[jac]

Hi George.. Skye is one of the particulary beautiful places here. I dont know if any of you over there have heard of Charlie Pinney, he made horse drawn machines now sadly dead but I was privelaged to be asked to a working horse weekend he had at his place way up on the west coast.. stunning !!!
Thank you for that contact I will give them a call soon because from what I’v read this type of harness does seem to answer a lot of probs. cheers
John

[jac]

Awww jeeez .. an just when I thot i’d got it 🙂

[jac]

Hi JimB . I agree with a lot of what you say. over here we are being taken over by do gooders and health and safety stuff. We pander to the criminals in jail while good working people get every obsticle imaginable put in their way. The jail birds were up in arms because they had to “slop out” .. nurses have to do that every day and you dont hear them complain. Every year anuther civil liberty is taken away in the name of terrorism, meanwhile a well known terrorist with one hand and a glass eye is allowed to roam our streets AND claim full social security payments !!!! at the same time our troops are sent to war with inferior kit. I dont want society to turn intolerant but I think things have swung too far.. IXY.. The NHS is a superb thing but as usual its got too many fat cats at the top creaming a lot of money that should be going to give nurses a decent pay and a real bug of mine is NHS doctors “moonlighting” in the private sector !!! How can they do that if they’re employed by the NHS?? and I have it from a nurse that the level of treatment is definatly better in the private sector.. the level of care is the same because that is down to the nurses..

[jac]

Thanks Carl.. still getting to grips with the sheer volume of info on this web site. Thanks for your patience.. I get the general picture of the harness now.. my present harness is the western breeching set up.. works well but as I intend to do a lot more mowing and dont really want to go down the tongue truck route I think this could be the answer and now need an east coast {to keep shipping cost down} harness maker you folks could recomend. cheers
John

[jac]

Hey Goodcompanion.. Please note that in Scotland the beer is ALWAYS served cold:)… mind you so is the summers :(cheers
John

[jac]

Hey Countrymouse.. I did think of that but up till now have tried to cure without resorting to the clippers.:( I think your right though and I may have to clip. Has to be said that the feather is a real pain.. great for Budweiser hitches but not so great in a muddy west of Scotland field. If I was starting out without Granpa’s influence I’d prob use those Belgians to. .cheers
John

[jac]

Hey Tim that rotor is a larger version of the one I made. You look to have 4 blades per bank where I have only three but its the same idea. I take it you can alter the angle of the rotors to increase the slot opening?. If I was asked to describe the two machines i’d say yours was more of an incorporation tool as opposed to mine being just an areator. I notice you mentioned pest control. Were you refering to slugs?. Seed loaded slurry hasnt’ been used over here,but then cover cropping isnt a big thing either, the clover looked good in the foto. Got me thinking about the effluent that seeps away from my manure heap.. should really be burying a tank and saving that stuff. Perhaps a small tanker of say 150 gallons and a dribble bar would work following the areator.Think I saw a foto of one being used at a progress day. Very small scale but a thought for market gardeners.. Soil errosion wasnt’ an issue I’d thought of but when I think about it, after heavy rain there are tiny rivers running down the field, the 1st steps of errosion I suspect, so if I can get rid of the surface water, then the soil errosion problem can be helped. I noticed before I started using my slitter that the compacted area along the fence line where the horses congregate got really slippery after a shower of rain, where as after the slitter had been over it the land didnt take on that shiney appearance. Thank you for all that really great feed back Tim: cheers
John

[jac]

Tim I use the machine to create slots about 6″ long and up to a max of 7″ deep to let surface water away , let air in as well as nutrients. The slots then crack and gradualy spread out as the ground dries out. We have very heavy land and if you leave it to late it can get way to hard, though I could weight it up but then I suspect it would be to heavy for horse work. I also have a land driven seed box mounted on top so I can sprinkle grass seed at the same time.The tractor made versions have 72 blades but then you have to weight them up to get it to penetrate.
John

[jac]

Hi Grey,, the single horse at the end of the film is pulling a furrow press and even today you can get bigger versions of the same machine for the huge tractor plows. American machines were imported to Britain in big numbers before, during and after WW2. I personaly have a Hoosier grain seeder built in Richmond with wooden box and wheels …wheels need replaced if anyone knows where I can get any.. and a 1940s IHC type ed grain binder which needs a full set of wooden canvas rollers.any ideas ?? The Canadian Cockshut plow seems to have been very popular round my area, but only in walking version. Sulky plows never caught on and neither did manure spreaders which I thought odd but then again Britain had plenty cheap labour at that time. British made mowers were very out dated mechanicaly compared to the IHC models and I dont think I’ve seen a JD model yet and certainly none with rubber tires.
John

[jac]

This is where the intercontinental differences can cause probs in terminology. When I said about swivels I meant at the other end, and keeping a straight line, to my mind at least, means not breaking the line of draft.. which can never be anything else but straight.. And thats different to the draft angle.. though I try to keep that at an optimum angle to. Least thats how I see it and have tried to keep to that for 20yrs..thats how the misunderstanding over straight lines seem to have come about . Cheers
John

[jac]

Carl I have only recently joined but already have benefited from the contact with you folks, We have no credit card but I know the neibour up the road has paypal or whatever its called so I will gladly help out when we next see them . Thank you for all your hard work.
John

[jac]

Tim the machine I have just now has 36 blades as opposed to discs. they are 7″ long and if you pick the right time penetrate well. It has a wheeled lifting frame with a hydraulicly cranked draw bar which allows the wheels of my hitch cart to turn under at full turn. When in line with work again I lower the machine and the draw bar straightens again. I will post fotos in the spring, the only ones I have is the 1st days trial and that was hooked to my old tractor.
John

[jac]

Tim this is great stuff. Im going to print this out and file it because I have a few ideas on building machines of my own.. mainly in the grass rejuvinating side of things. As I plan to use discs this is a great starting point. With this and if I can figure out the draft on a set of grass harrows I can build a machine suited to a pair of Clydes without the guesswork.
John

[jac]

The media has a lot to answer to. When the Amish community was devastated by that gunman the British media could only come up with crappy comments like “they live in the dark ages” or ” a secret sect” and most hurtful of all was the ” incest that went on in their community”.. like mainstream folk are perfect. I have no acess to what has been reported stateside but I can guess at the disregard for the man and the attention grabbing headlines. It seems to be a worldwide thing, the belittling of the agricultural sector.
John

[jac]

Hi Joel. You guys must get a better quality chrome than we can get over here.. and that wouldnt surprise me at all because most of the stuf we get in from the states is good.. I didnt realise you got clips at the hames.. its not an option we get over here either.. The swivels yes and I know what they are for but they dont keep the trace in a straight line. Appologies guys.
John

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