[ngcmcn]

Jason, we have black locust here in Maine, I think it is one of the most under utilized woods around. As far as I’m concerned it’s as good as teak for longevity, its local, it does take a while to grow to usable size, outlasts cedar about 10-1 as fence posts. The local loggers bitch about it but put it in with hardwood pulp. It finishes nicely, throws sparks when you saw it and can be a bit shakey interesting grain, with an oil finish honey’s(golden) out with time.

Do you know of markets for it as a flooring? cabinet wood etc.?

I’m restoring a 1880’s wood splitter locust. The Red oak that was the frame rotted.

Neal

[ngcmcn]

Jac: a few thoughts……

Check out the most recent Small farmers Journal. Some one in Europe took the pick up head off a round baler put it on a small wagon so to speak, or a basket if you will with a dump mechanism, to p.u. loose hay. I liked that but mya be impractical in a big field.

I have been told by some Amish that some of them are putting 24-30hp motors on roundbalers with good results. The motor runs the pto and the a hydraulic pump for the gate.

Ground drive square balers take a lot of yank and nice straight fields. A ground drive round baler? I’d like to see one. I’m sure it could be done.

N

[ngcmcn]

George,I too need a new spreader and I’ve known the Lancasters are good.

Bill, what did you pay for yours, i know the new Pequea four steel wheelers are around 4k. Maybe we could buy more then one and get a deal fromted?

Neal Maine

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>VT

[ngcmcn]

I used to be a bit sketchy about worming, maybe every couple of years until i witnessed a friends awesome belgium mare who hadn’t been wormed in years(per the advice of an old-timer) die in two days due to a massive worm load. I worm once a year.

Neal

[ngcmcn]

A friend of mine, Tom, used to run a Dude String of horses for the tourist out of Taylor Park Colorado. He was a seasoned packer, had some good horses. I worked for him from dawn to dusk 7 days a week one summer. best job i ever had. Alot of time in the saddle, and when the touriste’s didn’t show , we went fishing.

So before i got to Taylor park that summer Tom took his old cow pony and a pack horse with gear up to do some trail work on one of the regular routes. The wind was blowing the lodge poles all over the place and his horse stopped. Refused to walk-on. Tom asked the horse several more times to walk-on but nothing. Head up , ears pointed, alert,.. and wouldn’t you know a tree fell right across the trail darn close to where they would’ve been had they continued and not stopped. Tom in recounting the story to me said, he couldn’t believe it, and that he probably would’ve been killed. He just shook his head.

He liked that old cow pony quite a lot.

[ngcmcn]

Brittany SpeerRibs ????

[ngcmcn]

I’ve had good mentors,
and i was greatly influenced by what they knew about horses, but I was more profoundly influenced by who they were.

Neal

[ngcmcn]

Interesting thread, I have a mare new to me as well that will lean into me when i enter the stall. She’s a bit green and has smushed me a time or two. What i realized with her was that she was afraid of what she couldn’t see behind her, so i’d let her know i was there then ask her to step over, in a quite narrow stall. On lead i will also re-inforce the step over command by gently touching the tickle spot on the flank with slight pressure on the lead.

Actually moving into an attacker is an instinctual reflex with horses, cattle, and humans.

Neal maine

[ngcmcn]

Okay, I’m going to try and say something eloquent to keep up with you guys. All these post have got me thinking. Jason thanks for an insight into the nuts and bolts of getting a 501c3 going, I had no idea. Sounds like quite a bit of work, but worth it.

When i start thinking about forces of change in this culture more then a few things come to mind. Many moons ago when i was briefly in college i remember having a long discussion with a fellow student who was into Sociology. Basicaslly is what he said was “whenever you start trying to theorize about whats going on in a culture, that you can only go so far, you run out of road quick. The bucket has a leak”

This stuck with me. So the other day I’m reading a diary of a farmer in jackson me. from 1888. Day in and day out he writes “Cut wood, kepted the woods roads open with the horses.” helped the neighbors, sold a bit of this, sold some of that. “Cut wood.” “Milked.” “Fixed the horse stall.” “helped the neighbor,” and on and on. Cut wood was to keep warm in a thin walled old house. So it seems to me that in our present culture where many people don’t even know their neighbors that survival is a bit isolated so to speak.

I don’t need you to help me fix my car. I’ll take it to a professional. But i need that car to drive 45 miles to my job. People are less dependent on each other and distant from the land. Financial income is more dependent on a product or good coming from far away then from local sources and i see this as a vast weakness of our present economy nearing(not helen and scott)the point of serfdom with all the crazy credit insanity. i read a figure today that 50% of Americans wouldn’t last more then a month financially if they lost their job. It seems to me in the old days some one would’ve had a little extra to help a family in need or help rebuild a barn, or help see the haying through after an injury to a neighbor. I’d call that real insurance, not the medievial pay your pennance and go to heaven kind we have now.

So yes maybe SFC could help foster ideas of a different regional/cultural base and help to nourish and expose those ideas or at least offer them as an alternative to a crazed population. I read some where once that the single most destructive invention to our present western culture………….has been the automobile. Sociologic theory? Maybe? the fabric of our communities is definetly strained by cars.

Any hoo, as Carl and many others have said, living by example is to me the most effective means of change, and getting SFC agenda out there would help people who might have not even considered alternatives a source for inspiration. Rock and Roll

neal

[ngcmcn]

Erik,

Are you teaching English, or philosophy at Middlebury College? You write well!

“But taking a community of interest from the realm of ideas to the realm of action is where the rubber meets the road.”..

………..and if i could add to this a quote a thought that until the need arises for a localized susustainable food source then people won’t really see it as viable. Not that food could be the only reason to encourage many of the proposed SFC goals. What about education? Why not subsidize a farm to take on apprentices, interns………..use the existing educational platforms that exist/ As far as insurance goes i know many people that live with out it. Lynn has been preaching a long time on the soivernty of small farms and the evils of the greater cultural mess at large. When gas spiked a few years back it almost seemed a blessing…….suddenly local was cheaper and reasonable no matter what it was. Lumber ,food ,milk, bread. Local money stayed close people stopped driving to distance shop.

I don’t know? One thing Lynn Miller has been successful in is getting people to think about alot of different issues with this SFC. Thats good.

Neal

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So JH, it seems to me the Small Farm Conservancy is a huge can of worms. It strikes me as part big business.i.e. insurance coverage,retirement, part educational institution.. If i didn’t know better, I’d almost say he was creating a new state, or a new political party ,but then again maybe thats what this country needs. Its an ambitious, huge undertaking which could really make a difference. Can you give me a little of your insight into the SFC plans to implement their goals?
Neal maine

[ngcmcn]

With our morgan, I think it was insect-initiated… not lice or anything, just general bugs… but once it started it was hard to get her out of it, even when the weather cooled off. She never really had any grain–maybe a little now and then as a treat, but basically hay and pasture. THe funny thing was that no vet she ever saw had any idea–it was always a fungus or something… it took the people doctor to think of just interupting the histamine rxn… and that seemed to be all it took. Just to get her out of the cycle of scratching makes it itch more. THe other thing I heard was that this is something that is somewhat common in morgans. Anyone else ever hear of this?

Gwyneth

[ngcmcn]

Mitch, two things……..I had one old Belgium gelding, you might have met him at LIF six years ago, he did alot of what you are talking bout but not so localized……….on his tail stem, neck etc., turned out he had lice. He never chewed off the hair by rubbing but darn near. We looked, really closely down at the roots of his coat with a magnifying glass and sure enough the old bugger had lice. We treated him with Ivermectin orally and it worked. Theres al sorts of other treatments available.

The other horse we had with identical symptoms to your mare was a Morgan mare. Rubbing off on the neck, bumps itchyitch.Wewashed,powdered,cleaned, medicated, you name it, to no avail. So we sold her, to a doctor in southern Maine. the bumpy itch came back. The doctor bought over the counter antihistamines, put them in the little mares grain with excellent results, and from what i was told less frequent occurences of the itch. Don’t know dosage? Type of antihistamines? Maybe Jen Judkins could help on this one,I think she’s a Doc. I could dig up the name of the Doc who has our Morgan. I guess it was an allergy?

Good Luck

Neal Maine/Vt

[ngcmcn]

Mitch,
Thanks for the nice seasons greeting. As for poles, i’ve used red oak, hornbeam(hard to find straight but they last and can be a smaller diameter) maple, ash(ash seems to go quick), don’t think i’ve tried elm, yet. Tough stuff its what they used to make wheel hubs out of………burns like a church yard mold in the stove. I wood have to say that the hornbeam poles have been the most durable, strong and long lived of the ones i’ve used on my forecarts.
I was all set to drive the six miles to home after mowing at MOFGA last summer when my fore cart pole finally gave up………slipped a piece of 4” pvc over it and because of the D-ring tension , it held to get me home.

pax

neal maine/vt

[ngcmcn]

It spreads! Frame, wheels, and wood bed are solid, main cylinder teeth have been ret-troed with beaters from a newer spreader, spread an entire winters manure from 3 horses and 4 cows last spring. N

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