[Rick Alger]

oh goodie

[Rick Alger]

I am typing this on another person’s computer. I am still having no luck using this site with my own computer. I get the script outline that Jim described but not the full monte. The “What’s New” page is still frozen back in January somewhere.
My computer is a brand new laptop, called a “Chrome Book”, purchased from Amazon. Because the computer is brand new, and because I have no trouble going to other sites, I assume the problem is on the webmaster end.
I am not particularly computer literate, and I don’t think I should have to be to participate on this site.

[Rick Alger]

Peyton,my heart is with you on this, but there is a big risk. If your sole source of income is horse logging, you’ll have to make your yearly income in around 200 days because of weather, breakdowns, mud season, trucker issues, walking woodlots, talking to landowners, locating boundaries etc. If you need say a total of $40,000/year for income, payments, and expenses that means you’ve got to average $200 a day gross. (If you cut and skid on average a thousand feet a day you’ll be doing well.) Can you locate 50 acres of woodland a year that will yield the kind of wood that will earn you $200/thousand a day?
If not can you start by working part-time for somebody else?
Good luck

[Rick Alger]

I don’t know much about horses for market gardening, but I read something our local paper mill put out years ago regarding the ideal logging horse. They said a 1700 pound horse had the most efficient feed/work ratio in our type of woods. They also had some comments on temperament and confirmation, but I don’t remember the details. I hope Stephen can find a similar profile for gardening horses.

[Rick Alger]

Hi Reva,
I have used a pull-behind self-powered mower similar to the DR. It worked well once the horses were sensitized to it. If you go this route, I suggest you get one with electric start and remote controls. I didn’t, so I have to get off the forecart to stop and start the engine.

I’ve also used old sicklebar mowers. They work fine as well, but call for quite a bit of maintenance and tinkering. I have no experience with the I&J model.

I think the motorized forecart would be overkill.

Good luck.

Rick

[Rick Alger]

Excellent news.

[Rick Alger]

I have used a Barden cart for about 15 years. It has been the right tool for my applications as a one man crew in marked softwood. The ground clearance is 14″, enough to clear most any chainsaw cut stump, but low enough to making climbing off and on easy and safe. The relatively slight angle of lift keeps the center of gravity low and adds to the cart’s stability and safety on down hill skids. And as Carl pointed out, it is very maneuverable. I have loaded the cart by hand on my pickup by rolling it on planks fron a banking.

I’m not saying other styles wouldn’t work as well or better in other applications, but I am saying there is a lot of understated efficiency in the Barden style cart. Les spent years refining this tool. It’s far more than just another backyard project.

[Rick Alger]

Yeah, Simplicity no longer makes two-wheel tractors and implements.

I was trying to say that the concept of haying with two-wheel tractor implements has solid precedent. I was also suggesting that if you looked at one of those old Simplicity mowers you might see a way to adapt yours to prevent those mats of hay.

[Rick Alger]

Simplicity or a similar two-wheel tractor company made a small dump rake that went behind a sulky. Simplicity also had a heavy wire frame bowed over their sickle bar that helped contain the mowed grass within the the path of the outer shoes.

[Rick Alger]

I hand mow spots like you are describing and feed green to supplement pasture for six horses. I mow each morning only what I can feed that forenoon. I transport it in a double wheel wheelbarrow and feed directly.

I gave up putting up my own hay quite awhile ago. I find it more cost effective to buy in nutrients for my pasture in the form of hay from someone else’s fields.

[Rick Alger]

Thanks for the quick reply.

I don’t know how to link the posts. (I’m lucky to know enough to get online) One thread with duplicates was on Worker’s comp in the dapfi section. One with a post missing was the one about Adding a Forwarder. Several posts have the wrong name for Jason Rutledge.  The post on Carl’s Hybridized Logging System seems to be missing stuff and also still shows computer lingo on his expense breakdown.

[Rick Alger]

Good Questions.

Most every job is different, and most areas are different. For me in northern NH, no more than 30 % of my jobs would benefit from the tractor drawn forwarders that I have seen in action. They don’t do well in peat soil with cradle knolls and blow downs, and they can’t function at all on boulder strewn side hills without a road builder in front of them.

A purpose-built forwarder, such as a Rotne or an Iron Mule will do the job 100% of the time, but the amount of wood I’d need to produce to make ends meet (fuel, maintenance, payments) would increase dramatically, requiring a crew and a whole lot of wood ahead.

So I try to be content with this: I cut and short-skid for a few days with a single horse. I forward with my Barden cart every third or fourth day. I load with my farm tractor and deliver with my utility trailer the week’s production on the fifth or sixth day. (multiple trips)

No big income. No big expense.

But if I lived in Corinth VT, with the rolling hills and the acres and acres of old agricultural soil coming back to beautiful stands of timber I would certainly consider a tractor drawn forwarder. That consideration would likely lead to thoughts of employees, insurance, trucks, and other challenges that would not add to my serenity. (Been there – Done that)

Anyway, good luck, and please say hello to Ginny Barlow for me.

Rick Alger

[Rick Alger]

Yes. Bid a respectful farewell to DAPFI and incorporate relevant posts in DAPnet.

[Rick Alger]

That ad made me sick. It made it look like there were doughty family farmers countrywide working hard and thriving. The family farm “culture” was alive and well. What a crock.

The only farmers thriving are the corporate ones. I’ve seen dozens of good, hard working farmers, including two family members, reluctantly go out of business because the farm could no longer support a family. Forty years ago there were about twenty working farms in town. Now there is one, and his hold on solvency is not secure.

Nostalgia sells, but it’s not reality.

[Rick Alger]

Three cheers Erika! Sounds like a productive demo and an excellent contact.

I believe Yale is associated with some huge tracts here in northern NH that are commercially harvested by machines.

If there is anything I can do to facilitate research on this end please let me know.

Rick

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