[Michael Low]

From Grimm:
Teeth : $4.25 each
Belts : cc75 $45.00 each
These prices, and belt size, are for the 4 bar ground drive tedder. They did have several different tedders. I forget what I paid in shipping ($20 ish?)

[Michael Low]

Leader Evaporator (GH Grimm Co.) : 802-773-9519
Nice folks.

[Michael Low]

We salted 2nd cut hay this last year for our goats. The hay was not very wet, maybe just a tiny shade off what I prefer in terms of dryness for putting it into the barn. It did the trick, the hay did not get dusty at all, overall quality was good. I will steer away from using salt in the future though for several reasons:
1) It sucks moisture from the air and near the front of the mow where we feed from it got very wet and spoiled some hay. All the salt that fell off the bales collected there.
2) Our goats did not do well on all the extra salt.

I think the most appropriate use of salt may be if you are bringing dry bales in after dark. A local farmer sais his father would bale in the afternoon and then wait for the day to cool off, collecting his hay between 9PM and 1 AM. So the hay itself was dry but had dew on it. He sais he never saw a dusty bale with this technique.

Salt definitely works, though I would not expect it to work miracles on wet hay and would use it judiciously to avoid over salting livestock.

[Michael Low]

GH Grimm Co. : 802-773-9519
Teeth : $4.25 each
Belts : cc75 $45.00 each

Nice folks.

[Michael Low]

Thanks

[Michael Low]

Hi,

I had pioneer equipment custom fabricate 4′ steel wheels and the axle for a tip cart 4 yrs ago or so. My neighbor fabricated the hinges and the catch for the dump body. I built the wooden body for it. After all expenses it was way less than any antique tip carts I found locally, plus it is new and the steel wheels will last for more than my lifetime. I spoke with Leon Wengard at pioneer and he helped design it. Call him and get a quote, mention my name (also that I live in VT), he may have our design on file. I was surprised how cheap it was to ship also (I’m in N.E. VT)

Let me know if you have any questions or want more photos.
One thing to keep in mind when building a tip cart for oxen is to balance the body, and therfore the load, 6″ ahead of the axle so that the tongue weight does not lift the yoke.

Michael Low

[Michael Low]

Yes the bigger rollers could handle deeper snow. I guess it would not have been practical for them to roll mid-storm (which is what I have to do if it is forecast to be alot) in the past. Our town had multiple rollers of different sizes, and access to the horsepower needed to pull the larger ones.

I’ve never heard of fire hardening the bearings. But I have heard of fire hardening wood in tandem with burnishing (compressing the fibers through rubbing). The bearings on the roller would naturally get burnished in this case with use.
Michael

[Michael Low]

And one last photo.

[Michael Low]

The roller weighs around 600lbs. I would like to build a rack so that I can add 200-300 lbs sometimes, to get a little more compacting action. I do like the light weight though for breaking new trails through deep snow heading up hill.

On our regularly rolled farm road the boys only have to work a 3-5 (10 being hardest). Through deep snow uphill it sometimes peaks at a 7-8.

I have tried a 7′ wide V-plow, and also large equipment tires for plowing our farm road with the oxen. The road is 1/2 mile long and has some steep hills on it. The V-plow and the tires would often prove to be very hard, especially on the way back up the hill. I think given the draft, distance and snow levels 3 animal would have made it work. For my team even in hard condition it was a lot to ask them to do.

The roller gets the job done, is not an extreme exertion like the plow sometimes was, and it makes a nice packed road.

The rolls and frame I made out of Tamarack, the tongue and bearings are ash.

Here are some more photos of how I built it.

[Michael Low]

I built a snow roller last year. I made the bearings out of ash. I put some bar and chain oil on them from time to time. The old timers around here seem to think they may last longer than metal.
There is a snow roller museum in my town, and it looks like each design is unique to the maker. Some bearings are wood, some metal.
The size I built, 3′ diameter, was actually a common size used in Vermont according to the curator of the roller museum. It works very well and is easy to pull on our steep hill farm.

Michael Low

[Michael Low]

Thanks for the replys, I was hoping to be able to do something more like what Erika described, x amount just for the event. We may only do this 3-5 times a year. However it does sound like we need a broad insurance plan to cover the farm and the house no matter what we do, and if it includes events like we are planning then maybe it will be more cost effective to find a comprehensive farm insurance. I think State Farm does operate around here, and I will look into their rates and policies.
Michael

[Michael Low]

I’ve thought of making up some shirts with a picture of a spruce tree hung up in some other spruces under it would say ‘we all have our hang ups.’
Michael Low

[Michael Low]

@Carl Russell 32524 wrote:

George, I think that the different design features have everything to do with the seasonality of the use. I want a sled I can use any time of the year, not just on snow. I think that his design gets away with inefficiencies that I don’t want anyway, but specifically during dry-ground use. The value of the single-bunk sled is, to me, too high to limit it to a few months use.

With the bunk back and log weight forward the fulcrum of extra runner length increases the horses ability to lift the weight, AND the friction of the load is reduced by shifting the dragging weight of the logs from that portion on the ground to the narrow steel shoe under two runners. These two factors contribute first by enhancing the bio-mechanics of the horses lifting power, which in and of itself reduces friction (by lifting a portion of the runner off of the ground), but having more weight on the runners than on the dragging logs, the load is easier to pull overall. This latter detail is minimized when working on snow and ice, but in my mind efficiency is efficiency, regardless of the circumstances, and with live power we can maximize our efficiency through the physical design of the equipment we use.

Also by affording increased lift to the front of the runner there is increased maneuverability by lifting the front of the runners off of the ground when turning. With the configuration of my sled, the turning occurs on the heels of the runners more than with Dwayne’s design, which again is less important on snow than on dry ground, but easier is easier….. and it increases the functional application of the equipment (more seasons that just winter).

When I say the horses shouldn’t put lateral pressure on the pole for turning, I mean that when they step gee or haw the sled should turn by being pulled in that direction from the evener, not by being levered over with the pole through the neckyoke. The pole should “float”. As true as this is, there are no doubt instances where there is some lateral pressure on the pole, and in those instances (holding back going around a corner on a steep hill) that I want the strongest pole/roll configuration I can have. I see the A-frame as the kind of insurance that when I need that kind of leverage that I can get it without compromising the integrity of the hitch and jeopardizing the safety and well being of myself and my horses.

As far as turning, even when turning at a stand still, I expect the inside horse to step forward. The power of horses is forward, not sideways. I will have them step over with an empty sled, but there is next to no pressure on the pole/roll connection in that maneuver. When turning a load, it is extremely inefficient to ask a horse to do so in a lateral movement. Time and planning should be taken to give the horses room to move forward while turning. By moving forward at the same time that they move to the side the power is translate through the evener under the load, and the load is turned with no lateral(lever) pressure on the pole.

I think that with long runners and the bunk centered, there is no advantage either for lifting nor for turning. Having the horses closer to the load in this case may seem like they should have more lift, but there is no mathematical advantage, runner length equal front and back, which amounts to a dead lift. And when you combine the fact that you are dragging more log length, it is a lose-lose situation. Then add in the longer runners that create more lateral resistance for turning, and you’ve lost my interest.

By placing the bunk back, it allows more weight to be put on the bunk(more to lift for sure), but by creating mechanical advantage (more runner in front than behind), you make up for that, and then when drawing the load friction is reduced, which in turn increases efficiency for the real power of the work, moving the load over the land. Shorter runners/less shoe combined with the front-of-the-runner-lifting makes much better turning ability increasing overall functionality…….

My sled was originally built by a man who lived near Walden. His family raised Brabants for years, and they logged and sugared with them. I didn’t buy the sled from him, I bought it from Walt Bryan. I never knew whether it was custom-built for Walt based on his own design, or whether it was a standard design that they used for their own purposes. I cannot remember the family name for the life of me….. maybe Dwayne knows who they were/are.

Carl

That would have been Francis Foster. Lived in Walden, and was one of the first to import Brabants into the country. That’s the same Foster who owned the mill shown in the Ben Thresher video. He supported a family, 12 kids plus 10 foster kids, on horse logging and eventually his sawmill. Quite a charactor who unfortunately died just a few years ago.
Michael Low

[Michael Low]

Hi Travis, the chainsaw is sold.
Thanks
Michael Low

[Michael Low]

Talk to people making wooden long bows on the west coast. The Wilderness Awareness School in WA state and Jon Young in CA. Like bows for yokes archery bows are often steam bent for reflex etc.. They also need to have similiar wood strengths to able to bend (or be bent) and not break.
Michael

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