[OldKat]

@jac 26076 wrote:

Hi OldKat… I have an Albion mower that dates from the 20s 0r 30s. Made in England and probably a great mower at the time but parts are real hard to source.. Not a single grease Zerk on it .. oil caps and bronze bushes thru the whole machine:eek:.. a real beaut to look at but when I read what Lynn Miller says is an acceptable pull for a mower an then try mine it isnt great:(.. these #9s you guys have over there seem to be the Rolls Royce of mowers {or should that be Cadilac?}…
John

Oh that’s right, I think I remember you talking about the Albion once before. You are probably right, might be best to go with a modern alternative.

Good luck,

OldKat

[OldKat]

@LStone 26075 wrote:

Hi Jason,

That looks great!
The reality type logging shows on TV now are fun to watch for me dispite the sensationalism and pandereing to the cameras that is obviously going on in these shows. I genuinely look forward to your success both with the show and the message.

By nature and by my normal interests I would really be drawn to the “logger” shows and at first I got into them. Unfortunately the sensationalism and the pandering to the camera just drove me up the wall.

I can’t watch those shows anymore just for that reason. I absolutely hate showboating and look forward to seeing the shows with Jason and his associates, because I suspect that there won’t be much, if any, of that.

Way to go Jason; show ’em what its all about!

[OldKat]

@jac 26071 wrote:

Been reading my SFJ and the artical from the NEAPFD, and read with interest about the cutter bar on the I&J machine. I guess my question is aimed at Donn cauz he was there:D… any field results from any one ?.. it occurs to me that this bar could be mounted on a 3 wheeled hitch cart.. like the mid mounted mowers that IH did years ago.. even if I had to use an engine it would be better than trying to source parts for my museum piece mower…
John

I forget, what mower do you currently have John?

[OldKat]

Went to see an Amish guy that I know one time and found him cleaning out stalls and shoveling the stuff directly into a manure spreader which was sitting just outside the barn. He was throwing it through an open window and it was making a pretty big racket as it was hitting the far side of the spreader. What surprised me was that hitched to the spreader was one of his big Belgian mares and a younger Percheron that I knew he had only been working with about 3 weeks at that time. I looked out the window to see what they were tied to and they weren’t …tied that is. When I asked if he wasn’t afraid they would run away he told me to go outside and look a little closer. He had dropped one tug from the outside of eveners for each mare and snapped it into the keeper on the hip drop. He had also tied their lines to the upright on the seat that he had mounted on the spreader. Finally, he had cut out a set of chocks that followed the contour of the rear wheels and had chocked both rear wheels, in front of and behind the wheel.

I asked him what made this work and he said if they thought they could pull the spreader with their mouths, especially with the rear wheels chocked they were more than welcome to try. Then he said that the real secret though was get them real good and tired before you try something like that. They were not moving a muscle and stood there a good 45 minutes while he was working. He had been using them on a harrow all afternoon and they did look drained. Not sure I would ever try his method out, but it was interesting to look at.

[OldKat]

@mink 25488 wrote:

do you need to belong to facebook to access the story? all i get is the headline. mink

It worked for me, and I am NOT a Facebook member.

Nice story, by the way. Positive PR for the draft animals / teamsters.

[OldKat]

@goodcompanion 25489 wrote:

Of course you can get yourself in a lot of trouble idealizing Cuba and its agrarian revolution. It’s a tough life without a lot of luxuries and a lot of burdens, for humans and animals. But they survive, and have for decades, even as economists and political scientists have predicted their demise.

I personally don’t hold to animal power because I believe it will be the solution or even part of a whole macro-level solution to our current agricultural and societal problems. I don’t believe there is any large-scale solution to be found at all and I’m not waiting around for the nation’s great minds to come up with one.

At least in Cuba, when faced with a crisis, the central government devised a way to spread the suffering and the work pretty evenly (at least among the humans). For my country I have zero faith in that happening. I am sure that the poor will bear the brunt of any hardship we face, while for the rich, a crisis is just a new opportunity for theft.

So let me get this straight, you are saying that anyone that is wealthy in the US is a thief? I’m trying to contrast this revelation to several people I know who are wealthy, some VERY wealthy. Quite frankly, every one of them that I know have made their way to the top by busting their tails, taking risks and managing their assets; be they $ or other assets very closely. These are all decent, hard working folks. Most have probably done more than anyone else that I know to try to lift the standard of living for those in their communities who are not as well off. Likewise I know some people that are poor as a church mouse, and even though they have worked their tails off, too, things haven’t gone nearly as well for them. Doesn’t mean that they have done anything wrong, or that they are bad people it just means that they either picked a line of work that wasn’t that (financially) rewarding or that they were not as capable at managing their assets, maybe both.

While I agree that some people are wealthy because they have abused the system, taken unfair advantage of others, stolen, etc, etc I also know that there are poor people who have done these same things. So if your assertion is that people in this country can only become wealthy through being thieves and “taking” from other people, that is certainlty your prerogative and right to feel that way.

However I reject that notion. I have seen too many examples were that is clearly not the case, to buy into this as a universal truth. Besides this whole class warfare / USA bashing thing gets kind of old, especially when you consider that the poorest of our poor are still doing quite well by the standards of most of the world. There are people all over the world who would gladly change places with them. Think I am wrong? There are approximately 10 million reasons (estimated) in this country that say I am right. They are called illegal aliens and some go through EXTREME hardships and danger just to get here. Just to have chance to take a swipe at the opportunitites this country offers. You may have never talked to any of them, I have, I can tell you most … the vast majority, are darned happy to be here.

[OldKat]

reb,

When I was in high school or maybe my first year of college my dad built a greenhouse using 2.0″ schedule 40 PVC pipe that he had painted with charcoal gray enamel paint (for UV protection). He had sunk some larger PVC pipe, maybe 3.0″ or so, in the ground where each bow would anchor and we built a frame of plywood that was sunk maybe 1&1/2 feet in the ground and was about 8 to 10″ above grade. The larger pipe was centered in this form. We used rebar and concrete wire for reinforcement & poured ready mix to the top of the form and screed it smooth. It was probably 8 inches wide. When the concrete set we pulled the form up.

Then he put a plug in one end of the pipe and we ran hot water in it. Can’t remember how we heated the water, but it was very hot … nearly boiling, I think. We then plugged the other end as well. We took ropes and made a half hitch about 18″ from each end and pulled the ends towards each other & bowed the pipe over the top of frame that he had built for that purpose. We tied off the end of each rope to the other leg and right before we slipped the pipe in the larger pipe we pulled the plugs and released the water. It was cool to the touch by then. When the pipe was in its anchor we would put a screw through both pipes to hold them in place. We covered this with corrugated plastic sheating running horizontal to the ground. He framed the ends end with treated 2 x 4’s and we covered it with the same corrugated sheating. We used screws with a rubber washer under the head like you would use to attach sheet metal to a roof purlin. He framed in two windows on the back side and set a storm door in the front.

My father died in 1979 and the greenhouse was 6 or 7 years old by then. About 5 years ago or so I removed the sheating and hauled the bows to my sister and brother in law, who reused them in a greenhouse they were building. The sheating was brittle by then and was scrap. The concrete frame was a bear to break up though. I’d say his design was pretty durable overall though.

[OldKat]

I read your post earlier in the month about whether you did the right thing when you had to put your dog, Tripp, down. You wanted to know if you did the right thing when you told your son about Tripp’s passing. I didn’t reply, because I didn’t really have anything to add that hadn’t already been said.

That changed last week when our daughter called from Alabama to tell us that she was going to have to put our beagle, Missy, down because of inoperable cancerous tumors on her throat. Missy was one of two beagles that the kids had when they were growing up, she was 12 years old. Lady, the other is 15 years old & is nearly blind, but otherwise healthy as an ox. They have been living with our daughter every since she started graduate school at Auburn three years ago. Both of our kids went to the same college, in fact they bought a place together and were roommates for two years. Unfortunately they couldn’t have outside pets where they lived so the dogs stayed with us until Sara moved out of state.

When the kids were growing up we were pretty matter of fact about the fact that the chickens and turkeys in their respective pens would end up in the deep freeze. When I killed geese or pheasants or whatever they were right there to watch and later help processing them. Same thing when they later had market rabbits. When one of our farm dogs died they knew about immediately and both were given the opportunity to say goodbye to her. When we moved to town two of our pets from the farm came with us, one cat and the other farm dog. Both ultimately got so old and frail that putting them down was the only option and the kids, teenagers by now, went with their mother to the vet’s office so they could be euthanized.

Still, I was kind of concerned when she called mid-week last week to tell us that the time had come to let Missy go. She set the appointment for 10:30 AM Saturday to take her to her final visit with the vet. The wife of one of her professors knew about the whole thing and offered to come by to pick her and Missy up and take them to the vet. Later she called us and told us that it was done. She was upset, but composed. When she noticed that Lady was looking for her kennel mate she called and asked if we thought adopting a young dog from an animal rescue agency would be a good way to keep Lady company.

So, yes reb. Based on how our daughter handled this issue the first time she had to make the decision on her own I think you did EXACTLY the right thing.

[OldKat]

Neat story. I like it.

[OldKat]

@CharlyBonifaz 25183 wrote:

I would not want to ride them at this age……

Yours or theirs? 🙂

[OldKat]

@goodcompanion 25186 wrote:

No great loss, you’re better off anyway. I knew a marine biologist once and he was a jerk. Also he got in hot water with the college for alleged sexual misconduct with a student, so that goes to show you too.

The student was a dolphin.

Damn, talking about a sicko!

A friend of mine once told me that he was so influenced by all of the Jacques Cousteau specials in the ate 60’s and early 70’s, that he majored in marine biology at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss).

He said 6 months after he graduated he was out in a swamp in Louisiana, standing up to his butt in muck & mud and burning up in the hot summer sun while counting mosquito larvae when he suddenly looked around and said “what the heck am I doing here?” Two weeks later he was working in another industry. He said “You know, I think Jacques Cousteau should be shot. He screwed up so man young people’s lives by letting them think that they could follow in his footsteps”. I think he was kidding, but was not sure.

[OldKat]

I don’t know, but had wondered if bottoms currently being sold would bolt up to vintage plows. I guess with a torch and a grinder and a welding machine you can make just about anything work.

If you find out for sure, please let us know.

[OldKat]

Good job! You look like a pro with that 3 abreast rig.

[OldKat]

@Russel 24804 wrote:

I dont know what to think at the moment. Government is trying to pass a bill that makes it compulsort to give 10% of your land to your workers. So of course this is causing farmers to fire workers left right and centre.

Also white farmers are viewed as the “enemy” and there is constant propaganda about us slaughtering our workers and other rubbish. Julias Malema is also singing an anti apartheid song “dubula ibhulu” which means shoot the farmer.

In general farmers have very good relationships with their workers and theres no problem but every now and then a white person kills a black person and he id imediately transformed into this racist boer farmer.

We have actually found that zim black people are much more pleasant than SA ones and many farmers would hire a zimbabean any day.

On the government side of things, the country has improved a lot since Jacob Zuma took office. Potholes in roads are being fixed, trash is being picked up and corrupt officials are being sacked constantly.

I just hope they dont start evicting farmers like in zim…

George, where did you hike in sa? What area?

I think I told you once that I had a friend from SA. When I questioned where he was from it turned out that he was born in Rhodesia, which I think is now Zimbabwe. He said they lost their ranch when the government confiscated it and re-ditributed it the local tribes people. They moved to SA and started over, but he got concerned that the same thing was going to happen again so he moved here. Not sure if I ever mentioned that to you or not.

Overall it seems your country has its share of problems, but I’m not sure they are any more insurmountable than ours are here in the US. I am hoping to go with him to SA to visit some time, but we never can get our schedules coordinated. I have heard that it is a beautiful place and I really want to see the Bonsmara cattle up in the part of the country where he is from. I still think they would be ideally suited for the Southern tier of US states.

Best of luck to you in whatever happens.

[OldKat]

@Biological Woodsman 24809 wrote:

I suspect most of you know this but be careful to dry the rags you use for rubbing in your linseed oil and solvents, they can spontaneously combust if left in a pile. Hang them up to dry in good ventilation.

Jason

I heard this all my life and thought it was a bunch of crap. It isn’t. One time I was using some rags to wipe up excess 50-50 linseed oil & turpentine I had put on some window sashes & dumped the oily rags into a metal trash can along with some other refuse and put them out to the street for collection. That afternoon I thought I saw smoke coming from the trash can, so I opened it thinking a workman that I had working for me had dropped a lit cigarette in there. When I pulled the lid off the whole thing flashed right in my face. Turns out it was the oily rags. Jason is right; this is certainly a consdideration that shouldn’t be taken lightly.

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