[blue80]

George, I think too that fuel prices will go up and stay up. From what I have been told:

1/U.S. dollar has been the global tier for commodity trades, and that has given the U.S. an edge on cheap fuel through OPEC. As the U.S. dollar is devalued and used less in global exchange, the U.S. advantage and subsidized fuel goes away

2/Emerging markets in asia/china are showing an insatiable lust for oil/energy. I was told no matter if all of us quit using our vehicles, fuel prices wouldn’t go down, as the growing demand is with the billion or so people planning to buy a car and heat their structures with fossil fuels in the next decade.

3/Environmental regs are becoming more and more restrictive, and costly. The gulf oil blowout accelerated this. Unfortunately, the market is no longer supply and demand, rather the speculation of supply and demand. You see it all over the news. Based on “reports” the stacked market changes…

4/Trucking regs are becoming more and more restrictive, and about 1/2 of the bridges in the states need repaired apparently. These costs pass down to the consumer….

I am with you on debt, we think about resizing too…No fun being a slave to the lender, making decisions based on the bills you have to pay, instead of what work is worth doing. But my problems are largely self inflicted.:o Hopefully now that I know better, I will do better;)

[blue80]

Sorry, http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ not ahpis!:o

[blue80]

This article and update was of great interest to me, thanks Geoff!

Note that a public comment period of 30 days was begun back on Dec. 23. at AHPIS.

For those interested, let’s take the time to voice our concerns at the Animal Health Plant Inspection Service of GMO trespassing on our rights to grow and preserve our own crops/seed!! This is a time where alfalfa, beets and other seed rulings are all coming to a head.

For those who don’t know, when GMO cross pollinates with our crop making totally new protiens, we cannot legally save our own seed as we have “infringed” on the GMO intellectual property rights filed at the USPTO.:eek: There have been many documented cases of GMO litigating against the consumer in this area. So far its been David and Goliath with Goliath kickin butt….:eek:

[blue80]

My first attempt at youtube, a walkaround of the plow. Should the coulter be higher?

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

[blue80]

Dec. 23 talking on the phone at 1pm with some friends in town, they were planning on carolling that night behind a pickup truck. They mentioned how it would be fun to do with horses.
So I got the horses ready, my wife strung the wagon with christmas lights, one guy brought his boat battery, another brought an inverter. Plugged the whole mess in to a power strip, and had a few hrs. up and down main street lit up like a Christmas tree. I put an LED headlamp on strobe mode on the end of the pole, it lasted all night…..
Met some teenagers who were genuinely excited to “work” with a team. Until they got cold and had to go in and play the new Xbox they got for Christmas…:confused:
Lots of fun for all.

[blue80]

If I had to start over again with no trailers, I’d seriously consider the rollof trailer as listed at http://wyoming.craigslist.org/cto/2119765716.html
as an option. Could have a horse hauler bed, camper/living quarters bed, flatbed, dump bed etc. etc.

Nice big winch up front to haul and load things.

Kevin

[blue80]

JL and near horse, thanks for the western grass expertise. I’m also looking at new triticale varities, also Italian ryegrass, both which a couple cattle guys have been growing. Anything green at this point will make me happy.

Been cold here, only a few days above freezing this month, so thought we’d better get mowing the fallow that was supposed to be plowed under last season. Pulled a high gear #9 out of a flowerbed and have about 30 acres of kocia weed down. Tough cutting, some of the stems are an inch thick.

12 ft. oliver Dump rake is fantastic, makes me feel like a king sittin there, making windrows of weeds to burn; once the neighbours corn gets combined, that is. Just my luck the wind will pick up just as I light a match:eek:

Not so bad working dawn till dusk this time of year!;) But I wonder whatever I did without my led headlamp before???

Best Christmas wishes to all!

Kevin

[blue80]

I tried on the back of the stalls kindof skeptical, but with an 8 ft stall and a wood curb at the back, the harness is not being kicked off, nor messed upon to date. Of the few harness storing configurations I’ve tried, I am liking this the best so far.
The horses also seem to back very carefully and stay centered when they back out, which is nice. Hate it when they get into the habit of trying to run backout of their stalls….

[blue80]

Used 3 by 12 doug fir for the sidewalls, 2 by 6 t and g decking for the front wall.
Kindof made them modular with materials at hand, to be able to re/move them easily, and they sit on radiant heat concrete floor so I wanted some mass without fixing them down to the concrete….We’ve got a lot of young and green horses and mostly use the stalls for the odd overnight, training, trimming in the evenings, and harnessing, and cool down; I wanted to try and keep the back ends open so its easy to bring in mulitple green horses on ropes without having to mess with getting around full height posts at the back of the stalls.
To keep the horses from putting a lot of pressure and turning in the stalls, I put a trainer on the sidewalls; upside down U with lag bolts out the sides. They teach themselves pressure and release quite quickly…..Two new big wild 8 yr old percherons are here for training, the buddy sour one in the picture is tied short with a rope, and kept company by a couple fillys. I screwed a board at the back of the stalls to tie the sidewalls together so he can’t tear things up….

Planned to put a hayloft above but who knows…..

[blue80]

We use chain, centered in the stall.
The stalls are 4’6 wide; I know some draft stalls are 5 ft… We cut pieces of chain 3 ft. long. We give them 2’6 of chain as a lead inside the stall. The chain goes through a hole in the front of the stall (2’6 up from the floor) and the remainder is tied with wire into a ball, creating a bit of weight on the end of the chain, which takes up slack, especially if the hole is drilled on a bit of an angle….
Basically the horses can touch noses and thats it, sidewalls are 4ft.
We feed off the floor, no manger.
Want pics? they aren’t pretty…..:o

Kevin

[blue80]

Also, as an option, I believe the Can-Am border still has a list of occupations where you can cross the border and work without much paperwork. Unless they’ve changed it, it used to be called a TN Visa. There is a list of occupations that are in demand and Forestry/logging was on the list last I checked….

[blue80]

My brother had a horse logger in SW Ontario do his land, but that is 800 miles from Thunder Bay….
I ‘ve got an old friend who runs the Peterbilt dealership there, they deal with lots of commercial loggers I’ll send him an email and see if he knows anyone….

Kevin

[blue80]

If I was to do logging full time, I’d think about this truck we used to have for versatility.

2004 International Harvester 7300 crew cab with a 235 hp DT466. Underpowered for heavy towing, but a great workhorse motor. We pulled a 14ft. enclosed trailer with it, though the heavy rear end suspension was hard on the 2 inch trailer hitches…
6 guys could sit in the cab with elbows not touching.
This truck was spec’d heavier, but titled for a pound under CDL. If I kept it, I would have taken off the front under tool boxes and installed an air lift axle; we stressed/bent the frame loading too heavy, too far forward, going too fast;)
It is 4wd drive, we were know to have mud halfway up the rims on muddy jobsites in Indiana. The guys called it “the tree climber”
Many an evening was spent camping in the back seat. Just thought I’d pass a pic on, not many around like this one…

Kevin

[blue80]

After 3 yrs in town, we finally made time to camp in the bighorns for a couple nights. Took two horses in the back of the 18ft trailer, and gear in the front 8 ft. compartment. I spent most of the time rewiring the trailer to run combo, so now we can put another trailer in tow behind the horse trailer…..Trailer has 7ft ceiling.

Things I like about the truck are
5 speed manual, cummins, w/
exhaust brake-we have 14 miles of 10 percent grade off the mountains, and the exhaust brake keeps us from having to touch the brakes in third gear- flatbed is priceless,
and there was already a dent in every panel when I bought it so I don’t have to freak out when accidents happen……
Oh, and I love http://www.dieseltruckresource.com a forum of cummins motorheads that basically solve all my mechanical troubleshooting!

Kevin

[blue80]

I’d recommend a 12 gauge at the rib cage, but maybe your a sureshot with a 22….

I’ve got a friends goat here that got its head caught in the woven wire fence on the weekend. Dog from the same place chewed one entire ear and half of its face off. Dogs can sure be awful when they have extra energy…..

[Author]

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