[j_maki]

I use almost the same set up in the picture for removing snow. We have really dry snow here so it works pretty good. If you get heavy wet snow over 12 inches it does,t work quite as well. I have been playing around with a push plow similar in concept to a buck rake but I still got some tinkering to do to make it work efficiently.

As far as the thoughts about capitalism, the model we see to day is what capitalism will always veer towards there is no such thing as true capitalism its a figment of the economists imagination. Greed and power will always excel in a capitalist society as it is the nature of the beast. The only way forward to a just and sustainable future for all citizens of this world is through a socialism and a complete re building of society. We as a society have to realize we are living a rather privilaged lifestyle, and the lifestyle we are living is directly condemning the majority of the worlds population to live in extreme poverty at our expense. It is about time we confront the red scare that has been pushed upon us for the past 100 years and take a long hard look at what capitalism is doing to this world. One doesn’t have to look to long or too deep to see the madness of the system. What is this democracy we live in, I sure don,t see people like me and you on the ballot boxes implementing policies for a peaceful sustanable future instead they are taking our money and financing wars for there financial benefit. All we are doing is voting for which bourgeois we want to be our dictator. We have let these bastard bourgeois dictators tell us what is good for us for far to long, we proletariat know dam well what us good for us and our communities and it is pretty much the complete reverse of what they are telling us is good. So if they say socialism is no damm good then it likely has something pretty good to offer us and our communities.

Just my two cents

And yes sell the tractor and tell the banker you are going to pay him with horse manure which holds real value and not some “worthless” paper with green ink on it that anybody could print.

• This reply was modified 10 years, 2 months ago by j_maki.

[j_maki]

I got a round aluminum pole on my forecart and it works great, personally I think round aluminum is perfect as it flexs a lot like the wood tongues but it is stronger than wood. My tongue is 2 7/8 dia with 1/4 wall and fits snugly in in 3 in inside dia pipe. My intentions were to use the tongue on mutiple implements but there were a few burrs on the inside of the receiver that I didn’t see and now the tongue is semi permenantly stuck in there. One day I will knock it out.

As far as draw backs the only thing I don’t like is its noisy just like steel poles with a steel double tree.

Jeremy

[j_maki]

Grey

Could you explain what you mean by rolled?

Also what are wear leathers for hardware?

Thanks

[j_maki]

Yeah they do seem pricey at over 2000 for the set without hames. But they are the closest shop to me that I know of, I live just northeast of Winnipeg Manitoba. I will call Zimmermans and get a quote from them for harness plus shipping(which usually makes things unreasonably priced as well). I am open to other harness makers so if anyone wants to share there contacts please post them. We have been to so many auctions around here advertising harnesses only to find them all to be really dried
out and cracked on the buckles. We would be ahead if we just bought a new harness right away instead of wasting countless days trying to find a deal on a used set harness.

[j_maki]

What model baler are you planning on setting it up on? Make sure to post some pictures when your done as I would really like to see how you set it up.

Good luck

Jeremy

[j_maki]

Very impressive. I got to ask why you went with the plywood rather than steel such as the drums. Just wondering if your design is more effiecient or if it is just what you wanted to use.

I would really like to build one of these on our farm to run lights and a water pump out at the future barn site.

I am looking forward to seeing some of your numbers when you got all your data collected.

Jeremy

[j_maki]

Thanks for the help. When I was a kid I should have paid more attention to the way things were done on some of my friend’s farms although none of them had workhorses. But I never thought I would be farming lol. To me it looked so easy just throw a little hay out and water the animals a couple of times a day or put a few seeds in the ground and harvest the reward the fall. Now as I learn it wasn’t quit so simple. Oh well just have to do a little more research and reading .

I still got a few questions-

1) Most articles talk about feeding horses in their stalls after working- why is that? To me it seems much more practical to just put them out on pasture for the night after they have cooled down, my way of thinking is why bring feed to them when they can go to it. Is there some reason why you shouldn’t pasture a horse doing heavy work?

2) In the winter right now all we can get around here are round bales we feed them buy giving the cattle the outer shell and them bring the bale into the horse pasture and unrolling it till we get about a 2 foot core which we take back to the cattle. I do this because I feel it gets rid of a lot of the dust in the round bales, plus I can check all the hay for any mold. We let all our horses have access to the hay 24/7. Is there a reason why workhorses can’t or shouldn’t have access 24/7?

3) During breaks in the summer is it all right to just let the horse eat fresh grass instead of hay?

4) What are guys doing for food and water in the winter when you are in the woods for the day? Would a guy just bring some hay for them or do you just wait till evening—seems like a long time for them to go without food. As far as the water goes would they get enough from the snow or do they need water when they are doing heavy work.

5) It seems like all the older publications say to give a pretty high percentage of grain to horses (both drafts and “regular”). This kind of contradicts what a lot of newer books and articles say to do which tend to promote grass-based diets. So how much grain are you giving your horses when working? Have any of you had your horse on a strictly pasture/hay ration while working?

6) Do any of you worm with DE?

Once again thanks for all the help.

Jeremy

Ps George-I like the parking brake idea

[j_maki]

@Donn Hewes 20764 wrote:

Please consider finding someone that wants to rebuild it for their own use on their farm. Much better than a museum in my opinion. It is a beautiful piece. I would take it if you were closer.

I agree with Donn. Around here every thing that is in decent shape usually ends up as a lawn ornament or scrap. It really sucks when you go to an auction and you get out bid by someone just looking to decorate their yard. Or you see a trailer full of scrap going down the highway with a load full of “scrap” with some very salvagable pieces except the owners didn’t bother trying to sell it for what it is and just had some scrap guy come and take it all away. Most of the time you find out later so and so past away and their kids just sent it all for scrap. I have even given my name and number to a few scrap guys at auctions and told them I would pay them a higher price than the going rate for any salvagable items but I have yet to ever get a call from them.

Jeremy

[j_maki]

Great idea.

Do you think you could run a square baler off of it on level ground?

Jeremy

[j_maki]

Thanks for the help guys.

I am going to order that manual tonight, I don’t know how I missed that in my search.

Joshua I would really appreciate it if you could get a couple of pictures.

Jeremy

[j_maki]

I tried doing a few searches on the net and have come up with nothing. I really need some help here as there is no one around who has any idea of how to mount the tongue properly.

Jeremy

[j_maki]

I’m from Manitoba Canada. Yep everything is early here too almost to early as we never seem to be ready.

[j_maki]

About three days after posting that our season was looking pretty good it got real hot and dry. Then we got to busy with an early fire season to try and tap the birch trees this year. I guess it will just have to wait one more year.

Jeremy

[j_maki]

As far as geographic locations go for tapping maples, we tap maples here in Manitoba too. Our season has been pretty decent for us so far. We are having a early drawn out spring so things are still looking good here. Our trees don’t seem to have as heavy of flows as yours do out east, we seem to average 1-3 L/t/d on the average day. Last year we only were able to tap for 5 days due to a very hot and quick thaw and only two of those days were really good with 3-4L/tap. This year we have been having a couple of warmer days then a couple of cold days and so on so we are hoping for long season since we started 4 weeks earlier than usual.

We are planning of tapping some birch this year too since we will be operating a little more efficiently and its ratio is roughly 100:1. Has anyone here tried tapping birch? We haven’t talked to anybody who does simply for the fact that it takes so long to boil.

I just finnished making a “real” evaporator, boiling down in kettles was just taking to long and wasting too much wood. It still won’t be as efficient as a commercial unit but I was able to make it for under 100 bucks which was mostly for the tank of gas and stainless wire every thing else was salvaged. And to think our bylaw officer told me I had to get rid of all my “junk” last fall – he even tried to make us get rid of our laying hens- but thats another story.

Jeremy

[j_maki]

That was kind of what I was thinking but we are newer to horses so I just wanted to make sure.

Jeremy

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