Technology

[digitS']

Sure, it is all about mobile phones with GPS navigation, an embedded web browser, instant messaging, and games. Automated technologies increase efficiency in the delivery of services and the production of consumer goods.

Would you like to see road building from 100 years ago?

Those tools and teams and teamsters: how many do you suppose 1 guy on a Caterpillar D8 replaces?

Dad had a story that my grandfather would pay his property taxes by going off with his team and building roads for the county. He had a certain number of days to work each year and this was in lieu of actual cash payment. Grandpa owned a farm in New Mexico and mostly raised alfalfa.

Wednesday I picked up a book on local history at the library. I have already shared the picture of "Eagle City," Idaho. I was showing DW this picture and telling her that this is what my grandfather did to pay his taxes. The picture, however, is from NE Washington State:

Human labor intensive!

Steve

 

[seedcorn]

You have got to be kidding me. Getting people to do manual labor? We can't even get people to show up for work as it is. Why work when there are Government programs and free medical?

Friend put ad in paper for help wanted--easy job. 4 people responded, 2 were DUI with no means to get to work, 1 convicted child molester, and 1 just to stay on unimployement. Those that will work, are.

 

[digitS']

Well, these days I've got the free medical, altho' it is surprising how much of an Advantage it is not - not to the pocketbook and otherwise .

With the physical problems, I don't think people would pay me a $ to work at what I'm doing these days

. (Needed a little guy with more rolling eye action!) Your friend would have just shooed me away after an hour or so . . .

Maybe I could be out walking behind a team. Better be ponies . . . dragging a grain scoop . . .

Steve

 

[seedcorn]

I fully support government programs for those that can't work but I'm very hard core that it should be work relief. Make them do something to earn their money. Just stay at home, do what you want, and wait for check is just making a lazy nation. This generation has learned that lesson. Tutor student in 3rd grade. When I told him he had to put some effort in school to learn so he could be trained to work, his response... I don't need a job, mom doesn't have one and we get all we need. Smart kid.

Not to pick on your situation that I know NOTHING about, if a person can walk in Walmart, they can walk roads and pick up trash for their check.

 

[hoodat]

Horse drawn scrapers! Believe it or not as a youngster I used one to keep our dirt road to the farm driveable. I've also plowed, mowed and raked hay, skidded logs and used a manure spreader with horse drawn equipment. I don't ride but I love working with a willing team of horses. The power of a good team is amazing. None of the farmers in our neck of the woods rode horses. That was for city folks.

 

[seedcorn]

The most fun I had was planting a corn plot behind horses. It was a beautiful day, worked with people I liked, no time restraints, all in all, lot of fun. Now do I want to plant all my plots that way? Get real-NO.

 

[digitS']

I have no real idea what it would be like to work horses. I worked for a couple of farmers (might say they worked me like a horse ). One of them used to talk about the lazy horse they had on the farm when he was a kid. It must have served as some sort of life's lesson to him. Wonder what happened to that old guy.

Oops. He died in 1995. This being able to search obituaries thru google has some drawbacks! Well, I knew his son-in-law was still around. Saw him a year or 2 ago. Yeah, his FIL died at about the same age I am now! By '95, I hadn't seen him in about 20 years. You'd think he would have aged faster than that! You know, this term "old" - it is relative.

Anyway, I was curious about the term "horsepower." James Watt is the guy who came up with that as a measurement. It is supposed to be a daily thing. I guess. In other words, what a horse can do in a day is about 1 horsepower, averaged for any given moment. My understanding of this is shaky but, anyway, I seem to have learned that a horse isn't limited to 1 horsepower. He can generate about 15 horsepower of effort but only for a very short time. He can't be worked like that. You have to ask of him no more than what would average out to a horsepower thru his work day.

Now, our engineers could tell me if I'm off-base but that's about what my understanding is of it.

Steve

 

[hoodat]

Some horses are just plain lazy but others seem quite proud of their strength. In horse pulls at county fairs I've seen them hitched to loads they couldn't possibly move but they still gave it everything they had. We used to skid logs with my uncles horse and all we had to do was have one man at each end of the skid trail. I was at the head of the trail and hitched him to the logs. When he was hitched up I'd pat him on the rump and away he'd go down the trail by himself. My uncle at the other end would unhitch him and roll the logs out of the way, then tap him on the rump and he'd head back up the trail to me. We never even hooked up the reins. We didn't need them with that one. When he was hitched to a wagon you could Gee and Haw him and still do without reins. That was one smart and willing horse.
Now Danny, my fathers horse, was the opposite. The only time he moved willingly was on the way back to the barn. One exception was when he was hitched with Nelly. She was stone blind and he knew it. He never laid back in the harness when he was hitched with her. In the pasture he used to lead her to the best grazing and the water trough.

 

[seedcorn]

I wish horse pulls were illegal. They way they tain them to raise up and hit the harnesses is beyond cruel. Like to that with owner of the horses what they did to their horses.

 

[lesa]

What a wonderful story, Hoodat. Animals are so amazing... I would love to use "horse power" on my "someday" farm- but I am afraid a 4 wheeler and a tractor are so much more practical...