[J-L]

Thanks for the report Scott. From looking at the website it seemed like a big sale and I’m a little surprised it held up so well. Also surprising that the mules were out sold, must have been a lot of misguided folks there!

I also cannot figure out folks in this area (including the North slope), at our elevations, who calve so early. When I sell 600# steers off the cow in the fall, very few of the early calvers outweigh mine. Not much advantage there that I can see. Their calves are missing a lot of ears and tails (although I lost a few in early April too).
I think one advantage I have is that my cows have about 3 weeks of green grass under their belt before I breed. I think that tends to flush them, like we used to do with our ewes, with good feed and makes for more fertile heat cycles. Trying to do that in April and early May means your pushing a lot of high dollar feed through them or else you just don’t get the conception or short calving interval that you should have.

Thanks for the compliment.

[J-L]

Thanks Jason. Been wondering about him. I’ve visited with him on the phone a few times and he is a very nice fellow. Knows his mules too.

[J-L]

Looks good to me. I like your idea for making adjustment on your chain. I use one a little bigger than that with a team for hauling sod (after ditching) for building dykes. Mine is probably too big as you can easily overload a team with wet sods. I’d just hook a pair on yours and go.

[J-L]

I’d sure like to make it Scott, but am still up to my ears here calving. Got to start thinking about spring work too. Looks like they have a pile of horses going through. Awful good looking team of bay/brown mules in their. Lucky I’m not going or I’d probably have to sit on my hands hard.

[J-L]

jac, we’ve been using something called Cattlactive this spring for a variety of things, mostly sickness in calves. It’s an herbal type of thing and my brother, who raises quarter horses, uses it as a horse wormer. You might visit their website for more info. Seems to work for us and people are surprised at it’s effectiveness as a horse wormer.

[J-L]

Mine are tied everytime I hook up. Most of my work is on wagon or bobsled from Dec to June so the ends are up on the bed to the cross poles out of the way.
I ran over one line with my sleigh runner once and pulled awful hard on one side of my teams mouth when it drug the slack out.
When I’m unrolling my round bales a lot of the time I’m off the cart backing and turning while manueveering bales and sometimes while unrolling (just to get some exercise) and it’s a lot handier to have them tied for me too.

[J-L]

I have those brackets and can take some pictures. I will need the snow to melt off so I can find them for you if you can wait a week or so (I hope). I had the brackets and stub tongue but no tongue trucks so have mounted a regular tongue on my #4.
Nice mower by the way.

[J-L]

Very interesting Tim. Those figures validate what my dad always told me in regards to the steel wheels. Pretty significant.
Just at a glance it doesn’t seem too great a difference between nylon and leather tugs though.

[J-L]

It amazes me when I go to SLC how many big 4 wheel drive vehicles you see. Lot’s of big diesel pickups and big SUV’s. In this part of the country we call the Suburban type vehicles BMW’s. This stands for Big Mormon Wagon. Usually full of kids in Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming.
My wife has one of these BMW’s. Drives it to work when the roads are bad. We live about 3/4 mile off the highway and sometimes it’s all you can do to get a 4wd vehicle out to the highway.
I think in a post oil world the elite will those who can produce more food than they need and sell/trade the surplus. If they’re smart they’ll be driving mules!

[J-L]

I agree with grey, I just clean the sides. The frog will shed and sometimes it leaves a chunk that gets in the way so the foot won’t clean.
Where I live, work and ride, most of that stuff wears off in the rocks. When I shod outside horses (off the ranch that is) that lived in small pastures or corrals, I had to learn to trim that frog a little more on the sides.

[J-L]

Was that remark directed at me Nonie (haha)? I’ll have to check that one out (no pun intended). I have connections at the county library.
Lingodog13 has a better selection than the library I think.

[J-L]

Looks better than the sheep hide I duct taped to my little mule harness! I’m going to have to do something better (like you did) as it’s rubbed down to the hide on her ribs, no sore or anything but it looks like hell.

[J-L]

This turned out to be an interesting thread after all. It’s not always as simple as hooking your animal up and going forward. A lot of these situations more experienced people just deal with and don’t think of explaining it to inexperienced teamsters (can’t move it forward, move it sideways, do it in lugs, etc.). Sometimes it’s just a matter of having the confidence in yourself as a teamster, then it just runs down the lines.
Good job Jen and nice horse.

[J-L]

I raked a lot of hay with my forecart and old JD side delivery rake. It works just fine. It won’t pack your hay down and leave any extra on the ground. My cart has the single seat, I have two but just use one raking so can turn sharp enough and not run into my seats.
Having said all that, I’d like one set up like you guys are describing and might have to do that when I find another bargain on a rake.

[J-L]

I have one too. Also unopened.

[Author]

Posts