[dominiquer60]

If you think of all the trail riders, marathon horses and eventers out there that have to accept water it is very doable. I agree that it will be the footing that could prove a challenge, at these events they are careful to have good traction. I have been on a hairy trail ride or two and a faux fox hunt that had some highly questionable water challenges, I did live to tell and had a great time with no casualties.

I think that it is great that you are trying rice in VT, I have seen some articles on it in the past year. I am going to guess that like any soil, the less you have to disturb it the better it will be in the end. Good Luck

Erika

Photo- it is amazing the expectations that some of us have of our animals.

[dominiquer60]

He will be missed.

[dominiquer60]

John’s Wood Bending
John E. Click
4000 E Newport Road
Gordanville PA 17529

Today’s price for 6′ ash pair is $22 plus shipping, quite fair I think.

[dominiquer60]

Nolts and RainFlo in PA carry it for a listed $169 for a 4’x5000′ roll. We have been waiting to pick up our yearly order with them because the container load of it has been taking forever to go through customs, but may be ready to go this week. It should last years if you store in a clean, dry, dark place. We have no extra help and it is a huge labor saver and helps us get the late cover crops in on time.

[dominiquer60]

Thanks I really miss art class:) Really though, I just wanted to show of the details in the beautiful metal work. You don’t find such details in most anything these days, so I thought a little sunshine yellow would do it justice in this sense. Perhaps Bazel could help paint next time I visit, I can just picture the trouble we could get into with oil based enamel 😉

[dominiquer60]

Sure will, we’ll see what happens.

[dominiquer60]

Thanks Jenn!

On 3/3 my co-worker called to tell me that there was not nearly enough work for 2 people to share for the coming weekend. Either I could extend my trip if the price was not too steep or fly back to FL and give her the weekend off, the choice was mine. Well for $125 I could stay home for an extra 5 nights and 4 days, the trip home was a gift anyway and there was only one choice as far as the gifter was concerned. So I just got back from home this morning, what a great trip home.

I worked the calves everyday and got them back to where I left them 7 seven weeks ago in a day or two. We did a little conditioning work even though they won’t do any more for the next month. In college we had the only school owned 1/2 mile harness training track, the conditioning battle cry drilled into my head was LSD, Long Slow Distances. So the calves and I would go for long walks down the dirt road with a big truck tire in tow. We did 2/3 to a mile everyday, then leave the tire by the barn and go back out for some fine tuning with commands. The steer especially just wants to go back to the barn so I always make sure that we go by the barn a couple extra times before we are done with our lessons, it is hard though because they are so herd bound with the others in the barn.

I managed to seed everything that I could in the greenhouse and of course they all pop up today now that I am not there to see, but I guess my germination rate looks good so I am happy to have not lost my touch.

Once I was certain that I had a few more days at home I tore apart my syracuse walking plow and cleaned and painted it. I know they were originally red, but I had blue and a little gold paint on hand so that is what color the plow is now. I finally found a handle source and may even be blessed with a spare point, fingers are crossed.

Erika

[dominiquer60]

Nice Marshall,

I would much rather have a little mulch layer like that than the giant over sized and way too heavy RainFlo machine that my boyfriend bought. He regrets it too, although the big Massey and the 1066 can handle it fine we would rather use the smaller tractors in the vegetable fields. Of course some day it would be nice to have more animal power as well, I hope to get the calves harrowing the sod ground to kill the quack grass in this summers planned bare fallow.

Have you tried the biotello mulch film? A friend brought a roll over last spring and we had 2 beds of cucs on it. what a pleasure to just disc it in a watch it disappear with no hand labor involved, it degrades with time due to soil microbe activity, made for corn starch or something like that. Anyway, I would recommend it to anyone that uses black plastic mulch.

We may stick with the RainFlo mulch layer, but if a used Nolts layer comes along, we think that we would like it better (less soil needed to fill bed and less weight).

Dale’s mother bought him a sweatshirt for x-mas,”crops are green, tractors are red.” We have 3 generations worth of tractors, mostly red, two yellow and the only one we never use is green, well I think it does prop the shed rood up if you consider that a job.

Erika

[dominiquer60]

This may be late, but I will be building a similar 100 coop on a running gear this year. Based on the models that I have used in the past I am going to use 4 sheets of plywood on the bottom. I would rather use boards to avoid the chemicals in plywood, but they can warp and make it difficult to clean.

I like the idea of the chickens spreading manure by day on their own and collecting manure for me at night. I clean the coop every couple months or so when needed and compost the manure for my hoophouses and market garden. In this way the pasture gets some manure and I get some to put where I please.

I also plan on wintering my birds in this coop so wire floors would be far too drafty for my liking, especially for a breeding flock. If breeding males get too cold, they can become temporarily sterile for up to 3 months in my experience, and yes even the rosecomb breeds.

There are so many ways to do the same thing.

Erika

[dominiquer60]

Thanks everyone I am printing what we have brainstormed to date and sending it to Ohio via CT.
Erika

[dominiquer60]

Thanks oxnun,

I took the calves out sunday evening after turning them out in the barn yard for a bit of sparing with the other calves. I can’t believe how much they have grow in 7 weeks, I need to look into a piece of wood for a 6″ as soon as I return home for the spring for good. I may have to cheat and make a run to Berry Brook if I can’t find a dry enough piece of wood.

Anyway I got the calves out, watered, brushed and yoked. The steer was fast and the hiefer was rank. I didn’t hitch to anything but took them for a good long walk in the snow and was rather assertive with them. They came back to working mode in a little while,but still had a lot of energy. Yesterday I hitched to a good sized tire and they drug the drive way and road for a good while. their education came back to them and they really started to listen to my commands again. They still have some habits that bother me, but I blame them a lot on being older when I started working them and the way that they are kept with the beef herd in the barn has a bad influence on them as well. Considering the circumstances I am happy with what I have accomplished and with how they go. I will do things differently when these two are sold and I get a pair of dairy steers of my own.

I will take them out today after I get the greenhouse going and start a good 50 flats of onions, leeks, shallots and lettuce, what a great day to work out there.

Glad to be home if only for a few days,

Erika

[dominiquer60]

A word of caution about sweet clover for those that have never experienced its power. This plant is amazing, it is a vigorous grower, fixes a lot of N to the soil, and the tap roots penetrate deep into the soil. My first time mowing it was on a river bottom with a 75hp tractor. It was so tall and thick that I almost went hind end over tea kettle because I didn’t see the huge 8′ deep wash out gully that the spring flood had created until the last moment. My real concern is that everyone understands that while a valuable tool for cover cropping and land management, it can be a pernicious weed if you let it go to seed. If you don’t want this growing in indiscriminate places just make sure that you mow it a few times so that it doesn’t go to seed and become an annual nuisance. It’s great stuff, as long as it is managed well.

Erika

[dominiquer60]

Good point Geoff,
“UNIVECUS can be used even with tools already available on the market.” I don’t know if that means only European market or the international market. The more types of tools it can handle the better. I was thinking maybe there could be frame options for the type of tools that you want, be it antiquated or modern.

Erika

[dominiquer60]

I have been looking through all sorts of pictures for the website that I am making. I came across some plow photos that I had forgotten about. I have a little ~4″ Planet Jr. plow that was part of the original boxed seeder and cultivator package. It fits on my modern Glaser wheel hoe. It is very effective at smothering out the in row weeds when you make a pass down each side of the row and hill in towards the plants. It is also good to use when we want to transplant a small amount, it makes a nice little furrow to follow. Since human power is technically animal power I thought I would add it.

Erika

[dominiquer60]

I like the sounds of it. I will print some info off their website to send to Ohio. Thanks for sharing Roscoe

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