[near horse]

Good luck w/ the bearings but be thankful it’s not some cast piece long since out of production:(

I’m still looking for a decent mower out here in the west but we are fighting a different battle. I’ve looked at 2 #7’s over the past week that each owner thought were ready for “the antiques roadshow” due to their rarity:rolleyes: – they were asking between $500 and $800. These things were in horrible condition – rusted, rotten, pilaged – buried in the mud and some parts bent due to abusive moving them w/ a front end loader.

So what makes this a different battle? Because some people will pay that amount to put it out by the mailbox as a yard ornament adding to their “country” decor 😡 One of my neighbors has a really nice manure spreader in the flower bed and the wood just rots away each year – how quaint.

Sorry about the rant. Frustration is showing through.

[near horse]

Come on Bret. The conservative “markets will fix everything” capitalist model sure is working out well, isn’t it?
While they have most of their followers chasing gay marriage, gun control, and abortion, the primary players are cleaning out your bank accounts, 401Ks, retirement accts. It’s time to leave the “dark side”.

[near horse]

When you no longer own anything, or cannot make any decisions about the use of any property or capital, because it is owned by “the people”, “the state”, “society”, or is regulated by the same, you can no longer decide to use it or give it to help or to better anyone else

And your point is what? People without anything can’t control anything?

Get over the “that’s what the founding fathers said in the Constitution” stuff. They were no more than a handful of men w/ all the same shortcomings as men today – so stop restricting progress to the strict interpretation of a 200+ yr old document.

And Robert Moonshadow, while we don’t agree on some topics, has been nothing short of polite and accommodating of other viewpoints. No reason to attack him.

[near horse]

A comment about ponds – unless there is a regular and reliable inflow of water, they are ephemeral not a climax situation. Soil and detritus fill in and eventually you end up with a meadow that then continues to progress towards the climax community for that particular area (hardwood forest or whatever) unless some “disturbance” – natural or man-made sets succesion back to an earlier stage.

We have a similar situation (I think) in which our shallow clay soils have a “perched water table” w/ water being trapped in the upper 1-2′ of soil. The ground is saturated during the spring/early summer and, in certain areas drowns out most vegetation. So get rid of that water, right? Well, some of the old-timers like the perched water table (which eventually drains away each year) because it extends the period of water available to plants (and gardens) when we are in our low rainfall summers.

My point is – what are you trying to manage for in your particular situation? As usual, hard to have your cake and eat it too.

[near horse]

Our vet has us trained 🙂 to give shots in the “brisket” – so far only vaccinations but they never even seem to fell it. Good soft tissue there and NO “Kickers”.

[near horse]

Jen, i am the near horse :o.

Near or nigh means on the left as you’re looking at their rearends. “Off” is opposite of “near”. As I recall the names came from the same period as “mounting on the left side of the horse” did.

Single rein driving is diagrammed in Steve Bowers book. Lots of good stuff in there.

As far as old carriages in film go, the best has to be the Hansom Cab seen in Sherlock Holmes and such w/ the driver in a seat up at the back edge of the cab. Very cool. No riding of the horses though.

[near horse]

conservation easements, that restrict future use of the land in order to reduce the local tax burden on the property to be limited to it’s actual use as a forest. We have written and contributed to the development of many conservation easements by offering wording to support and justify extraction from the forest, “for the health of the forest”. There are many states that have working conservation easements. The primary restriction of a conservation easement is that it can never be clear cut and there can’t be but some many houses on it – which restricts development.

How is timber land taxed in your state? In Idaho, you can put your timber property in “bare land” in which each year you pay only on the land value and then pay the tax burden from the timber value at harvest or you can choose to put your land in sort of pay as you go – each year being taxed on the accruing timber value. So, with a conservation easement, at what level does it limit your tax burden?

I agree w/ Rick. That Crooked River site looked awesome.:) Nice work.

[near horse]

Hi Donn,

I see one of the docs at the bottom of the page is a Coop. Were you planning on running the store as a coop? There is one in our college town of Moscow – with a bit smaller pop. than 25,000 but there is a strong following developed over at least 20 yrs. The coop membership gets you reduced pricing on foods and they market local foods when they can get them. There still is a thriving seasonal farmer’s market in Moscow as well.

One thing I do want to note is how hard the Coop works to get people’s attention (students included). They might have a “local food fair” in the spring/summer or, one that I’m sure you’d appreciate, a cheese tasting with cheeses of various types and their makers on hand – they even had a little “rating card” so you could remember what you liked. The line was out the door for that one.

Probably not a lot of help but good luck.

One thing the community has talked about but never moved on is building a “commercial community kitchen” – where folks can come and create/cook their foodstuff for resale without having to build their own “commercial kitchen”. I know some guys up in N Idaho got federal $$ to build something similar for processing berries (raspberries, blueberries and huckleberries) into jams, syrups and who knows what else. Sorry – I got off the topic.

[near horse]

Interesting that you bring this up Donn. I had my team out on the wagon last week just to get them doing something. For the first time ever, they decided to start off before I told them to (anticipation). I was up on the seat and I assume they heard me release the break. I made them stop and then restart when I gave them the command and everything was fine (did a few stops and starts along the way). Then, at the mailbox, I stopped to get the mail. Climbed down and opened the mailbox and they started again (not scared or spooked but just decided it was time to go). They stopped on voice but I’m really surprised they started this.

Also, w/o benefit of a round pen or other smaller corral, how would you train your horses to stand untied for harnessing? I always have to tie mine to harness but want to get to having them stand untied to harness.

I’d like to hear thoughts on this.

[near horse]

one who busts his butt day and night to become a brain surgeon or risks big to grow a company like Henry Ford or Bill Gates. Most of these people believed they had a duty or calling to apply themselves for the betterment of mankind, and they prospered in so doing, and found fulfillment. It’s not all about money even for most “rich” or “successful” people.

It’s easy to romanticize about the motivations of those that went before us but it’s hard to believe that were any different than those today. I know plenty of professionals (MD’s, DVM’s, lawyers) that:
1) went into the profession for the $
2) haven’t worked any harder than bricklayers and ditchdiggers but get paid quite a lot more and live quite a bit more comfortably.

Lastly, remember many of the great discoveries in history came from entrepeneurs looking for something else. A good set of videos to watch, although a bit dated, is a program called “Connections” in which historian (I think) James Burke looks at historical innovations and how they came about. A classic was refrigeration came out of looking for a way of preventing yellow fever (thought to be in the air).

Vicki – I agree with finding your passion and pursuing it. Life is pretty hollow without something that moves you to look forward to the day ahead.

[near horse]

Don’t just go by Balster’s website. They have 3 to 6 buildings full of parts. I got the cast drive gear for the #6 mower I have. You need to give them a call. I’m glad to hear McNAirs has a good supply as well. Not too many Amish places out here in Idaho.

[near horse]

FYI-
An interesting dilemma is how to get the combine home. Once again, the enthusiasts at Yaz AllCrop have a description of some options. The dang things are too long and wide to easily get on to a trailer.

[near horse]

Hey Richard,

I have a McD #6 but many of the parts are the same. I assume you are looking for the roller bearings (looks like a cage w/ 3″ rollers) that go on each axle – my parts list has them ID’d as ‘main wheel roller bearing (2 1/16″ OD, 4 3/8″ long M631 end rings) ‘- don’t know what the M631 thing is but the bearing part # is M630. I had good luck w/ Balster’s Implement in Scotch Grove IA PH# (319) 465-4141. If you haven’t already, give them a call.

Geoff

[near horse]

Careful about being too romantic about “no website, no e-mail”. When you’re in a very specific market with potential customers all over the place, it can be difficult to stay afloat just through word of mouth. Word of mouth is great but I (we) can’t support businesses that we don’t hear about. On top of that, I (we) have limited amount of time when looking for harness parts, equipment etc and need to decide and move on. I just did that with some singletree hardware. Looked at a couple of catalogs and online then just went for it. Might have ended up supporting some e-mail middleman but I didn’t see many options.

Also, as you all probably have heard, Smucker’s Harness Shop is going out of business although I think someone has bought certain parts of the operation.

[near horse]

Sorry but Robert, I don’t see the same thing up here in Deary Idaho. Most of the families in town are in logging and they’ve been off for the last couple of months because the mill (Potlatch in this case) wasn’t taking logs. Now we’re getting into mud season so guys will be off for the next weeks. On top of that, Potlatch is cutting back on its production plans and is restructuring the company – they are now charging for access to their property for any recreation – hiking, fishing, hunting, riding motorcycles/snowmobiles …. That is a first.

Most of these operations (much like my rant on big dairies -get big or get out) have bought into high expense logging. Ten years ago a feller-buncher was something you saw on TV. Now they all run them. And they tear through ground like Sherman through Atlanta. You know it’s bad when guys that work for some of these operations are apologetic for their practices. But they need to work.

The most (in my opinion) well-known horselogger in our region Gregg Caudell quit logging because log prices are so low it’s hardly worth the effort.

Also, I, like most people, hate paying a lot of money for lumber for a building project but right now 16′ 2×12’s (about $17) are cheaper than they were when I bought some for our house project in 1993. How can that be?

Bottom line – logs aren’t paying out in my neck of the woods either and mills aren’t taking them.

[Author]

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