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Post by oxbowfarm on Sept 2, 2011 5:40:27 GMT -5
Just checking to see if anyone else plays around with draft animals? We use our milk cow on an EXTREMELY limited basis to pull firewood. I'd like to do some more farmwork/cultivation with her but am limited by lack of equipment and time. I'd love to have a small chain harrow or springtooth harrow she could pull for me for summer fallowing/quackgrass killing. Here is a pic of Daisy pulling some firewood last winter. Haven't really had her in the yoke since February or so. Can't say that she is really well trained by any means, which is my fault not hers.  |
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Post by steev on Sept 2, 2011 11:23:02 GMT -5
Seems a little quirky, but probably better than having the wife do it.
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Post by 12540dumont on Sept 2, 2011 12:50:43 GMT -5
I've been using the same draft animal for 20 years. He's a bit tired, but he's sweet and gentle and I wouldn't trade him, not even for that beautiful milk cow. Attachments:
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Post by mnjrutherford on Sept 3, 2011 6:29:09 GMT -5
LOL Holly, don't look like he hits the feed bag hard either.
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Post by 12540dumont on Sept 3, 2011 18:34:08 GMT -5
He laughed so hard when he saw this. He wants you folks to know that like all wild critters, he didn't want to get into the traces, but he saw that domestication was the way...and occasionally he does get 'onery.
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Post by seedywen on Sept 5, 2011 9:33:42 GMT -5
Nice pics of Daisy and Holly's draft animals. I don't have any draft animals except a thirty plus year old Italian made heavy duty rototiller with attachments. But do have a story  My first farm was located on a sandy river bank on the Kootenay River, a community of some 300 folks, accessible only by river-run ferry. Where the nearby Summer fair commonly featured events like sunflower seed spitting, out-house racing, and wood chopping. The premier fair event, however, was the womens' plow-pulling contest. On this particular day, I was waiting with hubby and young children in the crowd for the contest to start. Only one team had showed up by starting time. So I rallied a rag-tag team of seven other women from the audience so the event could at least go forward. Especially since the one team that showed up and come from 80 miles away. No sooner our team hitched-up, then two other teams of eight, charged into the parking lot. These teams were younger, fitter and get this...ALL WEARING matching T-shirts with their team's name. Knew then, that our team would place a definite fourth! Still, it's fun to remember Sunflower Days. |
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Post by steev on Sept 5, 2011 14:30:34 GMT -5
Call me a dreamer, but in case SHTF, I'm banking on a team of draft cats. I get enough hitched up, I figure they'll get good enough traction that I should be able to plow up a tree.
I've never had enough wives to field a team of eight; that would likely kill me now, especially if they were young.
Still, it's fun to remember Wild Oat Days.
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