#PleaseReadTheDescription #YouWillEnjoyIt
#LoadingLogsByHand
Born in 1909 my Dad learned most of what he learned at a very young age about handling horses from a man hired by my Grandfather. Now this was around 1913 or '14 and the unique thing about that man was that he was a freed slave declared so by the 13th Amendment to the Constitution around 1863. Dad always talked fondly about the gentleman and listened to everything he had to say about horses and mules. Dad, consequently started 'muleskinning' by the time he was five sitting the seat along side his old friend. Quick to pick up on his lessons, he soon was running his own team. As a matter of fact my Grandfathers blacksmith built my Dad his own log wagon for his ninth birthday !! I still have the handmade wheels, bolster and a number of the hand made parts in my shed from that very wagon...even the long coupling pole which is used to lengthen the wheel base for longer logs.
Soon he had horses trained to voice command, the standard GEE for right, HAW for left, WHOA for stop and G'DUP for let's go now. And of course the tone of the voice carried a lot towards the commands as well. There were a host of other more subtle commands in their repertoire. Loading logs with his horses, he said, was one of the easiest chores because his teams listened to him much better than people.
Fast forward to the mid 50's when I was a kid if you will, and understand that he trained me as he trained the horses to his commands EXCEPT I would be on the smallest tractor we owned, a Massey Harris 101 Jr. With the cable attached to the front of the tricycle tractor it gave me a superior field of vision for loading the logs over the side of the trailer used at the time. Once rigged and set up, I would gently pull backwards while Dad would 'cut' (adjust the angle) the log as it approached the ramps. We would load three across the trailers deck, then adjust the cables to allow us to tug two more to the top to rest in the two valley's created by the bottom three nudged together side by side. Now that sounds simple, but it's not as simple as it sounds. There is a lot that's got to go right while performing these tasks.
So now you know where the technique you see in this video originated in my family history. Now is it done EXACTLY the way it was done 100 years ago? No, not at all. When my Dad was a kid electricity had just recently been added to the farm and an electric winch was not even on the drawing board at the time. But the actual technique is basically the same. The power supplied by the little winch is a far cry from a team of horses. Much easier to control if not nearly as powerful.....But I'm sure my Dad would control the horses much better and with less effort.
I certainly hope there is at least one or two viewers that take the time read this full description as it as well as the video is intended to give honor to my Dad as well as to the old man that taught him the ways of handling the animals on the farm. The gentleman mentor to my Dad, long gone, but not forgotten by someone that he never even met.
I certainly hope you enjoyed the video, just don't preach to me about the danger involved in handling logs in this manner. We are well aware of the potential 'squish factor' of several thousand pounds of green oak.
All that's written above is factual and true as told to myself by my Dad many years ago. I may have missed a date or an age by a little bit, but it is pretty much as spoken to me first hand. I just wish there was a way to meet a few descendants of that hard working man and mentor that taught my Dad so much so many years ago.