So glad to see you back. You seemed to drop out for a while there, and I have missed your work. Maybe you should repost the article about not moving to a rural place where you know no-one as you would have no social network, while where you live, you know lots of people. Thanks, Bill
I think it was Alice Friedmann who wrote that without the magic elixir called diesel [an increasing smaller portion of what is currently called oil] it would take 80 million horses to produce the food now produce in North America. I think she went on to say there are 2 million horses. There is of course almost no-one who knows how to farm with horses and then there is all the leather craft needed for collars, etc which requires a long apprenticeship to learn, plus all the blacksmiths and farriers. I think we need to learn to train and use oxen which while slower have about 75% of the power of a horse, require less equipment and are more docile. Plus during the Middle ages they were often milked before being put to work in the fields and finally being eaten at the end of their lives. There are a few videos on Youtube about working with oxen. I really want to find an idiots guide to farming with these incredibly wonderful draft animals. Does anyone know of such a book that I could read?
Do not depend on diesel. Do not depend on horses. Do not depend on oxen.
Grow your own food. Or risk going hungry.
"The small organic farm greatly discomforts the corporate/industrial mind because the small organic farm is one of the most relentlessly subversive forces on the planet. Over centuries both the communist and the capitalist systems have tried to destroy small farms because small farmers are a threat to the consolidation of absolute power. Thomas Jefferson said he didn’t think we could have democracy unless at least 20% of the population was self-supporting on small farms so they were independent enough to be able to tell an oppressive government to stuff it. It is very difficult to control people who can create products without purchasing inputs from the system, who can market their products directly thus avoiding the involvement of mercenary middlemen, who can butcher animals and preserve foods without reliance on industrial conglomerates, and who can’t be bullied because they can feed their own faces." — Eliot Coleman, http://thecontraryfarmer.wordpress.com/2010/02/07/why-small-organic-farms-are-radical-and-beautiful/
Such knowledge dies with the people who actually did it.
Oxen were still used for many purposes in Spain until after WW2, especially in the mountains.
The Earl of Egremont was a champion of the ox v the horse in early 19th century England, there might be some literature on the subject from that date - 1800-1830.
So glad to see you back. You seemed to drop out for a while there, and I have missed your work. Maybe you should repost the article about not moving to a rural place where you know no-one as you would have no social network, while where you live, you know lots of people. Thanks, Bill
That post will reappear as part of my new book "The Age of Exterminations" -- coming soon!
I think it was Alice Friedmann who wrote that without the magic elixir called diesel [an increasing smaller portion of what is currently called oil] it would take 80 million horses to produce the food now produce in North America. I think she went on to say there are 2 million horses. There is of course almost no-one who knows how to farm with horses and then there is all the leather craft needed for collars, etc which requires a long apprenticeship to learn, plus all the blacksmiths and farriers. I think we need to learn to train and use oxen which while slower have about 75% of the power of a horse, require less equipment and are more docile. Plus during the Middle ages they were often milked before being put to work in the fields and finally being eaten at the end of their lives. There are a few videos on Youtube about working with oxen. I really want to find an idiots guide to farming with these incredibly wonderful draft animals. Does anyone know of such a book that I could read?
Do not depend on diesel. Do not depend on horses. Do not depend on oxen.
Grow your own food. Or risk going hungry.
"The small organic farm greatly discomforts the corporate/industrial mind because the small organic farm is one of the most relentlessly subversive forces on the planet. Over centuries both the communist and the capitalist systems have tried to destroy small farms because small farmers are a threat to the consolidation of absolute power. Thomas Jefferson said he didn’t think we could have democracy unless at least 20% of the population was self-supporting on small farms so they were independent enough to be able to tell an oppressive government to stuff it. It is very difficult to control people who can create products without purchasing inputs from the system, who can market their products directly thus avoiding the involvement of mercenary middlemen, who can butcher animals and preserve foods without reliance on industrial conglomerates, and who can’t be bullied because they can feed their own faces." — Eliot Coleman, http://thecontraryfarmer.wordpress.com/2010/02/07/why-small-organic-farms-are-radical-and-beautiful/
Such knowledge dies with the people who actually did it.
Oxen were still used for many purposes in Spain until after WW2, especially in the mountains.
The Earl of Egremont was a champion of the ox v the horse in early 19th century England, there might be some literature on the subject from that date - 1800-1830.