[Ethan Tapper]

Well you’ve hit it right. Welcome to the unofficial site for the lunatic farmers on the road! I think you’ll find lots of folks here that share your ideas and philosophies, and have a lot to share to boot.

Check out our organization website as well (draftanimalpowernetwork.org or the ‘draft animal network’ tab at the top of the screen) to see what we’re doing and think about becoming a member.

Nice to see our community expanding northward. Welcome to the network!

-Ethan

[Ethan Tapper]

Welcome to DAPNet (the Draft Animal Power Network), Jaime. Cruise around the forum here and check out our organization website at draftanimalpowernetwork.org if you are interested in what this community is up to.

We’ve got a couple of folks from your general area in the fold here, too, I’m sure you’ll connect with them if you are active on the forum.

Enjoy, and welcome to the network! We’re glad to have you!

[Ethan Tapper]

I would add that if you are interested in regenerating some pine, the “good” thing about weevil damage is that it represents a mechanical source of damage— not genetic. You can go in there and do a harvest of most of the better stems, and not have to worry about leaving a poor genetic legacy for future generations (provided the weeviled trees are of high vigor and disease-free). You can easily go back and girdle those trees to release subsequent generations. And big ‘cabbage pines’ are dynamite snags for wildlife and general ecosystem benefits.

I don’t know where you are, but if you are in most parts of the northeast I would advocate, in general, for trying to steer your land away from monocrop pine. On some sites it can do really well, but its predominance on the landscape is largely due to planting and its strength as an old-field colonizer. I have found that weeviled pine, blister rust, low vigor and invasive species are ubiquitous in these monocrop pine stands. If they are doing well, by all means stick with it, but you might think about as you are girdling those weevil-pines or deciding what else to do, trying to create small openings to encourage natural successional dynamics to occur.

[Ethan Tapper]

Additional agenda items

-retreat – Reva – 10 min
-insurance – Reva/Jean – 5 min
-new BOD meeting protocols – Reva – 5 min

[Ethan Tapper]

Glad to have you Rodney, from all of us at the Draft Animal Power Network (the organization that runs this forum).

-Ethan

[Ethan Tapper]

Boy, I have been looking and it’s hard to find anything but the ‘traditional’ model skidding tongs. I put in a query to Bahco (they bought Sandvik, I think) about them, and I’ll see what they say. How easy to you think it would be to make a set? Maybe you could provide some up close pictures, Tristan.

[Ethan Tapper]

Hi Emily!
Welcome! This is the place to look if you are interested in finding someone to help you learn about working those animals, or to just connect with the folks that are doing it. You should check out the Draft Animal Power Network (DAPNet) events and publications to see what’s going on (a lot of it is happening in New England).

Maybe post some pictures of your horses on this thread. I don’t have any experience with Icelandic horses… Are they draft-y?

Welcome to the network!

[Ethan Tapper]

I will. I’m lucky to have a job where I get to work with them in the meantime!

[Ethan Tapper]

Brad Johnson was telling me that when he was working at Chewonki up in Maine they modified a (team) mower to have shafts and a shorter (four-foot, I think) bar. He said it worked really good for a single horse. I think they had to do that up themselves, though.

[Ethan Tapper]

A true American creation, I guess. It was invented by Joseph Peavey of Bangor, ME. He didn’t patent it (story goes he got drunk on the way to the patent office and a friend took it and went without him while he was sleeping), but it got his name and his family always made them.

You should try one out, John. They’re handy.

[Ethan Tapper]

@sendin 33190 wrote:

I am relatively new to the world of draft animals and probably too far west to be of any use.

Hey Denny,
Nice to hear from you. You might know by now that this site is run by the Draft Animal Power Network (DAPNet). You can see our organization website by going to draftanimalpowernetwork.org.

While most of DAPNet members are centered in New England, if you look at our member map and check out the posts on the forum, you’ll see that they are from all over. DAPNet sees itself not as a specifically New England organization, but one that can connect folks that love working with draft animals nation and world-wide. We could use more people out west, getting folks out there excited about draft animal power.

I’d love to hear what the draft animal power community out there is like.
Welcome to the network!
Ethan

[Ethan Tapper]

Great video!

[Ethan Tapper]

I should add as well that if you all like this forum, you should know that it is run and maintained by the Draft Animal Power Network (DAPNet). We run this forum, hold events, publish newsletters, and have a really great community of people. Check out our resource website (draftanimalpowernetwork.org) to learn more about us, and consider becoming a member!

Welcome!
Ethan

[Ethan Tapper]

I’ll do:

White horse equip.
I and J equip.
UVM Ctr for sustainable ag./UVM extension
Vermont Family Forests

[Ethan Tapper]

My gut reaction to this thread is to say, like Ronnie T. said, keep it simple, don’t go crazy on this winch stuff. But thinking about how much I want to see horses in the woods, and how valuable I think they are as a resource for really high quality forest management (not to mention the livelihoods of high quality people), I think that anything we can do (within reason) to put teamsters and their animals in a place to get wood out in a way that benefits them, the landowner, and the forest is worth while. John Plowden uses a small winch with a skidding cone on the log in very specific situations, like Mitch’s peat bog, getting logs out of a big hole, etc. and I think that in that context it was a good complement to his work.

We shouldn’t be trying to use this technology to compete with mechanized logging systems – we shouldn’t have to when the application of our technology can and should be 100% different from their’s – but I think that on the small scale; a couple logs here and there, it’s perfectly acceptable and can be a good part of an animal-powered harvest (unless we, like Ronnie implied, wake up one day with a skidder parked in the box stall).

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