Thread by @homemadeguitars

I've got a 25 minute harnessing video uploading, a different camera angle, so different things are visible. We went out around the block today, but I didn't video that.

Clara does a beautiful stance at one point to give you an opportunity to admire her beauty and see the details of her harness.
She's a really smart creature. The more in to this she gets the better she gets at it.

First we went out and emptied the manure spreader, which is an every few days task. It lives outside the stall, and I shovel manure into it until it gets full, usually 2-3 days, says 25 bushels but I don't fill it to the brim.
I've got a plan to add a drawbar to the work cart,

4. but I haven't executed it yet. Have to expend some fossil fuel energy to do that, cut some steel, drill a half inch hole and two 3/8 inch holes in it, cut some other steel, heat and bend it, drill holes in it. I could do everything but the heat and bend on food energy, but

5. I won't be. I'll use the 117vac drill press to drill the steel. I've got to drill through a quarter inch bar that will pull the load, and will use 1" angle iron for the bracing. That's what I have to heat and bend.
All this, just to equip a donkey cart to hitch to a pull load.

6. The road cart, Amish built, came with a drawbar, nicer than the one I'll be making, which is why I'm using it to pull the manure spreader. But it's a 4 wheel cart, and I can't back the manure spreader to park it with it.
The girls and I are still improving our backing skills.

7. Here's how I park the manure spreader now, so you can see where getting equipped to back it in under donkey power might be a priority.

9. Anyway...
Going around the country block is a country phrase - mostly, in gridded America, particularly historically highly fertile parts, roads tend to lie on a mile-based grid, so it's a mile to blacktop, a mile to the next blacktop, a mile to the next gravel, a mile back 🏡

I've got a video of that, about an hour.
Getting the girls out on blacktop among traffic is necessary for my objective, which is to be able to drive them to Richmond when I need to go there. Wally world, hardware store, feed store, lumber yard.
Not yet.

11. Missy needs the exercise. She's getting a little too heavy, and it's not good for their health to allow that.
So we trotted almost the whole four miles. I'd say trotted three, on gravel and blacktop.
I checked their feet when we got home & they looked great.

12. The girls are barefoot. Donkeys don't pound the pavement like horses do. No waste motion. You can see here, watch their legs and feet. (Not from today.)

13. SOooooo...
After we got home, say maybe 3:00 or so, they're thinking "supper" and I'm thinking, "I've got to go clear a lane in the Thorn Forest," so I unhooked them from the road cart and headed for the work cart.
"Really?" says Missy. "Huh?" Clara's not as eloquent.
"Yup."

14. We had to negotiate a little, but we decided we'd all go over into the Thorn Forest and clear my lane.
Some friends are coming up next week for a donkey powered farm tour, so a little pruning is appropriate.
And the girls were real good, after they accepted the idea.

15. I really needed it. I've been up and down ladders, measuring, cutting, fitting, making, house parts, for almost three weeks, and I get desperate to be outside. With my girls.

16. Suppertime.
Good day.
Later.