Winter fun with 4

[dominiquer60]

Today feels like the last day of winter for me. Not because of all the snow, but because next week we start the greenhouse and I will be in there all next week when I am not in Albany fighting for a couple farm programs that the gov wants to ax. Once the sap gets flowing and the greenhouse starts, it may as well be spring.

Anyway, I have been wanting to try driving all four together for sometime, and since I know there soon won’t be four, I thought today was as good as any to try it. Dick & Jane wheeled and Abe & Will were lead ( Tim I really had no idea that I stole you names until weeks after I had named them, sorry, it was totally not intentional, but great names):) I didn’t have a proper way to hitch 4-up so I put the boys out front and let the 2 year olds do the work.

Our first start was rough, the boys were lazy and Dick and Jane knew what to do to move the load in the wet snow, it took a couple tries to get it all going at once. I don’t think it went too bad for having no help. Dick & Jane came up on the boys in our first big turn that they had to work at, but the second time they really got the hang of it. I was proud of the boys, they didn’t have to pull hard at all but they did well at keeping the slack out of their chain, which was all that I wanted from them, stay out front, behave and look good. I’ll certainly try it again if I find the time.

Stay warm, have fun, spring is closer than you may think,

Erika

[Rod]

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

[dominiquer60]

Yes Rod they have grown, the dairy tape says that they are ~440ish, not accurate but at least it is something. My digital does do short videos, but I am not sure about driving 4 and being my own video crew, maybe next time it will be nicer and some one can come outside and shoot us:)

[Tim Harrigan]

@dominiquer60 25241 wrote:

Dick & Jane wheeled and Abe & Will were lead ( Tim I really had no idea that I stole you names until weeks after I had named them, sorry, it was totally not intentional, but great names):)

Erika

Well, it was either Will and Abe or Pythagoras and Isosceles. But Will is willing, and although Abe is not as willing he is certainly able. So it all worked out. When I first met Betty McGurk I had a team named Dan and Patch. So did she. Small world.

[Tim Harrigan]

Good job with the 4-up. That timing is good training and important for them to learn. Tillers designed a vertical evener for 4-up oxen. One of these days I want to do some testing with it to see how well they share the load.

Do the wheelers have a blanket on?

[dominiquer60]

Tim the wheelers are using a yoke borrowed from a neighbor, I didn’t want to get it soaked from the very wet snow, so it has a nice wool horse blanket draped over it, it worked fairly well.

“Will is willing, and although Abe is not as willing he is certainly able”
The same applies here too, Abe is my red calf, his alter ego is “Diablo.”
I don’t mind when he is Diablo to his brother in the paddock, but he gets a stern correction when Diablo thinks that he can mess with me:)

Do you have any photos of the vertical evener, it would be neat to see? I knew that they exist, but for the sake of time and lack of need, I just used another short chain today.

Erika

[Tim Harrigan]

@dominiquer60 25258 wrote:

Do you have any photos of the vertical evener, it would be neat to see? I knew that they exist, but for the sake of time and lack of need, I just used another short chain today.

Erika

I can’t find any pictures, I will get down there one of these days when the weather breaks, I will make a point of getting some pictures.

[CharlyBonifaz]

good looking even in their working clothes 😀 – do you move the manure to the greenhouse?

the vertical evener

what is the difference to your regular evener? is the latter fixed and the other one can move up and down?

[Nat(wasIxy)]

fantastic, they look great – would love to drive 4 one day myself! I have the worst mismatched bunch of oxen in the world though so it could be a while yet 😀

[fabian]

the vertical evener you can see here:

http://www.tillersinternational.org/farming/tools.html

the last picture down at the page.

Wolfgang

[Tim Harrigan]

@CharlyBonifaz 25262 wrote:

what is the difference to your regular evener? is the latter fixed and the other one can move up and down?

Good eye, Wolfgang. The vertical evener hangs from the staple of wheelers. The load is hooked to the center hole, just like a standard horse evener. The chain from the bottom hole goes to the lead team. So the force distribution is similar. Some have additional holes for load adjustment for different size teams.

[CharlyBonifaz]

Thanx
the way it looks, does it make the pulling “softer”, the beginning of the pull is gradually not sudden?

[dominiquer60]

Thanks for the link Wolfgang,
It seems simple enough to make. Tim are there any guidelines to adhere to when making one of these eveners? It does look like it could soften the start some.
Too bad the boys are not older, if they were I could get some real work done this spring before Dick is sold. Maybe someday I will have two teams again, it would be really nice to use 4 plowing, I have a lead on a nice 2 way Syracuse. Until then I am thankful to have this opportunity to tinker with driving 4 up.

Erika

[Tim Harrigan]

@dominiquer60 25285 wrote:

Thanks for the link Wolfgang,
It seems simple enough to make. Tim are there any guidelines to adhere to when making one of these eveners? It does look like it could soften the start some.
Erika

I have not had a chance to use one much or evaluate it so I can’t say exactly. I think I would hang it from the staple rather than from the ring. I would also put a few more holes in it to distribute the load correctly for teams that are not the same size. I think the main thing is that the teams will have to start together. If they don’t, I doubt if you will see a softer start.

[Vicki]

The purpose of the vertical evener is, according to my understanding and experience, to adjust the angle of draft to the rear team so they can pull efficiently along with the lead team. By observing whether or not the evener is vertical, you can observe if the rear team is slacking or is taking most of the draft.

Historically they used drop chains from the rear team’s staple to the draft chain in order to keep the rear team’s heads from being pulled down unnaturally in the line of draft from the front team. The vertical evener accomplished this, but also because of the center pivot hole allows the force to even out more between the teams–at least that is how my brain understands the physics at this time.

To “soften” the start, Brandt Ainsworth used a garage door spring on his chain when teaching his first oxen to pull competitively. Brandt and his dad were experience horse pullers; this may have been a “trick” horse people used, which he tried when he was learning about oxen.

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