[Mark Cowdrey]

Thanks Bill. I suspected that to be true. My thinking is that getting started on a limited basis (500-1500 bales planned this summer) that it might be alright while I get my feet wet. On the other hand (there always seems to be that other hand), it may just be a frustration.

Are you getting slammed w sap as we are? We made 2/3 of last years total in the last 9 days.

Mark

[Mark Cowdrey]

Does anyone know if replacement stones are available for these sharpeners?
Thanks, Mark

[Mark Cowdrey]

Carl,

Thanks for the point about the “wobbling ears”. That is an example of that extra 10% or so of knowledge that is so hard to come by & so valuable to have for the advanced beginner or journeyman or whatever I am.

Great thread, thanks all.

Mark

[Mark Cowdrey]

“…and watch their heads to see their attitude. When I see them just starting to tire,…”

Carl,
Can you elaborate any on what you are seeing/ looking for?
Good thread.

Thanks,

Mark

[Mark Cowdrey]

Aaronlee,
The beauty of the non-existence of the mythical perfect horse is that you cannot make a catastrophic mistake by buying or not buying any one horse. I suggest that while keeping your standards high, realise that the first horse you buy may not be the one for you, for whatever reason & even if he was “the” horse for someone else. There are always other horses. For me, taking this approach has ratcheted down the tension & expectations to a degree that has helped focus on more pragmatic issues such as are covered in Lynn’s book.

Good Luck,
Mark

[Mark Cowdrey]

This is one of the most interesting threads we have had. I have asked & contemplated questions of what to do in certain situations many times. Carl & Plowboy are lucky, and way ahead, to have been exposed to so much growing up. We others will never catch up with them. Not that they didn’t put out to get the experience. I do not have that background. I got my first horse 8 years ago & have had 8 different ones here at various times. I have 5 now, 2 young ones.

To prepare myself to answer the questions that arise in day to day work, I identified & hung around with people who knew what they were doing & tried to absorb as much as I could. I started about 12 years ago. I am 54. I should have started sooner. The root problem for the beginner is that you can only learn nuance after the basics have been mastered. Time must be invested. But I worked on my foundation as I could. A note here: As I heard from Bart Cushing, ask 10 horse people a question & you will get 12 different answers. Listen to all the mentors you can find, you will learn from them all. However, there will inevitably come a time when you get conflicting advice & are not in a position to know who is “right”. I decided early on that I would listen to everyone I thought was a good horseman, but when push came to shove, I would hew to the line of one particular person. That gave me consistency & confidence. Confidence is crucial. I believe much of what success I have had with horses came about because it never occurred to me that I couldn’t do whatever I set out to do with them. That attitude is very helpful for keeping my cool when things do go wrong (broken neck yoke, line not hooked, falling down, …).

The other useful tactic or mind set is “belt & suspenders”. I do a lot by myself so I try to give myself a back-up plan. One example is that I always use a butt rope. I don’t know anyone else who does (other than Doc Hamil) but I find it gives me a little extra control .
I also always leave my halters on under my bridles. It’s not what many people I admire do, but if I get in a situation where I need to tie up a horse quickly, I want to be ready to go. It works for me.

The issue of when horses don’t do what you “expect” them to is, for me, best exemplified by standing, or, actually, NOT standing. I work with mine with as much patience as I can muster, which I will freely admit varies from day to day, to correct them. If they step ahead unbidden, it’s ”back “ & “whoa”. Sometimes several times. There are times when they get away with it. Not often, but it does happen. You just have to do the best you can & keep moving forward. It will never be perfect, not in my world. But I do set & work to maintain high expectations.

Finally, every horse is different. One of my biggest challenges is learning what is “horse” & what is this particular horse. This issue makes me think of Carl’s comment about green horns letting horses slack along or expecting too much of them. It has been hard for me to know & find these limits. I feel that you just have to get as much experience as you can, both doing & observing, & that you will get better as time goes on. Remember, the more you know, the more you can learn. I was out riding along on a sleigh W a mentor the other day & seeing what he expected out of a young horse for work adjusted my perception of what I could expect from my team. I was ready to learn that nugget.
Well I’ve gone on & on. All you other beginners out there, keep on keeping on. Thanks so much to Carl & Donn & Plowboy & all you others. I consider this whole site a raging success.

Best,
Mark

[Mark Cowdrey]

Donn et al,

I have noticed a problem w ash (White in my case) dying in my 18 acre woodlot in central NH. Typically I notice gradual crown die back over several (3-5) years before the tree is dead. I have also noticed that the very pith (1/4″ diameter) of some of the trees I have cut is white & punky, though I do not know that that is directly related to the demise.

A note of caution. My Dad tells of when the chestnut blight hit New England everyone cutting all the chestnut to get what they could from it. This conceivably eliminated resistant specimens, although with its vigorous sprouting habit that could be debated. My point is, that if I have a healthy looking Ash, I try to hang on to it.

Maybe you should plan a harvest weekend W several teams.

Good luck,

Mark

[Mark Cowdrey]

George, chain swivel, e.g.:

http://www.acehardwareoutlet.com/(jvmmgl45hvvzlj45qohfbdqx)/productdetails.aspx?sku=998018172&source=GoogleBase

[Mark Cowdrey]

I oil all the leather. Perhaps the warning is to not use a freshly oiled collar face directly on an animal? Just guessing.

Mark

[Mark Cowdrey]

I had a good sized ash log this summer that I took to a friend W a wood mizer. We sawed the center out to get rid of the warp-y, shake-y heart. Then made 4 4×4 blanks. The wany ends will be cut out when the taper is made. The tree grew on the edge of the driveway so had some reaction wood because of the unequal sunlight, not too bad, but enough to put a couple inch bend over 14′ in at least 2 of the blanks. I clamped the 4 up together W 1″ spacers, 4 sets of clamps, orienting them so that the curves opposed each other. They are in the barn under some hay right now, we’ll see how they look in the summer when I take the clamps off.

That cucmber wood souds interesting.

Good luck,
Mark

[Mark Cowdrey]

Jen,

Can you post a link to the photos? Thanks, Mark

[Mark Cowdrey]

P.S.
It looked like it was sized for that can’t-do-with-out tool, the joint compound bucket.
M

[Mark Cowdrey]

Thanks for all the input.
It’s funny, I was under hte assumption that any bad effects were only a result of them eating forage with the frost actually on it, not post-frosting. So I had been turning mine out after things had warmed up w/ no ill effects. They have been on grass for some period of most every day all summer.

[Mark Cowdrey]

For anyone who has front tugs that wrap around the swivel clip and are scratching their heads about how to shorten them. Meader’s, and probably others, sells a sheet metal tug end that can be riveted or bolted to a shortened (cut off) tug.

Mark

[Mark Cowdrey]

Andre,

How much clearance do you have bewteen the top of the knife sections & the top piece of the guard?

Thanks, Mark

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