Thread by @homemadeguitars

I took a video of my hand driving today. It's uploading, just a short, probably be up by the end of this thread.
I had a dead tree down in my way, too big for me to move with my unaided body strength. I needed to get it into the creek. And my slip, which I had a rocky start with

yesterday, was still out in the Winter Pasture. These names are historic, from when G had about a hundred Angora goats and this was a fiber farm. I knew her but just as a friendly acquaintance. Long road to here.
But I digress.

3. I got a late start. A local church, where our adopted family goes, gave away a Thanksgiving meal free to all comers, out of a little kitchen facility which our family member owns.
Advertised it in the paper, all comers, free food, no speeches no hassle, drive by pickup.

4. I'm not a church person myself, but we've long since made peace with that, and just like my Amish friends, I have many friends among this congregation. Their founding pastor is a friend. Good people with kind hearts.
So we went and got our lunch, and ate it together, and then

5. I went out and harnessed up the girls.
It's gotten to where I can pretty much open up the harness room door, and start bumbling around, and Clara will come in to see what's up & score some goodies. Usually by the time I've got her haltered and tied, Missy is at the door.

6. Missy is much more refined and ladylike. She doesn't barge in. Clara's a good natured goof and just barges in happy. So, Missy will be at the door, looking in. I walk to her very gently, carrying her halter, speak to her, pet her on the forehead, give her a goody, then halter.

7. On the other hand, I'm not out in the barnyard trying to catch an unwilling animal, either. She just needs to be treated with respect. She chooses to work.

8. Regular readers will remember that I recently put a drawbar on the work cart. This is a giant technological improvement.

9. Now we can take the cart and a chain, and move stuff without me having to be able to pick it up.
They had dragged this tree we were going to work on to where it was, earlier.
So first we just zipped out and got the slip and put it where I need it to work on it.
They're so easy

10. I still have to tie them if I want them to stand a long time, but as far as running around the place, getting tools, loading the cart, going through gates, stopping for roads or just coz I want to, they've got all that down.
So we grab the chain, go around the front, stop,

11. open the gate, walk them through, up where the slip is, back the cart to near the slip, stop, they stand, they've got this down, I hook up the chain to the load, we head back to the barn. Through the gate, whoa, they stand while I close the gate.
When we get around to gravel

12. This steel resonating noisemaker hits the gravel and Clara take about three *real quick* steps, and I'm "Easy, girl, Clara, it's all right, and bring her to a very slow walk. The noise goes down and she remembers.
The first time they hear a noise like that chasing them,

13. the best thing you can do is make them stop.
They stop, the noise stops. Give them a second to think on that.
Take a couple steps and stop again.
By then they're good. You can walk on.
Next time it's scary, but not *as* scary.
Missy doesn't even blink. Clara's a rookie.

14. When they're first learning I just *throw* stuff onto the cart. Crash! Bang! Here have a goodie. Crash! Here's another, walk on. They get noise-proof pretty quick.
So after that we went and got a crowbar and went to the down tree by the creek. I had this vision of levering it

15. into the creek.
YeahNo. That thing is *heavy.*
Hooked the girls up to the skinny end of it and pivoted it around 90°, pointed it at the creek, and... Well, that didn't help much.
So we went back up to the barn for my saw.
I rarely use a chainsaw. They're noisy and stinky.

16. They scare my donkeys. So I use these. Mostly the pull saw, the one with the offset handle.
This was last winter, before Clara was working.
It was getting late, and Clara was thinking we ought to be about done. When I pointed her at the barn she required some restraint.

17. So, to make a long story short, we got the saw, I sawed up the tree into chunks I could move, and put it in the creek where I want it.
I own a diesel tractor with hydraulic claws on the front of it that would have enabled me to drive down there, faster than a donkey walks,

18. pick that tree up at the middle of its mass, and plonked it into the creek, driven back up to the barnyard and be done with it.
I don't feel that doing it that way would have been an improvement. People who do it that way have to go watch TV to avoid boredom. I'm OK.

18. Here's part of the drive home. The driving hand.