*****Christmas List*****

Here it is the offical list in no particular order



Nishigaki Brand Karikichi Gold Long Handle hedge shears – hidatools.com

Silky Brand New Mebae Pruning Saw Gardening Pruning Saw - hidatools.com

Costco membership

AAA membership

Implements for Farming with Horses & Mules (book) – ruralheritage.com

Haying with Horses (book) – smallfarmersjournal.com

Training Work Horses, Training Teamsters (book) – smallfarmersjournal.com

Horse Drawn Tillage Tools (book) – smallfarmersjournal.com

Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal (book) – ruralhertiage.com

You can Farm (book) – smallfarmersjournal.com

Medium depth super (knocked down) – Beekind Sebastopol

Medium depth frames (knocked down) – Beekind Sebastopol

Beeswax frame foundation – Beekind Sebastopol

In the afterglow of Birthday love

I find myself in the pleasant afterglow of my 24th birthday. No noctiable changes to report as of yet. There has however when an out pouring of support, love, and friendship from family and friends, It has left me with a bliss in my heart and a frig full of food. As I go forward into my 24th year I am excited about all that could and will be. My colonies of bees in the spring, the pursuit of find and breaking ground on our farm, working for Stuart and his horses, the opportunity and chance of an IDA thorugh farm link, our small kitten. So much is to come and let it.

After A long break

Well I'm back.

It's been a long break since I last wrote. The time between has been filled with good times, challanges, goodbyes, and new beginnings. At the end of August I left Oregon and returned to California. It was the end of my apprenticeship at Horsepower Organics and I felt mixed beening so excited to return to California and my sweetheart Rain but also sad about leaving all that I learned to love and enjoy, the still morning, the quiet work of the horses, and the satisfaction of the work I was completing. The last weeks and days in Oregon were a blur of haying, garden work and horse work. When I returned to California I was reunited with my sweatheart and we moved into my parents house as temporary measure while we looked for housing. Rain started her job working as an enviromental educator at Westminster Woods in the redwood hills of west sonoma county while I started looking for a job in my native sonoma. I was lucky to find a lead with the sonoma compost company and secured a job with them where I am now working full time selling compost and educating the public as I answer there questions. It is an ironic twist that after two years of working as the compost coordinator at UCSC I again when myself working with compost for my living. Rain and I have also been pursuing a farming opportunity at the Ocean Song land trust and have made the permilinary steps and first meetings. Wish us the best as we move forward with this. I have also been taking a Beekeeping class through the local JC and have signed up to recieve two nuclus colonies or nucs this spring which I am excitedly awaiting. Rain and I are also taking a tango class together and having a lot of fun with it. We have also, thanks to Rains hard work and persistance, found a great cottage just outside of the town of Occidental which we will be moving into shortly. And that is that for now as more happens I'll be sure to post.

Nell has her foal

As I walked out of the house this morning at about 5:35 having just slurped down two cups of coffee and devoured two eggs with toast I noticed that Deborah and Lisa were standing near the Champs pen with wrapped attention on something. I decide to investigate. As I walk closer Deborah turn to me slightly "Well she was pregnant". She was referring of course to Nell who was in with the Champ to keep him company. Nell had been a mystery, was she bred, was she not bred. It seemed like she might have a milk vein but it wasn't total convincing. Her utter looked bigger and she was rounder but she had always been a very big horse and had fooled the Maders before. I had thought that she was bred from the first time the idea was introduce. More so because I wanted her, arguably the best and must beautiful brood mare (in my opinion) in the herd, to have a foal then because of anything so trivial as evidence (although when ever I could find some I brought it up). In the pen with Nell was a new stud colt foal and a damn handsome one at that. He has a dark coat much like Starry Night and a blaze very much like the Champs but some what more shade shaped. It was a great start to the morning to watch that little colt suckle at his mama and take those slight unsteady steps. He made for the tenth surviving foal this year (the Maders aim for five "Thanks Champ"). All day as we toiled in the the garden my occasional breaks were spent starring at the colt and remark at how damn fine he was. "He'd made a damn fine stud prospect" David call to Deborah at some point in the morning. I didn't catch the look she gave but he quickly added "For someone else I mean". The more time I spend here the more I want to work with draft horse and the more I want to own a team or two or three of my own. Its been a long and curving that has brought me this far and to this place in life and I hope that I can walk the rest of it behind a team.

Visiting the Herd

Today as we worked on stacking hay and sweating when Deborah called from the house. There had been a call from the folks we are renting pasture from that one of the mares, Sidney, had foaled. Deborah insisted that we all take a break from hay and come look at the herd.

No arguments there. We all piled in the car and took a short trip down the road to the pasture. You know I think the herd missed us because no soon did we step into the pasture then we were greeted and nuzzled. Man of man did those horses look good. All were filled out and showed a rick sheen on their Sorrel coats. We walked a bit look at this horse and that horse talking at the conformation or personality or how the two year olds looked so awkward in there half filled out bodies. The foals...oh my were the foals big! They have grown and changed the color of there coats a bit and they look fine it was exciting to see all of them again. Finally we walked about found Sidney and here new foal, a filly and a real beauty. No name for her yet but she has the must interesting blaze and star on here face that looks something like a upside down "!" like you see in spanish. It was a real treat to go and visit the herd, they filled we with such joy just to walk among them. It was a great refresher but that hay wasn't going to put its self away (damn) so we returned to work in the hay shed and in the garden.

That haying... It can be stressful

So goes one of Davids mentors sayings. And it is all so true. The biggest point of stress?? Time. Or more specifically time. "While the growing season will allow for four crops the haying season only allows for three". The main reason is simple. Rain. Being from California this is a bit of a shocker. Its hard if not nearly impossible to think of a time when it rained in the summer. But Oregon is a different place with many nuanced local climates and here in the Pine Valley seeing some rain and thunderstorms is not at all uncommon. 

The crop in question is Alfalfa. Must of the fields that we have here can be cut in one long day or two long ones so long as we can keep at least mowers running. The same field that took one day to mow however might take two or three days to rake into windrows that the baler can pick up and this is only after the hay has had time to dry on the ground for 3 to 4 days before raking and one to none after. Raking takes long for several straight forward reasons. 

One... There is only one rake

Two... There is highly limited time window from raking begin between when the dew is off the leaf to when there is too much leaf shatter from the heat. Typically this is about 5 am to 10 or 11 am on days when there is cloud cover at night and 6 am to 10 or so am on days without such cover.

Three... Making a windrow requires two passes through the field to make one row.

Four... It is hard work and exhausts the horses. 

All that said raking is a fair amount of fun and working in the early morning cool sure beats the heat of the day.

Baling too takes time. The first 20 acres that we mowed yielded 770 bales and took two days of baling to do. The majority of those bales are still in the field and needed to be moved today. We moved some of these bales yesterday so that we could water our garlic crop which shares the low laying area of the same field. Using the horses we moved 70 or bales in two wagon runs. We did about 30 in one run and 40 in the next. Because the bales are very fresh they still have a slight amount of water weigh and the wagon loads come to 1 ton and 1 and 1/2 tons respectively in hay along. in simple terms this is hard work for man and horse. Likely be have a bale stacker that can grab bales from where they lay in the field and make nice neat 70 bale stacks with the tractor. Sadly the thing doesn't fit in the hay shed so it has to be unload next to it and restacked inside. As many of those bales as possible need to come in off the field today.

Why all that rush? Well its that rain. Two to Three days from now we can expect some thunderstorms with rain. Last time we had such storms it was a down pour. At the moment in addition to the 650 some bales left in the field there is about 10 acres of windrowed hay ready for baling with a a small amount of raking to be done in the same field and the associated moving of the bales. There is a 10 to 15 acres field of cut hay that needs to be raked, baled and moved also all in the period of the next two days.

Solution... lots of hard work and long hours and working into the night to get it done.

CSA

This week we delivered our first Community Supported Agriculture baskets to our 24 farm shareholders. Each shareholder pays in advance for a share of the farms harvest and receives a basket of assort food through our the growing season each week. So what was in the first basket?

Strawberries - very good (I think I've tasted from every plant we have some a bad one in the bunch)

Mint- Fresh and Tasty

Garlic Scape- when I first got here I had to ask "what the heck is a garlic scape". Well a garlic scape is the unopened flower stock or hard neck garlic  that grows with a twist or curl in it. The scape tastes like garlic, some times mildly or things sharply, and are some thing of a delicacy. They are only around for about 2 to 4 weeks so they need to be pick (and with 18000 or so plants we are a little behind on this) quickly.

Lettuce- When all fails there is always lettuce.

Radishes- Colorfully red and with a nice kick to them these are great eats.

Whats come next week....

Snap Peas

New Potatoes

Everything from above

Working with Ben Horse

Ben has a sore foot. So sore that he is limping on it. We discovered this as we moved him into the round pen to do some work with him. The hoof in question, the right front, needed to be worked. "Worked" means that someone has to come up to the horse on his uncomfortable side reach down to his fetlock, say "foot" and "catch" Ben's foot as he lifted it. Then this person has to maneuver the foot between his or her own legs so that the hoof can be trimmed and clean to reduce the pain. Ben had very had his feet worked before. Once before he was hurting I was able to reach down to his fetlock and he lift, but did nor give, his foot and this was on his comfortable side. So we had to teach Ben a whole bag of new tricks. First we worked on getting him to allow someone to come up on his uncomfortable side. This took some doing. When a horse doesn't respond favorably the he is run in order to reenforce the social dominance you have over him. Running a horse with a hoof injury fells terrible. As he goes round and round you can see his pain as he staggers on his bad hoof. After about five or six attempts we got him to allow David around on his side. Than began the work of teaching him to give his foot.We had tried this once before and all we accomplish was David getting his butt bite. This is a difficult situation because it is very hard not to laugh. After about 5 or more attempts with running Ben gave his foot (and no biting). David than work his foot cutting back part of a split hoof and removing as much manure that had become packed in has he could. This seems to have mad life better for Ben but for the time being he is on training hiatus.

Cotton Dancing in the Moonlight or Haying with Horses

Not three days ago from the moment I am writing this we started to make hay with the horses. The first step with to cut the hay. This was something we apprentices were rather excited about. The mowers are old International Harvester #9 High Gears and we had two working ones and one in restoration. The mowers were all made up until World War II when horses and tractors were being used at the same time. Several million #9's were made meaning that today there are literally hundreds of thousands that are in good enough condition to be restored and put to work. The #9 is a purely horse drawn tool, no fossil fuel required. As the team was hitched to the mower we all wait in anticipation. Deborah drove it out towards the field and we all followed. She finally got to the hay crop and let down the sickle bar and engaged the gears. With a series of clicks the horses began to pull and the sickle bar began to thwact and the hay fell with a silent swoosh and the horses tugs jingled metallically. All one could do was to stare wide eyed and follow quickly behind the mower. And so we all did admiring the simply novelty and practicality of this 60 or 70 year old machine as it preformed its tasks just as it had been engineered to do. After about two rounds of the of the 20 or so acres Deborah switch with David and went in with Willa to work on training a horse. Lisa and I continued to follow David around in circles. Haying is a hypnotic thing, when you are doing it consumes your attention. David made another 4 or 5 rounds and then Lisa got her first chance at driving. We did another 3 rounds and suddenly we realized that we were working more by moonlight then sunlight. A beautiful thing happened on one of the rounds. As Lisa drove the mower cut through a patch of hay that cottonwood cotton trapped within it. The cotton sprang up and on the slight breeze of the evening danced in the moonlight over the yet uncut hay. It was a magical thing to see. I got my first chance to drive the mower that night too and it is simply the most fun and demanding tool to drive on the farm. Over the next two days we had four 5 to 6 hour sessions of hay mowing and now the first portion of the flat flied is drying in the sun. There is more to come and I am looking forward towards it.

Starry Night

For two weeks be waited. Jane looked really or almost ready the whole time. Because Jane was a filly and had never foaled before see ended up showing waxing(a drip of colostrum on her teats) nearly that whole two weeks. But finally at 3am on a cloudless and clear night the she had her foal. The foal was small and darkly colored with a large white star on her forehead. When we all ventured down to inspect here around 5:30 it didn't take long to settle on a name. Starry Night. The cute little foal is doing well and growing quickly in typical foal fashion... nurse, sleep, nurse, sleep, run run run, nurse, sleep... repeat.

Ben Horse

Ben is a horse. A Belgian gelding to be exact. He is tall, muscular, and three years old. He is blond sorrel in color with a cream or blonde mane that is curly and long. His only face markings are a star between his eyes and a snip near his lips. He is intelligent and inquisitive. Finally he is the horse that I have been assigned to train from scratch. I've very excited about this opportunity, frankly I didn't think that I would be training a green as green horse after only 6 or so weeks on the farm. But here I am. I've worked with Ben twice now in the round pen, both times on the same day. Here is how it went.

I came down to the round pen in the late morning. Lisa was just finishing up some work with her horse Wendy, a beautiful red roan bay Belgian of 4 years of age. She had been about to touch her which is a major break thru and I was wondering if Ben would be more like Wendy or more like Willa's horse Flag who presently was excelling in running in circles and sometimes stopping. As Lisa finished up Deborah went over what had happened in the round pen thus far today and the successes and challenges that had been faced. Then it was my turn. I pushed Ben into the round pen from the adjoining dry pen and push Wendy out. I had interacted with Ben a few times when I walk in the herd, as he acted as part of a welcoming committee of 4 or so horses that greeted and inspected newcomers to the herd. As I walked into the pen I brought with me that training whip and carefully wrapped it around itself. Then I sent Ben for a few laps of running around the pen in order to establish my dominance. This went very well and Ben chewed and looked at me after which were both good signs. I then "asked" something of him. I moved closer to him without the whip to gauge how close I could get without him become scared or bolting. I got to with in a few feet of him without incident with Ben looking me the whole way (a good sign). I decided to try to touch Ben and went back for the whip. Walking back towards Ben with the whip I talked to him in a low voice and offer the whip for him to smell. He took several long inhales and looked back at me. I stopped at about 2 or 3 feet from him and then used the wand of the whip to touch Ben on the shoulder. Nothing happened. I was shocked. Usually a horse the first time it is touch will run or at the very least quiver in the shoulder with slight discomfort. Ben was motionless. I moved the wand up towards the top of his shoulders, the withers, and Ben quivered. I was somehow relieved and decided to take the pressure off of Ben and walked back to the center of the pen. I was feeling bolder now that things had done so well so I decided to try and touch Ben with my hand. I walked towards him slowing talking to him as I came. When I was within a foot of him I stopped and allowed him to smell me. He was highly curious and smelled deeply. I moved my hand up to his shoulder and stopped about half an inch from his skin. He seemed nervous and was breathing very deeply. I wanted to keep the interact positive and back off. As I walk to the center of the pen. "Did you touch him?" Willa asked from outside then pen. "No" I replied "this close" showing how close I had come with my fingers. I turned back to Ben and found him looking at me. I walked towards him and came to the same place I had just been this time I moved slowly and touched him on the shoulder he quivered slightly but this settled quickly. I stood there was a moment and than began to scrub his withers and then between his front legs. This went well so Deborah suggested that I might try holtering him. It was such a rush to have accomplished so much so fast. Lisa pass a holter into the round pen and I took it back to the middle of the pen. Ben stood on the rail of the pen looking at me. I walked towards him and attempted to holter him. This didn't go so well. As I passed the holter over his neck things seemed fine but as I moved the holter up towards his ear he bolted. I made him run and we did few laps. At this point Deborah suggested that I try to work Ben's feet. No pun intended but Ben didn't stand for this. Feeling it was time to end I moved back to something that had worked and touched been between his legs and on this withers. I put Ben back out in the dry pen at this point and went bout doing some other work round the farm. Later we came back to the dry pen and decided to work the horses in the round pen again. Simply put the lesson I learned from this is that once a day seems to be a green horses learning limit.

The big move and a horse of my own

A few days ago we finally moved the horses off of our pasture and on to a neighbors rented pasture. All that remained was to sort of some 4 or 6 horses from the herd to sort out for training and for pregnancy related reasons. Simply right? Well no. First things first it started to rain. We continued undaunted and started by moving a large beautiful horse named Nel in with the stud and removing this current partner Becky who was moving onto pasture. After a few circles of round and round we got Nel in and Becky out. Turns out Nel who is pregnant was none to fancy on the studs advances and as we walked away there was plenty of kicks and screams. Next cleared out the dry pen of all the horses we could lead out and let the rest in. Next came the horse from our pasture down the lane. We got them right where we wanted them and then the chaos began. The rain started to fall harder and the plan we had laid out in the house was redrawn on the spot. At the same time the horse, there being about 40 or so of them cramped in the narrow lane, broke the electric fence that held them in on one side and spread out in the now open dry pen. In the process Miah, a horse will a leg injury, got his bad leg wrapped in wire. We cut him free and a new plan was firmed out and we set to sorting horses. This completed we started the push to move the horses to the new pasture down the road. Well some of the horses we had sorted out really wanted to go with the herd, so much so that they broke down cattle panels and rejoined it. We were able to sort out 2 of the 3 horses that escape and decided to call that good. This finally completed we start again for the pasture. As the push started I jumped in the car and head with Deborah and Willa through the herd of fast moving horses in order to get ahead of them. Horses are not accustom to cars driving through there herd, nor am I accustom to begin in a car bolting through a herd of horses. The horses don't know what to do around cars and a yearling dart in front of us. A hard hit to the brakes kept us inches from him and we then quickly got through the rest of the herd. I jump out at neighbors gate to kept the horses from turning in. I only had to wait about a minute before a one ton horse came by at full gallop. Then came the rush of the main herd a few horses turn a head towards me but a few quick swings my rope convinced them to move on. As the last horse went by I walked out and push the herd from behind, not that they needed my help they were far up the road. All this completed we headed back to the farm after counting the number of horses in the new pasture. Arriving back we, interns, discovered that we were each to have a horse to train on our own from scratch. My horse is named Ben. He is a three year old blond sorrel gelding with a long curry mane and a white star on his head. I will write more about him later.

A recent article from edible Portland

Putting the Horse Back into Horsepower: Grass-Powered Agriculture

It’s amazing to me how the word "horsepower" has had staying power throughout the ages, but not the actual horses that inspired the word in the first place! To hear Zoë Bradbury tell it, horses are making a comeback on Northwest farms. And she’d know too, for Zoë is headed home to Langlois, Oregon where she’ll “gee, haw, and whoa” with a team of her own.Read the story below, then check out Zoë's horsefarming resources here.
-Deborah Kane

Eric Pond of Greenleaf Farm works with June Bug, the newest addition to his herd. 

Photo by Zoë Bradbury

PUTTING THE HORSE BACK INTO HORSEPOWER
Grass-Powered Agriculture
By Zoë Bradbury

For Winter 2008

From a gentle rise overlooking an apron of floodplain along the Santiam River, Greenleaf Farm is laid out in long, straight rows alternating brown and green. Heavy, low-slung clouds drop a cold mist on Eric Pond as he points out the boundaries of his recently-acquired 67 acres, over two-thirds of which he has planted into blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries for the organic processing market.After years of working for wages managing other farms, including a 1,000-acre Christmas tree operation, this view from the knoll has been a long time coming. “It’s been my dream to have my own farm forever,” he says, nodding out to the fields. “Ever since I was old enough to realize I had dreams.”Parked behind Eric is a Kubota tractor specially rigged with state-of-the-art hydraulics to cultivate the berries. A little ways off is a computerized moisture monitoring system installed on the farm for precision irrigation.But Eric has another quiver of tools as well: Next to the Kubota is a string of cherry-red farm implements best described as his two-horsepower collection. The names roll off Eric’s tongue like lyrics: straddle-row cultivator, springtooth harrow, single-bottom plow, and forecart. He gets animated as he describes what is at once the simplicity and versatility of each implement, all of which are pulled around the farm by Josh and Riva—his team of chestnut and buttermilk Belgian draft horses—and made by I & J Manufacturing, an Amish-owned business in Pennsylvania that designs, builds, and sells new horsedrawn equipment.

This new horsedrawn wagon was made by I & J Manufacturing. 

Photo by Zoë Bradbury

Greenleaf is a mixed power farm, meaning it relies on both tractors and horses to get the work done. It’s an interesting juxtaposition: A futuristic-looking mechanical berry harvester is parked idle in a field next door, while in the foreground two workhorses nibble at winter pasture. Eric explains that regardless of what his skeptical neighbors might think, his team of drafts is as much about practicality as it is about a passion for horses. “It’s a rejuvenating experience to drive a team,” he reflects. “That connection to horses, it’s calming.”And for Eric who loathes the roar of the tractor, he’s able to perform a wide array of jobs with the horses—from cultivating, to plowing, to harrowing—in both the berry fields and his few acres of vegetables, all without burning up diesel or exacerbating soil compaction. With another team and the right equipment, he figures he could manage the entire farm with horsepower alone.Except for one problem: finding people who can drive the horses. Those known as teamsters.Less than one hundred years ago, an average of 10 horses were at work on every U.S. farm. At that time, every aspect of our food system—production, processing, and transportation—depended on horses, mules, and oxen. Horses in harness were commonplace, as were the people who drove them.In addition to serving as society’s literal workhorses, those animals played a quiet and under-celebrated role contributing to the ecological balance of the farmscape. Draft animals required pastures and hayfields, i.e. grass, which, by way of photosynthesis, turns the sun into protein and fiber that 50 million years of symbiotic co-evolution has enabled the species Equus to miraculously convert into 1) raw energy (the ability to do work), and 2) horse manure.The value of the first—horses as living solar energy converters—is probably obvious. But to ignore the second is to overlook the role draft animals played in elegantly closing the nutrient loop on farms. By turning sunshine (rather than petrochemicals) into fertilizer, draft horses nourished crops to feed people as well as the pastures where the cycle started all over again. An ingenious zero-waste system.Despite the brilliance of the whole thing, it couldn’t compete with cheap fossil-fuel energy and the religiosity of the machine. The invention of the internal combustion engine in the early 20th century sparked a mania that ultimately displaced some 26 million horses and mules in American farms and cities, most of which were sold for slaughter. With the horses went the pastures and hayfields, which over time were converted under the squeal of steel and government policies into ever-larger acreages of commodity monocrops, so that now one person in one day can drill in 500 acres of corn from the air-conditioned cab of a satellite-steered tractor while listening to an iPod.And so went the teamsters, forfeiting their title to a new generation of long-haul truck drivers on the nation’s freeways. During this era, the term “horsepower” as it now applies to tractors and other vehicles was pulled into use as a social marketing tool to coax the cultural transition from horse to machine. And though it was recorded as but one more step in America’s much-celebrated march of progress, this shift from “ecological technology” to “mechanical technology,” as described by researchers in Sweden, represented a profound turning point for agriculture.America moved from a farming system that ran mostly on locally generated inputs and renewable resources (sun, rain, grass, and human labor) to one that depended primarily on imported materials and non-renewable resources (diesel, lubricants, tractor parts, and chemical fertilizer). The shift has been so complete that today our modern food system accounts for one-fifth of the total U.S. national fossil fuel consumption and is nearly 100% reliant on oil obtained via a geopolitically fragile global supply system.When you stop to consider the pipeline connecting our dinner plates to the oil wars in the Middle East, or pause to ponder the inevitable day when petroleum products are no longer cheap and abundant, it doesn’t take long for peak oil to peak one’s curiosity about draft power.The immediate question that inevitably surfaces is always about practicality: How could we possibly grow all the food we need using draft animals?Various comparative studies have shown that even in the cheap energy era that we’re currently living in, horses hold their own against their internal combustion counterparts when all inputs and outputs are accounted for (including initial purchase costs, fuel/feed expenses, upkeep and maintenance, capacity for work, the soil fertility contribution of horses, the ability of horses to procreate while tractors depreciate, and so on).In Amish country, comparative studies showed that the net cash return per acre of cropland on horse-powered farms was up to half again the average of mechanized farms. The United Nations is actively promoting draft power as an intelligent rural development strategy in developing nations, which makes a person wonder what’s not intelligent about promoting it here, in the very least as a backup measure (read: food security during an oil crisis).Promoted or not, the change from grass-powered to gas-powered agriculture over the last century has not rendered teamsters officially extinct in the U.S. Draft power might even be described as experiencing its own small renaissance in North America. Today, an estimated 400,000 people are using horses or mules on farms in the U.S. and Canada, about 170,000 of whom are Amish.

Photo courtesy of I & J Manufacturing

To ask the people who are farming with horses today the simple question “why?” is to invite a litany of responses ranging from environmentally righteous, to deeply personal, to old-fashioned practical. Ubiquitous among most teamsters is the love of horses, but also: to make a living; because oil wells aren’t bottomless; to reduce soil compaction; because draft animals give you infinitely flexible and recombinant raw horsepower; for the unbeatable smell of leather harness and horse sweat; for homegrown fertility; because engines wear out but equines replace themselves; to bring ingenious farm implements back to useful life; for the gentle jingle of trace chains and the quiet whir of ground-driven mowers; to steward land well; and because—in the words of one unapologetic (wagon) bumper sticker—“every farm needs a team.”Driving two tons of horseflesh with hooves the size of dinner plates right where you need it—which is between the rows of tender cabbage, not on top of them—is an art. To learn to harness, hitch, gee, haw, whoa, back, step, harrow, rake, mow, plow, disc, and cultivate builds a unique muscle memory into your hands and body, and to go from awkward to intuitive on the lines is a slow process. It takes guidance from an experienced teamster and years of practice.It also means disregarding the cultural judgments that surface around the decision to use draft animals. To pick farming as a career is one thing, but when you add two words “with horses,” heads start to turn—sometimes in amazed curiosity or wistful nostalgia, but more often in critical disbelief. As a puzzled neighbor so unapologetically put it when he learned of my own plans to farm with a team: “Draft horses? Why in the world would you want to go backwards?” By that, I’m pretty sure he was referring to Webster’s fourth dictionary entry for backwards: “representing a return to a previous or less advanced, and usually less satisfactory, state.”All of these factors contribute to why Eric Pond is having a hard time finding people to drive his horses at Greenleaf. Fortunately for him, with the resurrection of interest in draftpower it’s getting easier to become schooled in the teamster craft. There are now workshops where you can get your hands on the lines under the tutelage of master teamsters, a growing library of how-to books, and an expanding calendar of driving clinics, field days, and swap meets that give bustling testimony to the fact that horsefarming is indeed alive and well in the U.S., and that draftpower can be at once possible, practical and profitable.Of course it takes good farming practices—not just a team of horses—to realize such rewards, but the modern horsefarming movement pushes back on the Luddite image surrounding draftpower. It also gives reason to ponder the radical notion that perhaps the horizon-to-horizon fields of this season’s federally subsidized corn harvest—destined for net zero ethanol plants, feedlots, and fast food—might not represent a “more advanced and more satisfactory state.” It’s a blasphemous notion in the American tradition of cheaper-bigger-faster-better, but to watch Eric Pond sight down the tongue between two steady horses, quietly cultivating a riot of berries, is to wonder if backwards is, in fact, part of the way forward.

Corn planting and a new Foal

Plant is by far one of the fun things to do at this time of year on the farm. Working in the soil is exhilarating. Of all the plants that we are putting in none is more important to David than corn. David is a corn fanatic. If he hasn't eaten some kind of corn in a day it is a great surprise to the rest of us. So with 1000 or so seeds of early spring luscious corn sprouted and 300 or so seeds of painted mountain corn along with foretex beans, radishes, and several types of squash me headed out. The corn is planted in 100 foot or so rows set about 3 feet apart. The planting of corn starts a bit off the edge of the field so that squash can be sowed in a line front of the corn planting. I joined this operation after my morning chore of moving the irrigation pipes on the far top hill field. At this point about 4 rows had been sown and I joined in covering up seeds as they were laid in the furrow. We had made it to the 7th or 8th row when Lisa who was working with Willa out in the flat field cultivating came to the fence. "David, Beth is having her baby." Beth has been our must expecting mare and what morning she had shown waxing, a drop of colostrum on her utter, so we knew she would be soon. Corn planting was temporarily suspended and everyone headed down to the dry pen to help out. Beth had had a filly and was licking her down when we arrived. We set to moving the other horses out which prove problematic. Gale one of young fillies who was in the pen refused to be moved out being to interested in the new foal. After much horse way and antics we got her into a small shelter and tied the door shut. We had decided by this point that is was going to be easier to move Beth and her new born into the round pen. Before all of this though David gently milked Beth for some colostrum and fed it to the new foal. We move them to the round pen and milked Beth again and we all sat outside the round pen watching the two horses for a while. It was decided then that the new foals name would be Maizie since see had come during corn planting. We all return to the work that we had been doing before but before we went to lunch we all return to look at Maizie. She was tired from all of the hard work she had done walking on her new legs. She was circling her mom as if looking for the spot where gravity affect her most. It looked as thought she had found it but as new of an experience as walking was laying down was a even newer one. She had one, two, three circles around her spot be for softly collapsing to the ground and falling to sleep.

The Round Pen

The round pen is the greatest tool that a human has for working with a horse. Now you might thing that circle made of steel tubing 8 or so feet high is a rather dull sight and it is. What makes the round pen so important is how it allow you to interact with a horse you want to train. Horses are herd animals and in their herds there is a hierarchy. This hierarchy is established by running. When one horse feels that another horse is challenging it it will chase the horse out of the herd to reestablish its dominance. In the round pen a person can have the same interaction with a horse. Because of the pens shape the horse is made to run in a circle. The person who is training will work with the horse, something as simple as touching it or getting close or as challenging as harnessing and foot work, and the horse is make to run when it being stubborn or not making attention. There are two key signs that can be observed after running a horse to tell it accepts you as the alpha. One is chewing and the other is if it turns its head to face you. The relative attention a horse is giving you can be judge by where its ears are. If at least one ear is fix fast on you while you are talking or moving then you have the horses attention. Round pen work usually progresses slowly but when the breakthrus happen it is amazing. 

Harrowing

The spike tooth harrow is a devilish looking tool. It is made up of rows of sharp spikes about 3 feet long set 6 or 8 inches from one another in about 8 or 10 rows. Two of these square boxes of joined together by a long bar which also holds a set of chains that connects to a double tree which in turn connects to the horse. Recently I got my first try on this tool. Any lesson that begins with "now be careful this thing can take your leg off it is catches you" grabs one attention. It also adds a bit of nervousness  to the equation of driving. David explained to be what to do and what to be careful for and then I made my first pass. The harrow worked great breaking up the clogs of dirt and making the cultivated soil into a fine seed bed. Then however it was time to turn. It is important when turning a tool such as a harrow which does not have tongue that keeps at distance with horse to not step the horses over to quickly as they can step into the sharp teeth of the tool. I made just such a mistake at my first turn. lucky everything was alright, with Davids help I was able to step Sunny out of the harrow without injuring her. I figured at this point my lesson was over but David had me go again. This time I got the turn right and made another pass. I made many more passes that day and at the end I felt that I had learn a critical piece of driving skill and a large piece of respect for the tool.

Hot Spring

After many exhausting days of work on the farm nothing is better than a day off. Unless it’s a day off spent at the hot spring. Last Monday was such a day. Willia, Lisa, Rain and I all drove out with canoe to the local reservoir. There we unload the canoe and or lunches and cast off paddling to the other side where the hot spring is located. We had good fortune, as the spring was empty. The spring itself is an interesting sight. Water from a water fall is transported via a flexible rubber pipe to at can best be described as a small steamy cave where the water heats p and is send via another rubber pipe to a rock tub that looks to have been cut out of the ground. The tub has a pug at the bottom that drains into the stream that runs from the waterfall. A second tube runs from this creek supplying cold water if it is so desired, so in effect the tub has both hot and cold. While not foul smelling the spring water is loaded with sulfur and calcium salts. So we intrepid relaxers did what we had to. We plugged the tub and let the hot water pour in. We did what we had to soaking in the tub for hours while eating nuts, fruit, chocolate and other lunch treats before declaring our selves fully relaxed. At this point we pull the plug and sent the water wooshing down the creek. We set back to our canoe paddled to our cars and drove home. A grand time was had by all.

Dear Readers

I know that its been a since I last posted. Rest assured that several post are either finished, good ideas, or partly completed. so I leave you with this. There is a saying in Halfway "only fools and newcomers can predict the weather". Two weeks ago it was winter and snowing, two days ago it was warm and spring, today it is hot and dry and summer, and five or so days from now a fool named Yahoo says it will be spring again and raining. I find it best just to live in the weather and not predict it.

Taking a moment to look up

4/29/08

Some how in the dramatic beauty of the Pine Valley where Horsepower Organics is located it is possible, as I have discovered, to miss one of its finer beauties simply by not lifting ones head. There is plenty to see from the snow covered mountain that form the bowl of rock and green pine that frames and gives the valley its name. The green pastures with their horses and cattle graze, moving, playing. The sight of 20 some 2000 pound beautiful Belgian horses running a full gallop, kicking and jumping shaking their manes and tails. The gentle silence of the falling snow and the clean blanket of white power in the early morning. The suckling of a young colt and the admiring look of the mare that birthed him. The smiles laughs and chuckles of farmers young and old. And yet when the day is done and the head low with exhaustion and relief it is at this time that one the greatest beauties can be missed. As I raise my head into the night sky of Halfway Oregon I can not help but feel that twinkling of the distant stars is the winking of the divine looking down on my letting me know that I’m on the right path. The night sky is but the reflect of all the days beauty and joy wrapped into distinct points. With so many stars in this remote country it’s hard to believe that one can walk to bed and miss them entirely.

A slow morning and a busy afternoon

4/27/08

When I woke up this morn I didn’t feel all that well. The alarm kept going off but I didn’t get up. At some point it gave up trying. It seems the Sisters cold had finally reached me after its roundabout journey from Deborah to David. So I slept. To be honest it felt great to. Deborah and Willa came by my trailer with some water at round 11:30 and a short time later I got up and dress and moved to the house.  Game of cards was being played and a list of things to do was on the table. I asked if we were still on foal watch and learned that we were still waiting for both Stella and Misty to have their foals. S everyone finished up their game of cards and headed for work I headed to the kitchen and then the phone to call my sweetheart. Rain and I were just settling into the rhythm of good conversation when Lisa came into the house panting. I asked if anything was wrong and she replied in quick gasps “Stella…is foaling…” That was all I needed to hear I quickly explained to Rain and said good-bye garbed my shoes and ran for the round pin. When I arrived Stella was lying on her side and a newborn filly was sit next to her. The birth had been hard on Stella and she had needed help at the end. Not a moment later Lisa arrived with the much-needed supplies of olive oil, a clean glass and a syringe. David gently milks the Stella’s utter saving the precious drop of colostrums in the glass jar before handing the jar to Lisa who fills and hands he syringe back to David. David carefully feeds this first precious meal to the new filly. Soon Stella is back on her hoofs and bounding with her newborn. We all watch the as the new filly makes her first attempts and are all amazed at her hungry when she latches onto her moms utter. With the excitement behind us we all settle into doing some work. Not 30 or 45 minutes later we (apprentices) hear Deborah’s call for help in the dry pin.  We come running to discover that Misty too now has foal and that her newborn colt is on the other side of the electric fence that Deborah has hastily knocked down. Working together Willa and I help the colt to his feet and walk him to his mom and lead them both out of the dry pin and into a near by covered stall. There we introduce mother and foal to a host of knickers and whines from both. Willa and I still supporting the colt at this point guide the young one to mothers backside where he can access her utter. He had a hard time of it at first and what a jump that Misty gave when he finally hatched on but he soon had the right idea. As we finished out the day there was a sort of happy high that filled us all. The new colt is named Nick, and the new filly April. They are both healthy, active, and smart and enjoy their new found life.

A lazy day, The must fun you can have at low speed, and an unpleasant surprise

4/25/08 

It seemed by all accounts that today was going to be a lazy day. I woke up late and was in the house eating breakfast at 7:35 rather then 7 sharp. David left to teach Friday school (there are only 4 regular days of school here M-Th) around 8. Not sure of what to do or perhaps preferring our slow pace Lisa and I mused about reading and working at the computer. Deborah came up around 8:30 or 9 and gave us some helpful ideas and set to getting her self ready to give a organic gardening talk to a group of Mormons in town. All of our heel dragging now completed Lisa and I walked down the hill to work on the wagon. We had brought with us a drill bit we figured and hope would be the right size. It was not. We both knew now that we had only a few options left and the one that we universally didn't want to do was fix fence. That decided Lisa head back to the garden to planting out some onion starts and I set to work mulching garlic in the flat field. Two long rows of garlic later Lisa joined me at the flat field and we finish a row more each. About this time we were both hungry and head up for lunch and more musing. No sooner had we entered the door then I spotted a drill bit of the right size. As our lunch came to a close Deborah came home and we all agreed that we best plant out more onions and put the wagon off for a bit. Lisa and set for the garden with two trays of onions, Red Star and Walla Walla. Working together we quickly and easily planted and watered them in. Finished it was back to the wagon as Deborah set off to pick up David in town. Once again the wagon presented problems as it seemed a drill bit was either just long enough or more likely to short. We decided to press on anyhow but soon found or selves short of a much need second clamp. No sooner had we become frustrated then the car pulled up and David came out and help get us back on track and moving. We were making good progress when we both became distracted by Deborah working with Stella (horse) in the round pin. We moseyed over and got a lesson in equine behavior, common birthing problems, and training technique. With sun now sinking it was time to feed and David called me to the manger. "Step in to the reins" he said, much to my surprise today it seem was to be my first day at driving the team. At first I was decidedly nervous but took a deep breath and follow Davids directions. At first things were difficult as the way a team is driven varies from a single a far bit, but as we progress up the hill I gained a little confidant. David and I switched driving for backing into the barn which might be described as several magnitude harder than your first three point turn in drivers ed. We loaded hay and I drove us back down the hill the reins became easier to manage and the horses seems comfortable with my driving. I felt in that moment as we started to around the bend for he finally downhill a great sense of exhilaration, this was a lot of fun! The must fun I'd ever had at low speeds. As we headed down the final hill it was clear that ever horse in the herd had escaped into a neighboring pasture. We went in a dropped food all the same but less as usual, "there will be hungry horses here tomorrow". We head back to the manger to unharness the and feed in the dry pin. As Lisa and I feed in the dry pin we heard Deborah yell "Flat field" and turned to  discover that the herd had moved out of pasture and towards the many rows of garlic. We bolted for the field to head off the herd leaving the feed behind. Turning the herd and shooing them back to the feeding pasture was exciting and distracting, it was simply amazing to watch 20 some huge horses run in a herd. The move completed I walked the fence with Lisa to find where they had gotten. A wide open gate seemed the must obvious. I then walked the remaining line of the gate to check for breaks and finished the feeding on my walk back to the house. Waiting for us was a warm dinner of ravioli, salad, and pumpkin and coconut soup that Francis and Minden had prepared. It was the perfect way to way to end a lazy and exciting day.      

A Surprise at feeding

4/21/08

Ernie is a newborn colt here at the farm. I think that he is about 10 day old or so. Lisa describes him as being special as he is a bit slow at learning the being a horse game. Today as we went out to feed the main herd we couldn’t spot him. Lisa saw him first but it wasn’t until we got to the gate that either David or I saw him. He was lying on his side in nearly the same spot as the day before. As we made our circle in the pasture depositing hay for the horses to eat we stopped near Ernie so that David could check on him. After rousing him David looked him over and was rather pleased with the body and coat he had put on. Lisa and I were quick to notice though that he was limping on one of his right front leg. This is where the ordeal began. David set to work removing Misty’s halter and gathering Sunshine Ernie’s mother. After which David and I lifted Ernie up on the wagon and David inspected the leg and determined that it was likely his shoulder that was hurt. It was my job to hold Ernie down without touching is front leg while Lisa drove the wagon and David lead Sunshine to the round pin.   Ernie was none to happy with the situation and didn’t like being held down one bit. I’d never felt time pass so slow as I lay on that horse with gentle pressure. Every time that we would hit a bump in the road Ernie would spook a bit and I would have to hold him down tight. The little guy had a look of fear in his eye the whole time. At several times he nearly got away from me put I held him as best I could and only had to readjust him with David’s help once. During the slow drive to the round pin I kept telling him to stay calm and that it would be over soon but I never seemed to convince him.  When we finally got to the round pin David lead in Sunshine and then moved Ernie in with her. I set to work feeding the horses in the dry pin as David set out water and hay for Sunshine and Ernie and Lisa unhooked Misty and Beth for the night. We have gone all we can do for the little colt for no. The vet will be by on Thursday but I will feel wrenched up inside for that little colt.  

4/22/08

It was decided today that Ernie’s shoulder is broken and there is no remedy for him.  Deborah put him down after we finished feeding today. 

A quick note

There are no pictures on this blog... yet.

Being on dial up internet is something of a relearning experience for me and need less to say the smallest size photo my camera can take will still take 30 minutes to upload. There is hi-speed at the local library but I  don't have any plans to go into town for a while. So the pictures will be here... soon.

About the journey

Getting here to Oregon was no boring trip.

It all started with my departure from Santa Cruz and my last breakfast with Rain. I miss Rain a lot being here but we talk a on the phone and she will be here in 2 weeks. After breakfast we said or goodbyes and set off in opposite directions. I drove for my parents house in Rohnert Park and made good time taking only a little over 2 hours to get there. Here I unpack, repacked, washed clothes,spent time with my parents and even rested some. The next morning I was on the road by 7:30 and head for Sisters Oregon. In no time at all I was on the I-5. Like the portion I had driven in Southern California earlier in my life there wasn't anything to see here. I turn on my cell phone ear piece and called an old friend Craig Emerson. Now Craig and talk from time to time but more recently with my work and his school our exchanges seemed to almost terminate. But with few distracts and a lot of time on both our hands we talked for hours updating each other, debating, and laughing. My conversation with Craig took me clear pass Redding for we finally said good bye to one another. I well energized to have reconnected with such an old friend and I motored on Oregon. The rest of the trip through California was uneventful and with the highway as my home I was left to my thoughts. They drifted back and forth between excitement and nervousness and then back again. I seem locked in the pendulum swing as I drove up through Klamath Lake when it was broken by a large bald eagle sitting on a power pole as if saying "Welcome to Oregon take it easy". From then on I just focus on my excitement. As I got closer to Bend I encountered something I had not considered...SNOW. Being unable to change the weather I pressed on and made it to the Small Farmers Journal Auction around 5 or 6. I walked the rodeo grounds and looked at the various pieces of equipment that had not yet been taken home by their new owners and take photos. I stopped into the auction tent for a while and watched as carts, wagons, and coaches were sold. I then went and got dinner in town. At this pointed I faced a dilemma. I had brought camping gear but it was ill suited to snow so some what bitterly I agreed to be gouged into a hotel room with two queen beds. In hindsight it was the right choice if for nothings else then for the shower. The next morning I returned to the Auction for a while and watch the beginning of the horse portion. To be honest it was a bit discouraging every time a draft horse was brought into the tent it fetched a low price and a non-draft type a high one. Just as disappointment set in so did a near white out snow storm. It seemed like nature was sending me omens and I got to the car and headed for Halfway. THe drive was long and beautiful and about halfway thought I was grace by another bald eagle this on in flight as if tell me I just need to keep going. And so I did. Around 6 or 7 I had arrived at the Maders. They were just about to feed their horses so I jumped on the wagon and helped. The journey was over I had made it.

I have arrived

Yesterday.

After several days of driving, snow, and high gas prices (although it is about 50 cents cheaper in Oregon) I have arrived at Halfway. The town is small and I'm no where near it. The Mader family with whom I am apprenticing were working on bagging up alfalfa leaf for a 3900 pound or so order when I arrived, which we have finished up today. I've been here just less then a day but every thing is amazingly beautiful both the land and the horses which are also very large. My first exposure to them for going out to feed the main herd of about 30 or more. David (Mader) and Lisa (apprentice) had loaded a wagon with loose and baled alfalfa hay. Lisa hitched Misty and Beth (two of the working Belgian mares) to the wagon and we set out for the field. When we arrive David opened the fence and Lisa drove in. It was my job to scare the horse away from the wagon as we came in so that they would not steal the baled hay from the wagon. I was of course not totally sure how to do this and in the process of keeping the horse back managed to knock the bales off for them. After scaring them away from the bales and getting back on the wagon with David we drove in a circle spreading the hay on the ground as the herd trailed behind us and spread out as each horse found a patch of food that it found suitable. After that we dropped some bales for the horse in the dry pin (I'm not sure why they are kept separate yet. but this seems to be where the working horse are kept) and then unhitched the team and took out the harness and took them back to the dry pin. After that we head to the house for dinner and I did a little bit of unpacking into a trailer with it seems will be my new living quarters. After that I sleep some and got up this morning and set to helping with the bagging of the alfalfa leaf. Lisa and I have been working on mulching the garlic with the alfalfa stems and it looks good. Thats all for now but there will be more to come.