[wild millers]

Hi Carl,

We have a #9 on iron, in good shape but will need a little tuning up. Also a #7 that needs more work but could also be available if your interested. Give me a call if you would like to know more. nine nine three-2018 -Joel

[wild millers]

looks like my picture is perhaps too big. here is a link to craigslist ad

https://maine.craigslist.org/grd/d/antique-hay-baler/6357976960.html

[wild millers]

If your still looking, we have a #7 on iron wheels that needs some going over but is structurally sound. We are in your region…Palermo, ME. Let me know if your interested.

[wild millers]

Found it through Leon Bruebaker

[wild millers]

Here are the scans of two facing pages in Eric Sloan’s book “An age of Barns” As he suggests in the text, the long sides were built into the hill to afford the most protection for root cellars and livestock from the winter winds and frosts. -Joel

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[wild millers]

Sure Ron, Let’s see if I can put this in the correct terms…Basically the oak rails between the two bunks turn them into a single rigid platform in this case for loading logs onto. Since the bunk on the rear bob is rigidly mounted to the beam and the front bob has a swing bunk (meaning the bunk pivots on a heavy pin dropped through the center of the beam) that lets the front bob pivot under the load for the whole sled to follow. Picture it like an old wagon and replace the sleds for wheels and you can see how the front “axle” must be able to pivot independently from the rest of the rigid wagon bed.

Having a solid deck built on the sleds achieves the same purpose, as I have had it set up the past two winters. By removing the deck portion it brings the log platform down to the bunks themselves and therefor closer to the ground making it easier to load and removes unnecessary weight.

Finally having the oak rails bolted on the underside of the bunks, it makes a very convenient ledger to rest poles on for rolling logs up onto the sled.

If anyone has more insight to add to this please feel free. -Joel

• This reply was modified 7 years, 9 months ago by wild millers.

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[wild millers]

Fast forward 4 years!

We’re established on our own woodlot now, mostly flat ground, and I have laid out all of our skid roads in loops for ease of working horses.

We used the double bob sled for the past two winters as a people mover for sleigh rides but this winter I removed the deck, and bolted two 3X4 oak rails between the bunks to set it up for logs.

I’ve been forwarding about 1000′ from where I’m cutting this winter to the landing and enjoying it greatly. It’s moving quite heavy loads without excessive strain on our unshod horses.

Here are a few pictures loaded with firewood. Some loads of bole wood and some of limb wood which I wouldn’t otherwise have taken the time to skid out.

Thanks for your thoughts Brad, George, Bill and Carl. I have had them in the back of my mind for the past few years! -Joel

• This reply was modified 7 years, 9 months ago by wild millers.

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[wild millers]

Looks like I wasn’t able to post pictures first try because their file sizes were too large. After editing them in photoshop they posted fine…

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[wild millers]

rolling and ripping for last falls garlic planting

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Trying pictures again..

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[wild millers]

Hi Kelly, congratulations on the new horse and it’s nice to hear about your plans!

I was wondering what cover crop your thinking of crimping in the spring?

We have experimented some with crimping rye and vetch. Both with the large I&J roller crimper on a tractor and also, more successfully with a horse drawn disc harrow. If your ground isn’t perfectly smooth, the disc harrow can be more effective as it will conform to slight irregularities in the field, maintaining continuous contact between the disc blades and the crop stems for a successful crimp kill. Some challenges involved with those crops are knocking them down at the right time which in new england seems to be in mid – late june when they are flowering. Even so it can take several passes over multiple days to get a full kill. You may find that for your spring crops you would be better off mowing the crop and rototilling to prep. for any crops you hope the get in earlier than that. You could perhaps leave a section of standing cover crop to experiment rolling for fall crops?

We have also successfully experimented with ripping furrows into a rolled cover crop for min. tillage planting as you have mentioned. More so into peas and oats than anything else. Through winter killed pea and oat residues in the spring for early crops, and rolled down in october for garlic planting. In both cases we plant the cover crop onto ridges for guidance when it comes time to rip the furrows so that we can keep straight rows for cultivation sake. I would expect that it could be challenging to rip straight rows into residues with a single horse and no guidance system set up. Not that straight rows are totally necessary, especially if you plan to manage weeds by hand. The key for us has been to incorporate a rolling coulter in front of the ripper like you have mentioned and ripping in the same direction as the rolled crop. The ridges help because the soil is a bit more mellow and easy to work on top of them than it would be on a flat surface. Weight is an issue in this scenario and I would have some doubts about something like the all in one being heavy enough to work through very much residue. We mount our system on the McCormick riding cultivator and even so, I have to stand on the tool bar while driving the team to allow the coulter (which I keep very sharp!) to slice effectively. There is very little draft with this set up since we are really only ripping about 4 inches deep and the soil is actually sliced more than ripped. We are quite overpowered with our team to accomplish this task. Though the pair do play an important role in making this system work.

Anyway, I hope some of that might be helpful! I have found, through many frustrating scenarios, that our most successful and satisfying horse drawn, minimal tillage plantings happen after at least a full season of prep. with a clear design in mind for the end result. Even so, adaptation, creativity and flexibility are key! Good luck and have fun!

[wild millers]

Hey Daniel – Have fun! Good luck everyone!

[wild millers]

I yesterday had chance to get out the small scoot/go devil that I rebuilt a few years ago from a friends design. All that was left was the iron, so I put it together how I thought it might work for me. I would normally ground skid these logs short distances with a single horse, but yesterday I had reason to skid each of these half a dozen, fairly heavy, oak logs about a quarter of a mile. This sled is not ideal for moving a large quantity of wood since I can only hook one large diameter log at a time, but since I’m just out after house firewood and saw logs on the weekends this winter I’m enjoying taking my time and focusing on my interactions with a single horse while working in the woods.

So all that said, it was a lot of fun working with this tool again. The deck on it allows me to stand, straddling the log, with one hand on the peavey to ride the load in and the empty scoot out. Despite the long skids, the horse also seemed to enjoy the day without getting worn down.

The chaining set up on the sled is visible in the picture. One chain bolted to the bunk on one side and a grab hook on a swivel bolted to the other side of the bunk. Sometimes I will have to reset the log during the skid but overall it’s not too bad except for unhitching the bound chain at the landing. That is usually done fairly easily with the peavey though. I really like the idea of how George and Ron are hitching their go devil loads and would like to give that a try. I think it could work out nicely with my terrain. Thanks for the ideas guys.

I guess I really just wanted to post a few pictures of another design and a beautiful day spent in the woods.

Happy logging to you all

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[wild millers]

Responding to a question Daniel had asked a few posts up in regard to the adjustable axle forcart. I believe the cart your referencing might be the White Horse Machine cart? In which case you could say it is the axle that adjusts but more to the point would be that the deck and draw bar adjust in relation to the axle. Chuck has both that cart as well as the I&J ground drive cart.

I would just throw this out there because it might not be immediately obvious unless you were in the situation to utilize this feature. Chuck uses this adjustment more to alleviate tongue lift rather than offset tongue weight and I believe that was the intent of the extra engineering. The picture attached shows a setup that Chuck has used often when all the other hay wagons and trailers are full. As you can see this arrangement puts a lot of weight on the forcart draw bar. (The weight of the manure spreader forward of it’s axle plus the weight of all the hay bales forward of the axle as well.) By adjusting the drawbar closer to the axle it eliminates the extreme amount of lift that would be generated in the situation. The hydraulic brake feature on that cart really helps in this hitch setup when the animals are holding the load back while going down a hill. After the cart is unhitched from the heavy drawbar load, the adjustment is cranked back to take that extra weight off of the tongue to ease hitching and unhitching.

Kind of a neat feature, but we only ever really utilized it in this scenario. I can’t remember the whole apparatus well enough at this point to imagine if it could be a design feature that could possibly be worked into a logging arch or not. Hope that helps.

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