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mitchmaine
Participanta fat man don’t work any better than a lean one, somewhere in the middle i guess. i like to know they got ribs without being able to count. that said, if we expect them to do what we ask, they better get their wheaties. oats and spelt are good, but i think corn is poison. what ever works for you………..
Participantgood one, jason. that one will get alot of mileage.
simon’s coming here. good news, but we could all save him some trouble if we just went there. i’m still stuck pretty good on that place. but also glad for him. we could all use another good horseman. thanks again for the good laugh, mitch
Participantwhen we bought this farm, the fields were run out, and we could barely mow three acres for the pine and alder. my neighbor urged me to plow up some, and i worried over lost hay. we put down an acre of oats underseeded with grass. i was going to make oat hay, but another neighbor wanted the straw, and we went into the straw bussiness, cause we could not get the grain without lots of tools. anyway the acre of hay under the oats was more than the two acres of poor grass, so i never worried about that one again.
planting grain on your own soil improves your farm and feeds your critters. all you need is a plow and a harrow to get it in. collecting the grain is the trick. four of us went in on a binder and thresher. worked great until we started moving equipment back and forth. that arrangement stopped working, so i got an old small combine and do alot of tinkering. john, i read your amish study. very interesting. i have some thoughts, maybe later. mitchParticipantif we aren’t smart enough to eat and choose our own food, how long will it be till we aren’t wise enough to grow our own food.
certified professional farmers contracted out to come till your land and plant and harvest for a small fee. you heard it first here. my idea, and we could all be in on the ground floor. what do you think? i knew there was a way to make money farming.Participanthey mathew, you don’t need a forester to cut wood for a land owner, but you are not working on his behalf. it’s a deal between him and you. whatever you arrange. i beleive he can mark his own wood, but you can’t or shouldn’t. you can’t call yourself a forester or behave like one unless you are one. different states may have different rules. but firewood is a great wayu to make money with horses. it lets you cut and move wood any length you wish from tree length to stove length and haul yourself. it’s pretty much your deal. as to the real question, which is the best way to log, man has been asking that question for many moons, and i haven’t heard the best answer yet. good luck with that one. mitch
Participanthey carl, when you cut someones woodlot or build them a chicken house. and something goes wrong, you fix it. so chances are you do a pretty good job the first time.
when you work for the corporation, and things go wrong, grab your lunch pail and head home. no worries. somebody else will do something. except there isn’t somebody else.
individuals and groups now cry for their rights. somebodys always infringing on their rights. hardly anyone wants to hear or know about their resposibilities. every time somebody gets a right in this country, it ought to go along with one resposability. feed the dog, put out the trash, or clean up the oilspill. mitchParticipanthey john, i see what you mean. i was thinking the same as wally, but in the 2nd picture the near horse has a two to one advantage to the lead and wheel horse next to him on the same evener, equalling it out. thanks for pointing that out.
ParticipantI’ve been trying to wrap my mind around this question since we started debating it. We all add excellent points, but in the end it’s like preaching to the choir, cause we all understand what we are up against. And we also share all the reasons for going over the line. So, where did the line come from? When folks come to visit, who don’t know farming( and that’s hard enough to imagine ), they bring certain expectations with them. They’ve been lied to by the news, their congressman, the television, the banker, and they just want some faith in something, the good old days or something. maybe I’m making more of it than I should, but I know the “look”. They say “hey, what’s that?” and I say “that’s my tractor” then they get this look of disappointment like it’s my fault they were misled. Frankly, I get a little irritated with that look, cause I never said one word to make or break their day or build up their hopes. Time to stop talking. The good news about the good old days is that today or this week or month is going to be somebodys good old days someday, so I have to learn to enjoy it while it lasts. Sorry for ramblin’, mitch
Participanthey jason, i would love to see a photo of this critter if you could manage. thanks, mitch
Participanti think everyone knows when they are cheating, cause it’s yourself and your own ideas that you will be cheating. if you model your farm, based on someone else’s expectations, you are farming for someone else, it will never work and you will always be cheating someway. screw everybody else. figure out how you want to farm, do it that way, and life will be good. signed “old curmudgeon mitch”
Participanthey jen, you might try discing 10 – 12′ of your garden before plowing it. break the sod up so it’s easier to plow. and if you are plowing alongside the woods, if there is a limb over your head, there is a root under your feet, and three horses can’t plow roots. just some thoughts.
ParticipantHey jen, I think geoff is right, about experience. Learning how to do something may be more about knowing what not to do than what to do. If every time you plowed and it went great, would you ever really know how you did it? It’s might be like connecting dots or something every time you screw up. Sooner or later it clicks and you do know why it’s working, and can make small adjustments to get back to center. Do you ever stop learning about something? Besides, someday when things are going really good, it will really make a wicked good story .no one ever had a good tale to tell about how things went well. So, break a leg, or botch it up big, or good luck, mitch
Participantcomes down to if your cup is half full or half empty? doesn’t matter if you get a smaller cup.
Participantnice horses!
Participantmy grandmother was born in south bristol. she was a reed, and her mother was a hodgdon, and they were all shipbuilders. beautiful part of the world.
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