[dlskidmore]

The barnyard gets cut about once a month, and we still get some matting there, but not nearly as bad. Maybe I need to intentionally plant something that is vulnerable to excessive leaf shatter when hayed. 🙂

[dlskidmore]

She did great with the lawn sweeper. We had to use a very short tug as she works best behind me and the handle of the lawn sweeper is not that long (used a wheelbarrow handle). She got over the noise of the machine in about half a minute, and really pulled hard part of the time. She’s not had a ton of training, so pulling hard half the time I think is pretty good. We did have to put her up and finish without her when the sheep came around the corner and she was too tempted to go play with them. I’m willing to try it again though.

[dlskidmore]

I took the fence guards off my mower after reading this. Looking forward to my next deep grass work. Unfortunately it seems another nut has been lost and needs replacing before I go out again.

[dlskidmore]

Wish I could afford you. 🙂

[dlskidmore]

I don’t see two wheeled tractors or implements for them on Simplicity’s site. The largest selection of implements I know of for two wheeled tractors is Earth Tools, They have a side delivery rake, but it is front mounted, not sulky mounted, so it wouldn’t convert to later draft use. I’m not aware of any sulky for the tractor that has an implement hitch. There is an implement hitch on the tractor itself, but the implement needs to have a seat far enough forward to reach the tractor controlls.

I guess I need to decide if it’s worth having a side delivery rake that I’ll replace later. I’ll certianly keep an eye out for a used one, but it’s not an implement I’ve seen advertised before with used BCS packages.

[dlskidmore]

Carl,
I must be doing it wrong then. Attached is a picture of a small section I mowed but did not rake. The hay parts for the little tractor, and leaves a mat on each side in it’s wake. You do a parallel pass and the mat from one row gets entangled with the mat from the previous row. If this is left to sit, the grass comes back well in the part in the middle of each row, but there are these heavy mulch stripes left behind.

The current pastures have some nitrogen burned spots from where the former alpaca occupants made their poop piles. The mulch is being used to good effect there, I’m hoping making compost piles there will restore that soil over time. There are some impressive growth rings around these bare spots.

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[dlskidmore]

Eventually I’ll have those areas fenced in, and buy my winter hay, but not yet. Currently I have only one acre fenced. I need to cut the weeds to recondition the pasture, and I may as well use the hay instead of letting it choke out the new growth. Also with rotational grazing it’s occasionally necessary to hay the pasture when plant growth peaks to save for slower months.

[dlskidmore]

You’d have to have an awful lot of beagles to get anything done. All sorts of breeds participate in weight pull competitions however. The standings are based on multiples of dog weight, so small dogs can do well at it.

[dlskidmore]

My great dane loves to pull. Less efficient than just going to get the pickup, but any place where we would be doing hauling by hand she helps out. Hauling leaves and loose hay on a tarp is what she does most often. I’m looking forward to getting her to help drag our little manual lawn sweeper around next time we get it out.

[dlskidmore]

How much manure should go down? I have a contract baler on shares at the moment. He’s willing to invest in the land, wants to talk about reseeding part of it. Is there a formula I can give him, for every x loads of hay you take away, bring back y loads of manure? He didn’t do any amendments after first cutting, but I’d really like something to go down after second cutting to get a good chance to rot over winter.

[dlskidmore]

I think I need time for the idea to grow on me before I invest in any equipment. I’d need to invest in harnesses, lines, and a double tree, and see them just do some basic work pulling wood before I invested in equipment.

[dlskidmore]

Definitely much less stocky and a bit shorter than the Belgian.

I do have a friend that rides a draft horse, but it was my other horse friend that commented they were small for riding horses. I’ve got a couple other horse friends visiting next week, maybe they can tell me more about them. The owner gave us permission to go feed and pet the horses.

[dlskidmore]

@dominiquer60 39611 wrote:

Wild Animals ‐ FDA recognizes that it is impossible to keep all wild
animals away from produce fields. If the situation is out of control and
there is a reasonable probability that wild animals can contaminate
produce, growers would be required to monitor their fields for signs of
animals and take some kind of preventative measure to keep them out or
discourage them from entering.

This is the part that concerns me the most. Unless your garden is in the middle of the city, when is it ever an unreasonable probability that wild animals can contaminate produce? Do we have to fence out all wildlife? Can’t keep a guard dog in the corn field to chase them away because the dog’s illegal too.

Although this may be another marketing angle for small farms. If farmers that sell direct to consumer are not covered by this restriction, then you can advertise how much more wildlife friendly your veggies are than grocery store produce. (Right next to the “Wash Your Veggies” note.)

[dlskidmore]

… and those guys are quite a bit smaller than the riding horses I’m talking about.

[dlskidmore]

I do have a nearby horse farmer that might be able to help me with some practical aspects, but he doesn’t have a lot of time to mentor. Any book recommendations? I probably have until Summer to decide if I want the horses.

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