[goodcompanion]

Just an update. Swelling went down within a day. Gone entirely in two. Still this is kind of a weird incident, I am thinking probably some kind of bug bite or sting that got irritated maybe. The swelled area was never hot.

The collar fit may have been just a little loose but had never seemed a problem on any prior occasion. My collars are adjustable though and the pad is a little worn out so just to be on the safe side I will cinch it up a notch or two and put in a new deer hair pad.

[goodcompanion]

I would say the sore is about 3″ in diameter and perhaps a full inch proud. All the horses have had cold water washdowns so we’ll see what tomorrow brings. Nothing like this ever before using the same collars and pads. Very odd.

[goodcompanion]

@Russel 19175 wrote:

Can the tongue be made out of matchwood poplar or eucalyptus?

I think the original tongues were made of american white oak. For a replacement, what you are looking for is strength and straightness of grain. It is possible that some sort of eucalypt would be a good substitute, but I’m not familiar with matchwood poplar. Your best tree will be a slow-growing one with a pretty straight trunk. Moderate density is probably best. In Australia we had a species called “Queensland maple,” I think it was some sort of acacia, it had a mahogany-like timber. Something like that would be awesome. Don’t know if you have anything mahogany-ish.

You can rough out a pretty decent pole right from the tree with just a chainsaw and a chalk line, then finish it to dimension with hand planes or a power planer. It’s not totally necessary for the lumber to be seasoned first, I’ve made poles from green trees and they’ve held up fine, though they shrink, check and twist a little bit…as long as the pole follows the grain exactly it will stay true as it seasons despite this.

[goodcompanion]

@Russel 19174 wrote:

Can wood be used for plowing etc?

I’ve used both wood and steel eveners for plowing and other farm work. Around here you can find a lot of old wood eveners–seems the majority of eveners and neckyokes used to be wood with iron hardware. So if you make a new wood part and reuse the hardware, you can score yourself a cheap functional evener.

[goodcompanion]

Well, the BW has went public with goods yesterday. Mixed results.

We didn’t have a very good hitching post. Our vending situation entailed the wagon and horse parallel parked on main street in vergennes, with the horse’s head tied to a wooden post which was essentially just malleted into the ground. Lots of traffic, semis using their jakes, etc. Bobby the horse behaved himself okay for about an hour into a four-hour market, then started to get a bit restive.

I knew from the start that we needed to practice standing while tied. We could never make the time. Driving in traffic went so well for us I guess I was hoping it would be easy. But no, no such luck, there is no vending out of this wagon for hours at a time without an extensive training regimen. We had to head home after just over an hour.

We’re going to start just hitching him to the cart and tying him various places on the farm where we can keep an eye on things, working towards longer times. Plus lobby for a more secure hitching post arrangement. Also got a nose bag, though this entails feeding grain which I never do, so I have mixed feelings about using it. Any thoughts on training a horse to stand tied for hours in the midst of traffic and noise welcome.

[goodcompanion]

8 x 16. Four sheets of plywood and no cuts for your deck.

[goodcompanion]

Took another tour through Vergennes along the intended route. So far so good barefoot so I think we are going to keep on this way. The total roadwork is just 10 miles a week, so hopefully this will work out….

We have decided for a simplified schedule, with longer times spent at just one location per day, and two days of use per week. This means less distance traveled overall.

We have added lettering and a graphic on the sides. The design and painting was done by my brother-in-law Adam, and features our working dog Dante and Bobby the Horse, the selfsame one pulling the thing. I think it’s very eye-catching. Helps to have a graphic artist in the family!

Also I took the old foot rail from the old wagon and made it into two handholds for the front corner posts with my forge. I am no metalworker and this was my most ambitious blacksmithing project to date.

The awning and poop bag are the only items yet to be completed. I wonder what I am going to do with my time when there isn’t this to work on…

The glued-up shafts did not hold up so well, and you may notice that they are reinforced in kind of an ugly way in one of the pictures. But my steam bending system is working really well so I hope to make the real-deal-bent-heel-shaft very soon.

I also find myself wishing the springs were stiffer, so that the wagon didn’t swing around quite so much. The platform also is not as high as I’d hoped, and as a result the turning radius is also reduced. This could be remedied with more leaves.

But as with our bread I am the worst critic of my own work, and it is a very functional machine. Unlike our normal service vehicle, the Subaru wagon, every cubic inch of the interior space can be put to maximum advantage. This coming Thursday is our first day to take it into town with cargo.

[goodcompanion]

@near horse 18958 wrote:

Hi Erik,

Just to give you a sense of what your good craftsmanship might be worth, check out this “Library Wagon” from eBay. Not very common but easily something you have shown you could put together!

BTW- how’s the baking going and when do you find time to do it?!!

#94 – 6945 – 00052 A very unique 1920’s horse drawn library wagon. This wagon was used to travel from town to town on the prairies like the Bookmobile is used in some areas today. This particular unit was on display in Vancouver, B.C., Canada at it’s 1986 World Expo. Very sound wheels as is the whole unit. Priced @ $15,000.00. Call Al @ 206-227-6673

I’ve been thinking it over and could probably build a similar wagon from scratch for about $5000. If I were to do it again I would build all new running gear from scratch and not mess around with an antique gear. I just didn’t know enough about running gears and springing first time out. It might be nice winter work.

Currently we bake specifically for markets five days a week. But only two of those days bring me into the bakery for much time. We are doing about 250-300 loaves per week now which is really low by most baker’s standards. But we live pretty close to the ground here so revenue-wise it’s a lot for us.

The bakery wagon is probably going to hit the road in a commercial vein next thursday. By that point the lettering, waste handling kit, and awning should all be in order. Figured out the wagon will hold about $500-700 worth of cargo. If we end up packing it with so much and coming home empty even once I will give myself a nice big pat on the back. I’ve always thought of this more as just a way to get noticed. One thing I’ve learned about small-scale farming: getting noticed and subsequently holding people’s attention is pretty necessary to survival. Kind of ironic in a way since the farmers of old never had to resort to any kind of theatricality, so it seems, looking back.

[goodcompanion]

@Jean 18954 wrote:

Eric and his Belgian just drove by my house and down a very steep hill headed to Rt 7 with his bakery wagon. Pretty cool. It must have very good brakes, it was a even slow pace going down the hill.

Eric, will you shoe the horse when this gets going in full swing?

Jean

I wondered if you were home! We just had a terrific first serious outing. We did a circuit from the farm a total of 5.7 (!) miles, with some highway, some dirt road, and some city traffic. Some real hills too, as Jean mentioned. My horse did not like passing parked cars (what the hell are these things?) or walking over manhole covers or, most notably, pedestrian crosswalks. (What the hell are these white stripes? I’m not stepping on that.) Being behind a harley at a stoplight was also unfamiliar and made Bobby a little uneasy, but no real serious problems. Lastly when waiting for the one stoplight on the route, the wagon and horse were not heavy enough to trip the sensor in the road, so the light never turned green for us. Ultimately we had to run a red light. All in all the horse was very well-mannered and did the job with aplomb.

As for shoes, we will probably try horse boots. The belgian will not stand for a farrier, three have given up in disgust so far.

[goodcompanion]

@highway 18914 wrote:

What’s your time frame? I will need mine in the next couple of weeks to cultivate corn and potatoes.

Ed

Steaming rig is a success. I will make up several pairs of handles next week from straight-grained ash, to a close copy of farmer brown’s. $22 per pair. Please PM me your order!

[goodcompanion]

@kevint 18932 wrote:

Hi Erik,
I’ll bring you a clutch kit for the subaru if you need it!

Ha ha! I really punish that car for field days, no joke. Bringing that stove over the Greens last year was pretty foolhardy, I guess. Lucky the car didn’t give out mid-slope and roll backwards all the way to route 7. Maybe someone with a real hauling rig can help me out when the time comes…

[goodcompanion]

@mitchmaine 18925 wrote:

after that much work, it must have took some courage hooking up and trying it out.

mitch

You said it. A wreck would have put a damper on my afternoon. In fact you might have heard the hollering and carrying on in Maine.

The S-curve on the shaft ends goes from the axle to the crossbar, where it is joined to the old straight shafts. The ironwork on those old straight shafts I removed and replaced–that is some really old ironwork, too! All hand wrought, not manufactured, the matching pairs are similar but not identical. I love that.

Anyway, my laminated s-curve is made up of twenty or so layers of ash glued up and the bejeezus clamped out of it, forcing it to dry in the requisite shape. My first attempt was a reject, too twisted, but it might make an interesting art piece.

[goodcompanion]

Thanks!

Tim, that is a good idea about the LEDs. The stop/turn lights actually only flash. I added the SMV this afternoon, and took the wagon for a quick run around the neighborhood with my 17 year old perch mare. She was a little nervy, lots of head tossing, but did well. The ride is smooth but the turning radius is still not what I’d hoped–it can turn no sharper than your average car–and the tire rub iron bothers the horse. Still, a good first run. Broke into a trot for a short stretch! Rolls easily even through potholes. It is very fun to drive, a good view too.

We might vend in Vergennes as early as this Saturday afternoon. But I kind of think more practice on public roads is in order, at least another week’s worth, and there are a few other little details regarding harness, poop and pee cleanup kit, etc. Problem is, we have produce ready to sell that will have gone by during that time. I had an idea–what about, just this once, putting the cart on my flatbed and towing it into town with the car. Roll it off, and set it up to vend on the street with a cardboard cut-out horse in front of it, with “REAL HORSE COMING NEXT WEEK” written on the cardboard horse.

[goodcompanion]

So, got that problem with the shafts sorted out. You can see in the last picture how I did it, scarfing the original shaves with an S curve I made out of laminated pieces of ash. Not bad, eh? Once it is painted no-one will ever know. Bound with iron on both sides of the joint, I don’t think strength will be an issue. It would have been better to order some proper double-bend shaves from Witmer’s, only $45 per pair, but I wasn’t wise to the problem at that point. There is no source of new shafts nearby. The source that is a full day of driving away costs triple what Witmer’s shafts do.

The cargo compartment holds a dozen or more crates (they may be stacked double on the floor) measuring 16″x26″. We made tall (7 1/4″)and shallow (4 1/2″) crates. The tall ones are for large or heavy items like loaves of bread or potatoes. The shallow ones are for pastries (they can be lined with paper–a 18 x 26″ sheet pan liner works great) or, say, leafy greens. The heavier items go on lower shelves, the lighter and more delicate ones up high. The crates all fit in tight and don’t lurch or rattle in transit. The remaining space accomodates two coolers, say, one for meats and one for vegetables. They slide in there without a quarter inch to spare.

Still to go are a canvas horse diaper, a retractable awning, a stowable crate display rack, and lettering and artwork. But at least now we can hit the roads and get some practice.

[goodcompanion]

I might be about to go into production. I’m going to try out a new steam bending rig very soon. What’s the going rate now?

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