[Dylan Keating]

Hi Ron, thank you very much for this, I can see what you are doing there. I’ll ask my wife to take a look as she makes our halters so maybe we can see to making something akin to this.
Yes it’s been raining here a lot too so hoping i can get out to cultivate before the coltsfoot takes over, kind of ironic! Even looking like snow tonight.
That’s a big help to see the pictures, how does the horse stop with this setup pretty smartly?

[Dylan Keating]

Hi Ron, sounds great, I’ve had varying success with them with my ponies. Qhwn yo usay home made style Dr. cook, any pictures on what that looks like?

[Dylan Keating]

Is it still available?

[Dylan Keating]

Be interested to know what Carl and any others used to clear snow? I’m just going through a list in my mind of everything i do with tractor and if there is a horse alternative

[Dylan Keating]

Hi Carl, yeah i’m thinking to maybe borrow my neighbours tractor for the big guys, for now. Ive got an offer for the tractor so i’m mulling it over..

[Dylan Keating]

Thats a great story

[Dylan Keating]

Thanks for all the replies, i’m after a small team for economic reasons and having enough work for them to do. Also this is still all just knocking around in theoretical space for the moment. I will absolutley be at the field days and the nearby halflingers are interesting.
In starting the farm we are very low on infrastructure, so its build it as we go hee hee

The figures on costs are valuable to project some kind of cost plan for the future, ive been throwing money into this tractor in order to diagnose the problem and now to fix it, $800 later, and im still looking for the solution.

Maybe its been written about before but i’d love to hear more about board foot taken out in a day. Also what kind of horse power i would need to haul out the 20″ maples we have here.

Our woods need some tidying and i have done just 2 truckloads that went to canada and thence to China. Im not that interested in providing veneer for a businessman in China. Right now i am looking to localise my logs so to speak.

I have a sawmill just need the local market. Also have lots of small diameter logs to haul out for firewood.

Im formulating how to rig up a gin pole to do some of the lifting of logs that i would do with the tractor. Again power and convenience are great but id love a low tech, horse power way to achieve the same ends at a slower pace

Any of you loggers know some good mechanisms for lifting logs?

Also anyone using small ponies in the woods?

“Either way, tractor or horse, I’ve found it an uphill battle to make the enterprise pay, but it’s a damn site more enjoyable with a good animal partner”
That pretty much sums it up Rick!

[Dylan Keating]

Hey everyone thats some great advice coming in,im in the middle of maple syrup season so havent got to check until now.

Hmm lots to think of, those percherons sound great but a bit big for me at the moment.

So many times ive moved say 1/4 cord firewood with the bucket and thought, man I could just have used little maude, my old pony, to shift this. I do find the fel invaluable and its like anything, the more power you have the more you can waste it or just use it to throw more power at a situation.

Im also aware of the key benefit of the tractor whilst being expensive and smelly is that if it has an “injury” I can leave it for a month or a year whereas witha living power source like the racoon that got a chicken the other night, it needs dealing with asap!

So also with starting a new farm, figuring out markets, 7month old boy and living off grid
we have a lot of other time constraints.

In England where I farmd there were dartmoor ponies going for dog meat so you could get them cheap or free and save their lives. They were feisty but could pull well, I had a very instructive day where our horse trainer ended up being dragged by a swingletree hook embedded in his hand….that sure taught me to not keep applying pressure in a tense situation.

So much to consider and all this input is greatly appreciated, when most conversations revolve around how working horses are a bygone age, its here and small farmers journal which keep it relevant.

Anyone know where I could get some ponies, or where to start looking?

[Dylan Keating]

yep it’s a dvd

can’t get it to put in a link but here’s a synopsis:

http://www.countryside-video.co.uk/shop-item-Working-Horses-in-Horticulture_3_67.php

[Dylan Keating]

HI,I would be interested in this, I have a dvd from cornwall, England.”Working Horses in Horticulture” Nice look at a small market garden with some nice comtois horses. It’s region is England however so not sure if it will work in an american machine?

[Dylan Keating]

looks great, how much ground did you get done in 30 mins?

[Dylan Keating]

Hi there, no it was just a basic operating manual, with explanations of why the method using the kassine is so useful, and the different attachments you could use.
However the instructor did say that they would happily give away their plans (open source) to anyone wishing to make one, the only caveat seemed to be that if someone in the States say, wanted to begin making them on a larger scale they would need to attend a one week course where you could witness the whole process. This might be well worth someones time to go and do to then begin fabricating them as a business. I see a big future for them due to the ease of use and more importantly their versatility

[Dylan Keating]

Lookin good, did you make the sled yourself?

[Dylan Keating]

Hi there good companion, I did a three day course on the Kassine in Devon, England earlier this year. I found it to be an amazing tool and has led me to sell my tractor! The people who organised the course did translate a small booklet of the basics so with their permission I could possibly publish that here if it’s of use to anyone? I will be moving with my wife to Massachusetts this time next year and hope to continue working with horses. The kassine seems like the ideal tool for small scale cultivation and I would hope to use some variant of it over there.
Thanks for your work in translating the text

[Dylan Keating]

Hey folks, we are always on the lookout for an alternative wormer. One way I have heard about from a french farmer who taught me is a tincture of tansy and garlic – 75% garlic and 25% tansy. He had used this for 10 years and never had a problem..

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