Beautyway Horselogging

Heckuva Start to the Season

noreply@blogger.com (Marco) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 16:57:00 +0000

We loaded up the sled at the top of the hill near the folks' new house, and headed out on the the freshly groomed snowmobile trail, and I knew we had some trouble as soon as we hit the first soft spot.

Jack and Julie don't have any trouble pulling what amounts to their own weight or even more, on a trail, or even through a foot of snow, unless their feet start breaking through the frozen surface into the mud, and where there's running water from springs and creeks, or swampy areas where there's standing water in mossy soil. Even long after freeze-up, that "post-holing" can be real hard on them when pulling a load. Likewise in the spring, when water starts to run under a frozen trail that's thawing, it can get dangerous for the horses the same way.

I could see right away that there were such spots, but what I didn't know was that where we were headed, the power company had been out rooting around all summer with their big trucks and heavy equipment in the cedar swamp, clearing the right-of-way and installing poles on the power-line, and I had no idea that there was a snow-covered section of rutted-up mud that was completely un-frozen.

When the rear set of runners sank down in the mud, the reach broke, which is the connector between the front and rear set of runners. The journey continued past that point only because the runners and the bunks on top of them are loosely connected by the hay rack itself. When we got to the top of the hill about a hundred yards from home, the swing-bunk split out and the whole front end of the running-gear came out. The front end of the hay rack, with its whole load of people dropped down in the snow. I jumped down off the driver's seat which I suddenly had to leave, jumping over the foot-board, down onto the trail to follow the team, turn and stop them on the side of the trail.

As I began un-hitching them from the eveners, tongue and yoke, I announced the end of the ride to the passengers, who scurried down the trail and declined the offer of campfire and cocoa which awaited them on the way to their van. I had rides scheduled for the next Tuesday and Thursday, but I knew that this was a major repair that would be required, so I canceled the Tuesday rides right away.

First there was a little excursion with the welcome help of Grant (who seemed to be a glutton for such punishment) and the ever-available-when-needed-most dear Solveig to jack up the rack and lash the broken bunk to the stringers under the rack. We tried pulling the empty sled home with two snow machines hitched like horses, but the tracks on those just spun. I went out and pulled it in with the team next day. I dug up the 25 year-old 6X6 white oak timbers I had still covered with a plastic tarp and a foot and a half of snow already at home. I hewed out a new tapered swing-bunk five feet long to fit up with the bearing-plate and four 1-1/2 inch pegs with through-bolts, as well as a new 3x6"x 4' reach. The reach had to be notched, bolted and glued at a right angle onto the roller, also made of wood, which holds the rear runners 4' apart and is fastened to the runners by means of a 3/4"x 10" pin with a hole drifted out in the end of it for a keeper-bolt which goes through the roller. I built the new reach first, using the old pieces of the broken one for a pattern, and that took a couple of eight-hour days. As the repairs progressed, I saw that I needed to cancel the two or three rides already booked for Thursday evening. That cost money, as well as the time and materials the repairs cost.

Christmas Eve, a day I had planned to take off, came and went with work in and out of the Cascade garage. Christmas Day, I made the campfire in time to put the kingpin which had a bend in it from the accident in there to soak while I tracked the trail down with a snow machine. The kingpin is a 1-1/8"x 10" steel pin upon which the swing-bunk swivels as the runners and beam turn beneath them. Everything was ready, and I was able to drop the rack back down on the running gear at five minutes after four. Then I realized I had forgotten to notch out the swing-bunk for passage of the pins that stick up from the runner-knees. So I crawled underneath the rack, and standing both myself and the chainsaw on our heads, I was able to cut the notches out. By 4:30, I was ready to hitch the team, get the cocoa, and maybe a bite to eat before a full schedule of three Christmas night rides.
(You can read some more of this gripping narrative if you want to, but you'll probably have to wait until I write it in my next post)

Nothing Like Sleigh Rides

noreply@blogger.com (Marco) — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 19:01:00 +0000

Yep, there's nothing like a hundred sleigh rides or so to get a team of horses in the groove. It just gives them a good routine. Jack and Julie performed beyond my expectations throughout an easier- and harder-than-usual season. Easier in terms of the location and organization, harder in terms of weather and conditions, and talk about breakdowns, wouldja!?

First ride of the year, on December 20th, with the down-through-the woods section of the trail not yet sufficiently widened, we went out on the power line (which was cleared, but bumpy, very wet, with some stumps and logs and rocks scattered about) even with eight inches of snow on top of a month of frost (should have been a foot of frozen ground there--it was everywhere else), with fifteen people from Bluefin Bay, to break the trail. You might be able to chalk this one up to lack of preparation. Maybe I should have gone out with the empty sled and tracked the trail down the day before, so that it could freeze down at night and all, but because of, and perhaps in spite of the fact that I didn't leave myself enough prep time, the first disaster of the season occurred.

The beginning of the season is always just as tentative and hard to schedule as the end. My usual rule, based on years of experience, is that I have to have 12 inches of snow accumulation to cushion the uneven ground on any unimproved woodland trail to permit the passage of horse and sleigh. On this day, we'd had a total of eight. The real busy season for sleigh rides here centers and is pretty much limited to the twelve days of Christmas. If you can't go out then, there'll only be a few riders (which are primarily daytime skiers here) later, when it's colder (and the snow is deeper maybe).

We rushed to get the sleigh ready with a tail-light wired on for visibility on the snowmobile trail I was borrowing, and all the other loose ends that needed tying up, with the help of Dale Jackson, the main(tenance) man at Cascade Lodge, who upon the horses' arrival, was with Michael O'Phelan, Cascade's Owner, nailing the sheathing on the barn (my heroes!) Sally from LTTA, the Lutsen Tofte Tourism Agency, the entity who booked my rides and paid me to do them, dropped off some lap blankets. I sent a new friend (that would be Grant who I had met the day before at North House) down to the restaurant to do the impossible task of walking up the hill with a five gallon Igloo cooler full of hot cocoa, I turned the sleigh around and drove up the steep hill, we loaded the folks on board, and off we went.

This story continues after I go feed the horses, maybe, or soon thereafter.

Jack is a Star, continued...

noreply@blogger.com (Marco) — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 00:40:00 +0000

So Jack had been to visit the Amish folks in Neillsville, Wisconsin last winter. and when Solveig finally got me talked into driving him this fall, he and Julie ran into the woods the first time we tried switching Julie to the left side, which freaked her out as much as Jack. She’d always worked on the right side of Bessie before. Luckily that time they didn’t break anything, but boy I tell you what, that’s when I’ll have my first heart attack. I hate the runaways.

Then over to Donny’s, who lives across and down the road a quarter mile from the pasture at Betsy’s. We put in a few two-hour sessions, driving the new team (not far) down the road, with local motor traffic alerted to the potential for disaster, and with the Fearless Finlander (who’s never worked with horses before) holding their halters when I hooked up logs, we managed to get a few drags out each day. However, one day when I set the lines down to hook a log up they took off in spite of Donny’s steadfast halter-holding, and ran across the landing. Thankfully they went on either side of a spruce stout enough to stop them, exploding the team lines into four pieces, stopping when they hit the eveners. At least I didn’t have to run all the way home to Betsy’s. This time they got a spankin’. I tied them to a tree in their accustomed parking place and drove home, an hour round trip, to get the new set of lines I got with the harness, but never used. Then we made a couple more drags before taking them home. That’s about all I got done with them before they had to go to Cascade for sleigh rides.

The ground had frozen about a foot deep, and it waited long enough (the middle of December) before it started to snow. I got the sleigh loaded and hauled on the flatbed, went back and got the team (it’s only five miles down the hill from Betsy’s to Cascade) hauled down and fenced in just before dark. It snowed a lot the next day, my lucky day, getting the team hauled the day before the roads were no longer dry.
Something else had to go wrong since the hauling didn’t, and this time it was the horses. It was dark and they wouldn’t settle. Usually a couple-three hours is enough so you you know they’ll stay in a new enclosure, so long as they aren’t alone. Even though I walked them around and showed them the wire when I turned them loose in there, they kept looking over to the West like they wanted out there. Then when I was standing by the gate, also on the west side, Julie of all people, who should be better at this, came right toward me, stretching the gate wire across her chest. I slapped her lips with the gloves in my hand, and she backed off. I had hoped to head home before that happened, but it was looking more and more like I’d have to stay there and make sure to catch them before they got to the highway, even if I had to sleep in the pickup. Jack just kept standing in the northwest corner looking like he wanted to check out the west fourty.
I humbly took my hat in my hand and asked if I could pitch my sleeping bag (which I had fortuitously forgotten in the cab last summer) on the floor of the proprietor’s home. Michael and Maureen, who had formerly been my mere acquaintances, invited me in and gave me their homebrew to take the edge off, while I rose occasionally to look out the window or step out onto the deck and see if the horses had made their break. I slept in the lower level room of one of the daughters, where I could sneak out and water and check on them, which I did at 1:30 and 4:30 A.M. without incident... and so did they finally settle there on the lovely banks of a feeder stream near the mouth of the great Cascade River, for their winter of hauling tourists around. (To Be Continued again...)

Jack is a Star

noreply@blogger.com (Marco) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 21:49:00 +0000

Fast forward through something like 75 sleigh rides at Cascade Lodge for the Lutsen Tofte Tourism Association (office in Tofte). I'll have to do a total count when the season ends. Everything about it has been great, especially the ponies, except that the sleigh has broken down majorly three times, causing me to cancel a total of 17 rides already booked, and a few more than the usual for cold weather. The first ride of the season, we attempted to go out in eight inches of snow, in spite of my admonition that I had to have twelve on the ground. The season had arrived, the people were signed up. We'd had three or four weeks of cold weather, probably a foot of frost in the ground, and I figured we'd be O.K.

Well, we weren't exactly going to be O.K. (at least not in the usual sense of the abbreviation.) There was the usual last-minute scramble getting the sleigh and horses delivered, the shelter for the team framed up and sheeted by Michael and Dale just as Jack and Julie arrived at three in the afternoon, two hours before dark.
Dale jumped off the barn project and helped me string wire and hang insulators. What do you mean, "How come I didn't do that before I brought the horses..." I got the team unloaded, brought them into their winter yard, and led them all the way around the fence. Last winter, Jack stayed at the Amish farm in Wisconsin last winter for about five weeks with a bunch of other horses, but since I bought him in '01, he'd never been anywhere but Betsy's. Julie had been to Bloomington camping with Bess and stayed and worked by the Lutsen Golf Course like three winters before. (In my usual serially interrupted fashion, I shall continue this narrative forthwith.)

Jack Doesn't Seem to Know Jack

noreply@blogger.com (Marco) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 03:16:00 +0000

I'm a little disappointed, because now after two harrowing sessions and two or three skidding sessions with Solveig, and now two sessions with Donny Lehto (admittedly just a couple of hours each time) it's just now that I feel like Jack is driving well enough not to think he's gonna screw up and wreck something. He really doesn't seem to like standing still (do they ever?). I'm mostly disappointed in the job of starting him that that Amishman in Wisconsin seems to have (not) done when he had him down there last winter for a month. That wasn't really worth $350.00 that time, I don't think.

Thanks to Donny Lehto, we just had a couple of blow-ups with Jack going forward ten feet before he decided to quit. Today he managed to turn around the tree we had him tied to, and bend the forecart tongue quite badly. I really couldn't be working him without help yet. I'm just so glad that Donny was willing to help me skid the wood on his own project. He gets to have it done (until it goes better) for free, but it helps me out getting Jack trained.

They really drive pretty well down the road, though. I think they'll do alright on the sleigh, and I really like the sense of control you have when you teach them to stop and start and stop and stand and get around and get over and come back and stand and start like they have to while skidding.

It all just reminds me how much of what a horse is worth is what he knows...and he doesn't know Jack until somebody hitches him up and drives him.

Omos Weddy Go?

noreply@blogger.com (Marco) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 17:26:00 +0000

(Almost ready to go?) --That's what my tiny son Charlie used to say when he was waiting for Marce and me to get organized to go somewhere. Preparation seems like half the trip some days. I'll be hauling the last horse trailer load of hay from Bloomquist's today. Young Kostya, Charlie's adopted Russian brother, plans to work with me and Jack and Julie this weekend over at Donny's. We might cut up the two deer down at Parents' in Shroeder tonight. All the hay is in at Cascade Lodge, around 170 small round bales. We just need some snow now...It has been nice for getting those 700 bales or so out of there with the balding tires on my pickup--not having snow yet, that is.
The ground froze up good, so I could get in across the field to where the hay-piles were in the woods, out of the wind. The lean-to tarp shelter at the farm is full--50' x 14.'

Handling all that hay makes me cough. Should be fun logging--and good for Jack and Julie getting ready for sleighrides. And that's a Beautyway to Go.

Back to Sleigh Rides

noreply@blogger.com (Marco) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 16:41:00 +0000

Professionally speaking, I haven't been up to much, except for skidding logs a couple of days with Jack, Julie, and dear Solveig, getting the hoss trailer stuck in the mud out at Bloomquist's going after hay. Thanks to Darrin B. for pulling me out with his skidder. Broke a piece off of the coupler that money can't buy, when I jackknifed the trailer. I need new tires on everything. It got cold finally, and now I'm running around mid-day when I'm not sitting and waiting for the deer to show up, trenching wires in at the farm and pounding posts at Cascade.

That's where we're hoping to do sleigh rides out on an old ski trail and back along the power line. I'll be keeping the horses up by the new house and garage up the hill a little from the Lodge. Lutsen Tofte Tourism Association is taking over booking of the rides and hiring me and my team. But first I hope to get Donny Lehto's trees skidded next door to the farm. Plenty to do...

Flour Lake WeeHuus

noreply@blogger.com (Marco) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 17:26:00 +0000

Went out last Thursday with Jimbo to Alan's cabin site to move the outhouse with the skidsteer. We also piled up a nice bunch of firewood bolts for his woodstove, from the clump of five or six nice popple trees we would have expected to smash the outhouse if we didn't. There was a pretty picture with Justin Case sitting there after we had finally placed the shitter on its foundation, and Jim stood smiling by. But the sun was going down, the camera was fifty yards away in the pickemup, and we hadn't eaten lunch yet, and there was more wood to pile. The sandwiches were great, with turkey and fresh lettuce and tomaters and fresh homemade salsa, and grey poupon them. Jim was great as a limber, and moved fast getting the wood up. We got a good day in there!

Hey! Rides!

noreply@blogger.com (Marco) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 14:17:00 +0000

Wagon rides with little ones on Good Harbor Hill--mission accomplished last weekend--see blog.marcogood.com

Wagons Ho!

noreply@blogger.com (Marco) — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 01:32:00 +0000

Today, Ray White helped me put together somewhat of a frame for the trailer I used in the fourth of July parade to make it usable for little kid wagon rides. First on Will Surbaugh's birthday, then with the little kids from Good Harbor Hill tentatively on Sunday. I'll switch the horses back to the old Bess on the left, Julie on the right way of doing things for safety's sake, even though I have the harness all adjusted for Jackie now. Anyhow we got the benches built out over the wheels on the old trailer, and I can hitch it to the forecart, so it'll go just like a wagon. Now all's I have to do is replace the floor.

And, oh yeah, the day before yesterday, I worked most of the afternoon across the driveway from Jim and Ray while they put the railing on the new deck at Betsy's, to build a rack for hauling the little round bales I get from John Bloomquist out to the pasture on a pallet with the skidsteer. I should be able to load out ten bales at a time with that. I still need to but the 1x boards on the inside face of it. I'll try to get some pictures of it and the "wagon" up soon.

A Harrowing Experience for Solveig

noreply@blogger.com (Marco) — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 19:49:00 +0000

Ok, so on my August 8 posting "Lots of Mud, Long Trail" I posted three pictures, somewhat awkwardly overlapped, which Randi sent me. That was fun.

Herewith is a picture of Solveig Vick, who at the age of 11 came to work with me at the Village Inn stable at Lutsen when I was managing their trail rides and sleigh rides, and since I quit doing that has herself been running Lutsen Mountain's horse business.

Here she is driving Jack and Julie, after we switched Julie over to the left side, and threw the harness on Jackie, her brother, who I sent to the Amish farm last winter for training. She was more freaked out by switching sides than he was by working. They are doing just fine, and now I hope to do some logging with them in the neighborhood and maybe some little kid "wagon" rides with Bess and Julie.

Harrowing

noreply@blogger.com (Marco) — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 01:37:00 +0000

Solveig harrowing

Beauty in Bloomington

noreply@blogger.com (Marco) — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 13:49:00 +0000

They sure do a nice job down there at the "River Rendezvous" at the Pond Dakota Mission History Park. The water from a faucet well hidden in the woods is 20 yards from the horse pen I put up after I arrived there at 8PM Sunday. Mark Morrison and his out-of-retirement helper Gordy run pretty hard making it happen. There was dry oak firewood there and covered. There was plenty of hay and straw under the tarp, and everybody was ready in time for the onslaught at 8:30 Monday. I was wrong about the 600 kids a day. It's more like 1500. I don't get them all at station D06 Logging. Usually each station gets 10-12 groups a day, from 20-45 in each group, at twenty minute intervals, ending at 3:00 or 3:30.

Betsy came and visited during our Monday sessions, and we even got to take in the presentation of the Silversmith, I missed his name, whose engagement of the kids was excellent. She got some pictures I hope to post soon with this blog. I'm hoping to figure that out soon, with David's help. I took my camera down there, but I sure didn't even shoot one! I always have trouble shooting and doing anything at the same time. It was great fun, but super-exhausting. Even with my nephew Billy's steadfast help all day and son Charlie and his girlfriend's dad Mark (a great guy) helping me take down the tent--the big ol' wall tent portable bunkhouse--I never got out of there until 6:30 Sunday night.

So now in the meantime, I was able with Davey's help to load some pictures of Betsy's and mine into my laptop (which will not work with our home system-thanks again WildBlue) so y'all will have to wait for them to be posted with this blog until I get another flash-drive to replace the one lost after Davey awarded me with it this spring...

It's raining today which allows me the "leisure" to enter this. Otherwise I would be sawing or putting mechanical tools into the new toolbox, or even possibly working on the new wooden boxes for in and out of the back of the pickup. Going to look at Donny Lehto's next door to the farm for some skidding that needs done there. I need to spend a day this week hauling out the boat-slide we built at Scott and Randi's. I do have some pictures of that on this computer. Maybe I could scan back to the construction of that here in the blog, and drop those pictures in?? Let's see.

Get Ready For Bleemington

noreply@blogger.com (Marco) — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 20:24:00 +0000

OK, yeah, so now it's sprinkling every ten minutes all day which makes it hard to be sawing. Maybe I need to rig a tarp and some poles for that. Seems like it's all tarps and poles these days. For the hay I'm rigging up a deal along Betsy's old power line spruce plantation for the little round Allis Chalmers bales from Bloomquist's. Pretty nice crop of hay this year there, onnacounta the big rain this spring and early summer.

600 kids a day go through the history park in Bloomington where they have a big rendezvous of historical craftspeople and demonstrators. That's the 15th-20th of Sept. this year. I have to bring an electric fence and tent and camping stuff, and just demonstrate skidding and let the kids pet the horses and fill them full of stories about Tom McGee and logging camp and the homestead in Eden Prairie and all that jazz. It's bright and shiny now, but wait until I fire up the mill...

The Wall-tent rigging project is kicking my ass. If it dries out for a couple days now, I probably be ready in time. Me and Hansen are cutting more poles tomorrow afternoon. That'll be fun.

Urban Forestry

noreply@blogger.com (Marco) — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 15:44:00 +0000

Well, that was fun, and a lot of work. I've started on a new career--Urban Forestry. Limbing project at the Hennessy residence, up the street from the Studio. No horses involved. (This little irridescent green hummybird is in a hurry to glean nectar from all the wild (touch-me-not?) orange flowers outside the window) There's more thinning of pine and Spruce behind the house yet to do, but a considerable mound of brush got strapped down on the flatbed and hauled out to the community burnpile. Mostly accomplished clearing the limbs off the four magnificent Norway Pines, up to a height of about twenty feet for the purposes of backhoe clearance, behind a retaining wall next to the street that's going to be re-plumbed, paved, sidewalked and curbed in a week or two. I used a pole-saw for most of it , but some of the larger limbs were six inches thick, so I also used a sixteen-foot ladder, and a one-hander Husqvarna which the Lonnie-Blaster was gracious enough to loan me. When you're reaching around the trunk, sometimes hanging on with the other hand, that's a pretty nice (essential even) tool to have. I'll probably be leaving the hazardous tree removal for the Big Boyz.

I really want to figure out how to do the photos on this blog. Davey will have to give me a lesson, because I don't have a clue. It's really nice to get feedback in person (if not so many comments) from folks who read this drivel occasionally, not mentioning any names, but his initials are Super Tom.

The Hovland boat-slide project is mere hours from completion. I set tie-down eyebolts in the rock with some special epoxy stuff from Superior Lumber and I reckon I'll be topping those off with mortar before I lash the middle (seasonal-semi-permanent) section down just in time to move it all up above the vegetation line for winter.

Running With No Router

noreply@blogger.com (Marco) — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 15:39:00 +0000

I can actually access my own Site with the router disconnected, when the sun is shining and there are no clouds in the sky; for now, anyway.

"Can't Find the Server."

noreply@blogger.com (Marco) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:10:00 +0000

Days went by with no response by email from WildBlue. First it was an attempt by Tikima to propose a fix to reconfigure the DHCP in my computer, then Jerlisa sent me a special "Thanks for choosing WildBlue." End of message. Then I got a little nasty and requested some real assistance. After three or four days, Aaron B. wrote to suggest that our technician who installed the router was at fault, because he should have known WildBlue would not work with a router, and should not have sold it to us and installed it. Is this interesting?

Aaron sent me two help links, both of which resulted in a screen that was entitled "Redirect Loop" which to me says that the WildBlue system cannot find help for itself. Still no progress. When I get disconnected on the phone with them, there is no way to re-establish contact with the person who was actually trying to help me solve their problem. Is this horselogging? Nope. This technology seems to be more and more inappropriate for me. Like my brother's pal who said, "I'm gonna get a website called "Leroy.com", and then I'm just gonna sit back and wait for the biggies to roll in!"

Still waiting. Stay tuned.

Wildblue Sucks Eggses

noreply@blogger.com (Marco) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 15:48:00 +0000

Just managed by the circuitous route of disconnecting our router to make a new entry in my blog here, though this is not germaine (sp) to the business of Beautyway. Router disconnected now, modem rebooted, still not able to access my own website from home, and was informed that WildBlue does not work with a router, or any way with multiple computers. "Sorry you've been having trouble, but we'll still be needing our $60 a month." I heard from an old horse friend that she made a comment on my blog, but I can't connect to that either. I wouldn't invest in this technology again. I wonder why they didn't tell Jeremy when he hooked up the router with them that it wouldn't work? Not a great way to run a railroad. Sorta like Sister Timmy's experience with Dell.

Hay and Spruce

noreply@blogger.com (Marco) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 14:29:00 +0000

I have to decide whether to use the spruce poles I cut and peeled for me for wall tents, which I probably will do, &/or go cut some more for a hay "shed" or tarp frame out at Betsy's. The hay is coming fast off the fields at Bloomquist's--the Allis Chalmers little round bales. Kostya--my son Charlie's Russian brother--who stays with us, actually came out last Sunday and helped me and John and Bert pick up all the hay on the field that was baled for a couple of hours. That was nice.

I think I must have about 15 25 footers left, but having peeled them a month ago, they might be too dry to bend well. I guess I'll just have to try...I'm thinking I could tie the two ends together, making semicircles out of them to make the quonset-style tarp frame.

While Marce & I were rowing North House's Norse Pram out of the harbor and around into the East Bay in flat-calm water under the most amazing sky toward sunset, I was reminded of the Thoreau quote my good friend Denny Ruud (dennisruud.com) honored me with in calligraphy, framed. It sits above my desk in the cabin that's too cluttered to use. It says "My thought is a part of the meaning of the world, and hence I use a part of the world as a symbol to express my thought." The part of the world I live and work in is just as disorganized as my thoughts must be. As Bill Arthur said, "Take a look at the inside of Marco's van. You'll know what the inside of his head looks like. Sometimes that seems hopeless to me. I seem to be powerless to improve that situation. Or maybe I could go out and pitch the wall tent, and start to transfer the contents of the cabin... but that's neither here nor there in regard to the so-called Beautyway. I should be musing on that in the Marcoblog. Crossover, that's the problem with organization. And Blogging is definitely not logging.

Lots of Mud, Long Trail

noreply@blogger.com (Marco) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 15:03:00 +0000

In a box with a hoe I was able to mix up 29 bags of Quickcrete and shoveled it into the form for the winch post on the boat slide yesterday. I had to haul 15 bags down before I started yesterday, and I was glad to get it mixed and poured. I think the pedestal I built for the automatic waterer at Betsy's last fall was about the same amount, but I used Hansen's mixer for that. It would have been hard to get the mixer down there for sure. I need to go today and see what hay there is to haul from Bloomquist's. I also need to build a tarp frame out at Betsy's.

Moving Hay and Forming Posts

noreply@blogger.com (Marco) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 15:58:00 +0000

Dog days of Summer are here. It's hot every day now. Way in the 70s. That's hot enough for me. Fishermen's Panic and "company" came and went. So did the play. I have to move all the big round bales up the hill to the hay lot next to Elisa's Garden. It was overcast this morning. John Bloomquist is making hay out along C.R. 14, and it needs to be hauled out to the Farm. I'm trying to picture a tarp frame for the little round bales I get from him this year.

I'm also hauling (wheelbarrow 155 yards, bag-on-shoulder 55 yards) 36 bags of Sacrete down the rocky trail on Great Spirit Rd. for the winch footer that Lenny Bloomquist at Hedstrom's made me a steel frame for. They oughtta be able to haul up anything that spruce pole boat slide can carry--and turn and haul both sets of racks past the vegetation line for winter.

Beauty My Ass

noreply@blogger.com (Marco) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 03:59:00 +0000

I can't view this blog or beautywayhorselogging.com just now. It's wierd because David gets it just fine. What the hell? Marco's Blog works OK.

Back to Spruce poles

noreply@blogger.com (Marco) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:22:00 +0000

Yesterday, I went back out to finish peeling the poles I had cut, and left two unpeeled. Today, I'm finally headed back up to Hovland to work on the boat slide some more. The winch is ready to mount, so I can build the post for hauling it in. I'd like to post a picture with this blog that I got from Jennifer Fenwick from the Saddle Club, but have not figured that out yet. This is all very interesting and challenging, but it doesn't get the work done. Gotta figure out how to teach this computer to run a powersaw, eh?

July 4th Horselogging and Fun

noreply@blogger.com (Marco) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:10:00 +0000

It seemed like the skidding demonstration went OK up at the hockey rink, and the hitch-cart that Don Noyce framed up for me worked beautifully. I had never hitched Bess and Julie to it before, and we took it in the arena, and walked through the 90 degree turn, the 360 with one wheel inside the circle and one wheel through two parallel PVC pipes, also backing between two barrels and knocking a pipe off the top of two buckets. Driving through three gaps in a curve was also part of the course. It was fun to try to do all that with my new cart. Then we loaded up the trailer I also got from Don and it was time to go in the parade with the Obama drummers. We won first place of all the entries. It was well-attended for the little Fourth parade it usually is.

On up to Maple Hill to take out some trees from the pasture where the team stayed last winter. Two birch and three maples that were/are dying. Lots of nice firewood, and a few saw logs even, though the birch had lots of knots, and heartwood which I think has lots of color, but no one seems interested in for woodworking. I bought a band-saw box from Dan at the Farmer's Market which was made from spalted birch I sold him. It's very nice. I don't like cutting wood in the summer. It's too hot. The boat slide construction in Hovland went very well with Scott, but now I am anxious to get back up there and finish it. A lot of wood to saw and pile, man.

Towing the Poles

noreply@blogger.com (Marco) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 15:43:00 +0000

That was quite a four-hour adventure. The Professor and I went out yesterday afternoon, in defiance of the incoming swells, and moved all 25-20-25' spruce poles 100 yards down the shore. I was wondering as I picked my way back and forth across the boulders how God ever got time and how He/She had the strength to place all those giant rounded and rounded-square rocks onto the shoreline and under the water, back in the Eocene Epoch, or whenever it was He/She did that little job. The terrain is so rough there near Hovland that the easiest way to move the poles from the end of the driveway next door was to tie each one into bunches of five and, launching the brand new Norse Pram these folks just built themselves at North House, to tow them down to the site for the boat-slide.
My greatest regret was not remembering my camera. The beauty of those long straight golden shiny poles gliding along behind that beautiful boat with as many curves as Gina Lolabrigida (whoever she was- I like that name though)-and the efficiency of that craft. A motor would certainly not have worked better. I was so glad to have the boat-man at the oars, because he knew how to tie and re-tie the poles to tow and then to push them to the shore, while turning them in the waves, so the tops were easy for me to grab and haul out, the swells raising the heavy ends and pushing them toward me. It really went very well, despite the soaking I took, wading out at the launching end, and having waves break across my chest. Lots o' work, Lots o' fun.