Description

Stories in this issue:

• Portahoopies
  Training Up a Teamster: Katrina Julian writes about how to train a young teamster to do farm work. She explains her and her husband’s process teaching their son starting with observing and working up to driving an experienced team in the woods. Safety is of utmost importance in their teaching.
• Working Through the Seasons: Horselogger Taylor Johnson explains how he can efficiently work with his horses in all weather and conditions, much of the time while traditional machine loggers cannot. He tells us how he plans his schedule to get all kinds of work done using efficient scheduling.
• Rewards of Animal Powered Farming: Charlie Tennessen makes the argument for self sustainable draft animal powered farming over fossil fueled farming. This very thoughtful and researched article also gives us some ideas to think about when contemplating the benefits of draft animal power in the future.
• Dump Cart Design – A Tool to Provide Better Manure Management: Donn Hewes wants a horse powered implement which works as a logging cart, a hitch cart and a dump cart. Read how Donn designs and builds a forecart that accomplishes all three of these draft horse powered tasks.
• Please Don’t Pet My Ox: Henderson schools us on oxen and some of the definitions one should know about them. He then becomes a mythbuster by debunking some common misinformation about oxen.
• Consumed by Corn: A.J. Bourbon shares some Corn Items Collectors Association members’ treasures when he visits their annual meeting at Tom Renner’s farm in Illinois.
• Mid-Winter Passing: Farmer Charlie Tennessen reflects on the loss of Anabelle, the farm’s sweet Nigerian dwarf goat, and the larger connection small farmers have with their land and animals.
• Putting Down Roots: Reclaimed surface mined land in Cumberland, Ohio is home to The Wilds. This 10,000-acre site is being restored with grasslands, wetlands and hardwood forests and is used for training and education as well as its pure beauty.
• Five Minutes with Lisa Carpenter: Rob Collins sits down with ox drover Lisa Carpenter and talks with her about oxen, historical farming, her work at Williamsburg and now at Historic Brattonsville Plantation (1840’s) in South Carolina. She shares her many years’ experience as a teamster in the living history farm business.
• Rural Bookshelf-Stacy Lyn’s Harvest Cookbook: A review of Southern cook Stacy Lyn’s, mouth-watering cookbook.
• Merging Technology: Follow Jason Julian as he and his Brabant-cross draft horse team help haul computer and telecommunication equipment and supplies to a cell tower job site in the frozen hills near Tomah, Wisconsin.
• From Stacy Lyn’s Kitchen: Stacy Lyn Harris shares her recipe for cucumber salad. We can almost taste summer!