[goodcompanion]

Good questions. And one of my favorite subjects.

Walking with a plowman’s knot and a walking plow is probably a really natural thing for turn-of-the-last-century farmer. I have found it really challenging. A little too challenging.

In my experiences, horses that are not accustomed to plowing are best started with a sulky. If you use a pole and neckyoke, you have your team linked and spaced at the right distance at the front and that is one less variable to contend with. Then your furrow horse needs to learn to walk in the furrow. They don’t like this, always try to climb out one way or the other, then your plow goes awry. But they will learn. With your hands on the reins only you can focus on keeping that furrow horse in the furrow and let the plow take care of itself.

I am not a big fan of the two-way. It seems that one of the main reasons for using them was for plowing hillsides so that one would always be plowing with the earth flipping downhill. We all know that we shouldn’t be plowing steep hillsides, and if we do, we want a layout that won’t hasten erosion more than necessary. Also I find that it’s tricky to change directions and have the physics remain the same. Keep in mind your furrow horse alternates with each change of direction, which keeps them guessing.

Learning how to layout a field for a single bottom is not a big deal. So I am a fan of the single bottom sulky. There are relatively few things to adjust, and those are pretty easy to master. I have a pioneer with a kverneland bottom. If you have lighter soil you don’t need that bottom. It wasn’t cheap, but it is the best. You can order one just the same from White Horse through Ted Russel or pioneer from Pat Palmer. But you probably know this.

I know where there are a few junk sulkies sitting in hedgerows, if you prefer a project to outright expense. Viability depends chiefly on the condition of the bottom and the absence of damage due to, for instance, having been pulled at high speed/power with a tractor then hitting a rock. If the beam looks true then it probably is. If the bottom is worn, you may be able to replace it. A new bottom is relatively cheap from the above mentioned suppliers.

If you want to try out sulky plowing here you may consider yourselves invited.

[goodcompanion]

Oregon is far. It’s getting further by the day.

Ohio is of some interest, but I don’t know if I could spare the time. Keep me in mind though?

[goodcompanion]

Likewise, Jon, you’re welcome to visit here and see what we are doing. Just outside Vergennes, maybe an hour north of you.

[goodcompanion]

Bob,

My father, Dick Andrus, has been teaching an Ecological Agriculture course at SUNY Binghamton for over 25 years, I think. While a practically-oriented farmer myself, I have a real appreciation for the study of agriculture from a broader academic perspective, with attention to history, culture, and so on. Dick would have plenty of suggestions for bibliography and such for the academic portion of a program such as you are hoping to create.

My personal feeling is that the perfect program would have a balance between study and practice, though I haven’t myself had the benefit of such a program.

Dick is on sabbatical right now and Karl North is teaching the “ecological agriculture” course at Binghamton this semester, very capably I’m sure. You may contact Dick at randrus@binghamton.edu and you can probably contact Karl through Donn Hewes on this same forum. Right, Donn?

I am contacted regularly by participants and graduates of Sterling College in Vermont and I must say that they reflect very well on the work done there too.

[goodcompanion]

@Kristin 981 wrote:

Beer and porn are hard to compete against, true enough.

This has to be a good candidate for the DAP “statements easily taken out of context” contest.

[goodcompanion]

I love maple syrup as much as the next person. Possibly more.

Having said that, when you look at how many btus it takes to evaporate all that sap at a ration of 30 or 40 to one, it is one of the worst conversions of energy in to food calories out that you can find in the making of any foodstuff anywhere on the planet. Only justifiable if you have vast amounts of fuel for free or nearly free. Which I suppose we do in the northeast, at least for the time being.

Our predecessors made sugar because they didn’t have anything else to do that time of year, wood was abundant, and it was cheaper than buying white sugar. Today it’s a luxury product for some, a hobby for others, and a living for a few who have their business model tuned just right. But I wonder whether there’s really any place for sugaring in a future era of resource scarcity.

While a farm intern in France (a largely deforested country) I was trying once to explain the process of sugaring to the local people. No-one could believe that anyone would burn so much wood for so little end result.

[goodcompanion]

What is a good size farm for you depends on your talents and inclinations. Do you see yourself as a homesteader, focussing primarily on self-sufficiency while earning your cash otherwise, or as a farmer aiming to make your living from one product or several?

If farming for market, which field of endeavor appeals to you most? Meats? Dairy products? Vegetables? Grains and staple crops? Or you could treat timber as a market product, as Carl does, and market your own timber and the prowess of your team and your own forestry skills. Rare is the person who can excel simultaneously in all areas of farming and forestry.

Which brings me to another point. Do you envision working mostly on your own or will you depend on hired help of some kind? If so, how much help? One person or several?

Every piece of land will lead you in certain directions. Ideas you bring to it from elsewhere may not take root. Still, it’s worth keeping in mind your own interests and character and trying to match that with available land.

Personally I believe the surrounding community is also a major factor. This is your support system, your social network, and your market. It’s never too early to contemplate the basic unadorned math of farming.

Another thing worth mentioning is that there is a huge amount that one can lease for free or nearly free, at least in my neighborhood. Get yourself a functional base of operations and a feel for the neighborhood, and you may be able to do everything you like on borrowed land. For instance I was recently offered a free lease of a 20 acre cornfield across the road from me, because the landowner prefers my management to that of the industrial-scale dairyman who leased it up to this point. There are limitations, of course, but it’s cheap and you can refine your skills and approach to help you make a better purchase once you have some years and savings under your belt.

Erik

[goodcompanion]

We are plugged into the grid. It seems to me that just getting out the kerosene lamps when the grid is no more makes more sense that a massive investment now for something that’s marginally functional. Most folks that I know who use solar electricity spend a lot of time babysitting their system, especially in winter. The grid is a useful tool for me to build up the operation in the here and now. Later I’ll figure out a way to do without it when the time is right.

As for fuel, it’s only a mile into town. I’m going to try starting to use the team for local errands with the wagon, more to make a point than anything else. But I’ve also sold my heavy truck and am figuring out ways to do most of my farm business with a subaru station wagon.

[goodcompanion]

Sounds like you are on the right track to me.

For the self-supporter, if you have a stout building to contain them, there’s a lot to be said for having at least one pig at all times. Composting is fine, but pigposting is better. Anything incompletely broken down, nearly, can be given to the pig, who turns your pile constantly. What he doesn’t eat he will turn into compost. And with food scraps from the average table you can usually feed one pretty well for almost no cost.

[goodcompanion]

I can really see it both ways. For all of my 20s I was eager to start farming but I had a partner during that time who had another agenda. So I ended up accruing experiences and some money which were helpful. In retrospect it’s hard to imagine bootstrapping it the whole way. You need to inherit, or you need some cash to jumpstart.

In order to make it, you need such an array of resources and skills. The return on money invested is pathetic, though we receive non-monetary returns that can be extraordinary. It astonishes me, for instance, that the farm I am building up is probably worth half a million yet I can barely make it above the poverty line working it full time (at least right now). Clearly, the real estate is way over-valued and the products way under-valued. I think we are already seeing global and national events in motion that will correct this, ultimately to the advantage of those of us that farm.

If you can live with a foot in each world, that’s great.

[goodcompanion]

Haven’t done it before. This will be our first year too.

I understand that barley must be planted in warm dry soils. The seed will rot in cool wet soil.

I am thinking of trying to plow early, planting buckwheat, and discing that in in june to plant barley for the ale project.

I think, as with oats, given a stone will with adjustable spacing and a fan mill, and some patience, you ought to be able to hull them.

I would hope that a vigorous stand of it wouldn’t need weeding. Hope is pretty much all you have with grains and weeds in my limited experience. I’ve never tried to row crow or weed it, though I understand that it’s possible, it seems like an awful lot of bother.

My two-year old likes the old 60’s folk scare song, Charlie and the MTA. But when that was wearing a little thin, he thought he’d stump me by asking not for “a charlie song” but “a barley song” instead. Well, damned if I didn’t know two barley songs. They are now both regulars in the bedtime song circulation. If anyone wants to learn a barley song, just let me know.

[goodcompanion]

Green Mountain Draft Horse Association will hold another driving clinic for beginners and intermediates at Shelburne Farms on May 17th. I’ll put it on the calendar.

We charge $50 for a day workshop and that seems about right. Also shoot for a 1-4 teamster to student ratio. Feedback from participants has been quite positive.

This will be the third one I’ve organized for the club, and probably the last for the forseeable future due to the strain of very young boys keeping me up all the time.

[goodcompanion]

Hi Suzanne,

This is Erik just up the road in Vergennes. Nice to see you on board.

I had a horse with white line disease/laminitis. He was sold to me as “a little weak-hoofed but perfectly fine so long as he’s shod.” Those shoes (front at first) came off by themselves after a week of work and his outer hoof was totally destroyed, delaminated at the white line with a lot of fungus in there (must have been there right along, conveniently invisible at the time of the sale).

I followed the advice of my primary vet, which involved wrapping and soaking the hoof twice a day for 6 weeks. But said vet quit working for the local office, and the horse was still extremely tender, so I needed more help. One farrier I asked to help advise me with the recovery insisted that what was occuring was due to my having fed the horse rich pasture grass or grain. I had never fed him anything but hay, and said so. The farrier basically accused me of lying. So that was that.

By then the worst front foot was recovering somewhat but the other front was getting worse, then the back ones. (Horse was still eating hay, standing on clean wood or bare ground) Another farrier said that the horse was just a really hard case–weak feet all around, and suggested I either commit to a lot of work and expense or give up. So I gave up, and gave the horse away as a companion horse. I have a feeling that the recipients did not succeed rehab either and that the horse is dog food by now.

I did my damndest but it was not enough. This horse was 14 years old. If the problem is congenital, as I believe it was in this case (all my horses get the same treatment and feed and I haven’t had any indication of any problem, winter or summer), how did he ever live to be 14?

I don’t know if this will help. Hoof problems are really a bitch.

I will say that I tried those boa boots with the padding inside on him and boy did they work. He was high as a kite and loving life until a boot slucked off his foot while plowing in moist ground. Turns out those boots are not really compatible with plowing, but that’s what the horses are here for at my place. But maybe they’d help you.

[goodcompanion]

If you are just starting out I’d suggest you go with just geldings. They don’t reproduce, it’s true, but they are much more hormone-free and likely to be easygoing. I have two mares and a gelding and wish they were all geldings. Don’t pay extra money for purebred anything unless you are getting into the breeding business. The papers on a purebred american cream gelding, for instance, are good for starting small fires or taping over cracked windowpanes but little else.

The price of drafts is so depressed right now, there’s not a great incentive to breed unless you have really super stock and good connections too.

Good road shoes aren’t cheap. I only live a mile from town but I can’t afford to shoe my horses for pavement. Something to think about.

small harrow or cultivator or stone boat, one horse. Anything else usually depends on the configuration of the equipment. Does it have a pole? Then it’s a team pull. Shafts? Single. You can get, for instance, a single-horse mower or hay rig, but these are a little unusual.

You ought to be able to procure your team for under $4000. Good luck!

[goodcompanion]

I think I need to get some homebrewers in on the project. There is a cool book, the homebrewer’s garden, that’s pretty helpful. With the brick bake oven for kilning the malt we are way ahead of the game, too.

The anglo-saxon in me really goes for the frothing mug of ale. I remember reading this book on nutrition in France (French author) that described a host of “scientific” reasons why wine is good for the body six ways to sunday, and should be consumed in copious quantities by everyone over the age of two, and by those under through absorbtion into breast milk, whereas beer, saints preserve us, will bloat the gut, twist the spine, addle the brain and cause shingles, leprosy, grand mal seizures, halitosis, loss of appetite, greatly increased appetite, and uneven tire wear. Oh well. Beer did get the pyramids built, so it can’t be all bad.

I particularly want to brew in a barrel. I have this 500 gallon stainless steel bulk tank that would probably be a lot handier, but the barrel matters for aesthetic reasons.

I was talking to our local homebrew supplier about my reasoning for this. A farm should have beer on hand in a barrel, not in bottles. Just because. He was really offended, actually. Why, he argued, given all the advances available in sterilization and materials, would anyone choose to brew with medieval methods? Why not go all the way then and just leave the grain in a mud puddle to rot into a stinking soupy mess and then take your chances drinking it? I’m not deterred. A barrel it will be, or sam adams.

[Author]

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