[CRTreeDude]

I haven’t personally but there are still lots of people here who make things out of leather. Pretty much anything you could want.

We have a large dog (100 lbs) that a collar wasn’t working well with – we had a leather maker making a harness for her. They did a very good job.

[CRTreeDude]

Well, the lingo is Spanish. The economy is doing very very well. The number one export is tourism, but the second is high tech. Very good quality land goes for about 3,000 dollars for 1.7 acres (manzana is the measurement here 7/10 of a hectare)

Ag crops would be bananas, plantains, pineappes, yuca in our area. Lots of cattle. In the mountains you can find most vegetables year round. Lettuce, brocolli, tomatoes, potatoes, strawberries, blackberries.

Papaya is raised a lot too.

[CRTreeDude]

The point of using a breed instead of a mutt (i.e. run of the mill mixed breed) is predicatability. If you get a young horse of a certain breed – you pretty much know in the end what you can expect – or reasonably.

However, you can get some excellent horses if you know what you are looking for. I like taking and training up horses for riding and for hauling and dividing them into their categories when you you know them better. It is generally pretty obvious very soon.

But, for example, when I got a dog, I got an English Cocker Spaniel because of the traits of that dog. Intelligent, playful, loyal.

Any horse breed selected for draft is likely to be a good choice, barring a problem with the horse. A mixed breed means you will have to know more, but they may well be excellent as well.

[CRTreeDude]

We may well be considered anti-fun, though I suspect because we enjoy life. Often the idea of fun means thrill-seeking. Thanks, but no thanks. I get enough thrills just living my life… If you don’t have a boring life, you don’t need to seek thrills.

So much to experience, so much to do, so little time. We purchased a new property (140 acres) and, besides the initial walk the farm, I have yet to really explore it – in reality, it would take a month to do it (we are talking part jungle, etc.). In total, we have more than 500 acres, I still haven’t visited all the parts. We live on one section that is 70 acres, I haven’t visited all of it yet either!

We just started a woodshop with 6 employees – it is running great. We have lots of great tools, including a very nice lathe. I have always wanted to play with a lathe, now I can. If I ever find the time… So far, I have used the lathe for 30 minutes (but others are using it all the time)

For every farm we buy, I have to visit 5 to 10, on horse usually. Then, I need to visit each farm periodically – just to make sure all is going according to plan.

Am I having fun – oh yeah! But, I don’t have to do something as boring as having a hobbie to amuse myself. 😀

[CRTreeDude]

Sigh, if I go reporting how the weather is pretty soon you all won’t want me around…

76 F, light breeze, a little rain earlier, but cleared off. Should be the same tomorrow and for the forseeable future.

Pretty much our weather is the same 365 days a year – the only thing that changes is the amount of rain. For 8 months we have some rain just about every day (not for long usually) and for about 4 months only about every other week or so.

Should I shut up? 😮

[CRTreeDude]

We try to keep all our horses shod. The reason is traction. It is pretty spooky heading down a slope when a horse starts to slip and slide. We have probably 10 people who know how – it is a very common skill here. The horses are very calm about it too – no fights.

[CRTreeDude]

Your PM to me before worked just fine – I am assuming that this is for everyone else. Thanks again.

[CRTreeDude]

@goodcompanion 173 wrote:

Treedude, I think you’ll find that smaller animals perform much better in the tropics. In Cuba, where nearly everything agricultural is draft powered, large drafts are never used–they’re all smaller, lighter animals as you describe. Or of course oxen.

Yep, the same we have here. I bought down a set of horseshoes and at first, no one would accept that there are horses big enough to need horseshoes like that – most horses here are only 4 inches across.

I did some research, the game of horseshoes orginated (they think) with the Roman Army, their horses would lose a shoe and they would gather them and use them when wore out to pitch at posts.

[CRTreeDude]

Trying to provoke people is called trolling. It serves no purpose except to amuse the Troll.

Also, when someone post that they think the moderators will soon get rid of them – just go ahead and do so. They are obviously asking for it.

just my dos colones (which is worth about 1/5th of 2 cents by the way)

[CRTreeDude]

I think something that has been lost is the American Dream. It used to be that people wanted a modest home with a white picket fence. Now that has morphed into a 5,000 square foot mansionette with 3 cars.

What people don’t realize is that traps you into a certain way of working. Why is it the Amish can do just fine with animal power? Two words – no debt. And you might add to that, contentment with what they have.

Sustainable practices also include a sustainable standard of living. It is unrealistic for those of us who were fortunate enough to be born in the USA to assume we can forever live at a standard of live several times higher than the rest of the world.

[CRTreeDude]

We don’t have (that I have been able to find) any true draft horses down here – in fact, most horses run small. Costa Ricans are not as large as North Americans generally, which might explain that.

But, the common horse here has Morgan in it, which makes for a shorter horse that can be very strong.

We do have one horse that is pretty big – looks like a Morgan in build, but is a lot taller. He is very strong for pulling.

[CRTreeDude]

Might be a good idea. The key to this is to remember all trees have their place – just need to find it. Sucession is a good thing. Start with some weed trees to get things going – and go from there.

I don’t know about up there, but we have many trees that won’t grow well without shade and competition.

[CRTreeDude]

I think one way to measure Ecological Integrity is to first determine what are you going to measure.

For me, I measure the following:

1. Diversity
2. Fertility
3. Purity (i.e. of streams and rivers)
4. Age

Age is interesting. I view it very similar to age of a population. There should be young and old. In truth in the tropics, fallen trees are only around for about one year (except wood that is so hard that nothing touches it)

Younger woods have more animals generally – older woods have more wood.

Please understand all my comments are about forest here in the tropics – your experiences will be different. For example, I have some teak trees 4 1/2 years old 50 feet tall and 9 inches in diameter DBH. Don’t try that with oak up there. 😉

Regeneration of rainforest is from a large tree falling and taking down a large amount of trees – all of these can be harvested.

[CRTreeDude]

Jason, perhaps I am blind, but I can’t find the plans on your website. Could you provide the link to the plans themselves?

Thanks

Fred

[CRTreeDude]

@goodcompanion 122 wrote:

Sicklebar mowers are different from sickles. Most weigh maybe 500 lbs and are pretty bulky.

You would probably not be able to make one, unless you had an army of tico machinists, tool-and-die makers, and a foundry. But you could maintain one once you had it.

You could mow several acres in a day depending on your grass and your horses. But this is not a beginner thing to venture into–best to get your horses accustomed to other tasks and machines first. The mower is a hard pull and makes a lot of noise. You want to have your animals well-mannered before you try it out.

The various manufacturers made mowers of all sizes, some with smaller horses or mules in mind.

Thanks – good advice. Our horses are bomb proof. They are very used to machinary and some of been used to haul logs, etc already. The horses that will be used first are roughly 8 years old.

Horses here pretty much free-range inside the farm, they don’t stay in stables. They are very used to tractors, brushhogs, weedwhackers, sawmills, etc. If we are riding on a road (very common – dirt roads) and a large truck goes by – they don’t even act like they notice.

The tools (and expertise) is in the zone to make such things. But, to purchase would be easier and cheaper. But, we may well be able to modify something to work. There is no hurry since what we currently do, works. (brushhog, weedwhackers, machetes)

We will start with logging since that is the immediate need (and two of the horses are already trained to it) – then we will look into the other.

Perhaps something that is a really advantage down here is that rarely does someone care what race the horses are – just do they work well. No one keeps a bad horse or a spooky one. There are too many good horses around.

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