Disappointing day, plowing

[OldKat]

You know; there is a lot of wisdom floating around this board. Looking at the two posts above reminds me of something I have noticed with my two children. Our daughter, our oldest, has been kind of the hard luck kid…everything she has ever tried to do has been fraught with difficulty, disappointment and heartache, yet she will persevere and reach her goal 99.9% of the time. The youngest, our son, was just the opposite; everything he touched turned to gold. No effort required, just open the package, pour out the ingredients and presto! Instant success. After a time he just came to expect that all he had to do to be a success at anything was just show up. That was all well and good until he got about halfway through college and then the wheels just about fell off. He had a rough year or two when everything he tried blew up in his face; whether it was school, his part time job or the National Guard unit that he was in.

Finally things began to turn for him and start getting better. I think now he appreciates success more and understands that it is not a given; it does require some effort. I know Jen and the rest of us on this board understand this and while no one expects a “gimme”, sometimes it takes hitting a few rough spots to appreciate the smooth sailing.

[dominiquer60]

I am coming in late here, but I am glad to have read the entire post, so many good words.

Jenn,
I am just envious that you have a willing animal capable of some plowing and a complete plow, perhaps they both need adjusting, but it is a start. I look forward to experiencing your frustrations someday. Until then my nearly yearling calves are only 400 pounds a piece, they are bottle fed runts, but could be fed up a little better, however they are not mine, just mine to fiddle with. They are under worked and are finally getting comfortable pulling a lightly loaded stoneboat, we have a long way to go until we plow.

The plow, an 8″ Syracuse, although cleaned off and repainted, is missing some key components. After Sam Rich helped me get it going well at last years NEAPFD, he took the point home to touch up for me. He did so, but now it is “somewhere in his shop,” but that is OK because clearly I am in no rush. Handles, I ordered a nice new pair from PA in March and UPS lost them and claims that they were delivered, even the local delivery guy knows that they were never in his truck. Oh well I will have to write another check and John will have to bend another pair. If I am lucky the original order will surface and I will have a spare pair.

I know I will have a hard time too when I finally get to use my plow, but I will be thrilled to have the chance to figure it out and ask for more help.

I am glad that you shared with us and I look forward to you sharing the success of it all coming together at some point.

Erika

P.S. When Sam and I used my single plow, his gelding walked on the land as close to the furrow as possible. He also gave a good tip of using the tractor to plow the first furrow, it gives you and your animal something to follow and a little less to worry about.

[jen judkins]

I’m definately gonna need to hang out with Sam at NEAPFDs this year 😉

[mitchmaine]

hey jen, you might try discing 10 – 12′ of your garden before plowing it. break the sod up so it’s easier to plow. and if you are plowing alongside the woods, if there is a limb over your head, there is a root under your feet, and three horses can’t plow roots. just some thoughts.

[Gabe Ayers]

The English Suffolk colt is here on Ridgewind Farm and we are getting him settled in to know his new home. He is naturally high headed at the moment and we are a ways out of putting him in his own paddock in the center or our operation.

Maybe this afternoon he will be eating Virginia grass, for now it is just Virginia hay and mountain water. He has continued to grow and is even larger than last time we saw him. The whole effort is more about hope than skill, but it is a dream come true for us. Now we’ll just have to wait to see if he is going to mature to be fertile and a good work horse, not in that order.

Special thanks to Simon Lenihan for his able guidance in the U.K.

~

Jason Rutledge

[Tim Harrigan]

Carl Russell;18125 wrote:

… I still feel compelled to encourage you to push yourself and Reno past the smooth maneuver stage, and into the significant controlled effort stage of performing work.

Carl

Good point Carl, I think if Reno could keep a controlled line with 1500 lb on a sled or stoneboat that plow would not distract him from the task at hand.

[mitchmaine]

hey jason, i would love to see a photo of this critter if you could manage. thanks, mitch

[LStone]

There are too many of us to ever be alone Jen. In my opinion you are doing fine. Don’t lose hope and don’t give in. Seems like you had just another training day with Reno. One down and many, many to go. I don’t claim to know much about plowing but I do know that the more repetitions you do with him the more familiar with the task you both will get and the smoother it will go. The more you loosen up that good old NH topsoil by pulling out the rocks the easier it will get eventually. BTW why do you think they call it the Granite State? Go gettem’ tiger! I’m sure you will succeed.

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