[nihiljohn]

Houstonmuel,   in my mind (never done it) you can use the cart to bale hay.  The baler willl have a fly wheel to keep the power stroke going, but the key would be the job you do raking the windrows up.  Keep them small and even and the cart can do the job.  I watched the I&J cart run a baler at Horse Progress Days.  They had 4 head on the cart and after going 50 feet, a horse lost a jockey stick and they stopped to fix that.  Guess what?  The baler was plugged.  Back up the team.  Turn the fly wheel back a few turns.  Dig out the hay of the chamber.  Team, step up.  Off and baling.   Just like a tractor.

[nihiljohn]

Farming is always done to scale.  If you farm your own herbs in a window box in a 10th floor flat, all the tool you need is soup spoon.      For that farm, your horses would be way to much power.  5 acres in a farming year?  No problem.  Early potatoes first.  A patch of fall wheat for bread with clover seeded in for hay or pasture to end the year and bridge into the next season.  Bits and peices.

[nihiljohn]

Good 4U. Long ago (I’m old) we bought a nice 2YO mare. Today we have her great grand son in the barn and he is a wonderful all around 5 YO horse. Good in the woods, field, and show ring. The stories between that young mare and today would take 2 pots of coffee to cover. Good luck and enjoy.

[nihiljohn]

I don’t agree that we are addicted to oil/gas/coal/nuke power. It’s just what there is. There is a trade off for every route you take. Want hydro power. It’s clean. It’s renable. You OK with 30 dams in every river in the country? Still not enough. Wind? Solar? I have yet to see a plan for running the furnace on a cold calm night. (right here you cant think about how you can live, think about a city with 2 million people) There arent a lot of real options yet. You come up with a plant you can dry up and mix with a gallon of water and run your car, now you’ve got an option. Things will change but it will be slow and painful for the city people. The country just voted to keep the current federal goverment. As I understand, hundereds of old coal fired electric plants will be closed in the next few years due to EPA mandates. OK. They are not as clean as some. Have you seen any news coverage on the replacement power? What will replace the power that will be lost? I see nothing now that replaces what we have.

[nihiljohn]

OK, here’s what makes a horse race. I started 4 horses this summer, all with a buck rope and a jockey stick as the 3rd horse. AFTER the ground work in lines (in harness) I put them as the 3rd horse on the fore cart with a buck rope and a jockey stick and drive the other 2. If I have ground to work we go to a small harrow. If not, a tire with weights. With in a day or so, I’ll take the jockey stick off and set in the lines for 3. (The worst wrecks I’ve ever been in were with a young horse with something dragging along behind them making a bunch of noise for the first time.) All the green horses this summer went on to work on the cultivator and a lot of miles on the hay rake. 3 of them went to the show ring in harness in the team class and 2 went in the cart. I’m not saying this is THE way to do it, it’s my way. It works for me. If you’ve got a horse working single to the point he’s dragging poles single and doing good, put someone on a lead rope and hitch him with your other horse. It’s the next step. If no one likes my method, that’s OK. It has worked for me for a lot of years and I guess I’ll just keep using it. What ever method you use, if you end up with a broke horse, it was the right way to do it.

[nihiljohn]

I agree with all that Donn says. You are now a horse trainer. Train. When you pull up to the logs, keep your lines, rattle the chain, kick the logs, stir the dirt and brush, but keep the horse standing in place. Dont get rough or loud. just be persistent. Easy to say. Sometimes not so easy to do. For a few days, make the focus on training the horse, not moving the wood. You’ll still move wood and the horse will get better, faster.

[nihiljohn]

Will some one please define “stub guard”. I just bought a used knife from my amish friend that does a little rebuilding / parts business. It had the double cutter section on the outer end and it is working great in some pretty rank conditions. I also cut a couple acres of 3rd cutting with some pretty fine grass and it did very nice work. My mower (IH #9) came with the original evener hook set up. As per the book by L.R. Miller, I set it at the top hole to help lift the tongue and with me in the seat and the mower in the hay, the neck yoke floats, with no pressue on the horses most of the time.

[nihiljohn]

Good 4 U. You’ve come to the right place. Lots of good people with lots of miles behind a horse/ox. (Doesn’t matter which. Mind set is the same.) Looks like you have the right idea. It’s August. We live in Maine. Haul fire wood. I live in Michigan. We think the same way. Nice to meet you.

[nihiljohn]

Will be there on Friday. Clare is only 90 miles from the house. Short trip this year. See you there!

[nihiljohn]

My wife, Char , and I were married on June 12, 1971. In the 41 years we have been married, we have finished 1st cutting hay by June 12 about 4 or 5 times. We finished on June 10 this year. It was a short crop with lots of sun and wind to make hay with this year. 2500 in the barn and not a rained on bale in the lot. Last year we had to press to get done before we left for HPD in PA on the first of July. It’s been a good year to make hay. Growing hay, not so much. We need rain. Very dry in West Michigan, 120 north of Indiana.

[nihiljohn]

Scrap in Michigan is around $240 ton. If it’s got one piece in the bunch you can use, Local scrap +10 % is a deal for him and you. Just my mind set. Most of that stuff they dont make any more.

[nihiljohn]

I found hydo jack oil at the Car Quest Auto parts store. No wt. is given, just “jack oil”. They had Car Quest brand and Gunk.

[nihiljohn]

Machinery sale went a couple of weeks ago. They have an ad in the book for the Horse progress days.

[nihiljohn]

No list of prices but I thought teams and singles of back to the farm work horses we mostly on the soft side. They were not by any means giving them away, but for example, a big stout pair of belgian mares, brought $1900 and $1700. 12+/- years old, right of the farm, little amish kid on the back of each mare. I had expected them to be higher. I spent to much time talking (me and a bunch of amish boys from Blanchard converted an entire cherry pie into an empty pie tin) to get a list but I thought they were soft. Some nice horses, some junk. Lots of good drivers or well started 2YO to the 20 YO gelding the kids had been driving to school. He looked good and brought around $500.

[nihiljohn]

OK, I’ll get my head handed to me for this, but I’m going to point out the elephant on the table. Round up is the best selling herbicide in the world for one reason. It works. And with the patents off, the generics are cheap. And they work. Im not saying, I’m just saying.

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