wild millers

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  • in reply to: goat vs cow #82125
    wild millers
    Participant

    We milk one cow on our place. Used to keep milking goats but the main reason we switched was because we like to give our animals access to fresh pasture all the time and that means rotational grazing. For us, as vegetable growers, the goats were too much of a liability as they are harder to fence than cows and if they get in the garden, will do a lot of damage really quickly. That’s not to say that a cow won’t do a lot of damage as well, but, a well fed and well cared for cow and her calf can be very easily trained to stay behind a single strand of electric tape set just above the height of your knee.

    Because life is busy, and we aren’t milking commercially, we only milk our cow once a day. After morning milking, her calf is turned out with her for grazing and nursing all day. Then in the evening we herd the calf’s back into their pen for the night and let the cow build up her milk again for the morning. This worked really well for us, even in the event of having to do an overnight trip sometimes we could just leave the calf with the cow to do all the milking.

    This system only worked for us because we keep a small Jersey and don’t push her for milk production. So while her milk production will be lower than most since we’re only milking once a day, her body matches the demand and we would still get about 2 gallons a day. In our experience, 2 gallons is plenty of milk to deal with each day for one family.

    Someone with more experience keeping goats may have some different ideas on how to keep them more easily. I’m happy to talk family cows if you have any more questions.

    Also, we have a couple dairy cows for sale. Not sure if your close enough to make that interesting to you or not but we are in the seacoast of NH. Good luck

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    in reply to: A hard decision.. #81989
    wild millers
    Participant

    Hello to all.. It looks as though we may have found our home. 80 acres in Palermo, Maine with nice flat fields, good soils, good water, and a large woodlot. We’re set to close at the end of March!

    From a side glace, we have met and/or heard of about half a dozen other young farming families in the same region that are working with draft horses. Anyone on here have any connections in the area?

    We will still farm this season in NH, but we plan to also spend the summer liming and plowing fields in ME as well as hiring out some big structural repairs to the old P&B barn, and prepping the house for us to move to in the fall of 2014.

    For a better look, check it out on the Web Soil Survey at 1165 Turner Ridge Rd. Palermo, ME.

    Thanks for all your suggestions and support this fall. We’ll update again when its all settled!

    in reply to: Amazing farm for sale in Dummerston VT. #81721
    wild millers
    Participant

    Thank you for that offer Bill. I’ll let you know what our plans look like as the date approaches..Dec. 12th is the open house we will be attending. If nothing else, we would like to stop by for a visit with you. Happy Thanksgiving -Joel

    in reply to: Amazing farm for sale in Dummerston VT. #81713
    wild millers
    Participant

    Hi Jean, Annalisa and I have had our eyes on this project. We will be going out for their open house in December. I would love to talk to you sometime to hear more of your thoughts about the land and the people.

    in reply to: Bob sled questions #81505
    wild millers
    Participant

    George, Thank you for the links, I learned a lot from reading those over, I’m sure they will be very helpful to revisit once I’m playing around with learning about chaining loads..

    Bill, interesting, I hadn’t thought of that. The chains do look like they are meant for pulling each ski individually but the ski’s are 45″ wide center to center. That seems like a wide span to me which would also call for a 45″ neck yoke? I really don’t know though having never used a bobsled, it does sound possible. Also no evener came with the sled. There is a hole in the tongue were it looks like an evener might have gone but its only 7′ back from the tongue cap which wouldn’t fit my team very well I don’t think.

    Carl, Thank you for your insights as well. The “U” bolts do seem like they may have attached a deck to the bunks..they are on both the front and back bunks.

    Your right the chains do not seem like any sort of breaking chain and in this picture it does look as though they are meant for pulling each ski. There is no chaining point on the rear of those skis for chains to cross from tip to the rear of the opposite ski as you were saying is sometimes done for a rear bunk that swivels (this one does not).

    Your absolutely right about talking with some locals about the design, I should have thought of that already.. I put a call over to Les last night and it sounds like we may have him over for lunch next week to talk bob sleds. I know we’re looking forward to that.

    Finally I have added a picture of the tongue and you will see how it is lacking in strength. There is no bracing on it where it tenons into the “roll?” and there is slop in that right now. I think some heavy bracing there would be called for. You can see two steel bars bracing the stub tongue on the rear sled..is that what your calling the “reach”?

    Also the ski’s on both the front and rear sleds are both 7′ long, and there are stake pockets on the front and rear bunks.

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    in reply to: A hard decision.. #81381
    wild millers
    Participant

    Hi Brad, I already have Bob’s number but hadn’t thought of giving him a call, thanks for the suggestion.

    George, I had not found that website yet, thanks for the link. Mostly we have been looking in NH and ME because we know these areas a little bit better than we know VT. We are open to all the options though..

    in reply to: A hard decision.. #81341
    wild millers
    Participant

    Thanks for the kind words Erika, neither of us are pisces, though that does ring true right now.

    We’ll update here as things evolve..

    in reply to: logging forcart #81238
    wild millers
    Participant

    Thank you guys for the detailed and well written thoughts. This is something I really enjoy about this forum. It’s amazing to me the amount of years of first hand experience and knowledge that can come forth, and in such well thought out and carefully written replies. The dedication to “advancing the practical application of draft power” is very evident here. This sort of information is priceless.

    I have never had the chance to work a low hitch height, Barden style cart before. I was aware of some of the differences between this approach and the higher hitch approach that I do use, but was unclear of the direct advantages of the lower hitch besides stability and teamster comfort. I have never yet felt cramped for maneuverability with our cart and have always found the horses to be willing when pulling a load, and I can always get the but end of those logs comfortably off the ground. That said, we aren’t doing a lot of deep woods work, nor are we out there every day. We have a lot of field edge work to do, but as I get caught up with that, I will be headed deeper into the woods. I guess I still am not really clear on the advantages of the low hitch besides what has been already stated and probably won’t understand until I get the chance to work one. If no one speaks for Paul’s cart before winter I may try to work something out with him and get it under cover at our place so I can get a chance to try it out.

    Carl, again, I appreciate your thoughts and suggestions. My hesitancy to spring for Paul’s cart right away comes from the careful financial planning that is necessary to be able to successfully work a farm, (trying to keep a sharp pencil so to speak) and not being able to afford a second logging cart just for the sake of it. A saying that my wife is very fond of, and one that we find a lot of credence in is that “The best tool for the job, is the one that you know.” Thanks -Joel

    in reply to: Treadmill powered wood splitter at DAPNET Field Days #81207
    wild millers
    Participant

    Jay, I’m excited to see your setup, thanks for bringing it. Last spring I bought a
    heavy duty “Super Split” (90 lb. flywheels) with the conversion in mind for our treadmill. It still has the 8 HP engine on it at this point. It is a nice tool to work with. Have you set yours up with the “Super Split” or with something different?

    in reply to: PROGRAM is DONE!!! #81193
    wild millers
    Participant

    This looks great guys, were looking forward to the weekend. Quick question.. we sent in our reservations for tickets, dinner, and camping about a week and a half ago. Should we expect to receive something back in the mail to have in hand when we arrive at the event, or do we pick up the tickets and camping reservations when we arrive? Thanks again.

    in reply to: Barden cart #81190
    wild millers
    Participant

    George, so that I don’t get this thread too distracted from the cart that Paul has for sale, I’m going to start a new post in the equipment section to talk about our cart. Thanks

    in reply to: matching the "un"matched #81125
    wild millers
    Participant

    Neat photo that Chuck recently found in a book titled “Recollections of a salt marsh farmer” by John D. Fogg

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    in reply to: Riding your Draft #81010
    wild millers
    Participant

    I found riding to be very helpful these past two years for training our young team. Having only experience with driving and no proper riding technique, I approached it as if I were driving them. Using the same commands as if I was driving..clear voice commands followed by light pressure on the bit to get the message across. I first mounted them in the round pen at 18 months old to gain their trust and confidence. Since we didn’t have a harness that fit them until they turned 3 this past spring, I found myself riding them for training purposes more often than driving. We would sometimes borrow a harness for a day or two during this period to do some ground driving work, but otherwise we only owned a custom fit bridle that we had made when they were one, with plenty of adjustment for growth. Also in the midst of all the farm work that must get done, I found that when I had time for training sessions it was often spur of the moment and the quickest and easiest thing to do was grab the bridle and jump on. For instance this spring during some plowing and field prep, I had spent the morning opening sod with the older mares and had a clean furrow running. I wanted to introduce the youngsters to the furrow and since time is always limited in the spring I bridled and rode each youngster, individually, down the the field to walk the furrow during an hour long lunch break. They had never seen the furrow before this and the next day when I hitched one of them with an older mare to have a plowing lesson, he walked the furrow like and old pro and there was no issue at all with this new task. I simply couldn’t have found time to harness him, drive him down, drive the furrows, and then go back and get the mares and still get all the plowing done that day before the rains came again.
    It may have helped that I have very little confidence as a rider and so would never allow the horse more than a walk. The working pace I wanted them to get used to.
    I still use this to introduce them to new equipment sometimes if Annalisa or Chuck are driving the older mares, I can ride along and slowly approach to carefully introduce the sounds and motions of a new tool, then ride back to the stable and have him un-haltered and back out to pasture in a few minutes leaving me to move on with the work day having accomplished a quick and meaningful lesson. Having the older mares to help and these simple training lessons makes the stress of a new job so much less for these young inexperienced horses.

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    in reply to: yesterday's mishap #80797
    wild millers
    Participant

    Thank you for thinking through and writing that out for us Donn. I appreciate your thoughts and humbleness. Having recently gone through a runaway experience (last spring), I found that the best way I was able to deal with it mentally, and keep my confidence with the team, was to write it down and talk about it with other teamsters. Find out what I was overlooking, or what I was asking of the horses that lead to the situation. We have a lot to learn from events like these because while we are always focused on safety measures for us and the horses, a runaway can really drive home the reason why we focus on safety and to remind us that things can go bad very quickly if we aren’t always paying attention to what the animals are trying to tell us.
    Thankfully no one was hurt in my wreck, horses or people, just a broken evener and tongue on the forcart. I was able to re-hitch the team to a different forcart right after and go back to work for the rest of the afternoon (with pretty shaky hands at first) but I think that it has helped me to better understand the language of my animals.

    in reply to: Fly Protection #80682
    wild millers
    Participant

    Has anyone had experience with the EPPS fly traps? A trap designed to catch biting flys..they claim up to 20 acres of protection with one unit! A neighbor of ours has two, one for her horses and one for their cattle herd. They seem pleased with it and recommended it.
    http://www.horselineproducts.com/eppsbitingflytra.html
    We’ve just ordered two of those full body fly nets from Peach Lane Harness in PA for $34 dollars each, half of the price of the nets at our local tack store.

Viewing 15 posts - 46 through 60 (of 87 total)