[Ed Thayer]

We are done tapping all our tubing here, just need to get the buckets up this week and we are good to go. I cleaned the sugar house yesterday and will rinse the evaporator tomorrow. I haven’t boiled yet but expect maybe this weekend. Could be a short season. I guess time will tell. Good luck to you all.

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

I will try to find a local market. I would mill them to someone’s spec if I can find a buyer. Maybe just saw them into cants and sticker them under some tin.

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

That tool looks awesome George, Nice work!!

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

Carl,

I appreciate your comments, Interestingly enough, I found myself thinking exactly the same thing after watching this. You may have noticed I actually had to remind myself, by watching my body language, to move out from between the logs once before having the horses step up.

Complacency is a hard rut to get out of when everything is going right. We must continue to remind ourselves that we are working with awesome power and some form of hazard is always present. These comments and tips are helpful and reinforce our need for safety. The videos we all produce have value to others whether it be inspiration, learning, or identifying possible hazards and that is a reason for sharing them.

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

George, Rick,

I did not do a good job of describing my thoughts here, I have some large diameter pine logs to retrieve from a wet area where I can not get the horses. My thought was to use the arch and a tractor winch to remove them from the wetland by hooking the winch cable to the forwarding arch as its designed to do and pulling them to dry ground. Once the logs are on dry ground I could skid them the rest of the way to the access road with the horses and forecart pulling the arch behind it with the log suspended and reduce the ground contact and contaminating the logs with dirt. The concept here is to not load the logs up with mud which drastically reduces the life of my bandmill blades. It will also reduce the impact to the surrounding wetland and soils.

I do use my log scoot but don’t feel it is appropriate for this specific situation.

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

George,

I have used this wooden go devil with great success. I used 2″ flat bar for the shoes for runners. I have 2 bunks on mine and a steel evener connected to the single tree. Also a couple 1″ square stakes that are set in pockets. This may be much smaller then what you are describing. There is a single ring attached to the center of the bunk as you described in your design.

Ed

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[Ed Thayer]

Rick,

Do you have the tongue option to hitch it to a forecart? It looks like it is built very well. And somewhat light to move around. I am thinking I can winch logs to the access road and then put the tongue on it and haul the logs off the ground to the mill.

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

Awesome news, great choice.

[Ed Thayer]

Doug, you may want to list it on the DAPNet Facebook page as well.

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

Our hay day Sunday.

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[Ed Thayer]

Put up another hundred bales this afternoon, got wet yesterday and was able to Ted it 3 times today and bale it and made pretty good hay considering. Horses will be happy with it come middle of January. Lots of farmers down here with wet hay on the ground, gonna be scarce to find top notch stuff this year.

[Ed Thayer]

Looks like we are not the only ones getting rained on. ?

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[Ed Thayer]

The Deering 1 horse mower I had had a 4′ bar and that was plenty for my 16.2 Belgian. Lots of rest even on flat ground was required. But it did a fantastic job clipping pastures and around the gardens.

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

Mowed the last 4 acres of first crop on Friday. Very wet from the 1.5″ of rain from the day before. The forecast was predicted 4 days of sun and low humidity. Beautiful drying day yesterday, cloudy with 60% chance of rain this afternoon. We just can’t catch a break this year. Looks like we will be teddin several times on Sunday to get it in the barn.

[Ed Thayer]

Glad you are OK Daniel. It is easy to be complacent around our animals after a while, but important as you describe to remain calm when things go wrong. We are engaged in potentially dangerous work and need to manage the risks as best as possible.

I remember a sleigh ride where a person said to me, ” you must trust those horses with your life. They are so calm and gentle.” My response took her back when I suggested that although I do hold a level of trust and communication with them, I certainly would not trust them with my life.

Keep on Keepin On

Ed

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