[J-L]

Looking good. Those Clydes and Shires are growing on me.
I do like your cart also. Looks like a one horse lighter version of Neil Dimmocks work cart. He like them three wheeled as well. I have a three wheeled feed wagon that Lostfarmer on here built. Great rig. He is also building a three wheeled bale unroller for me, which we plan to have up and running before too long.
Once again, nice horse.

[J-L]

Kind of a morning guy myself! Suffolk mules sound very interesting Donn. How big is your mare and what size mule are you shooting for? I have always wondered about Suffolks to cross for mules. Interesting.

[J-L]

Not surprised at it plugging Donn. Kind of stretching the limits on that cart it looked like. I found a baler with a Wisconsin motor that I need to go look at and I think that’s definitely the way I’d go.
That big cart should be more than enough to run a mower though. What about the smaller PTO cart on an I&J 7′ mower? Do you think it would work or would the big cart be needed?
Wes

[J-L]

That is a neat video GW. Thanks for posting it. It sounds and looks like the plunger is working a little slow, but is working none the less. Surprised me how it didn’t seem to be working the team really hard. Don’t know if I’d want to bale 300 acres of heavy grass hay with it, but it’d do in a pinch if your tractor was down.
I would love to have one too and it would be hooked to an I&J mower if I were flush with money.

[J-L]

Hi Russel. I am by no means an expert but can tell you what works for me. I have swather guards (double guards) on my #9 and am using a knife with smooth sections. I cut around 20 acres of alfalfa (lucerne) with it this year and it worked very well for me. My three inside sections have a stub guard on them to help prevent clogging and it worked well too.
Alfalfa is easier to cut than my grass hay but still you need your knife sharp. You can cover a lot more ground with less horse sweat with a sharp knife that registers correctly.
I still think I’m going to put under serrated sections on my other mower and try it. Theoretically it cuts better than smooth sections with swather guards I’m told, but in my experience it smooth sections worked fine in a lot of different grasses and alfalfa.

[J-L]

Holy cow George. Sounds like a counterweight is in order. Don’t know what else would help.

I have been looking at those carts with interest, thinking of doing the same thing you are. Hauling round bales to and from the stack was exactly what I had in mind. Also being able to use the tractor implements we have laying around came to mind.

I hope someone has insight into this problem.

Wes

[J-L]

Last two days we had a skiff of snow on the peaks. Probably above timberline, say 9500′ or 10,000′ and up. Last night when I came in from the field about half way to home I ran into three bull moose sparring in the middle of one of the smaller hay meadows. Thought they were going to come right up to the team. Thankfully the horses tolerate them better than the mules. Mules would’ve been heading home. Moose rutting like mad.

[J-L]

Thanks for the video Tim. Nice job on the video and very nice job on the team.

[J-L]

Thanks Mike. I have already got a couple shoulders that feel that way from horse wrecks. Hope this pelvis will heal in time for calving season next spring. Don’t have a clue how to get around that without being horseback. Fall work will be a total disaster for me, have to count on lot’s of help.
I was actually a submariner in the USN, 6 yrs active duty. Thought it would be a good way to see the world. It was, but sure didn’t like the sub after being born and raised on a Wyoming cattle ranch. Talk about a shock to the system. Still all in all glad I did it.
Had frost here the last week or so off and on. I’m hoping I can get the alfalfa down before it freezes. Killed the squash and beans in the gardens. Elk are starting to bugle and deer shedding velvet and putting on gray winter coat. Leaves starting to change. Fall is here.

[J-L]

Sounds like you had fun Donn. Sure would enjoy those pictures when you get some. Very intersting read.

It’s interesting that your sleigh ride horse acts like the black pair I have that were a sleigh ride team. These horses had lots of go and that was about it. Pulling a steel runner (bad designed steel runners, just channel iron with a 45 in front) sleigh loaded with tourists on Park City ski slopes makes for hard workers but they like to jump into their load. Also don’t want to walk, apparently that was discouraged heavily, and all they want to do is go at a long trot. Very annoying when you need a walk.

It has been fun watching my horses transition into decent farm/ranch horses as well. Like you I found that some steady work in the field has been great for these percherons. The bigger horse, Clyde, is probably the best all around draft animal I’ve ever owned. He is a monster on a mower, long strided fast walk, and nearly tireless. His team mate Candy has a lot of piss and vinegar but can’t keep up with him after a couple hours.
The field work has been what turned the corner for them. As you know all the noise, comotion, and many turns and back ups associated with dragging meadows, mowing, and raking hay will make your horses more handy in a hurry. It also points out the lack of training this pair had.

My hat is off to you breaking an 8 yr old colt. I’ve done it a few times with mixed success. Not an easy project at times.

[J-L]

Forgot to say, I have those buck rake wheels in my equipment shed still if you need them.
Wes

[J-L]

Hi Mike. It depends on which Sheridan. If Sheridan, WY it’s about 5-6 hours. We’d for sure have a place for you to crash and some grub too.

Sounds like haying was a great success for you. I think you’re on the right track with your idea of ganging them mowers together. I have some neighbors with great big open fields who gang tow New Holland 9′ mowers together. It doesn’t take that much horse power to run them either, I think they had one set up on a 40 hp John Deere tractor. They run two of those and have a V rake that they drop in behind that and gather big windrows for their 3×3 baler.

I’ve been looking at the I&J 9′ mower with a motor and thinking along those terms. Figured with a good 6′ #9 McCormick and the 9′ I&J I could knock enough hay down to do my smaller outfit and keep my round baler happy.
I have been doing more and more with my teams this year and actually mowed a fair amount and am doing most of my raking with horses and mules. I do believe I could rake over 30 acres of hay with two teams and rakes in a day. With the right mowers in front of that I think I could replace my swathers and tractors.

Let me know if you’re heading this way.
Wes

[J-L]

I’m sure that’s something that has happened to all of us to one degree or another. While I was having my neighbor weld on a JD#4 mower, my cousin (who is a fairly big operator compared to me) made quite a little fun of me cutting hay with it. I just told him not to worry about it because he didn’t have to use it and drove off with my team.
There have been quite a few times when people have seen me hauling hay from my top place and asked why I wasn’t using a truck and trailer or was my tractor broke, etc. Some times I just ask my rancher neighbors what else they have to do besides sit on their fat asses and watch soap operas when they’re done feeding cows in two hours vs. the four or five it takes me.
On the other hand it continually surprises me how many people wish they could use their teams more (or any at all) and give me some praise for doing it this way. Mostly they lack experience or a little fortitude (when it’s -40f out).
Realistically most of us do more work just harness/unharnessing than the tractor driving crowd does in a day.
Might be best to just let it slide Denise. If you are like the rest of us on this board, working animals is a huge part of why you do what you do. Just keep at it.

[J-L]

I have a couple little drives that are about 6-8 miles. Not too bad a gather. One other place has a few miles of beaver ponds and little creek channels choked with willows. Not much of a drive home, but a rotten SOB to gather cattle out of. My dogs tend to work just for me (according to the kids) and may not be as much help to the kids and help. We’ll have to see.
Doc says not a chance in hell on me going on my normal pack in elk hunt. This will be the first year since I was in the service that I’ll not get to see the high country when the elk are bugling. On the positive side, one of my uncles has a private section up in the timber that holds elk at different times. I can drive close and walk it then lead my pack mules to the meat (hopefully). That will have to do. Too bad though, much of the reason I hunt is to see new country. There is a lot of it I haven’t seen yet. Was going to a different place in the Wind River range this fall, fishing was supposed to be out of this world too. Maybe next year.

[J-L]

Found out I’m too old to ride bucking horses. Have a fractured pelvis (and likely have had for more than a year) and didn’t know it. Hasn’t broken clear through…yet. To fight off the pain I’d been taking Ibuprofen and Alleve. That ate up the lining in my stomach and I had an upper GI bleed and a couple ulcers. Three and a half pints of blood to get me back up above the add mark. Things look good now but I’m grounded from riding horses for a good while. That makes it tough to do any of my cowboy work though.

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