[Ed Thayer]

Brad,

I am bringing a fore cart with an arch adapter on it for light wood. If you do come, your heavy arch would be great for longer skids and bigger wood. Maybe the singles could twitch to the skid road and then we can use the wheeled equipment to get it to the landing area. I will be meeting up with Jay in the near future to scope out the roads and woods. I really look forward to us all getting together for this.

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

So how did it go Andy?

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

For social events, do the participating teamsters require a copy of their insurance as well?

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

My plan is to over seed the disced field and then use my chain harrow to break up the manure left from last winter and work the seed into the soil. I will keep the horses off of it until it is established then rotate them into it gradually. No till would be an option if I wanted to pay a neighbor to do it but I prefer the horse method.

As far as weeds are concerned, I have not been as diligent as I should with rotating the horses out of the pasture. So the weeds out compete the grass. This is the primary reason for over seeding this spring.

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

@Tim Harrigan 33880 wrote:

Seeding red clover?

Tim,

I am honestly not sure yet. This is for horse pasture. Most around here buy the Blue Seal equine mix which has perennial rye grass, timothy clover and fescue. What do you use?
Ed

[Ed Thayer]

Great thread, a lot of good information here. Glad you are having success Andy,

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

Tim pretty much sums it up.

[Ed Thayer]

Thanks Carl, I am having fun with both.

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

I looked in my notes and you are right. Thanks,

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

April P&E Committee Report to Board of Directors

Teamster Compensation:

P&E has discussed and categorized the different types of events, who will run them and how the survey form that Jen had written could be edited or modified.
Jen will plug in the dollar numbers from Tim’s compensation rates into the form document and make it available for comment. All agreed with rates proposed and decided to negotiate the non-teamster pay based on event type.
The checklist is to be used at the end of the event to fill out and then sent to Jean to keep them on record in case we do the event again the next year. Kenneth M. has agreed to tabulate and track that data for grant writing purposes.
Tim’s document is accurate. Only question is the insurance reimbursement, if it is at a farm the farm should be covered. All teamsters need to have their own insurance and we need to have a certificate.
Hourly rates should be decided on for events other than teamsters. Somewhere between $8 and $10 per hour. If we had someone talking about what was happening during a demo they would be paid more than someone sitting at the desk taking in registration.

Events:

US Forest Service Project – They got back to us and expect for the filming they were onboard with our budget. They need to wait until the ground is hard enough for the work to be done. John thinks that his friend will do a video for pretty cheap, it will not be a long video, but it will be good. There should be snow on the ground, it has to come out on sleds or scoots. It cannot be skidded on dry ground, it is too hard. Right now, it looks like we will need to wait until next winter. Still shots only are permitted in the wilderness area. Video on the south side of the walking bridge is permitted. If we are in favor, we need to figure out how we are going to pay for the educational part of the event. $6300 is for teamster comp, mileage, setting up the tent, plus help with cooking etc. Ed will email Tom Giles in the AM. We will work on the video part ourselves via sponsorship or bartering.
Jean will email information about the GMDHA Field days and DAPNET’s involvement after their spring meeting.
SamRich Plowing Clinic – need to decide by April 1st to see if we cancel it. NWCT Draft Horse plow day is the same weekend. Price does not seem to be a problem. Kevin has handed out over a 100 flyers. Kevin and Ed are willing to help fund a fourth person. A couple of people from the Farm School are interested in coming down to audit. We have also had 3 other people contact Jean about auditing. At this point it is a go for the clinic.
Spring Wood Bee – Set for May 19th with rain date of the 20th. Setup, Ed will work with Jay to figure how may teamsters we want to have there. Ed has arranged for The NH Chronicle TV Show to be there to help promote our mission. This is a social event, no reimbursement for mileage or teamsters.
Farm Demo Day – Tuckaway Farm in Lee, Chuck Cox and committee decided to put off an event until the Fall when there is more time to schedule an event. He is interested in demoing his new Pioneer Homesteader tool and doing some fall field work.
Annual Meeting – Have not followed up with Neil and Becca on figuring out what will be needed for that.
Basic Driving clinic – The clinic is full. 8 people coming with a single horse. Ladd farm will donate 50% of the audit fees to DAPNet, Meader supply may also have a booth at the demo for some income. People are paying $200 for the weekend. This is a DAP Net Sanctioned event. We can have a table at it and have some t-shirts for sale.
Field Days at Don Hewes in NY. June 17th. NOFA NY is sponsoring it and organizing. Don asked for us to be involved. Help advertise. NOFA NY was charging a fee to come $15, free to NOFA NY members. She wanted to know what we could offer to get our members in free. There is a group near Don that Jen thinks might be interested in helping out. Maybe to host lunch or something. It sounds like a great event, but we don’t want to spread ourselves too thin. We do need to make sure that when events are held at farms that they are members in good standing. This was decided as a group early on. We do want to be sure to let Don know how much we know he has done for DAP Net in the past.
NEAPFD – We should hire someone to run the event next year. We need to figure out how much we should pay them and how much it is going to cost. At Pam’s there is no power. It will need to be addressed. Possibly find a solar company that would be interested in helping us out. If we had a volunteer that the BOD and P&E could agree on then we would not need to a real search. Jean will get the information out from David Fisher. Jean will talk to Tre about how she managed the Farm to School conference.

Sponsorship:

Jen picked Meader Supply and started the conversation by going to the store and starting a conversation. Ed & Kevin tried a company that he buys from and got a negative response. It makes it hard to try again when the first one is a complete rejection. We need to keep working on this.

NOFA Summer Conference – Bob Chriten and Ben Grossup from NOFA MA have been talking on the phone as Bob does not work on the computer much. They want some hors e workshops at the Summer Conference. They have a list of workshops. Jen will send us the list. This is not a DAPNet event, NOFA will have to pay the teamsters. August 8th and 9th. Brad will do the kids conference with a working steer. He would also be willing to man the DAPNet booth at the main area. Sam Rich will be there with plowing. Bob and Pat Bacon will have 6 mules there demonstrating different impliments.

Logo for Banner – has not been finalized. We really need to get this done so we can have it for booths and event.

Respectfully Submitted,

Ed Thayer, Chair

[Ed Thayer]

Love the manure clinic note 🙂

[Ed Thayer]

My Nephew tapping his first Maple Tree a couple of weeks ago. We have another future sugar maker in the making. 🙂

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwpVOfKfqj0

[Ed Thayer]

Jay,

It is the worst mud season I have seen in 21 tears working for the public works department. Too much heat way to fast. Will be glad to see it done. We have hauled over 300 ton of stone to fill holes to keep the traffic moving. Had to keep the school buses off some of the roads to keep them from getting stuck.

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

We are all done and the sugar house is cleaned. Will wash buckets on Sunday when I get home. Ended up with a 1/3 of a crop overall. We made more light syrup this year than in 5 years. Happy with that but I prefer the dark or B.

Mitch, great looking place, I like the sugar house and evap pics. Good looking team too.

Bill, glad you are spreading manure with the warm weather. Looks like all field work may start early.

Ed

[Ed Thayer]

Sent mine in on Monday,

Ed

[Author]

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