very very small farming

[Kristin]

I hitched to the one-horse cultivator last week and ran it through the small plot in front of the house where we grow flowers and perennial herbs and a few cherry tomato plants that are for the family and not for the share. We almost never use the one-horse cultivator on the farm because the two-horse cultivator is so much more precise, and I was really just fooling around, but I was reminded how simple, cheap, and effective animal powered tillage on the garden scale can be. And it was so much more fun than weeding!

This, plus Jen’s post about spreading manure with one horse, brought to mind something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately: draft animal power is not just for farmers. There are exponentially more gardeners out there than farmers, and I think a lot of them would love to put a horse or pony to use for tillage in their garden, to cut the grass, etc., if only they knew how. There are also a lot of underutilized family horses in a lot of back yards, and with the rising cost of hay and grain, I bet people will be looking for ways to get that pony to justify his keep.

So, what are the stumbling blocks for someone wanting to ditch their rototiller and their ride-on lawn mower and harness their horse instead? What can we do to educate and encourage them?

All best,
Kristin

[jen judkins]

Hey, I’ll step right up to be educated, lol. This exactly the type of draft power I am looking to employ! You know I bet I could harness up my minis to turn my veggie beds….too cool.

So I’m clear…pretty much any implement you can hook to a tractor, can be hooked to a forecart? So like my Belgian could pull my little york rake over my arena once a week? Sounds like a great first job..safe too inside a fenced area.

Any chance of seeing a photo of your one horse cultivator in use….I need visual aids. Thanks. Jennifer.

[416Jonny]

For mowing the lawn, a simple forecart or wagon with a draw bar could pull a gang of reel mowers. My dad mows his lawn with two push reel mowers taped together, for excersize. Golf courses use these to cut the greens and they do a wonderful job. A good sharp reel mower cuts short grass like nobody’s business.

I figure after the harness, all the stuff to take care of a lawn and small garden would cost you probably the same (or less for the thrifty amoung us) amount of money you’d get from selling a riding mower or rototiller.

But I think the real stumbling block to working a horse like that is most residential zoning doesn’t allow farm animals like horses. But if you’ve already got the horse, using it to take care of your lawn would be pretty cool. You’d probably be the only one in your neighborhood that was doing it. You might end up in the local news paper after enough people see you using a pony to mow your lawn. But then again, if you do anything the “old fashioned” way anymore, somebody is bound to look at you and point. Everything we as a group do seems like a novelty to most everyone that doesn’t know about the history of getting work done.

Mowing your lawn with a pony in full view might be a great way to show people that you can do things without spending hardly a dime and end up a better overall human being because of it.

But, clearly, now is not the time for logic.

Showing somebody what can be done is another great way of instilling confidence in them so they might try it on their own. Action speaks louder than words as they say, so maybe just go to a neighbor and mow their lawn to show them. It works for vacuum cleaner sales, why not promoting draft animals? The same lines might work as well: “ma’am, I’ll bet you’ll never believe what this little pony can do for your lawn!”

Will there be a sweeping abandonment of Cub Cadet, John Deere, Toro or Husqavarna lawn tractors? No, if people don’t have the money or access to gas inorder to mow their lawns, I’m sure they have more pressing issues to address than grass growing in the lawn.

It is neat to imagine the thought of the ant-like conformity of suburban sprawl being groomed by groups of landscapers driving ponies. I’m reminded of the hardware store commericials where men are riding brand spanking new lawn mowers around postage stamp sized lawns. “I’ve got 22 horse power and a 54″ mowing deck. I’ll be done in no time!” Unless of course something goes wrong, at which point any repairs have to be done by a certified dealership and cost the equivalent of a small Polyenisian island.

Okay, enough ranting already!

Yes, home maintenance sure would be a lot more interesting using animal power instead of by hand or by using a yuppie garden tractor. For those with ten acre lawns that end up buying a $9000 0-turn radius and spend all day riding them, one could certainly save some money and sanity just pulling a mower around.

Jonny B.

[Rod]

I Like it, the whole concept and have been spending a lot of time thinking about how to down scale some common and not so common applications so I can use my team of Standard Donkeys to help me out.
One idea I have for one Donkey is to carry my parts and tools when I do fence work and maintaince. I run high tensile electric fence and periodically patrol the lines some of which are in the woods and accessible only on foot. I don’t mind the walking but carrying all I might need to fix or repair the fences is a chore. To do this with Sam my bigger donk I am going to put a pack saddle on him to carry my stuff.
I would love to see some ideas along this line for light weight equipment adapted to small animal power applications. Might try the cultivator thing and put away the hoe!@

[Carl Russell]

As Lisa and I have been promoting the NEAPFD we have been running a display table featuring our farm, as well as last year’s event. We have met so many people on the cusp.

They have a barn with stalls, they’ve been pricing small tractors, they have a small woodlot, would like to run a garden…..etc. But most of them are so unfamiliar with animals, and particularly working animals, that we can clearly see how lost they are.

Also they are all starting from different points of interest. It is really difficult to figure out how to help them. The only thing we can do is encourage them to seriously consider it, and try to be honest about the actual difficulty in learning the craft.

For most of them, even if they wanted to start working a single animal in their garden tomorrow, it would be several years before they have the kind of experience that Kristin described.

The reality is that if we do set good practical examples then there will be more people wanting to give it a try, but there will also be many who never get off the dime, because it is really too hard for them to get out of the modern switch and key mentality.

It takes the kind of effort and thought that Rod is putting into it, and right now, most of the people who possess that kind of initiative are running more than an urban ranch.

Any rate I think the best way we can help them is to continue to gather this growing network, commit to serious and practical application, and share our inspiration.

Carl

[Kristin]

Carl, your post reminds me that our first year, there was no way I could handle a single horse and cultivator on my own. Even with two of us working, we were running over more plants than weeds. I’d ridden horses since I was a kid, and was more comfortable on top than behind, so I got a leg up (way up) and rode while Mark steered the cultivator, and we got our rows weeded. It was a lot of fun. One of our neighbors saw us and said that when he was little, he used to ride the horse while his dad cultivated the garden. Maybe that’d be a way to get people who come from a riding background into tillage? I suppose you wouldn’t want to do it in front of a machine that could really mess you up if you fell off…

all best,
Kristin

[jen judkins]

Oh..Guys! I am so ready to do this! Will there be a mower demo at the APFDs? I have two minis that will turn alot of heads. We live on 7 acres…on a hill .. on the main road. People already stop to watch me play with the horses (or their manure).:D If I can get my mom out mowing with the minis, I can count on being the kookiest girl in the woods out here! I love it! I can be a poster child!

However, I have to say I am totally what Carl describes…on the cusp. I want to do it (bad) but lack confidence. So lets go…anyone want to do a mower/cultivator/garden course? I’ll trailer in (diesel prices willing…yikes). Jen.

[Jean]

Jen, I am with you. I have a horse now that could pull a single horse cultivator, but since I don’t really even know what one looks like, it is hard to think about doing it.

I do have a single horse manure spreader that will be hitched to the forecart as soon as the ground is solid enough to get across it. Hopefully I can get some help here for my first time out with it. Not sure how much farm work this guy has done. He sure is good with just the forecart.

The women we bought one of our minis from in Charlotte VT mows their lawn with their minis. I don’t think they need the power of the 8 horse hitch, but I sure would love to see it happen.

Jean

[jen judkins]

Yeah, Jean! OK…I will try, if you give it a go too. Where are you? Maybe we can join forces, lol! Will you be able to make it to the Field days in Sept.? I know it feels like a waste of a season, but we might get some inspiration there. Love to met you anyway. Jen.

[Crabapple Farm]

Ever since reading in Rural Heritage a while ago about a horse-drawn garbage/recycling collection service, I have had a vision of someone starting up a gas-free lawn service. A horse or two on a gang reel mower, a scythe for trimming the edges, etc. With the price commercial equipment costs, I think it could be very price competetive, and the idyllic nature of it would have huge appeal to some people. You might have to use a bun bag to keep from spoiling the clients idyll, but that’s not a big deal.
Unfortunately, I’m not the person to do it and I don’t live in the right sort of neighborhood to make a go of it. But in the right upscale/suburban area, it could make a great business.
-Tevis

[Carl Russell]

As far as lawn mowing goes, Mascot Sharpening has ground drive reel mowers that can be ganged and hitched behind any forecart, but my opinion about most lawns is they should be pastured, or get the dude the heck off the couch and buy a Sun Lawn push reel-mower.

Once in PA I watched an Amishman mowing a school yard with a single carriage horse on a forecart trailing a traditional motorized lawnmower!!!

I have been seriously considering a tag-along brush mower from DR for trimming pastures and brush-hogging. These are 13-17 hp and really well built, designed for ATV or garden tractor. I spoke with a person on the phone who was aghast that I would consider hitching it to horses,”the engineers require at least 400lbs, 14hp, and you have to stay on 5% slopes”! I couldn’t make any headway with her. Her brain hurt too much!! I may have one by this fall though, and will demo it at NEAPFD.

It is an interesting topic of Draft-animals and the Urban culture. Without getting too entertaining, we could probably put together something around small-scale/part-time uses. My only hesitation is that we truly see the urban lifestyle eroding in front of us.

We believe that the future human demand on the landscape will need to be directed by people with a deep understanding of stewardship and husbandry. These Earth-wrights will indeed need to be skilled in the craft of animal-power, but underlying that will be an understanding, and a commitment, and perhaps a surrendering to the ecological parameters that have been left out of the urban formula.

So with limited time and space, we will try to touch on some of the ways that people can move slowly into animal-power, but we will continue to focus intently on the needs of those creating the new working rural landscape.

Chore time, Carl

[Rod]

Hi Carl, I thought about one of those DR bush hogs but wondered about the potential for forward kicking, sticks/stones etc. at the beasts, (including the driver)?

[Rod]

Here’s a labor saving idea that I wonder if anyone has worked out.

If you are like me you have some bothersome weeds that need spot
spraying a few times each year. I periodically shoulder my 5 gallon
(whew) spray tank with pump handle and hike around my pastures of fence
lines and spot spray the bull thistles and multi-flora rose brush.
Usually I can’t carry enough in one load so I make multiple trips back
to the barn to mix and reload.

I was thinking that I could put two sprayers on a pack saddle, one on
each side with the pump handle on the nigh side where I would be
walking. The tanks would be connected hydraulically under the animal
with a hose so the the liquid level went down evenly keeping the load
balanced. Then it would be a walk in the park so to speak. All I would
need is to hold the spray wand and occasionally pump the pressure back
up as Sam and I walked our route and did this nasty job. What do you
think?

I think I would need two connecting hoses actually, one for the liquid and a second to equalize the pressure chambers but thats a detail that could be worked out.

[goodcompanion]

I am with Carl in that my priorities are on the rural landscape, not the urban one. Still, this is a topic well worth visiting. Even if we are not going to see yard-maintenance ponies on every five acre homestead, there may be some benefits. For one thing, as mentioned by others, practical horsepower may become a cost-effective substitute for major rototilling, cultivating, hauling, and as such may provide full-time committed teamsters and farmers a way to earn money on the side. It’s not realistic that everyone under the sun needs their own team, plow and wagon. But we can become interdependent in this as in other things.

This kind of work also gives people who might otherwise not think of draft power in serious terms a close up view of it in action. Repeated exposure is necessary to change rejection to acceptance, acceptance to enthusiasm.

I have seen a team of minis with a 5-gang reel mower produce a hell of a golf-course finish, easily as nice as any of those idiotic wheelchair mowers. While ownership of such a mini-mower rig is not a priority for me, it’s kinda neat nonetheless.

[jen judkins]

I first would like to thank all of you serious farmers and loggers for your input on this subject. I’m definately a very small farm…not just in acreage, but in time spent. I have a more than full time job, am alone and all the rest is spent on my small 10 acre plot (only 6.5 is really mine). I’m a worker…don’t get me wrong and I do way more than I want to. Well, not exactly true… I enjoy the work immensely and stay sane in its doing. But, if I can harness the minis and/or my belgian to help with the load, I am ready to learn. In addition, I enjoy the artistry in doing something well that can be done with less effort but more waste. In other words, I would enjoy having the neighbors gossip about my minis mowing the yard. I have alot to learn for sure…but I am grateful to have this venue to educate myself. It will be interesting to see where we are in a year. Cheers. Jennifer.

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