More pictures from the Paris Tractor Show

My pal Roger sent me some more pictures that he took with his camera.  Enjoy.

Pam and Rachael hooked up to Roger's Wagonette.

Hooked up to the sickle mower.

Cutting grass.  A teamster has lots to pay attention to when doing this.

Front view.  I was informed that you shouldn't use spreaders on a mower, that you wanted the horses to be side by side.  I found spreaders to be useful so that I could see.

Another shot of us cutting hay.  The ground was rough.

You can see that I'm actually cutting the grass.  So cool.

This John Deere #4 did pretty good.

Roger Barnes with his team on his logging cart.  Jerry's daughter is driving.

Me, my son, and the girls.

Antique Tractor Show - Paris, TX

My boy in Paris Texas!

Saturday was an amazing day.  I got to be an exhibitor at an antique tractor show up in Paris TX.  This is the same event I did last year when I pulled a sickle mower for the first time (link here).  My son wanted to go with me, and so right away I knew we'd have a good time.

I got a late start, and ended up pulling into Paris around 11AM.  I just had my team with me of Rachael and Pam.  My pal Roger told me that he would have a wagonette, a logging forcart, a sickle mower, and maybe a rake there already.  It's kinda nice to not have to bring an implement with you to an event.


The tractor show was going full steam when we arrived.  They were doing tractor pulls with the antique tractors, and all kinds of venders were there showing off some dwindling arts (blacksmithing, cutting lumber into planks, making rope, an my favorite, making ice cream).  :)

When I arrived I parked near Roger.  He was there with a team of his.  There was a team of hafflingers there as well who belong to Bobby and Paula Allen.  Then there was my team.    Also, a fellow teamster named Shelby was there, as well as my great friends Jerry Brandon, his wife, and 2 daughters.  We got unloaded, and then the fun began.

Roger explained to me that we could basically do whatever we wanted.  There was IH #9 mower there that had been modified to pull behind a tractor.  Roger had brought his John Deere #4 sickle mower that was ready for horses.  Roger brought his wagonette, log cart, and an old bobsled that he picked up at a sale in Missouri and restored.  So ... what to do?  I liken this to placing a child in a room full of toys and then saying "Play with whatever you like".

Roger hitching up the hafflingers to the wagonette.  Rogers team to the right with a logging cart

My team, Rachael and Pam, hooked up to a John Deere #4 Sickle Mower

Another shot of my girls and the mower

Rogers logging cart

Rogers bobsled

I decided to warm the girls up on the wagonette first.  We hitched up and went on a ride around the tractor show.  the girls were pulling great till we hit the asphalt.  I hadn't put Rachael's boots on, and she showed how sensitive her feet are when we hit the road.  Instead of pulling out  strong, she was just walking gently.  After one lap of that, I came back, and that John Deere Sickle mower seemed too much to pass up.

Jerry was more than happy to be a header for me, and helped me a ton getting the sickle mower ready to be hitched to the horses.  In no time the horses were hitched up and ready to use the mower.

Me and my team, with a John Deere #4 Sickle Mower

There was a small field of grass that not been cut.  I soon learned why it wasn't cut though.  It was ROUGH!  Someone hadn't disked that area.  I had a smile on my face though, and I NEEDED to cut some grass with that mower.  Indeed, you could say that "I had a fever ... and the only prescription ... was more [hay cutting]".  :)

The mower worked pretty well, and the horses were a dream.  They walked perfectly and didn't mind any of the noise at all.  It was a lot of fun for me to practice cutting in a straight line.  It's not as easy as it seems, especially with 2 big horses blocking the view.  I think I did alright.  It was a very rough ride, but I had a blast.  After a while, I let Jerry hop on and have a turn driving the horses.  Jerry did great and I think he was grinning as much as I was.  Lots of people took notice of us cutting grass, and a crowd gathered and was taking pictures.  It's kind of a neat feeling to see these old farmers watching with smiles on their faces.  You can almost see the memories pouring back through their minds of times gone past.

Rachael and Pam pulling the mower

The mower did a great job considering the blade hadn't been sharpened

I really enjoyed this

Hard to see the blade on the ground

Jerry trying his hand

This is a better shot of the sickle mower as it runs through the grass

the grass just lays down after it is cut

Jerry did great

At one point, we were having a break, and Roger walked over to check on us.  He had thought something broke on his mower.  We talked and laughed for a bit, then I noticed something.  Here came Rogers wagonette with his horses hitched up.  Who was driving it to him?  My son with Paula Allen sitting next to him.  As a father, that moment made me proud.  My son did really well, and the picked Roger up and off they went to give wagon rides to people.

After a good bit of mowing, we tied the girls back up, and took a break.  Time for some of that homemade ice cream.  Woo Hoo!

Bridles off, resting after some good work

About that time, we noticed the tractors all lining up for a parade.  We decided that we wanted to be a part of it, so we went over and signed up.  I noticed that many of the farmers were letting their kids/grand-kids drive the tractors through the parade.  I figured we'd follow suite and I signed my son up as the driver of the team.  About that time Roger mentioned that my girls should pull the sickle mower through the parade for all the people to look at.  I liked this idea, but there was one problem ... the sickle mower only has one seat, which meant Riley would have to do it alone, without me by his side.  I presented him with the idea, and he quickly agreed, stating that he'd be just fine.

We all went and got in line.  My team of Rachael and Pam pulling a sickle mower with my son driving;  Rogers team pulling his log cart with Roger driving; and the hafflingers pulling the wagonette with Paula driving.  Riley did so good.  The girls weren't used to hearing such a small voice commanding them.  It took them a bit to figure out that he was now the boss.  (I don't think anybody has as loud a voice as me)  LOL.

We hit the parade.  I walked on the side, about 20 feet away from the mower, just in case.  Riley drove through and did awesome.  The crowd cheered when they saw this small 8 year old boy driving 2 large Belgians.  It was one of those moments that a father locks in his heart forever.  I loved it.

My son Riley getting ready to drive in the parade

Here he is.  I was so proud of him

Here is Roger on the logging cart

Here are the hafflingers and the wagonette

After the parade, we played around some more, gave some more rides, and just hung out and talked as friends and fellow horse people.  It was a great day.  My son and I got to watch them fire up the antique thresher machine, as well as the hay baler.  They also had a machine that stripped corn off the cob.  My son was in heaven watching all these big machines work.  I have to admit ... I was sucked into it too.  :)

This is a corn husker.  The kernels drop out of the chute on the left there.  Very cool

Front end of the thresher machine.  Powered by a giant belt run from a tractor.

Wheat is tossed on the belt at the front of the machine, it is then sucked into the machine

The Wheat is shot out into the gunny sacks, and the chaff is shot out the back next to the hay baler

Here's the baler.  The guys on the other side are putting hay in the top of the machine.  The man with his back to the camera has to manually slide the hay wires through the bales (which are separated by wood panels).  The man on the other side feeds the wire back through, and then it is tied by hand.

Machine is powered by a belt from a tractor

This was neat to watch.

After that, we helped people get loaded and on their way, then my son and I watched the tractor pulls for a while.  The girls were enjoying a rest and eating some of the delicious hay we got from Pat last weekend.  The tractor pulls were fun to watch.  After that, we had a delicious BBQ dinner and then hit the road.  The Paris Antique Tractor Club were awesome hosts, and I really had a good time.  I hope this becomes an event I get to do year after year with my son.

Me and my son

Update on what I've been up to

I figured I'd just kind of post an update on how things have been going out here.  It seems I post about all the big adventures, but not so much the day to day stuff.

First ... I may be done with my breeding efforts for the year.  This year we were supposed to have foals hit the ground from both Pam and Nellie.  Unfortunately, they didn't take.  This was a bit disappointing, but it made me put more effort into things this year.

We found a Vet named Dr. Smith who we love out of Quitman TX.  We took Nellie and Pam down to him to be ultrasounded so we could find out exactly when our best chances of putting the mares with the stallion would be.  Last year we just left the girls in the pasture with the stallion for 45 days and thought for sure it would have happened.  For whever reason, it didn't take.  We think much of it might have been that the mares were fighting over the stallions attention.  We decided that this year, we would try a different technique.  With the help of Vet ultrasounds, we took each mare, down individually for some one on one time with the stallion.

This past weekend I just got Nellie back.  So ... hopefully I've got 2 bred mares.  In a few weeks I will take them both back to Dr. Smith and have him ultrasound them to verify if they took or not.  I tell ya ... I will be very happy to actually have some science behind the breeding this year.  No more guessing, I'll know exactly what's going on.  If, for some reason they didn't take, we can try again this year.  I'll try to keep y'all updated on what happens here.

All the horses are healthy and happy.  With my in-laws purchasing 12 acres of land next to me, I have much more grazing land now and all the horses are fat and happy on all the good grass that has been growing.

This makes me happy!

One thing I have done recently is due to my awesome wife.  We had the opportunity to get a round pen.  My wife insisted that we needed it, so I reluctantly got out the checkbook.  What a good decision that was.  I separated Whinny from the herd, and have her kept in the round pen now.

My problems with Whinny have been that she is just not a people horse.  She isn't scared, but she will just stand 6 inches out of reach, and won't let you get closer.  This is Soooo annoying, especially when the farrier is there and ready to trim her.  Now I have her in the round pen, so I feed her everyday.  We're slowly getting better.

What I started doing was to walk into the pen, and call her to me.  She of course, ran away, so I purposely drove her away from me.  Nearly like lunging.  I made her run, and run, and run, and RUN.  Then I'd stop, and call her in.  If she didn't come to me, I ran her some more.  I repeated this, till she let me touch her.  Once she did that, I just pet her all over, and talked sweet to her for 5-10 minutes.  After that, I feed her.  It's getting better.  She still won't come to me right away, but this morning after running 2 laps around the ring, I stopped her and she came right to me.  I think she's getting the idea that if she lets me pet her, she doesn't have to run.  This is a good thing.

I hope to get her nice and ground broke so that we can get her saddle trained for my son.  Next year she should be ready, and with her sweet disposition, I am hopeful that this will be a great match.

That's about it on the horse front.  Other than that, we're just busy working and living.  I do take plenty of time to stop and smell the roses.  What good is it being busy improving your life if you can't take the time to enjoy it?

Also,  in case you didn't know, my friend Bob Skelding (the  wagonteamster) is on the move again in his 4th trip across the country.  This time he's doing a loop from colorado, up through all the western United States.  Check out his blog and read about his adventures at www.wagonteamster.com.

New Team Spreader Configuration

2 sets of spreaders for this configuration

If you recall, I posted last November about a new team spreader configuration I had been told about from a really knowledgeable teamster out of the Samson Harness Shop.  I wrote a blog about it here.  The idea was that this trick would eliminate the cross check lines from being able to fall below the team pole and get hung up.  When you do a lot of work by yourself on the  hitch, this is a pretty neat idea.

I finally got a little extra change in my pocket, so I called Samson Harness Shop, and ordered the stuff I needed to try this.  I tried it for the first time at Pat's house when I raked hay this past weekend.

Can you say AWESOME!!!  I was in heaven.  The horses didn't noticed a difference at all, but I sure did.  The cross check line never dropped below their shoulder.  I loved it.  It also really helps spread the horses out so you can see where you are going while on the forecart.

If you like having the horses spread out more, but want to keep that checkline from getting hungup under the end of the team pole, I'd recommend this configuration.  

Raking hay with horses

Yes,  at long last I have a blog update.  Actually, I did quite a few at once, so be sure to read back through April too.  :)

I got a call from my friend Pat a few weeks back letting me know that he was nearly ready to cut the hay in his fields.  He layed out gameplan for using the horses to help.  First, he would cut the hay with his tractor and also condition it.  Then, when it was dry enough, we'd use the horses to rake all the hay into windrows.  (a windrow is just basically a single line of a pile of hay).  After the fields were raked, Pat would run a square baler on his tractor to bale it.  He recently set his baler up so that he can pull hay wagons directly behind the baler.  This allows for the hay to be stacked directly on the wagon and then transported to the hay barn (the old way would drop the bales on the ground).  The idea was to use the horses to haul the hay wagons to and from the hay barn and field.

Pat was excited to use his team, and asked if I would be interested in bringing mine over as well.  As you can imagine, I was thrilled!  Haying with my team is something that I want to work towards and I was very excited about the idea of raking hay for the first time.

It turned out that the hay dried faster then anticipated, and Pat found himself needing to bale on thursday night.  I went out and helped, but since it was after work, and daylight was burning, we opted to do the majority of it with the tractor.  However, Pat saved a 2 acre field that was planted with oats and had some thick rye grass come up for using the horses on saturday May 5.

Saturday I had a class, and I got out of it at noon.  I rushed home, harnessed the horses, loaded them up, and then chained my forecart to the back of the trailer.  Then off me and my son went to Pat's house.

We got to Pat's house and got the girls unloaded.  Pat was just finishing harnessing his horses.  We had some others there that I met for the first time.  There was a young man named Nathan who is a pretty decent teamster there.  His father and sister were also there.  I'm not sure how Pat knows them, but it's awesome to see our network of teamsters grow.  We determined that I'd be the first to rake hay.  I hitched my pioneer forecart up to the girls and off we went to get hitched up to the hay rake.

I am using Pam and Rachael in the team.  Nellie is so close to being worked into the rotation, but since I was going to be learning how to run a rake, I decided to just keep it simple for now and use the proven team.

Pat has a ground driven side delivery rake that has wheels on the front of it.  I backed the girls up to it, and we connected up with no problems.  I have to say, when you are in public, and others are watching, it feels so great to have your team act perfect.  Getting them to back the cart exactly where I wanted it put a smile on my face.

Making the first windrow down the center of the hay field

This is the rear view.  The rake moves the hay into a pile on the right side (left of the picture)

With my son and I sitting on the forecart, off we went to the field.  I stopped right inside it, and Pat gave me some instructions on how to rake.  He told me to do a circle around the outside of the pasture, raking the hay towards the inside.  He said to then flip around, and do another circle around the pasture in the opposite direction, raking the the hay on the other side of the newly created windrow into the same winrow.  After this, I was to begin going up and down the pasture longways, creating windrows.  I made a few pictures to show kind of what I'm talking about.  After the 4th pass, you just continue going up and down the field, making windrows.

 
 

My horses did me proud on this day.  Pam and Rachael worked perfectly, just like they usually do.  I was concerned that maybe they would get annoyed walking through all the cut hay that was laying on the ground, but they didn't seem to mind it a bit.  After I was halfway done raking the field, I unhooked from the rake and tied the girls up for a break.  I was going to leave the rest for Pat to rake with his team (I didn't want to be the only one having all the fun).  The girls happily stood for a break.

break time

Pat was having some troubles with getting his team ready to go, and he ended up telling me to just go ahead and finish raking the hay.  This time, instead of having my son by my side, Nathan sat with me.  I showed him what I was doing for a row or two, and then I turned the lines over to him.  He did real good, and Rachael and Pam picked up on his queues pretty easily.  There was a few times where I'd have to get vocal to remind them what they were being asked to do, but for his part, Nathan did awesome.

Nathan with the lines.  This shot shows the entire rig.  Pioneer forecart pulling a side delivery rake

By the time we finished raking hay, Rachael was lathered up like I've never seen.  Both she and Pam were ready for a break.  Before I let them have a break, I took Nathan's sister Abigail for a ride on the cart.  She was very happy about the opportunity.  I even let her drive for a bit, and like her brother, she knew her stuff.  She even got the girls up into a trot, which impressed me.  I look forward to seeing them at Pat's place for playdays when we do them.

Hard to see, but this is the finished field.

Windrows are ready for the baler.

After that,  I tied the horses, took off their bridles, and had Abigail  help me lead them over to the water trough.  Pam refused to drink, and Rachael took a few sips.  That saying about leading a horse to water sure holds true sometimes.  :)  I tied my horses back to the trailer, and put the hay bags out for them and they sat there happily munching away.

At this point,  Pat had the baler in the field ready to go, and we went to work baling the field.  My son was in heaven (as was I).  I'm not sure what it is about that heavy machinery working, but it is captivating.  We all worked hard, and filled the big hay wagon up in no time.  We were having technical difficulties in getting the other hay wagon to use, so we just unhooked the big hay wagon, and dropped bales on the ground for the rest of it.  After we loaded and unloaded that hay the conventional way, Pat hitched up his horses, and headed down into the field.  First he pulled an empty hay wagon, and we loaded it from the field.  Pat's horses did great with all the starting and stopping this entailed.  After we filled that trailer up, it was hauled up to the hay barn, and then Pat went back down and picked up the other hay wagon that was full, and hauled it back to the hay barn.  It was very impressive to see Pat's beautiful horses pulling that giant hay wagon out of the field.

Pat's team pulling the hay wagon out fo the field

What a great day!

This was a great day!  For all my efforts, Pat was awesome and gave us some of the hay we had just baled.  Win Win!  Can't wait to do more of this stuff.