[OldKat]

@cousin jack 23174 wrote:

That was great,not being an expert on Maine dialect, does he say at the end,

“The night was filled with music, and the cares that infest the day,
shall fold their tents like the Arabs and then silently steal away”. ?

I can answer my own question, yes he does, it was written by Maine born poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, those few lines are a fitting epithet to bygone era.

Great film. Hearty folk. The narrator talks about the great quantities of food they consumed, yet everyone seemed lean and fit. Plenty of calories burned doing that hard work. Obesity didn’t seem to be an issue.

Aren’t regional dialects a wonderful thing? Sadly, just like the era that this film represents the unique dialects from around the world seem to be fading away. Too bad; they are really pleasant to listen to.

[OldKat]

@Dawn@VCEA 23171 wrote:

I’m looking for someone to move one or two cows from Vershire, VT to Wolcott, VT, this week if possible. Call Dawn at 802-685-7752.

Dawn,

Do you have any livestock auctions or sale barns in your area? We have one in virtually every town of more than 4 or 5,000 people in our area, but that may not be the case in your corner of the world. If you do have one nearby, try checking their bulletin board which is usually located by the cashiers window. There will often be ads or business cards for people that do just what you are asking about. Hope this helps.

[OldKat]

@houstonmule 23004 wrote:

Hi, I’m new to the forum. I have 2 teams of draft mules and raise purebred Watusi. My calves will grow huge horns, some lateral and some up. Is there anyone that would take 2 calves and train them to pull? If so, how much would it cost and how long would it take to get them broke enough to pull a wagon through town?

Where are you located?

[OldKat]

@Rod 22998 wrote:

Hi Donn

From what I have read Jacks do not make good guards for the little ones and especially young Donkeys. I understand a gilding or jennet should be at least 3 years old or more before putting them out with lambs or calves to guard. They play too hard with the little ones. And I second the thought that two are better than one. Our donkeys are social even more so than the mule.

Do your donkeys provide good gaurd service when you pair them up? I have had donkeys out with cattle and usually when I put a second one in the pasture they started looking out for each other, but were seldom with the cattle. I currently only have one, which I leave with some replacement heifers. He is about a 3 year old gelding & like you said he was a little rough on the calves when he was younger. He has really come into his own now, and I never find him when he is NOT with the heifers.

A few years ago I had a lease with some feral donkeys on it; they just came and went when they pleased. I could never find a place in the fence where I thought an animal could slip through, much less 25 or 30 of them like we had coming and going. They didn’t pay any attention to the cows whatsoever, but they could sure strip a pasture of its grass in a heartbeat.

[OldKat]

Nice. Never seen that one before. 🙂

[OldKat]

As we were harnessing, one of my oldest friends’ daughters drove up with her 4 kids, to ask about a ride for some friends of hers that were headed to Bolivia to do missionary work… talk about timing!

God works in mysterious ways …

BTW: nice rig, super nice team. Really nice pictures, too. I’d use one of them on my Christmas cards next year if I were you …

[OldKat]

@near horse 22967 wrote:

Sorry OldKat but the food “uhhm” safety bill isn’t a party line thing – it’s a who’s your daddy thing – here in ID it’s fully supported by both our senators and reps. (and our state animal is the GOP elephant). So show me the money!

As far as I can tell this smells as bad as the original HACCP proposal 10+ yrs ago (and approved). The original bill was going to allow/require outside inspections and accountability got revamped into a “self-monitoring and reporting program”. So how come we’re still getting tainted eggs, meat recalls etc?

No, I didn’t mean to imply it was along party lines. It couldn’t have been. Not with the vote in the Senate being what it was. The analyst that I heard on the radio along about Tueday or Wednesday called it a “virtual takeover of agriculture by the government”. He also said, but I didn’t check to see if it was correct or not, that the vote in the House for the (R)’s was a little over 100 against, none for and eight abstaining. Which obviously means some others were not present or voted “present” or he was wrong about none of them voting for it. It also means that at least some of the House (D)’s had to vote against it, too. Roughly 100 or so.

Point I was trying to make was that “someone” (I have no idea who) included it in the Omnibus Spending Bill so that they could do an end run around the whole legal process. That is the sort thing that turns me off to the inside the beltway Washington elites. We have a good political system, but they are letting special interests (primarily their own) ruin it. I personally think they should be held accountable, more so than just the danger of being voted out of office.

[OldKat]

@mitchmaine 22489 wrote:

sounds like the senate blew it and voted on the food safety bill with language about money involved. only the house can appropriate money, so the senate passed a bill it couldn’t or should not have voted on. so now the house has no alternative but to defeat the bill, so it can go back to the senate that, after new years, will be mostly republican. so we can expect a different outcome, maybe……………………………yahoo!!!!!!!!

Did anyone notice that there was an attempt to sneak this crap through by including it in total in the so called Omnibus Spending Bill? My thinking is that this is how they planned to get around the restrictions that appropriations originate in the House. I never did see who sponsored this thing. Was there ever even a unique House version? I never saw mention of one; only the Senate version and NO NAMES attached to it. Somewhat unusual. I guess no one wanted to be identified as being behind it.

I also noticed that when it was voted on in the Senate there was a grand total of 1.5 hours of debate on it. Of course they passed the “health care reform” bill not having so much as one person that had actually read it, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Based on the votes when it came out of the House which I think was 212 to 206 in favor of passage, with zero Republicans voting to pass it and 8 abstaining … that it should be DOA (Dead On Arrival) after the new members are seated in January. Should help that the (R)’s also picked up more seats in the Senate, too, as they mostly voted against it anyway.

I am not sure who is behind this deal, but somebody wanted it rammed down our throats pretty badly. Hopefully we can drive a stake through the heart of it once and for all after January 1st.

[OldKat]

Donn,

Darn nice job on the D ring and also on the step by step photo documentation. Almost feel as if I could do it myself, just by looking at the pictures.

[OldKat]

@Matthew 22768 wrote:

About three weeks ago I was working in front of a elderly WW2 veterans house. This man was 87 years old and he told me some stories of the town and the war. I can’t remember the country he said he was in durring the war but aparently you could have more than one wife, he said this farmer would come out in the morning to plow with his mule. Before he would make a pass with the plow he would have two of his wifes walk ahead of the mule to check for land mines. I guess wifes were easier to replace than mules. That mule wasn’t bomb proof.:eek:

That is sad and funny all at the same time. Usually don’t see those two attributes used together. 🙂

[OldKat]

@Jonathan Shively 22447 wrote:

From what I remember when I rebuilt my 1901 planter (it had automatic marker arms!!!) they (planters) were also called listers. My 1901 has the ability to check, plant, drill and something else. Don’t know what I did with the owners manual (paid more for that than I did the planter!). Let me know specifics and can do some checking for you. Feel free to pm me questions. Also, planter/seed plates will be your friend and sometimes are dirt cheap and don’t ignore the plastic ones. Sometimes it isn’t knowing the specific plate number but matching a hole in a plate with the size seed you are trying to plant. Want it to be able to select the seed, drop it in the tube without cracking/crushing or ruining the seed coat. Oh, and my IH 4 row planter, heck each planter box (fiberglass with black cover) will hold a fifty plus pound bag of seed. Never filled mine clear full. Put enough in to do a couple of acres and then during the rest, filled, greased, checked harness and went back at it. Planter will perform more evenly and what the heck, if I was trying to make a race out of it, wouldn’t have been using a team to begin with!

Jonathan,

I think a “lister” was kind of a combination tool; some did a light cultivation of recently sprouted weeds in a previously prepared seedbed, some could be set up to create rows and they also formed a “list” or a slit in the soil to receive the seed & finally there was usually a packer wheel or some other sort of device to close the list. Not sure when or why that term fell out of favor.

[OldKat]

@blue80 22417 wrote:

I am exploring miniature dairy options. Can anyone give me experience on them and the possible market opportunities? It seems from initial research that mini heifers for sale have a great return, actually selling far higher than full size dairy heifers.

I know of some locals who have had a full size cow, and get 7-9 gallons per day. They say too much milk, too much feed. They “share the cow” with 5 families who are each responsible with a day’s chores and milking. It didn’t work, the cow ran the families life and they sold it…..
Both of our sources of raw milk has “dried up” We are back into store milk, which my wife says makes the kids wet the bed more often if they drink it in the evenings:mad:

The miniatures piques my interest as it seems to be a market the “big farmers” won’t exploit. They don’t want to breed for less production or halter train each animal….
Also makes sense to me as smaller acreage, less feed, less fencing, possibly easier handling of the animals are all benefits. Give the people what the need and want?

Thanks for the help,
Kevin

Kevin,

I have known people in the past that would buy a dairy cow, breed her to a beef bull … usually Angus and let the resulting calf stay on her. Whenever they wanted a gallon of milk or so they would pen the calf the night before, milk the cow and then turn the calf back with the cow. Saves having to deal with excess milk. Of course to have year round milk you would need two cows, calving in different seasons. The calf is weaned at the normal age and either turned out to finish on grass or fed out, either way they make a nice deep freeze calf … especially if the cow is a Jersey or a Guersey.

I have considered doing this myself, but with just the two of us at home now we don’t really drink much milk anyway. Just a thought …

[OldKat]

@Jim Garvin 22195 wrote:

Nice job, Donn. I’m still waiting for my mower book from SFJ (out of stock, but reprinting “soon”), before I start tearing into mine. May have to take a trip over to your place with my cutter blade so you can help me do mine the correct way 😮

Jim,

If you are in a hurry to get started try asking the SFJ if they will ship the hardback edition at the same price as the paperback. That is what I did and they went for it. Of course about the time my book arrived we had a series of unfortunate things happen in our family, which has put the mower on the back burner for now. Oh well. 🙁

Regards …

OldKat

[OldKat]

@mitchmaine 22400 wrote:

the senate passed that bill today by a vote of 73 to 25. now it goes to the house.
the good news is that although not perfect, there is some strong language protecting the small farm and farmer. thanks to everyone who contacted their senate and congress men and women.

Does anyone know if there are enough nays in the house to send this thing back? If they can stall it long enough until the new representatives are seated it will be tough to cram this nonsense through. With the current mix, all bets are off.

Did anyone catch how the media was playing this up today? Made it sound like it was big “win” for consumers. What a bunch of jerks.

[OldKat]

@near horse 22015 wrote:

Sorry but from what I’ve read biochar and slash and burn are not the same thing at all. When burning organic matter in the presence of unlimited oxygen, most of the carbon is going up as smoke and CO2 and leaves no (or very little) substrate for colonization by fungi etc – biochar or “terra preta” results in charcoal remaining in the soil to provide places for organisms to inhabit (and build soil fertility and also tie up more CO2).

Funny, I just saw something about this on National Geo tonight – try googling terra preta (I think it is Portuguese for dark or black land). Researchers believe that this technique of maintaining fertility in the Amazon basin may have allowed large numbers of people to inhabit that area without having to move when the soil played out. Pre-European contact estimates are in the million(s) of inhabitants for the area – while the current number is only about 300,000.

There’s a lot of people looking at this as a method for increasing fertility of some played out soils – not something you wold associate with slash & burn.

Yes, exactly. Alan Nation wrote an article about this in The Stockman – Grass Farmer within the past year. I’ll see if I can find it. He termed this swiden or swidden (or something like that) agriculture. He said it was practiced by native peoples all over the Americas, but especially in the humid, tropical areas of South America. He said the furnaces that they used to create this stuff essentially burned year round, with the smoke being a form of mosquito and fly control around their villages.

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