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Nat(wasIxy)
ParticipantI don’t think I would put any of the weight on the neck – i’d put it on the back like a saddle as with the dog and horse above. I don’t like putting any weight on the neck at all really! The harness I’m working on does put the point of pull on the neck as with a yoke, but I only intend using it for light work – carts, firewood etc. For an actual drag I’d rather use a collar.
ParticipantWe move our cattle to fresh grass every single day – we just have another paddock set up ready for them to move into, then dismantle the old one once they’re in the new on a set it up beyond the new one for the next day.
They soon get used to the routine and we just call tem through.
ParticipantWell the lambs went off to a rented field elsewhere and it was going to be too fiddly to pick two out and bring them back here…but, we have 2 adult wethers in ‘sick bay’ for fly strike. We’ve ad to treat them so much they are getting used to handling and they are BIG sheep, so I may try getting a halter on and so on….
ParticipantI grew up with airedales – ours was just a pet but he had lots of stamina! You couldn’t wear him out! Mega dogs.
However, german shepherds are the breed for me. Stunningly good looking, intelligent, strong, loyal…
I don’t have mine anymore as my ex kept him when we split up, but I’m yearning for another. I used mine to pull me along on a bike – before I had a car it was a really useful form of transport; he could gallop 8 miles pulling me before slowing to a trot!
ParticipantThis pic shows a horse ridden and pulling a person on a travois: http://www.sdpb.org/Oceti/Travois.jpg
and dogs do it too! http://esask.uregina.ca/management/app/assets/img/enc2/selectedbig/51F2BF58-1560-95DA-4300E3357FE677A4.jpg
Participant@Robert MoonShadow 12200 wrote:
I see many mentions on ‘sacrificing’ this and that for “living the dream” –> I’m sorry, but I’m an American = I want it all, and expect it……Case in point: I don’t want or have any use for a nice car or even a big fancy new truck. What for?….Yep, I want it all…and I think I’ve got most of it.
Attitude, my friends. What do you really want?It’s not usually the big stuff like cars and nice houses and foreign holidays – most people serious about this life don’t value things like that anyway, the two ideas don’t really go together.
For me it’s the little things – I could really do with a haircut, but there’s always something more important that what little money we have goes on. Maybe a haircut isn’t important to you, but I’m a girl and I like my long blonde hair to look nice 😛
I could also do with a hat for winter, last year’s has gone walkabout…I knwo the one I want, but I can’t afford it so I’m making do with a piece of frabric wrappen around my head to at least keep the wind off my ears. Likewise boots – my rigger’s boots have holes in, but I don’t really have the money for a new pair, I have shorter, good boots but need someting that goes higher up the leg – gaiters would solve it but see the answers above….
ParticipantThat’s great thanks – will look for the threads a bit later wen i have more time 🙂
ParticipantI know of these guys:
but was worried the religious angle might put people off donating?? Even though I’m not a hindu it doesn;t bother me as I can appreciate (most) of the overall idea, but others might not be so laidback?
Participant@Vicki 12128 wrote:
I find, like Ixy, that cattle are knowing and affectionate, some more than others. I’ve eaten lots of my own cattle, bred on our farm, and some that were trained as oxen. But it will be a hard day when my current “boys” have to close their eyes for the last time. Unless my world changes drastically, I will not be able to eat them. They don’t sleep on the bed like the dog, but we have a lot more between us than I have with the dog.
Yep, I love Angus the same, if not more than I would a dog. Most animals are fair game for me dinnerwise but there are a few exceptions 😉
ParticipantOh gosh bivol I have tears in my eyes- I can just imagine it 🙁
IMO, my oxen are way more affectionate than 95% of all horses I’ve worked with – I’ve worked with, it must be, near 200 horses and most had a very aloof kind of temperament. Whereas, my cattle are genuinely curious about people and seem to love to spend time with me, they love physical contact more too, I guess because they groom each other by licking for a long time, whereas horses just nibble shoulders. I can rub mine all over for hours and they lap it up.
Yesterday I was picking berries with my partner in the herd’s field – eventually Angus came over and hung around watching patiently so I just had to go have a ‘grooming’ session with him 😀 I think cattle are slightly less expressive than horses – less noise and the ears going back etc – which makes it hard for humans to understand/relate to them. I can ‘read’ Ang pretty well now though.
October 26, 2009 at 1:13 pm in reply to: To All Who Try To Sell Others On The Idea Of Sustainable Farming, Forestry. #54768ParticipantOK I have misunderstood the thread, and the poll, so your results may be skewed as I may not be alone.
I thought you were talking about ‘is the subject of sustainability understandable in general’ – not about this forum in particular. To my mind this forum is right on track – if those learned on a subject want to thrash it out down to the last specialisation, this should not be ‘dumbed down’ for the benefit of other, less knowledgeable folks. If they want to know what’s being talked about they need to ask for clarification and/or put some legwork in and go learn!
October 26, 2009 at 1:10 pm in reply to: To All Who Try To Sell Others On The Idea Of Sustainable Farming, Forestry. #54767Participant@OldKat 12027 wrote:
No, I think she is on the right thread. I think her point being that ‘conventional agriculture’, forestry, etc runs on oil. Therefore, in the view that oil will be exhausted at some point, ‘Sustainable’ enterprises would depend on the ability to produce, process, harvest, etc absent fossil fuels.
At least that is my understanding of the concept.
yep that’s it – oil is what makes farming so unsustainable right now – reliance on machinery and chemicals.
Participantvicki thanks so much for these book recommendations! I love ‘in praise of oxen’ the photos are wonderful!
October 25, 2009 at 6:52 pm in reply to: To All Who Try To Sell Others On The Idea Of Sustainable Farming, Forestry. #54766ParticipantAlthough I believe it’s pointless trying to ‘sell’ the idea, people either get it or they don’t, the simplest way I can put it is:
Oil WILL run out. It takes an incomprehensibly long time for oil to form, and we obviously use it way quicker than that so its not a question of if, but when. Maybe it’ll be ten years, maybe a hundred, the only certainty is that one day, it won’t be there anymore and prior to that, you can bet it’ll get so expensive ordinary people won’t be able to afford it – we’ll be on our own.
We’ll have no fuel for lorries, machinery, combines etc etc etc – how will we harvest and transport things? We won’t have petrochemicals – packaging, fertiliser, pesticides etc will no longer be there.
The good news is that – we don’t need oil! We survived for thousands of years without it. BUT, the bad news is that the methods for doing things without oil are not quick fixes, they need time to build up and plenty of perhaps forgotten knowledge we need to relearn. Best to start right now then! 😀
ParticipantI think the most interesting thing I’ve found so far about oxen was a little picture in one of those ‘country history’ books about ye olde rural life, and it showed a man stood with a small, scruffy little ox and the paragraph with it tells us that he used to act as postman on a remote scottish island with that ox. That’s unusual, I’ve not found anymore accounts like that and I’d love to know more about that man and the ox!
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