[mitchmaine]

just north of there, right? found it. thanks carl.

mitch

[mitchmaine]

hey carl, how’s the cut going? any news? and where on gods green earth is lilliesville?

mitch

[mitchmaine]

the height on the mower pole is about getting the cutter bar up and ahead for proper lead and registration. actually the higher it is the less lubrication you get at the pitman bearing.
didn’t mean to get this thread away from the binder. sorry

[mitchmaine]

good question, gordon. i broke my mower pole this summer and it was mccormick made factory pole built for that mower sometime before 1950 is a good guess. 9.5 feet pin to pin and a tight fit on my horses. on breast snaps, they sometimes laid into the yoke while hooked short to the evener with no adjustment left. i asked lynn miller what he thought and he gave me the same answer you just wondered about. so i put another foot on my pole and have room to spare although now its harder to keep the pole height where the books say. and that could be fixed with donn hewws caster wheel for the front of the mower. height would be fixed and problem solved. anyway just some thoughts on the subject. we’ve never owned or run a corn picker.

[mitchmaine]

Hey george, how does the woods business work in your neck of the woods? maybe you could talk to some of the locals, taylor included, and find out how the wood is bot sold and moved, find a trucker, and a wood buyer and a forester or two and get to know the business enough to find a place where you can fit in with your horses.
getting your wood to the landing, and what you do with the wood once its there can be two totally seperate problems. try not to confuse the two or make one problem out of both, and I think it might make the job easier. I like your website. You have a great spot there. Thanks for letting us visit. mitch

[mitchmaine]

usually around the end of september we have to worry about a killing frost and penny and i haul out our bedcloths to cover the tomatos and squash to keep them going a few weeks more to ripen up. here we are a week short of labor day, swimming in tomatos and sweetcorn, ripe pumpkins, carrots and onions and potatos in. very strange. haven’t got over it yet.

[mitchmaine]

hey rod, another idea, that may not work for you, but i’ll throw it out anyway, is with log scoots, we used to put a pulp rack on them. nothing more than two poles lengthwise over the bunks with stake pockets on the ends to hold four foot wood. can’t imagine your one mule could get too far with much of a load, but i don’t want to underestimate her without meeting. anyway good luck and keep us posted. mitch

[mitchmaine]

there is a youtube video out there of two boys harnessing up a horse with a d-ring harness in a snowfall. they explained what they were doing and did a pretty good job of it.

[mitchmaine]

rod, it was just one set of sleds, like carl bunks out his long wood on. i set the drawbar of the wood trailer on the bunk and dropped a 12″pin down through it. i have an old picture of it somewhere but you can imagine it easy enough. i had the sleds and the pulp trailer, but it was dry ground and i lost a shoe on my scoot so it was a quick and easy fix. usefull only with four foot wood though.

[mitchmaine]

hey rod, i,ve done tim’s method. works great. the nose of the stoneboat becomes a go-devil, or a tool for skidding around here. it doesn’t have to be long, just under the wood to keep them from digging in.
another thing you might try, requires more building, is a wood cart. two truck front ends turned up, with planks bolted into the spring mounts to carry the wood. weld the rear set straight and let you front work with the tie rods to steer. attach shafts and you can move half a cord easy. i have one set up for a team and it moves alot of wood.
i pinned a two wheel pulp trailer into a front sled similar to carls sled and loaded the cart with a cord and two feet and could move it easily with two horses. just enough drag on the sled to hold back the load if you needed it.
lots o’ ways to skin a cat.

mitch

[mitchmaine]

wow! mark, how did you do that? you rule. thanks, bud. mitch

[mitchmaine]

geoff, my combine is a case 55 probably from the 40’s. its a 5 foot cut and pull behind pto. had to go to ohio to make the canvases, and penn. to find knife sections. if in your travels, you ever see a operators manual for this beast, grab it for me, will ya? thanks, mitch

oh, we had 20 bu. (600#) spelt off a rough acre from 100# seed. not too good, tough winter, came in spotty. oats and wheat look better. i heard that red fife was a winter or spring wheat. but a friend tried it fall sown and had poor luck. also what do you know about cardinal? thanks again..

[mitchmaine]

Hi geoff, you guys are the grain guys, and I’ll listen as long as you want to talk on the subject. Lots of interest in growing small grains here, and demand is good with limited supply. The learning curve is sharp. And so far the biggest problem I see is getting the grain off. Not much equipment to choose from. I bought a quarter share of a binder/thresher with some friends and it works great til each of you need it ten miles apart. So I got a free combine worth just that. The bottom is now completely pop rivets and duct tape.and I watch and wait for one of the 56 bearings or gearbox to explode cause there are no replacements. Someone might do well to invest in a sound machine that was easily transportable and work his or her way around the countryside here harvesting everyones grain. Leaving them to just grow it. I have a neighbor who is starting a mill and has the cleaners and hullers and rollers and so forth. He and I used to lug our grain in a horse trailer to ohio and have it done by an amish miller in mt. hope. Buy a pair of horses and come home. Those were the good days.
Donn, I think the combine is graet and handy and gives the job over to one man. makes it very convenient. But one advantage the binder had was hardening that grain off. never had to worry about drying. I tried binding it and then tossing it into my combine but too much straw for my old machine. So we still experiment and try to learn. Advice gratefully accepted. Demand for Straw here makes it almost as valuable as the grain.

[mitchmaine]

hey carl, now isn’t it because of the pole and pole strap keeping the tug at that angle and letting the rear tug pivot to the load? if so, without a pole then its your girth and saddle trying to keep the ring in position. i love that harness in the woods. my problem with it is out in a hot august feild. it has to be snug to work like it should and then your horse is prone to sores under the girt,saddle, britchin, and collar because you have to fit it so hard. just seems like to much harness for the light work (i’m not saying haying and plowing are light work, just not woods work).
larry. we need a new buckle or snap. i wanted to try a lead snap that turns out to open, but thought it might be too weak or brittle. or open too easily. any ideas????
best wishes, mitch

[mitchmaine]

cari, one thing i like about the d-ring, or maybe don’t like about the breast snaps on the belly backer, is how easy it can snap into a halter or bridal if they rub the yoke alot. that could be trouble. i wondered about using a strap and buckle up there in place of the snap, but never got too far with it.

mitch

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