[Rick Alger]

I lop it to hip height and leave it lay. We are usually expected by the landowners or foresters to take everything down to 4″ top diameter, so there isn’t a whole lot of biomass left.

[Rick Alger]

I will be gld to try to answer your questions. I’m home tonight, but back to the off-grid job tomorrow.

[Rick Alger]

Yard sale if you are lucky. Otherwise get some old time backyard fabricator to make one.

[Rick Alger]

You can always wrap the chain around a hame, but you shouldn’t have to.

I don’t know how you are set up, but if you don’t have a “deep” swivel hook I suggest you get one. The swivel helps keeps the chain and evener stable , the hook has a slot deep enough to hold two chains and narrow enough to keep them from sliding through.

I use two chains occasionally to pull two separate logs or to yank a log out of a difficult spot.

[Rick Alger]

Good on you.

I can’t help with cultivating equipment suggestions, but I strongly agree that a single horse can do a whole lot of work. I do about half my logging with a 1500 pound Suffolk. Under ideal conditions she can twitch a tractor trailer load in a long week.

I’ll be interested to hear what you learn from your project.

[Rick Alger]

In nortern NH alfalfa is uncommon. Timothy/clover is the hay of choice for horses. Thirty-forty pound square bales in the field -$2.75. In the barn $3.00 -$4.00. Oat straw $8.00.

[Rick Alger]

Hi Jason,

Thanks for the thoughtful reply.

In ten years we’ve seen sawdust go from free for the taking to available only through brokers in thirty yard loads for around $400. Last year our bedding bill was more than double the grain bill.

So as you infer, I am contemplating a way to turn field clearings and logging slash into bedding. The chippers I have looked at are either too slow or too expensive for my budget.

I’ve thought about four-sided planers, hammermills and an arbor with multiple chain saw chains. I’m hoping someone out there with more mechanical savvy than I have will offer some insight.

Rick

[Rick Alger]

Thanks. I’m in Milan, NH. Shipping might be a problem.

[Rick Alger]

I have a horse about that size and use a 35″ whiffle tree for twitching. A 32″ may work, but if it’s too narrow the tugs will do a lot of chafing of the hind legs on turns.

A suggestion – If the item is a standard farm whiffletree, put a swivel between the whiffle tree and the grab hook so the tugs don’t twist as the log turns.

[Rick Alger]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

We usually have at least six horses, so volume is important. Straw is $8.00 a bale at the nearest Agway. Raking and storing enough leaves or pine needles would be a challenge. Our boarders like a lot of bedding, and since we have box stalls, marginably edible stuff like poor hay is out. We have only one walk-out, so the rubber mats wouldn’t solve the problem.

I am thinking about buying or building something to shred/chip brush, tree tops or other compostable materials. Has anyone given this a try?

[Rick Alger]

Good point, and if we ever do get to a truly local food economy it will be the local average folks that determine the marketplace baselines.

[Rick Alger]

I will have a job going during that time, and I would like to take on an apprentice. The challenge is Worker’s Comp Insurance.

The landowner on this job requires that any employee of a logging crew has coverage. In NH an apprentice is counted as an employee.

Since it would cost me at least $3000 to cover an employee, I work alone.

If you are self-insured or know of any other legitimate ways around this barrier, I will be glad to work something out. The job is in Wentworth Location in northern NH. It will be a selective harvest of spruce/fir. There is an off-grid cabin to stay in.
.

[Rick Alger]

I’ve had a number of calls to pull moose, but I’ve declined every time. For one thing my horses are spooky around moose. (I’ve heard you can overcome this by putting Vicks in their nostrils, but I haven’t tried it.) Another thing is the chance of injury. Twitching wood down a brushed out defined skid trail is one thing, pulling a moose through uncharted territory is something else. It’s dangerous for horse and teamster. Could be bad footing, branches in the face, widowmakers, mud holes, tight squeezes or whatever, but it would require a more patient horse and teamster than I have at my place.

On the other hand, if your friend would brush out a four foot wide trail for you so the moose wouldn’t get hung up and you could walk comfortably beside the wiffle tree, it might work.

However, that’s a very young horse for this kind of assignment. I suggest you pass.

[Rick Alger]

My father-in-law had a buck rake for his tractor that worked well – like a forklift. I’ve never seen a horse-powered one in action.
I believe packed loose hay takes up about 500 cubic feet per ton, but there are lots of variables.

[Rick Alger]

Carl,

You have something special going with DAP. The focus is clear, and the site does what it proclaims to do – support practitioners. It would be a shame to dilute the integrity of this project by letting it become just another reprint in the back pages of the SFJ. SFJ, and RH for that matter, are long on dreams, but they are woefully short on the kinds of specifics DAP is dealing with.

As a practicing horse logger, I am already sold on the dreams. What I want is in-depth material on ways to log/farm more efficently and make more money while I’m doing it. I also want well-researched articles on specific ecological benefits of horse logging.

I would gladly drop my subscriptions to SFJ, RH and DHJ and put that money toward a subscription to a magazine/newsletter/webzine that tackled the problems I deal with everyday. I urge you to go in that direction. Stand alone, produce excellent content, forget about format, and charge a lot. If you do find a way to follow this path, I’ll support you as best I can.

Rick

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