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Sure,I’d love to take a look at him.

Thanks.

Neal Mcnaughten
Unity, me.

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Mark,
An 80-90 wght. plastic gear oil bottle(round bottom) works just fine for an oil can on a #9 and holds more then one of the old tin ones. You can also apply a much more liberal dose of oil fast. I just used the 80-90 wght, on the bar then replaced it with some chain saw bar oil i had, but you can use whatever. It worked well.

Don’t know about the pitch fork holder. Nice to have around but i usually leave it at the edge of the field if i need it.

Goodluck

neal

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Hey Jason, maybe there are a few DAP folks that would make a small donation to HHFF to get you to VT.in SEPT. Your Know- how is valuble. I’ll donate a few bucks.

Neal

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Neil

Nice horses, are you in Upstate NY.

Neal McNaughten
Unity, Me.

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Jason,

The highly secret Imperial Knowledge formula for Equaide is as such:

a five gallon bucket of water….cool

a blob of molasses, maybe a cup……..

a good handfull of redmond salt…..

mix…….

Goodluck on marketing this at Walmart. We’ve been using a Fertrell Grazers salt mix lately. 50# bag not cheap but has lots of trace minerals in it, We give it to our cows as well. the eight sip rule when hot is good horse sense. I know, with your picture on the bottle the dough will be rolling in.

Good to hear from you, maybe we’ll catch up with you in Vt. in the fall

Neal

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Hey jason, yes it is hot here in the N.E……….got a question for you.? I know its a bit off your thread. Last year after mowing about four acres in a morning with my team in this kind’ve heat i brought them to the barn unhitched and tied them.. I usually give thme a sip, of water when i break for lunch and seeing how i had a jug of molassas and some redmond salt(granular) i made them a mixture of sorts, not to rich, gave them a sip with their hay then let them have enough to satisfy themselves before heading back to cut another 3 acres about an hour later. Boy did that perk them right back up. Gatorade for horses so to speak. You ever try anything like this?

Suppose to cool down this wknd.

Ciao

Neal

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Rod, the #7’s are good machines if they’re set up properly with a sharp knife and guards, maybe even a few stub guards towards the inside shoe helps them not to clog. Replace the inner and outer ledger plates, the hard ones on the outer shoe and inner shoe, it makes a difference.

Then sevens are heavy, i used to run one with a western britching style then went to a D-ring………….big difference, much better weight transfer to their backs. I’ve found they run smooth because of the extra weight as compared to a rubber tired #9. I know people that think the #7 seven is a better machine then the #9 in fact. Tongue truks work well. In one of the recent Small farmer’s journal there is a guy pulling a #7 with a tongue truk and a single gelding, you might want to check it out. Your haflingers should be able to handle it no problem……save the motor for something else.

From what i’ve been told the older mowers and even the #7 and #9 all had similer dead tongue weight but it was the gearing that created the leverage on the pole when mowing. The #9 gearing supposedly reduces that leverage effectively, the best HD engineering at the time.

Good Luck

Neal McNaughten
Unity, Maine

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Jason, and Neil,

I’ve been looking for a chunky 16.3 and under Percheron stud for a while. Every one in Central Maine seems to have hitch type tall stallions which are nice but not what i’m after. I have a chance to buy a a stud colt in the the next six months or so that come s from a blocky mare and a chunky stallion, (16,3) The owner won’t breed out any more or i would take mares up there. the stud is too old and has been injured in a tender spot over the last couple years. So, I have limited experience with stallions, aside from helping with a few breedings at a friend/ breeder of Percherons. he does little traing but knows how to handle the big boys. I will be in touch with him to.

I’ve been told that that bulls that get in with a herd early and aren’t isolated from the cows actually are better adjusted critters then ones that are just isolated. Is this true with with horses.? I have a very dominant mare whom i suppose would put a young stud in his place quickly up to a point then i’d have to seperate further down the road. Buying a weanling stud would give me the chance to handle him alot and actually do some training. And i could at least see where his head is at. When would it be okay to breed a young stud if i do go this route? Two years? What do you guys think?

This forum is great. Learning is the name of the game!
Hey Jason, Your an Rock and Roller. How’d you get your 8-Track mounted on your Log Arch? Plans???

Thanks Guys
Neal McNaughten
Unity, me.

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Mark, haven’t used one lately but when i did years ago i found that on a dump rake i could almost count musically between the windrows i created accross the field, with a slight early note on the trip peddle(they always seemed to delay a bit till the tines lifted) i could get the rows pretty straight. We picked up the rows by hand and with a hayloader. Its a bit odd making ten feet of a straight line windrow then moving to an another but it works. Goodluck.

Neal Mcnaughten
Unity, me.

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Jason, haven’t used one personally but when i was looking for a plow old Roy had said the beams were a bit soft compared to the Olivers or IHC.

Neal

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Mark, where are you? I’m in Me. and i have quite a few parts. Also you might try MacNairs in .P.A. for all sorts of bits for McD’s 9 and 7.

goodluck

Neal

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Ca
There’s a warmth in a 96 year old school teacher’s eyes, that rings of your furrow in the woods. A knowing from days past. A knowing of the present.

Neal

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Erik and carl,

You both have touched on a can of worms i think of often and most times just emerge a bit bewidered from with out any clear cut answers about what might happen after an serious oil crisis in this country. We all use some energy and thats okay to some degree we are all part of the system that exists at the moment i’m not sure how one could avoid it. I sometimes get into these rants about whats in food at the grocery store, or commercial milk, but “Who Cares?” What it comes down to me is personal choice of what i eat. Somewhere out there is a fictional book by an Englishman(Burroughs?) about a serious oil crisis, mideast blowout, factory farm collapse,local militias battling the gov., small farm livestock confiscated(nais) because of hardy breeds out side the commercial loop, resurgence of wind power, local cooperation………a good read. I’ll find the title.

$7 a gallon fuel would be a blessing to agriculture in the N.E. making small farms valuable and profitable, and once again a vital part of the community. Carl, like you say, leading by example is a good thing, and there again, I don’t have to buy the prostaglandin milk.

Skills,such as figuring out what to do when i live in N.J. and suddenly i can’t get fuel………….well, this creates a need to develope new skills. Personally i don’t think the majority of Am,ericans are going to bugde until…….it hurts. Before Y2k, i had people busting dwon my door because i have horses, and use them to get around some of the time. Mobility in this culture in regards to community, is a mixed blessing.

Lots of thoughts. Glad to be reading what you guys express after a long day.

Neal

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Don,

Nice photos. I really like your black horses with the white on the face. Our two Percherons are about that size (16.2-3 and we are always keeping our eyes open for either a stud or more mares /geldings that size. Where’d they come from? Do you have a stud?

I assume you built or had put together the forecart, it looks good and rugged. Brakes are a good idea for a forecart but i haven’t had them thus far. There are times i wish i did, like you say on a downhill into a turn with a baler and haywagon.

What model haybine are you using? It looks about 7′ feet. I looked at a NH haybine #408??? seven foot cut today for $600 bucks. It has a tired gear box, but the rest of it doesn’t look to bad and they’d probably come down in price. What I was wondering was if i could put a motor directly on the Haybine and what kind’ve hp. that might require.? Did ya ever consider doing that. I’m sure i could finagle the hydraulics some how. It seems to me the newer, say Honda engines, have to really spin fast to develope hp.so maybe i could use a older Wisconsin.? Don’t know? With good hay weather sickle bar mowers are good but in a tight window it would be nice have the option of crimping the hay. We ted with an old Grimm ground drive teddar and some times end up doing it alot to get good dry down. The Grimms are gentle on the grass but not always effective in deep damp stuff.

The other thought i had on your photos was the block hanging off the seat of your mower. For what its worth i’ve been told by a guy in Pa. who has rebuilt a lot of McD#9 and #7s that the biggest difference with the older non-enclosed open ring gear driven mowers and the enclosed(#7 and #9) was not the actual weight of the pole and mower on the horses, but the downward force on the pole created by the straight cut gears and gearing configurations. It seems the #9 is the best in being lite on the pole with the #7 right behind. We run D-Rings.

Till Later

Neal Mcnaughten
Unity, Me.

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Jean:

solar charger batteries only last so long, if its old or weak the panel won’t charge it and store power.

we have a solar charger with three grounds in very dry soil which equals no conductivity, it only works with a saturating rain. Its going to be moved.

and…….you’ve heard the old grounding parable? about taking a back-hoe, digging a big enough hole to put the back hoe inthen attaching your ground to it and burying it? a culvert, wet area, we’ve even used old half buried barb wire fence for a ground and the solar charger would kick your butt.

good luck

Neal

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