First timers up this route may wonder just what the term “Mile Houses” mean. When gold was discovered on the Fraser River in 1858, the influx of miners made it necessary to establish a short route from Garrison River and Lake up to Lillooet and to historic Barkerville. A wagon road was quickly roughed out to haul equipment and goods to the mines. The Royal Engineers established Lillooet as “Mile 0.” Settlers saw business opportunities and established convenient stopping places along the route. As the traveling was slow in those days, travelers by foot, oxen and horse-drawn freight wagons, could stop for meals or sleep at the conveniently placed “Mile Houses.”

Teaching horses to swing right (“gee” – to remember, right has a “g” in it) or left (“haw”) without moving forward (or backward) can actually be quite easy with some patience, finesse, timing and cheating. I recommend waiting to teach gee and haw until a young horse has some experience and is working well in other respects, as yours seems to be. In my opinion, horses that will not stand quietly and patiently for grooming, harnessing, and hitching are not ready to be hitched and driven. By the same token, if they don’t consistently start, stop, turn both ways, back up and stand stopped in a comfortable, relaxed and willing manner, I feel they are not yet ready for gee and haw.

Readers of Small Farmer’s Journal (22-3 Summer 1998) discovered a way they could have an “AFFORDABLE SAWMILL.” Inquiries from that story continue coming to the retired Union Carpenter (Local #141) who in late 1998 built his second band sawmill he designed “simpler,” and needs less parts/materials and time to construct. It’s the “YELLOW-JAK-IT” as “It takes the sting outta buying lumber.”

He was in the round corral with the Soot Devil. The Devil didn’t have a white hair on his body, just that dusty flat black look his mustang mother had given him. The horse stood trembling on the end of the long-line, uncertainty oozing from him, reflecting the turmoil in the boy’s mind. “Whoa,” he said. “Stand easy, Devil horse.” He took a deep breath, staring at the horse, then at the ground. His throat welled up and he swallowed hard, choking the feeling back.

They are supposed to be lifeless, inanimate objects without vestige of pulse or protoplasm. But don’t believe it. That’s propaganda disseminated to deceive the unwary. When a plastic garden hose gets cold it lives; I’ll guarantee it. I found out not long ago when I decided to coil up one I had used last fall to wash the car. I was motivated by a desire to procrastinate no longer. Had I known how things were going to turn out, I wouldn’t have taken myself so seriously.

Your thoughts on the use of a forest may differ from what the wild animals in it are thinking, and it is good to be aware of the problems. Animal browse is of two kinds. Critters may eat the buds, foliage, twigs, and leaders, which are accessible only on young trees. Or, they may gnaw the bark of both old and young trees. Foliage and leader browse may change the composition of a young forest, but the trees eventually outgrow the problem. Bark browse is a problem for many years more, though some trees are not affected because their bark is not appetizing.

We think there are at least two distinct reasons that a long-term sod can improve soil quality without additions of off-farm organic matter. First, the constant growth and dying off of a large perennial root system adds organic matter to the soil on a continuous basis. Secondly, the combination of permanent ground cover and undisturbed soil protects this slow-but-steady accumulation of humus from oxidation. No wonder that perennial grass-legumes mixes have played an essential role in traditional farm systems.

Typically, we skimplow an overwintering cover crop of rye and vetch the beginning of April in preparation for this planting window. Shallowly undercutting the live cover crop at that time of year prevents the rye and vetch from removing the winter accumulation of moisture from the ground and preserves the soil structure created by the cover crop by leaving most of its root system intact.

Every October a small farm in Eastern Missouri comes alive with vintage farm and barnyard activities reminiscent of a bygone era in the Ozark Hills. Eight years ago, what started as a small pumpkin patch and horse drawn hay rides has evolved to a unique demonstration of vintage farm and barnyard equipment common on the 19th and early 20th century small farm. Thanks to a small group of family and friends, the collection of vintage equipment is operated with our farm animals on weekends in October to the delight and amazement of many people.

Things are continuing to keep us busy on our ranch in Ethel, Washington, but we were able to take a day off from working on the building of our training barn to host our third annual Happ’s Horse Plowing Competition. We saw many familiar faces, now friends, as most of those who have attended the past two years returned and we made new friends as a number of new competitors showed up.

We can see how the developments in mass production of food and its accompanying decline in the quality of the food, create in turn the demand for “morsel-production”: the limited production of high quality food. Morsel: tasteful food, be it lettuce, bacon or shiitake mushrooms, incorporating in taste and texture the unique qualities of the soil on which it is produced and the singular way in which the farmer has accompanied its development. Morsel production: yielding those unique products, sold by a farmer who is like no one else, to a group of people who know that these products will feed their bodies in a delightful way.

Wheels have three settings. The cultivator is regularly shipped set in wide track. For narrow-row work, set wheels closer together by removing cotter at A. Push axles in pipe to center hole and insert cotter; attach treadle rod at B to center hole; set frame at C in center hole on cross shaft. In case still closer setting is desired, use the last set of holes at A, B, C. Adjust both sides of cultivator alike.

One Ear • A Hero’s Surprise • Two Kinds of Stickery • Birds That Were Pets Many Years Ago

It was chore time on our small, bush Alaska farm, and since the winter days are short, we use a lantern both evening (as it was now) and morning in the barn. My younger sister, Hannah, and I were working out there when this little incident happened which shows that goats truly love a good joke, especially when it falls on their owners in a poorly lighted barn.

The mindboggling agricultural plant and animal diversity, at the beginning of the twentieth century, should have been a treasure trove which mankind worked tirelessy to maintain. Such has not been the case. Alas, much has been lost, perhaps forever. Here are images and information on a handful of apple varieties from a valuable hundred year old text in our library.

Well, we finally did it! The long-time goal of driving his own team of eight well-matched, willing, working Belgians was realized for the first time just last Saturday by Tom on Section #23. As you well know, putting together a multiple hitch becomes more of a challenge than initially supposed, and this one has taken about six years. Acquisition, adjustment, and driving – lots of driving – finally got us to the point where we just had to try it.

“We gather the ostrich eggs which weigh about 3 and ½ pounds each,” says Angelica. “We also help get the ostrich chicks in their pens. I help Grandpa by collecting the money from the fair customers when we take our stand wagon to the local fairs. We sell ostrich burgers, ostrich hot dogs, ostrich jerky, ostrich steak, and ostrich sticks.”

At the country fairs this year there were serious signs of patriotism. Cummington Fair in Massachusetts was no exception with flags & banners proudly displayed. There was also a new kind of challenge for the Ox Teamsters Challenge – inclement weather! For the first time in eight years, the Challenge day was rainy and 50 degrees. Three weeks earlier the local fairs enjoyed (?) 100 degrees. I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later considering the Law-of-Averages or even Murphy’s Law.

This material was originally authored during WW II by our government, please make adjustments for costs, values and philosophies accordingly. Typical of much of the USDA’s early propagandistic “ag welfare” outreach, this material is not only condescending and overly simplistic, it also encouraged plantation of varieties generally considered today as nuisance weeds or worse (i.e. Kudzu). There is some good information buried here and we feel it makes a muted official counterpoint to Anne and Eric Nordell’s superior research and writings on the subject. We have to trust that you, our readers, will use your best common sense and critical eye when you sift through this material. LRM

“Synthetic” or chemical perfumery materials are the more or less perfect artificial reproductions of organic compounds used in perfumery. If it were possible in all cases and with perfect success to compound these substances, the production of floral perfumes would soon be at an end, as the chemical process would be sure to be cheaper than the horticultural. But nature knows how to add some touches which the chemist’s art cannot imitate, and even where synthetic manufacture is possible, the result is in general regarded as a cheaper substitute. At the same time, sentimental reasons count considerably in favor of the natural perfume, and considering, further, that some perfumes cannot be imitated chemically, there is no present cause to apprehend the extinction, or, in view of increasing demand, even the decline, of the industry of producing natural perfumery oils.

When man does not interfere and the soil is left to itself, it does not fail. Through it everything that has passed from a state of life is restored again to a state of life; nothing fails or is lost. In the philosophy of modern science, however, the seeds that life scattered upon the ground and do not fructify are stigmatized as failures, but those that grow into plants are dubbed the fittest, because they survive and expand into plants. Yet the other seeds survive no less; they re-enter cycles of life by other paths. Each has its place without which the whole is incomplete. Each has its place in a creative cycle, each passes from soil to plant and then, in many cases, to animal, and, after an interlude of death, returns to the creative realm of soil.

RHUBARB, or Pie-plant, is commonly grown by division of the roots, and this is the only method by which a particular type can be increased. Propagation from seed, however, often proves satisfactory, and always interesting, as the seedlings vary greatly. The seed germinates easily, and if started early the plants become fairly large and strong the same season. Although the crop is so easily produced, and so certain and regular after a plantation has once been started, it is one of the most profitable of market-garden crops, even in small places and neighborhoods. A large number of home gardeners are still without it on their premises, although everybody seems to want Rhubarb pie as soon as spring opens, this plant giving the first available material in the year for pies.

Because round bales are the cheapest way to buy hay for beef cows, and because I was tired of trying to roll the bales out by hand or wrapping a chain around them and skidding them out with a horse (if you ever tried to drag a bale with a chain, you know how hard it is to get the chain on and how easy it slips off), I undertook to build a bale mover.

I used to have a team of mares, a mother and a daughter, and they weren’t big horses but we worked them on the mowing machine. They got along just fine together but you put them with another horse and they were cranky with that horse. So what we did with them was we turned them all out together and said let’s find out who was boss and then when they established a pecking order then things smoothed out. The other thing that helped was we mowed a lot of hay with them. Whenever you get a few wet collar pads on them, it makes a whole lot of difference in attitude. They figure out there’s something else to do besides pick on each other.

In general, farming is part of my genetic heritage and also my personal lifestyle focus. Choosing horses was a step-by-step process of self-realization and expanding world-view. It makes sense to me: economically, ecologically, and emotionally. This is the best way I’ve found for me to work to correct the imbalances I see in the world around me, while shaping a life that makes me happy. Farming in general, and horse-farming in particular, pull together and call on my core values and essential qualities. No part of me is left hungry. I love it.

I tend to think of Mr. Conroy as the Leonard Bernstein of the ox world, not that he needs any superlatives now that his nickname (Mr. Oxen) has been upgraded to The Ox God. He was slated to give one of his oxen workshops at the end of the Rare Breeds weekend. Thanks to her unusual outlook and a lot of patient research, Temple Grandin is internationally known for her innovative work in handling livestock animals. She holds a Ph.D. in animal science from the University of Illinois, and is currently a professor in the same subject at Colorado State.