Farmer Ed

If you have the acreage for the horses to run on and you gradually work the horses on hard surfaces over time horse's hooves will become hardened to walking on rocky roads and pavement.  Besides it being better for the horse, you save on the farrier which costs around $200 to shoe a team and they need to be shod several times a year.  We have never trimmed these horses but have worked them gradually on the different road types.  We learned about barefoot horse care on the INTERNET.

 Here are some pics of how our draft horses have adapted.  

Here is hoof that is well on the way to having the mustang roll i.e. the outer wall of the hoof on the bottom starts to round off 

Here is what they look like today notice the hoof is pretty short and outer wall of the hoof in rounded off nicely in the toe.

The sole of the hoof is very hard now and they can go down rocky roads and pavement with no discomfort.

Had a good time at farmers market Saturday morning... sold out!  Had some new veggies to sell cantaloupe, egg plant and tomatoes.  In the afternoon we hauled old hay to the far garden to mulch tomatoes, egg plant and peppers.  Everyone enjoyed the work... even Bess our dog. 

 The Remnant, the Pareto Principle and You

This week's theme: Survival +
June 26, 2008

http://www.oftwominds.com/blog.html 

Smart people are just doing what they think is right and good, which includes being skeptical of the received "wisdom" of the media and government pronouncements/propaganda, trying to avoid the financial vortex which is pulling down the non-elites (and maybe a few elites, too), living lighter, cheaper, better lifestyles away from the stomping masses of the Consumption Is Our True God mainstream, working to improve the soil of a patch of earth, and a thousand other projects and interests.

If anything characterizes the Remnant, it is skepticism, a disdain for pomp and aggrandizement, and an awareness that doing with less is actually a happier, more fulfilling life than Always Chasing Bigger and More in the Public Eye.

Honey display 

Nice looking yellow squash... he sold out in short order. 

This is the 1st year that we have had chestnuts... trees were planted about 3 years ago. 

The burr looking things are the chestnut pods that will have usually more than 1 chestnut. 

Oklahoma isn't known as a blueberry producing state but if the southern varieties are planted they do just fine.

Berries are about the size of a dime when ripe

Bushes are pretty loaded 

These trees grow profusely along roadsides and in wood lots in Oklahoma.
 
Here is some interesting info about the trees
 
http://soapnuts.wordpress.com/
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapindus

Looking forward to making some soap...  I read in an article that a guy made some soap in a blender and for weeks afterword he had a head on his margaritas that wouldn't quit 

We have 1 colony of bees that started hard and fast early in the spring and hasn't slowed down since... the bottom 2 boxes are the bees home and the top 4 boxes are where they are making honey for us. Those 4 boxes represent 120 honey bears of honey which we sell for $3.00 ea at the farmers market. Needless to say, I talk real nice to this colony. 

Here is a colony that we started from scratch this spring...  To start a colony you take some frames of bees, eggs etc and put them into a new box the bees will make their own queen and if everything goes right you can make a box of honey the very 1st year.   As you can tell we make all the boxes ourselves from plywood and need to purchase very few things for our apiary.

Went on a 6 mile wagon ride with the horses and then disked the garden...  As far as I can tell disking is about the best weed control there is

1st thing to do when taking the harness off is get the horses halters back on....  Must always have control over the team

Rosie unharnessing the one of the team...  The 4 kids can get the job done in a matter of minutes.