[mitchmaine]

hey john, i’ve been looking in the organic practices manual here and find 3 pages to do with manure and compost handling, with one mention of animal health care products not telling me much. the tube of ivem. has no list of inert ingrediants but i guess i can get a list somewhere? you brought up a thought i’d never had, and now it’s starting to trouble me. my sacred, honored manure and compost piles are looking like toxic waste dumps to me now. what’s worse is i trade milking chores with a dairy neighbor for cow manure (he likes massive amounts of chicken layer waste) and who knows whats in that? actually i do know. so my gold mine looks like a pile of ****. our chicks go out on pasture every day to do their rototilling, so…..keep us posted and i’ll try to do some digging (no pun intended) too. mitch

[mitchmaine]

when I was young,not that long ago, there were working horses all over maine. Not expecting any change, I took it for granted, and they started disappearing. tools and machinery were still everywhere, mostly free. I took that for granted, and that all disappeared too. The old farmer teamsters were still around. I thought they would always be there, but of course, they are all gone now too. Even then they were really too old to lend much of a hand. And they were a different breed of cat, compared to us today. Very reluctant to offer much advice unless you asked. Made you feel the same about asking. They were happy you were using horses, and would come out to watch. And of course would answer all your questions if you knew what to ask and when to ask it. They were just different. It’s hard to explain. I think offering advice was impolite before it was asked for, does that make sense? Pretty soon they were gone and there you were wondering “ what’s that button for?” And you had to push it to find out.

[mitchmaine]

hi joshua, where is tom, and does he talk to strangers? they are pretty much all gone over here. i don’t have to tell you this, but spend as much time as you have listening to him. what a resource you have there. envious, mitch

[mitchmaine]

hey jason, in my memory, back when men cut and piled pulp and handled wood, the successful ones were short and wide. like their horses.

[mitchmaine]

hey jen, good goin’. did you ever think maybe that when things go according to plan, that you are only confirming your teachers words, and thats great, but when something happens unexpected, good or bad, it goes right up on the chalkboard as a life experience, a real event that you own, and that becomes the real “learning”. maybe there is a fifth level to your list and the last step is enlightenment or something and only happens just as you die. the light comes on and you say ” oh yeah, now i get it”. if carl’s right and i think he is that we are never done learning and the next experience is just waiting up around the next bend, then that makes this a worthwhile cause, right?

[mitchmaine]

hey john, sounds like heaven to me. a liitle wet here still. once, just once, i’d like to plow with nothin in front of me. stonewalls, woodlines, swales, you name it. spend half my time turning around. sure would like to watch you guys turn some ground. happy farmin’, mitch

[mitchmaine]

hey john, your model seems sound to me. any time i can make or do something around here that i’d have to pay out for is money i have made (even without it to show). folks like to point out that your time was worth money, but in the end i can’t hear their argument. i think they are unhappy in their own work, and hurt to see someone else happy in theirs. ironic since they are usually the ones with all the money. my dad always said god gave all the money to the rich, cause they couldn’t get by without it. a little harsh, but my dad didn’t have much money either.

[mitchmaine]

hey tim, you say there is a greater drag with steel wheels? didn’t realize that. we were actually considering going to steel on our hay carts cause we must have 50 tires here holding up some kind of farm machine and for some reason, hay wagons always have one flat tire. what are your numbers?

[mitchmaine]

thanks tim, are you saying then that the spring, with stretch somewhat like the nylon, might develop a higher draft? i guess that kinda makes sense if it is always giving and taking. in regards to the original thread, i think our horses might look at plowing as a break after coming out of sugaring. a full load of sap is about 1600. and 40% makes 640 lb of draft on a scoot, except its over roots and boulders and into gullies, on snow, ice, and mud. thanks again, mitch

[mitchmaine]

tim, i can’t see how in any heavy soils, the spring would help too much. wouldn’t you just stretch the spring out to the resistance of the soil and the draft would remain th same? farmers used springs up here on boney, rocky soil to protect the point from ledgeoutcrops and stones too big to give. in clay or sand, just hook direct to the plow. the spring also adds length to your plow rig, requiring more adjustment for depth.

[mitchmaine]

hey brad, donnie’s got a belgian mare. ten years old, short and chunky. good worker. i was going to try her along side molly. i think she’s for sale. mitch

[mitchmaine]

hi joshua, i see plowing and plowing with horses as two separate skills. pretty complicated if you try them both together if your horses aren’t used to it. you might try shining up your plow, and like everyone says get experienced help, and maybe try pulling your plow with a small farm tractor. a nice easy straight pull, so you can just work on plow experience. then if you get a nice clean straight furrow, stop and work your horses in it just walking in that furrow til your off horse falls right into it. then try plowing like geoff recomended, with someone driving or plowing while you do the other. just a suggestion.
i love plowing. 10,000 years ago some guy tied a stick to his cow and scratched open a furrow, and here we are still doing the same thing. first time i tried it , it looked just like you tied a stick to a cow and dragged it in the dirt. good luck, mitch

[mitchmaine]

geoff and donn, interesting analogy with the kids. ever notice how no ones kids cry louder than yours when your out. and you can’t speak to your kids out in public the same way you can when you are at home, so everyone is acting different out there. horses, kids, and us. i think it’s important to remember we might seem to be acting anxious or different to our horses as well, further complicating the matter. something to think about.

[mitchmaine]

carl, i bought a pair of colts a few years back and the young one wouldn’t lead for beans. he’d go two with the other, but not alone. you could move him some by his halter but not if you got back on the line. so i turned them both out to graze one day and snapped a 6′ leadline on him. he’d take a step every so often, pin himself, free himself, pin himself, and so on. every so often, i’d go in and pick up the line and ask him to back which he could, turn a circle maybe, then drop it and go. i did that about three times in four hours and after that he would lead anywhere. but there weren’t any pigs around. it was just him and that line and he got over it. he would also stand for hours in harness with that leadline hooked and dropped on the ground. i didn’t expect it to work so well, and i’m not sure it would work for all, but there it is.
i think what you said about leading the horse to safe spots, and building up his courage, makes lots of sense. maybe taking him closer every once in a while. one day he’d never notice those pigs.

[mitchmaine]

penny and i tried tapping birch. our experience was it ran greater quantities than maple, boiled about 90/1 like you pointed out, and had a strong medicinal smell while boiling. the syrup was black, tasted strong, but when added to carbonated water, made wonderful birch beer. i’m not allowed to boil it anymore, cause penny got ill from the vapors while we boiled it.

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