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  • From: Clansgian AT wmconnect.com
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Tractor question, please
  • Date: Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:31:12 EST


> >A tractor would help us a great deal, make it so much easier to get
> firewood
> logs back to the house, quicker to get all the fields brush hogged,
> maintenance on the drive, but a scythe would also be handy

Since we are probably facing a reintroduction of the "fairness doctrine", let
me present the other side of the idea.

A tractor on a small place is one way of doing things. It has its advantages
and disadvantages just like everything else in the universe (except beer,
which has no disadvantages, thus proving its divine origin). Often cited are
tasks such as moving a 1000lb round bale, moving logs out of the woods,
bushhogging etc.

But, says I, it's all a matter of one's mindset and thinking. You can
accomplish all the results of those tasks a totally different way. For
example, we
sometimes buy a round bale and feed it to the horses. This hayer is fond of
1500 lb bales or larger. He uses his hay spike to put it in the back of the
S10, and then on the farm, we have the feeding area located at a place where
the
truck can be backed up to the fence and the bale tipped out into the field.
We've strong backs to spare, but it can be cone by putting a spike in the end
of the bale toward the cab, then tying a rope from the spike to a stake in
the
field. When the truck is pulled out, the bale tips up and then tips over
into the field.

All the hay we ourselves produce is in haystacks, for which a tractor is not
useful. A number of spacy, loopy horse people decided that whole lofts of
hay
were not up to snuff for their hothouse horses and they gave it to us. It's
all in modest square bales and so a tactor is not useful for that.

While a tractor is useful for dragging a log (a task our hourse does), a log
can also be bucked into small pieces and even split in situ thus not needing
a
tractor.

For several years I borrowed one of the Gravely clone walk behind bush hogs
from a neighbor to clear off the orchards every few years. Another
acquaintance gave us several rods of field fencing cut into 40' and 50'
pieces. I used
this to put around the raspberries, blueberries, grapes area, and each tree.
Then I put the large animals in the orchard, since they could now do no harm,
and amongst them the orchard is being cleared much more thoroughly and with
the
advangate of feeding my stock.

A tractor, even on a small place, is very useful for doing what a tractor
does in the manner a tractor does it. But it isn't the only way to achieve
the
same results.



James




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