[dominiquer60]

Sounds like a great opportunity for either our main event or one of many secondary event possibilities. Good Work, looking forward to hearing more about it.

Erika

[dominiquer60]

I have had some experience with few a different types of seeders, I will share what I know.

I used to live on a farm where we did all of the pumpkins and sunflowers with an old horse drawn corn seeder pulled by a tractor. It usually worked well, but some times would clog up, we did about 4 acres with this one. Though I never used it myself, we would hire a neighbor kid to drop the seed by hand and the old man would drive tractor. I don’t remember the make or model by I may be able to find out if you are interested.

My fiance has an Earthway and the only thing that he likes to use it for is peas and beans, for anything else he doesn’t hesitate to use my Planet Jr. I do know a young farmer north of me that uses a fleet of Earthways and has customized all the plates by drilling them out to get the seeding rate that he wants. They tend to do a lot by hand and over 50% of his cost of doing business is labor, I have been encouraging him to get a Jr. Personally I feel that I could break an Earthway in half if I am not paying attention.

The Plant Jr. it is not a perfect tool by any means and that is why they have precision and vacuum seeder, but given the cost of perfection, I am a Planet Jr. lifer. I have 7 units of 2 different types. I have six 300A units which work on a Allis Chalmers G tool bar that is rigged to a 3 pt. hitch, we use 5 of them at a time on our tractors, the 6th is a spare (our beds are not as wide as the farm that we bought the implement from). These are the classic 3 plates and 36 holes sizes to choose from Planet Jrs.. There is an adjustable opening shoe, a furrow closing sweep and a press wheel. The unit is ground driven off of the front wheel. It works well when the ground and the seed size is consistent and you have selected the correct plate. Never go by the recommendations for hole size, this is a ball park that needs a lot of fine tuning with each seed lot. The Planer Jr 300A really shines with pelletized and sized seeds.

If I had to choose one simple seeder for small non tractor acreage it would be my 1910 Planer Jr. #4. When I bought this on eBay, I thought that this was the plate type, at first I was so disappointed that is wasn’t. Silly me, it is a wonderful tool! This is the older style Jr., it still has front wheel drive, an adjustable opening shoe, furrow closer and press wheel, but no plates. There is a lever at the side that slides and allows you to adjust the size of the hole that lets the seed through. There are suggested settings for different vegetables by the lever, again fiddle with where it works best for you. The #4 has the added feature of a spacing device. There is a sprocket with 2,3 or 4 teeth that is on the back end and is directly driven by the seed agitator axle. Each tooth lifts the plate open and lets the seed(s) drop, with the frequency depending on how many teeth there are on the sprocket. The sprockets are removable and a complete Jr. has a bolt and wingnut on the handle where the sprockets are stored. If you don’t want to have the seeds spaced out and just want a continuous stream of say radishes, just lift the plate arm up and over to keep it open (given the not so smooth terrain, I generally wedge a twig to keep it in place). It is simple and versatile, it has lasted a 100 years and I am sure with care it will last at least another 100. The biggest downfall is finding the sweet spot with the changing of each type of seed, but since you can look down at your work while walking behind, it is very easy to tweak it as you go.

I also have a Stanhay that I am trying to figure out, it is on a 3pt tool bar, and should be light enough to work on a 3 pt. forecart. It is the most basic of belt driven precision seeders and my plan is to get some well spaced carrots and beets seeded with it. I hope to know more about it this spring.

That’s my experiences with seeders, if you want pictures or more info let me know. I hope you find the right seeder for you, or if you are a seeder nut like me you will find the right combination that works for you.

Good luck

Erika

[dominiquer60]

The Wood mower put Hoosick Falls on the map, they exported many to eastern Europe until WWI the business declined, then burned down and ended, leaving the village the empty ghost town that it is today. It may be easier to find parts in Europe than here in Hoosick Falls, not much left but a couple mowers at our fair, and a few bricks at the factory.

I don’t know how they go, but another gentleman on DAP here has a neighbor that has a couple Wood mowers, the neighbor used them to mow quite a bit. Perhaps he’ll chime in.

Erika

[dominiquer60]

Higher prices would hopefully slow down the sprawl which is a good thing in my book, not everyone should be able to afford a one hour commute twice a day.

[dominiquer60]

I took this course last year and highly recommend it to anyone interested in making these products in their own kitchen. I make all of my own yogurt now and last year I did homemade butter as gifts to friends. Lisa does a great job with this course and it is always a treat to sample her grass fed Jersey products, this was one thing that I couldn’t simulate at home even with non homogenized milk. There is nothing like a grass fed Jersey.

Have fun if you decide to take this course,

Erika

[dominiquer60]

Yes that thought did run through my mind. I figured if I left them the worst that would happen is that they would wander 10 feet ahead and rummage through the pile of cardboard boxes, like they sometimes try to do when tied there. The bull coming down into the dooryard and spooking them off to who knows where and having a loose bull on hand seemed a little scarier at the moment.

Fortunately the boys were good and tired, the boxes were just far enough away that it would have taken effort to get to them and we do practice stand an awful lot. The beefs have spoiled me with how few things bothers them, these shorthorns have to look at everything. I often find the most action on the farm (feed grinder, buzz saw, etc) and go up and stand and watch until their eyes get smaller. Sometimes I tie them up and help for a while, they have improved a lot but still hate it when we pass by a person on the off side. I am loving our staycation (2 weeks off from the farmers’ markets) and snow, I have been able to work the boys everyday this week.

[dominiquer60]

Diesel Fuel for trucks on the road has been higher than gasoline since the 2004 hurricane, it used to be cheaper The only good the govt does for farmers is a tax exemption on fuel for off road farm use. Here in NY you used to have to pay the tax and then get credit of your income taxes at the end of the year. There was a push to have it like other Ag supplies, where you get the taxes excluded from the get go as long as you fill out the Tax Exemption form. I am not sure where it is at now because I don’t pay the fuel bill or do the farm taxes.

I am glad that someone over the pond posted, because people in the US don’t know how “good” they have it. We are fooled into a sense that we deserve everything as cheap as possible, where as even our neighbors to the north have much more realistic fuel prices than we do. When the real @#4% hits the fan there are going to be some unhappy people in this country that want their government to bail them out as usual. Eventually our government will have to stop trying to play “God,” and a greedy one at that.

[dominiquer60]

Here is Bivol’s original post, he posted another this June also, I remember liking this one a lot. I have heard of horses here in the US doing this, I am sure it had been some time since it was a little more of a common practice.

http://www.draftanimalpower.com/showthread.php?t=1016

Erika

[dominiquer60]

I enjoyed the fact that using their “methods of the day,” they had 3 good harvests out of one woodlot wihtin 25 years, and they used single horses to twitch with, “reducing the damage to the young growth.”

I plan on watching the whole film with the guys here, they will surely enjoy every detail the film has to offer.

Thanks for sharing Geoff,

Erika

[dominiquer60]

In 2006 and acquaintance knew that I was interested in work horses and recommended that I go to a workshop at Solar Fest. I went and watched Carl, Lisa and the kids with their animals. At the end of the workshop Lisa passed around a sign up sheet for anyone interested in receiving info if they decided to do anymore workshops. I had no idea that writing my name and address on that list would have such a huge positive impact on my life.

I cherish all the friendships that I made resulting from NEAPFD and DAP, and look forward to making many more through the DAPNet effort. Thank you all especially Carl and Lisa. I would have never guessed that I would become an Ox teamster with a pair of red heads, or have a really cool friend named Bazel.

I wish you all well and hope that no one, even Bazel, receives coal in their stocking, unless of course you asked for it 🙂

Peace be with you,

Erika

[dominiquer60]

A scary fact about the leader of the anti raw milk group in FB is that he didn’t even know what homogenization was until a young lady sat down and explained it to him, and he is a Cornell Dairy grad scary, just plain scary.

[dominiquer60]

Just make sure you cook those salmonella eggs completely, there is a lacking of customers taking responsibility for their own purchases that is contributing to this mess too.

When in doubt cook it thoroughly, just wish we could cook the govt the same way.

[dominiquer60]

The houses version, from what I have heard, was much worse than the Senate version, high fees and not leniency for small farmers, very one sized fits all. I have met a lot of people that were not really for the Senate version, and the only thing that they all had to say was “It is inevitable that we have a food safety legislation, at least it has small farm exemptions and it is better than the House Bill.” A lame excuse to support the Senate Bill if you ask me, very lame.

Just so you don’t think that I am in favor of everything NY Farm Bureau does here is a good one. The NY FB could not take stand on this bill because it “didn’t have policy addressing it.” Again lame, they must have been pushed from the top. In our Food Safety policy it clearly state that we oppose additional regulation and fees imposed on farmers having to do with food safety. I am sure they were pressured from the national side which is greatly influenced by the food giants that want this to look good and have traceability to quickly point a finger at someone else.

[dominiquer60]

🙂 will have to do for now

[dominiquer60]

So our first offer to help out from the letters that I sent this morning came from Scotland, they suggest a kids page in the newletter and want to know how they can help from 3,000 miles away. Seeking fiscal sponsorship from Oregon seems no different in physical distance. We have a regional event and as a result we have an international online community that wants to support a network, and they will if it exists and we let them help.

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