[Rod]

Yes a 5′ bar length. Thanks.

[Rod]

@Y 4 Ranch 26572 wrote:

Spring loaded hold downs are made by Tisco, Part number SLC 371, sikl-clip

I found the spring clips direct on line at this address. http://www.tractorpartmart.com/us/hi-clr-7-16-clip-p3520.html

I ma doing a No. 9 MCD and do not have the bar here at this time. How many hold-downs does it take?

[Rod]

Very nice job.

[Rod]

I like it!

[Rod]

Dexter steers make good oxen. Real smart and easy to train and not so big they eat you out of house and home.

[Rod]

@Does’ Leap 26162 wrote:

Rod, thanks for the pictures. Do you know how many btus your modine is rated for. I am considering 2 smaller units instead of one big one. How well does the one heat your shop? How high are your ceilings? I am thinking of constant cycling to the heater as well and kicking the fan on with a thermostat when I need it.

Geoff, I plan to have a remote starter so I don’t have to get off my lounger to start the thing. Just kidding. I am so used to working in unheated space that any heat, even while warming, will be a luxury. However, any excuse for a cup of coffee is welcome.

George

Hi George

Mine is a knockoff brand and I can not find the rating on it but it is 16″ square on the front on the radiator. Photos is below. My ceilings are 10′ and this unit does fine. It may be only 40 or 50 when I come in but on a -20 degree morning it feels like Florida. Takes a while to warm the shop up but the blower send hot air down the center of the shop so it’s comfortable.

[Rod]

@Does’ Leap 26139 wrote:

… Rod, any chance you can snap a few pictures of your woodshed / boiler set-up. Also, how do you heat your shop? This new barn we are building will have a 30×30 shop and I am planning on putting a 47,000 btu Modine unit heater in it.

George

Hi George

Photos are below. I use a Modine also, shop is 24×36′ insulated. The hot water runs through the unit all the time but I shut the fan off when I am not using the shop. Temperatures run between 40 and 70 or so depending on the outside conditions and length of time between uses.

[Rod]

I have a central Boiler outdoor furnace and uses 14 cords between Thanksgiving and the first of March. After and before that we use the wood stove in the house. Ours heats the house, hot water and my shop which get shut off when I am not using it. The best system I have found is to get some teenagers to cut and stack the wood. But that does not always work out. We burn mostly down trees, slabs do not work out well because they require too much volume to get any heat. The best pieces are the big ones and green is not a problem in fact I like green wood because it lasts longer. I do not split anything for the furnace but cut it shorter if it’s too large to handle. My furnace takes 54″ wood but I find 3′ is the best length piled close to the door end so as to capture most of the heat. I put a small load in twice a day unless I am going to be away then I can stuff it full and it will go for two days.
Mostly I have been cutting to wood to length where it is lying and put it in the back of my mechanical mule. I use Jenny my living mule to pull the poles out to out wood roads for processing to length on the spot. This year I am going to use the single horse firewood forwarder to move the wood to my furnace area where I can cut it to length and stack it it the sheds. This will mean loading the 10-12′ poles once onto the forwarder and removing the cut wood from their to the shed stack. The wood cutting to length will all be done at standing height as will the off loading which should save my back and minimize bending to pick the piece up something that helps my bad knee. The forwarder can either be pulled with the single horse arch (walking for me ) or my forecart (riding ).
My sheds which hold 14 cords are in a L shape arranged up-wind and 10′ away from and facing the the furnace door. This is very convenient and we have no problem with smoke or wind as we load. The furnace is 200′ for the house and I wish it was closer because their is a lot of heat loss in the underground piping in that distance.

[Rod]

Hi John

I would like to tak with you about your Dexter bull. Call my cell at 802-376-5474. Thanks.

[Rod]

I built one two years ago from 3/4″ electrical conduit with 1/2″ rebars slid in side. Two conduits glued together are 20′ long, same as a rebar length so I cut 16″ off the conduit exposing 8″ of rebar at each end. These were pushed through holes in my base timbers and into the ground at 4′ oc. I taped conduit perlins in on the side and ridge and built wood ends with doors in them. The frame was covered with greenhouse plastic and made a 10×20 foot house 6′ high.
The idea came from a Small Farmers Journal which suggested bracing the centers with temporary poles in the winter for snow load which I did not do and partially lost the structure this winter although in did make it through last years winter. I plan to rebuild it this year and either take the plastic off next winter or try the temporary braces.
It is very handy for extending our season for tomatoes, lettuce chard etc and grows great peppers. We also started our beets in it and this year were going to do more plant starting there. Last fall I covered the whole garden with 6″ of mulch hay and plan to use the “Ruth Stout” no work gardening method of continuous mulch this year. I wanted to have more transplants to work with because it seems to me that they would work better in this system.

[Rod]

Boy, those shorthorns have really grown. Any chance your digital camera does video?

[Rod]

Yery neat, thanks.

[Rod]

@MuleRyder 25107 wrote:

Jenny is sweet, Rod. You didn’t mention your new mule, do you still have her?

She is gone, did not work out at all.

[Rod]

@fabian 24825 wrote:

Up to this time I use unpeeled rattan as stuff for my bows. I’m medium satisfied with them. I can haul out the two axled waggon with manure with the cow team, but I think that I can not use the whole power of the team without the risk of bending the bows.
Then I tried to bend wooden bows from white ash. Ihave a professionel steamtube, which not only produces steam but also pressure. After some more or less successless attempts the last bending worked satisfying. But bending is it not alone. The effort after bending is high.
Considering that I have a “real” job in which I should spend more time than in my passion, I wrote a mail to Alyson Bronnenberg asking her whether she would be willing to ship oxbows overseas, AFTER getting the money for them. But up to now I didn’t get an answer. Perhaps she thought my mail was a spam…….
Then I read at Tiller’s (I read much and much about neck yokes, oxbows aso. last time) http://www.tillersinternational.org/oxen/resources_techguides/ImprovingOxYokesTechGuide.pdf
that they improved ox yokes with a dropped hitchpoint aso.
A picture of an improved ox yoke in areas where bendable wood can not be found you can see at the last page. The use round staves instead of bows.
Because I have round wooden staves enough in my workshop I considered this a solution for me. Tomorrow I will test it with hauling out a waggon of manure.
Where do you see the drawbacks of staves to bows ?
Would like to get many answers. (one shortfall is that I need for every stave a pin, but if this is the worst drawback I can live with it.:) )

Thanks
Wolfgang

P.S. How can I delete pics in this forum ?
In the past I attached some pics with a big size and it seems that my account of pics is limited at 10 MB. I would prefer to attach more but smaller pics in this forum because my account is nearly “filled”.

The staves must be a lot easier to yoke up with. How about replacing the cords on the bottom with a hinged wood piece that would fasten to the opposite stave with a pin?

[Rod]

mother katherine;24591 wrote:

Rod, glad your guys are fine. I looked out yesterday morning to see our new machine shed/steer shed on the machinery and ground. Went flying out of the house to see what was left. 3 steers standing out side and one crushed under a truss. From his leg position, he was just deciding to get up and join his brother. Must have been some sound warning for the others to have gotten out.
Dairymen came down and dug it out. Machinery is fine. Yearling steer calls for his brother.
oxnun

How sad, it hurts more when you lose an innocent animal. They trust us and we feel it when the system fails like that not that it’s your fault, these things happen all the time but it does make us feel bad nevertheless. And a new barn, ouch. Hope you all recover in good shape including the brother steer.

[Author]

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