Description

Features:

• Publisher’s Post: Joe Mischka discusses his travel plans for the late summer, and some of the filming he’s already done.
• Why not use tractors?: Horselogger Taylor Johnson weighs the pros and cons of using tractors for logging versus draft animal power.
• Strengthening Community: Ralph Rice discusses ways to spread the word about using draft animal power and making sure groups are welcoming to people interested in this lifestyle.
• Rural Life: Hard but Good: Dick Courteau says the hardscrabble life of rural America reaps its own rewards – like ingenuity, neighborliness and tenacity.
• Bowman Bits: Ralph Rice visits a hidden gem outside of Mount Hope, Ohio. Bowman Bits manufactures all of its bits.
• What We Call Food: Jenifer Morrissey highlights the book “What Your Food Ate,” which lays out the existing research and encourages further study on the connections between how our food is raised and fed and how we are nourished by it.  She goes on to explore the role that regenerative ag can play in feeding a growing world by paying attention to profitability rather than yield. 
• Forged in Fire: Brittany J.P. Bachman takes some life lessons from watching a blacksmith at work while on vacation in Virginia. The lessons include appreciation for our elders and of craftsmanship, as well as learning how to slow down and appreciate the present.
• The D-Ring Harness: How it changed by relationship with my horses: Ken Akopiantz recounts how switching to the D-Ring harness helped him deal with chronic collar soars on his horses as well as keep the proper angle of draft.
• The Swallows: Jerry Hicks contemplates the travel patterns of the swallows that nest at his Kentucky farm and how that relates to our sense of home.
• Farming with Children: Chiara Dowell makes a case for the benefits of including your children in your farm work and lays out some rules to make it a successful enterprise.
• Handling the Lines, Part 1: The bit, the lines and how to handle them: Dick Courteau discusses the fundamentals of holding the lines when working with draft animals, including a variety of grips, the materials, and the principle of pressure-and-release.
• Rural Bookshelf: A review of the book Small Farm Republic by John Klar, which discusses overcoming political differences to enact policies that will help rural America as well as harnessing the power of young people who are searching for a more meaningful way of life.