic computerized way of working draft animals but that is doubtful (current market to small to pay for R&D) also and this would just be another displacement of the value of the human presence that hopefully most folks wouldn’t fall for as another weakening influence on their own personal presence, independence and worth.

There is a mental health aspect to working with animals that is very valuable,
some would say priceless. Working with animals is good for people. There is so much wisdom in Churchill’s statement about there being something good for the inside of a man from touching the outside of a horse, (I paraphrase that may not be the exact quote).

The self limiting nature of animal powered techniques is often used to dismiss, reduce and marginalize the culture. In fact that may be the most empowering aspect of the activity. We must come to find ways that are more returning to the natural world that our very survival as a species depends upon. That reality is coming more to the everyday persons consciousness than ever in history. The impact of burning fossil fuels to assist in our every need is coming home to roost. Of course great wealth is deeply invested in denying this reality, but having ones head in the sand or
some other blinding place leaves many members of society out of any potential for real change in the future.

There is a constant pressure to control human activity in the modern world. Licenses are required for just about everything anyone does and that will only increase as a pattern to collect revenue from even the simplest of things. Just about everything we do seems to attract, promote or submit to the development of a structure that includes useless middle management that is in on the take of income generated often for our own safety or the public safety.

Many of these forms of control are subtle, like insurance, licensing, taxes, etc. Preying on the fears of ones own failure, accidents or negligence that result in injury. These common place strategies of society are so prevalent that they are seldom described as scams, although many seem to be. I’ve read that if most people put the money they pay in insurance premiums in the bank they could retire years earlier particularly if they don’t have an accident the kills them or someone else before they made it that far and what makes this a profitable industry is that most folks don’t use them.
Licensing is just another revenue stream creation in many cases. They are subtle ways of collecting more taxes and restricting much liberty.

My point is that working with animals brings personal responsibility to ones next breath, next step and ongoing existence. It give independence in return for accepting interdependence, the fact that we can meet our needs by meeting the needs of other living creatures. It is limited, which many would deem appropriate and certainly the reality of oil. Yet within the limitations are the promise of new life, humans, foals, calves, topsoil, saplings on and on. Even death itself advises the great value of being alive.

Animal powered culture will survive as it has for thousands of years, as long as this planet will support advanced life forms.

I would submit that this may be the only forum brave enough to even ask this question. We are not radical, yet these modern times make us seem to be. We are traditionalist by being heritage based workers. We are futurist by having a vision of this culture being capable of going forward as forever as any thing else out there in this modern world.

Please forgive my ramblings and grumbling about things I also can’t avoid. I hope everyone has something to look forward to, that alone makes the future worth living for.

Obviously I see animal powered culture as a powerful and empowering potential in the future of humanity.

Disclaimer:
This is a personal babble and has no part in the official signature for HHFF.

[Gabe Ayers]

Well for the rubber to hit the road somebody will have to buy some tires for this buggy. How will be pay for what we do next? Or should we decide what to first and then how to pay for it?

A website would be nice, a newsletter first though and a collection of practitioners to invite to join.

Our theme and focus should be what we have to offer our membership; it has to be worth something to have people join, especially if there is a membership fee or dues.

Here we go. But I have never believed half the stories I’ve heard about hooking the animal to a log and turning them loose. My grandfather said the trick was to always keep their mate in the woods so they would come back and that this always worked best away from home….

Salute,

Jason Rutledge

I posted this yesterday, but it didn’t get delivered. Sometimes this medium is lame.

[Gabe Ayers]

HHFF has trained 56 Biological Woodsmen through our mentor apprentice network.

[Gabe Ayers]

Good comment Mark, I forgot to mention we always cradle hitch all our big logs.

[Gabe Ayers]

George,

One of the difficult things about a cable and sheave addition to your tool box is finding the sheaves or pulleys. The most frequent modern use is by wreckers or crane operators. We have found them at old farm auctions and military surplus stores in the past.

The larger the diameter of the pulley the less likely it is to curl your cable, so don’t be afraid of the bigger ones. We also have gotten them from linemen that work for utility companies. The cable is just standard stuff like what is used on the skidders, but we have had the good fortune to come upon some stainless steel wire rope that is more flexible and easier to handle. A big note of caution is to use very good leather gloves when handling this cable to protect your hands in case of frayed strands puncturing your flesh….

It is a matter of physics with the pulley doubling the power of the animals and each additional pulley or sheave compounding the animals strength.

Rough description:

We use a simple attachment point that is at the destination the log needs to end up after the effort. So attach the cable there, usually through an eyelet on the end and a short chain around the tree. We often use a nylon strap for this attachment to avoid debarking the tree we are using for what the old guys called the “dead man”. We have put stout sticks against the tree to keep the cable or strap off the actual bark of the dead man tree.

Then run the cable to the log, through a sheave attached to the choker chain on the log and back to another pulley at the dead man or even a different location and then out a skid trail to the team. This way the team can go in one direction and the log in another. When more than one pulley is used it is called a two part line. Get all your cables aligned in the pulleys before hitching the team and be prepared to not have the logs jam against a stump, rock or roots to bring it up into the skid trail or road to move it on to the landing.

We have two pieces of cable, (one 150′ and one 300′) and four sheaves that we use when needed. We use them to pull hangups down out of other trees and big logs up banks out of gullies or ravines into a position we can get to them with the arch. It is slow work. Each application only moves the log so far, so you will have to reset the entire arrangement after each effort to get it into position for easier handling. Just like with hooking directly to the log, don’t hook anything to the team (on an arch or doubletree) until you are ready to go.

I know this text description is inadequate to inform someone of how to do this, but maybe you can find a wrecker operator that will show you how they use them with a winch to get vehicles out of hard spots. There is nothing like seeing this work to get it.

We do have some video of this working and have posted a you tube piece of Chad Miano doing it on some very steep ground. You may have to search for that on the site here, I am on a different computer this morning and can’t cut copy paste the link. If you search you tube for Chad Miano you can find it, but is not real clear nor was it produced to be instructive. Someone just filmed him doing cable and sheave work and you get a glimpse of it working.

Handling long length logs is important to the animal powered practitioner because they are worth more money and the market defines the specs for the goods. Our cabin logs are the highest value for eastern white pine so we have to have a way to move them when we are on a site that needs them harvested for all the forestry reasons we talk about in describing restorative, improvement, sustainable forestry.

We know folks that have used this system to load logs onto trucks and forwarding wagons too and of course they work well on a gin pole, just slow and requires more hands and skills.

We usually spend a day on this at our private instructional courses.

Good luck George, you can do it.

[Gabe Ayers]

Moving on with all yes’s at this point….me too.

Heard that Simon is getting washed away in the UK….hope his horses can swim as well as they log…..

[Gabe Ayers]

Charley-
I will send some pics when I get it back out with the horse – might be a couple of days as we are busy with turkeys.

[Gabe Ayers]

We just add power by putting more horses out front. We use a unicorn hitch with one horse up front hooked to a chain that runs through the breast hoke of the wheel team to the arch hooked to the log with the cradle hitch choker chain arrangement. I don’t have a photo of the unicorn hitch but have a couple here of the multiple hitch approach. The one I was able to get to upload is a six up moving a 50+ black oak out of the woods and onto a steeple chase course in Northern Virginia. Very hard on the back arch….but we got it in place and didn’t tear the turf up at all. I will try to post more photos of the four up arrangement later if anyone is interested.

Some cautions are: don’t pull around curves with this arrangement on a heavy load as any arch will turn over. It may be safer to walk beside the arch if there is a question of it turning over. Also be sure your animals will all start together and stay on the load.

You can see a photo of six head on a big poplar log on the front of our web site, address below. It will take extra hands unless you are very skilled at handling more than a team by yourself. We have used four up many times, but they have always been horses that I broke and they start by the same contact command and release signal.

I have always wanted to try the rope pulley system to avoid the direct chain connection. We have used a nylon tow strap for the front team to give a little flex in the attachment.

You also could use a cable and sheave (snatch block/pulley) and move it a few feet at a time until you get it on the downhill side of the skid. When we don’t have the extra horses power this is what we do. It is much slower, but we get it done. Maybe we should have a thread about that technique?

Hope some of this helps, let us know what you do. You can do it, it just takes more power. Maybe some other hands on here will have suggestions.

[Gabe Ayers]

We had a thread on this once somewhere.

Peach Lane made our shorter front traces to be 18-19 inches, upon request,

BUT you have to remind them to make the back trace longer to make up for what they take off the front. They forgot or didn’t recognize the need to make the back trace longer on ours. On a big long mare with enough room in her barrel to carry groceries and a foal – the overall length gets to short after correcting the front to keep it from blousing out excessively and letting the back pad and belly band ride to far back. When you working a low hitch or dragging a double tree around these shorter traces on a long horse sometimes hits their heels, even when let out all the way.

So make sure you make the back ones longer when you custom shorten the front ones. These fellows are making this harness off patterns they have and unless we specify the changes piece by piece they will make them exactly like the rest of the patterns.

I’ve heard Les Barden has arch plans now, maybe we can get him to make a Dr. D-Ring harness pattern?

[Gabe Ayers]

John Plowden is in Stow, ME, for any of you wondering where Stowe ME is located! Sorry for any confusion. And, no I am not getting any kick-backs from the manufacturer. I just really think this a great tool.

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