[mitchmaine]

hey oldkat, penny’s dad was from there. he lived here for thirty years, and a few more after pen’s mom passed. but finally he had to go back. we had a place to stay and a built in tour guide. he took us to a place he was sent as a ten year old when they evacuated london, it’s called polruan. sounds like paul ruin. right on the cornish coast. across the bay from foye. it’s a town built on cliffs with streets that seem almost verticle, and of course it’s 1000 years old, ho hum. but it sure was beautiful. he said a german fighter came streaking across the channel and right up the river and straffed the place with him standing with his pals up on the bluffs. no one was hurt. but he took some enemy fire which is always good for a three hour story some time. loved it. thanks for the chance to bubble some more, mitch

[mitchmaine]

hi john, thanks for all your help and great talks while i was “on holiday”. i’ll see if i can’t post a few pictures of jonathans farm for you to see. he said he didn’t mind. nice view from there. thanks again, mitch any guess on the age of that plow?

[mitchmaine]

carl, they’d love you over there. all you’d have to say is draft horse and i know two places you’d stay for awhile. wonder if it’s changed much in thirty years? probably. i was thinking about our history over here, and somebody from england told me “well, you haven’t been gone all that long, have you?” kinda put it in perspective. like going home to see the folks. erik, do you know anymore about that plow? thanks, mitch

[mitchmaine]

hey oldkat, my near colt, dick, wintered hard, and i’ve been trying to get him back up. i tried the recipe first, but last week had them floated, and he broke a back tooth off and the opposing tooth erupted into it’s spot keeping the others from grinding as well as they could. it was quite a ways back and even tho i could find a few sharp edges the “dentist” found it and it took some grinding and may take another go at it. but he’s eatin’ better now. thanks, mitch

[mitchmaine]

carl, molasses was always the way to get cattle to eat poor hay, and they had great lusterous coats when they were on it, so i always leaned to molasses with our horses, but lately i was thinking the way you are and went to just oats, bran or pulp, and two or three fistfuls of black oil sunflower seeds. birdfood. pictures of birds right on the bag. full of fat. i think its working. they seem to be making weight. i may change my mind but thats the latest experiment.

[mitchmaine]

my dad always said, when the oak leaf is as big as a mouses ear, it’s time to plant your corn. can’t comment on the wisdom, except it always worked.

[mitchmaine]

hey john, neat rig. clean and simple. can you show us the feet of it?

[mitchmaine]

[ATTACH]1177.jpg” />

[ATTACH]1178.jpg” />Geoff, trying to attach some phots of the harrow and spring. it’s a 6’set of pioneer spring harrows. can’t show you the ground it was on, but imagine your driveway. with the points down, it lifted the harrow frame clear of the ground, and would walk on the points until it bit in and went.

[mitchmaine]

hey geoff, i think you are right, but the only tool i have is observation. one note on the subject is that i noticed with the buffer spring, i could pull the horses into a walk and they would stay there with hardly any lines. without the buffer, as soon as i let out a little back they would go into a quicker pace. your right too about nosediving in softer ground. the spring harrow is a great tool, until it starts transporting the upper end of your field down to the lower end. imagine the draft on the horses, with a half ton of sod caught up in that thing.

[mitchmaine]

andy, i had tried same horses, same hitch length,and tried to keep it equal load and did notice a change in the way they pulled. without the spring the were up on their front ends much harder then without. using the tips of theit fronts.
next question. might the spring harrow be considered a buffer of sorts? in plowed ground, it rides along like a drag smoothing the plowed ground. yesterday, in my fall plowed, hard pack, it stood a few inches up off the ground on its points and walked along on the pan relieving the soil. giving and taking, much like the coil spring i was using in the hitch. it was a jerky motion that gave the horse a chance to get away from the constant load. what do you think?

[mitchmaine]

tim, found that spring and hooked it on my spring tooth to scratch up some fall plowed ground last night. i was interested to know what it would do, and it seemed to be helping. then i noticed i had subconciously (?) shortened up the tug chains more to compensate for the extra length added. and had altered the outcome of the experiment. then started wondering how much efficiency is added just by hooking short. i’d also hooked in a third horse and (duh) altered the experiment again. there are lots of natural things we do anyway to increase efficiency. last winter we were talking snub chains and how to slow a load of wood down. how much efficiency are we talking about with our buffers? 5%, 10%? 25%? how much is worth chasing and how much is gained and lost by chance outside the control?

[mitchmaine]

hey tim, please excuse my remark. it wasn’t meant that way. actually i liked your description and have seen horses pinned, sometimes with such strain that there forelegs were momentarily free. i was trying to say like us all that a horse is a living breathing machine capable of many many shifts of force, balance, muscle or whatever. one hour after birth they are on their feet and a few hours later able to run, stronger and faster than we will ever be. they already have all the skills we want to “teach” them at their disposal. and they just wait there, ears trained on us, all they want to know is what we want. on a good day anyway. mitch

[mitchmaine]

hey geoff, i think i hear what you are saying. i totally understand the force created from a horses hind quarters in a pull like the one pictured above. but after you’ve been hit in the face with the dirt coming out from under their front feet, you start wondering how much is balancing and how much is digging? beautiful to watch, ain’t it.

[mitchmaine]

we’ve probably all seen the twelve hitch three up pulling the four bottom plow at horse progress days. for the benefit of someone who hasn’t it’s basically a set up of ropes and pulleys connecting the lead and swing horse with a nylon rope and a single pulley and the pulley force transfers back to a double set of blocks to the wheel horse balancing them all against the load. regardless of how many abreast they all pull and balance against each other and as a unit pull the load. my question to any and all is has there ever been a test between a team on an evener and the same two horses unicorn on rope and pulleys to the same load? just wondering. it “feels” like the rope and pulleys are a buffer but cannot prove it.

[mitchmaine]

hey tim, i agree. the reason its so hard finding that spring is the distance i flung it trying to use it last time. it was clumsy to me and mostly the horse. added 20 lb. dead weight to the already stiff load. increased the distance to the point requiring more adjustment. when all is said and done the solution must be practical. keep at it, we’re listening. mitch

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