[mitchmaine]

hey julie, how did your suffolk day go? any news?

[mitchmaine]

hey missy, can’t wait to see what comes out of that barn. i’m with carl, in this neck of the woods, a dray is just what he described. i’ve heard it called a sloven or a slewgee, and the french called it travois, but its beauty was you could make it in less than an hour right in the woods, and it wore down pretty fast so you probably had a couple in a winter. they were spruce and you looked for one with a sweep and pulled them top first so the butts dragged on the ground. at the end of the job, you cut it up and threw it in with the pulp. it would be fun to see one that made it through under cover. send us a photo, please. thanks, mitch

[mitchmaine]

anyone ever use tongs to deck logs on the landing? can be tricky. you have to make sure the log is set in the pile before you let it loose. we’d choose a good tree and set blocks ten feet from the ground and deck with the team. you can make a pretty neat pile without too much work. but it is also very dangerous. if a log gets going from the top of the pile, it don’t stop till it hits something. use a long rope and don’t go more than three high, should be ok.

[mitchmaine]

hey rod, one thing that used to work for me (with horses) when the wouldn’t stand, was just harnessing them up, tying them off on the cool side of the barn, and leaving them. they got used to being harnessed and standing for long periods. we all harness them up and go to work, and i noticed how their attitudes would change with harness. it meant work. so if you can break that association sometimes it will work. i had a pair of bay mares that i was going to shoot one day, i was so mad with them. and i tried that trick on them and i never saw such a change in a pair of horses. they stand alone in a field for hours when the same morning you could barely hook them alone. i don’t know nuthin about steers. never could figure out an animal that would come to ya when you was whackin it in the head with a stick. good luck mitch

[mitchmaine]

congratulations kristan and george. you must be proud and happy to get your award. the fact that vermont gives a sustainable farm award is good news and should be celebrated. i’m happy for you both, and all the rest of us too.

[mitchmaine]

hey donn, i was wondering how your rig actually worked too. does the arch fall forward over the load to where you can chain it short, as you move forward, the load stays put for a moment and pulls the arch backwards and up as you go forward til that front chain comes taut and you go??? tell us how you hook, please. thanks, mitch

[mitchmaine]

good for you, jason. a horse will literally pull himself blind for you. create enough strain to rupture their optic nerve. they don’t stop pulling til you say so or something else happens.stopping is the teamsters job or better, knowing when to. takes courage to pull up in the middle of the moment. glad to hear it. mitch

[mitchmaine]

hey donn, great looking arch. looks lightweight and strong. wonder if like the pioneer forecarts, you could design it to carry sleds or wheels by bolting skis on to the wheel hub. sometimes when you try and make something to do two jobs, neither work really well. maybe a totally different summer arch on wheels with your pivoting arch would work ok? sure looks well made. great job. mitch

[mitchmaine]

mother katherine, if you were at fryeburg in the early 70’s for the sweepstakes, you saw rock. they retired him in skowhegan in 73(?) and nobody expected it. dicks wife made and brought out his blanket, and they put it on him and he knew everything that was going on.they took a picture and he was so proud. not a tall hoss but he was that day. mink….there is what they call ringsmart up here, and its when a horse finds out he can’t get licked in a show ring like he can at home and balks up. is that what you mean? grey…..it’s been a long time since somebody hooked his own horse in a pull, and a few are missing toes from the quick starts, but we have farmer’s pulls now and the teamster HAS to hook himself. those are fun. there were teams and teamsters back that went in quiet, pulled, won, and left. i think that was the day a man spent his whole week and year with those hosses. another day.

[mitchmaine]

one more note on the subject. some horse have heart and are actual athletes. alot of horses were ruined trying to make something out of them they couldn’t or shouldn’t be. when they lose their faith in man (and i know the look) nothing restores it. this i am certain of.

[mitchmaine]

hey blue, thanks for your note. i spoke hastily out of passion. permit me to tell you the story of “rock” the pulling horse from west forks, maine. a true legend. he was owned by dick wallingford and pulled back in the 60’s and early 70’s here. you only had to see him or be around him to know you were around royalty. truth. this horse was something else. perfect when pulling single. he had wide shoulders. a huge neck, and no arse. he would lower himself down in the front till he was almost even with the ground and start digging. no thrashing, just an even pull. you’d cry just to see it. i watched him outpull 20 horses at cumberland fair and at the end they loaded him up to just under ***** pounds and he pullede it six feet. i wrote that number down and crossed it out cause i saw him do it, but i couldn’t beleive it myself. dick made a magnesium hame with double hame straps just for that horse. they kept trying to match him and came close with a michigan horse half again his size with an extra two links on the evener,that cost $16,000, in 1971. rock was something else again, and when they retired him they made him a horse blanket out of his blue ribbons that hung to the ground. what a horse.

[mitchmaine]

hi john, years ago, maine was full of pulling horses. some successful and some not so. and an unsuccessful pulling horse, even tho they went through the same “training program” weren’t much good for anything else. except they were readily available and cheap. and lots of them went back in the woods. and were worth exactly what you paid for them. the minute you dropped your guard and rattled a chain they thought all hell was about to descend upon them and they were gone, and you too if you were in the wrong spot. starting a big load is the whole game and hitting the load with everything you have is the training. you can only imagine what that involved. that same energy in the woods ain’t so bad, but on a plow or a mower, no good. every year they have to get biger and stronger, til they don’t even look like horses to me. i know too much about this subject to give it a kind word. maybe others have a different idea.

[mitchmaine]

hey countrymouse, carls bridal chain is the ultimate sled brake short of snubbing a load down a hill. and donns point about shafts or pole is important. thats how the horse(es) hold and control their load to stop or back. this might seem redundant, but i think its important if you stop or back alot to pay as much attention to your britchin as you would your collar. same job, just in reverse. to high and your up under their tail, too low and you’ll take their legs out from under them. hope i’m not stating the obvious?

[mitchmaine]

hey jac, there is an old story about the man who takes his problem into the machine shop and the head machinist takes his part, looks it over, hands his back, and says “it can’t be fixed”. the man looks back and says “what should i do?”. the machinist says “take it over to that kid working in the corner, he doesn’t know you can’t fix it”. and of course he does fix it. don’t underestimate good oldfashioned youth and desire. when someone really wants to know how to do something (like probably all of us here on this site) you can’t stop them from learning. it’s not so much about teaching then as it is keeping somebody alive while they learn what they want to know. happy belated ground hogs day. mid point of winter around here. were on our way out.

[mitchmaine]

a father and son were chopping wood for winter and piling it up in one cord piles thru the woodlot, and had been cutting for about three weeks. the boy was getting tired of the job and asked his dad “how much more do we have to cut?”. his father looked around at their job, scratched his head and said “run up on top of that mountain there and ask the old indian”. the boy headed for the mountain, picked up a path and found himself at the top. there by a cliff was an old man whittling a stick with his knife. the boy asked how much wood they should cut for winter and the old man stood out on his rock and looked out over the valley and told the boy “looks like a bad winter”. the boy went back down, told his father, and they kept cutting. after a couple days the boy asked again. and his father sent him back on the mountain. the old man stepped out on his cliff and said “worse than i thought”. the boy relayed the message to his father and they kept cutting. now the dad was tired of cutting, so both went up to see the indian. they asked how hard the winter was going to be and the indian stepped out on the rock, shook his head and told them “worst winter i’ve ever seen”. the boy stepped out beside him and asked “how do you know?” and the old man pointed down to the valley and said “i’ve been watching these two guys chopping wood now for a month and they haven’t quit yet. it must going to be some bad winter”.

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