Another Amish story. This one is one of my favorite memories!!
I'm driving by Eli's and look out my window and there is Eli plowing a small field. It's only about 4 or 5 acres. I pulled off the road to watch for a couple of minutes. I always liked watching Eli's team work. They only weighed around 1,450 pounds apiece but were real good workers and really well trained. Just as I'm getting ready to leave, Eli saw me and waved me down to where he was plowing.
When I get down to where he was plowing he asked me if I could plow for him for a while as he had forgotten something he had to do up at his house and he was behind on his plowing. I told him I didn't know how to plow with a team and I got told all I had to do was sit on the plow, lightly slap the lines and they would take care of everything else. He said to give them a couple of minutes of rest every time they went around the field, then lightly slap the lines again. It went just like he said. All I did was sit there, pull them up every lap around the field then slap them lightly again. It was a perfect spring day. 70 degrees, sunny, no clouds and a light breeze. I plowed for close to two hours and it was a wonderful experience. The first and only time I ever plowed with a team!! A very memorable experience!!
What made it even more memorable was a momma skunk and her six young'uns came out of the woods so they could partake of the Amish buffet. When the plow would turn over the soil there was super easy eating for all seven of the skunks. Worms, grubs and all kinds of skunk delicacies were there to be grabbed and eaten without all the bother of digging these delicacies up. I would stop the team when I was even with the skunk family and just watch them feasting. I was literally two feet from them, looking down at them. I honestly don't think they knew I was there. Sweating horses can cover up a lot of other scents. 😂 Or maybe they were enjoying getting there tummies real full, real easy. Little skunks are about as cute as anything can be and watching them bounce and pounce, and cram their catch in their mouths, only to pounce again and repeat over and over was a wonderful experience. I would guess those skunks slept good that night!! 😁
This was one of the better days of my life. Working a great team, on a perfect spring day and watching the skunk family enjoy getting their tummies full.
It can't get much better than that day. Thank you Lord!!
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Great story, dreher. Did you have any trouble turning the team ?
By the way, 5 acres is a pretty big patch when plowing with horses.
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Good memories are worth sharing! Thanks.
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All I did was sit there and hold the lines. Anything that needed done was done by the team. Most people think the Amish are real good horsemen. Most Amish are good enough to get by but skilled horsemen they aren't. Eli was an exception to this rule. Eli did a good job training his teams. He worked two mares and a gelding. Every year he would breed one of the mares. That way he would usually have a few young ones coming up he could use as replacements if he needed them.
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That is a nice story.
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I would have enjoyed that experience myself! Thank you for sharing!
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Now we have corporate farms with GPS autonomous tractors Horses did a lot for mankind and thanked g-d we don't eat horse meat here in The USA, Great stories there!
If we have a huge solar flare hit here again, then horses will be in demand again.
serf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAuyv9TCThI
In 1859, the Sun gave off the most powerful solar flare on record. A blast of radiation and particles so strong it fried electrical wires and set telegraph towers on fire.
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Yes, a great 2 hour experience. I hope the next time you drove by, Eli Sawyer wasn't white washing a fence.
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I was listening to a podcast earlier this morning that said we missed another Carrington level event by one week of the Earth's rotation recently. If a solar flare of that magnitude hit us now...................the grid and the interweb would be smoked.
EMPs are REAL.
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But what was it Eli had to do? Don
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Dreher, great story. Grandpa was a saw miller and sharecropper in Central Virginia. It was amazing how much land he could plow with "Maggie" his work horse. He bought "Maggie" from a breeder in the Shenandoah Valley. After purchasing her he rode her all the way home to Louisa County, a very long ride. I believe she was called a Roan Horse. Spotted grey kind of large but not as large as the Budweiser horses.
He would put the reins around his neck and slap them lightly against her rump and off she would go. At the end of the furrow he would hollow "Gee" or "Haw" as I recall. Meaning left or right. To stop her he would holler "Woah" . Seems like about every half hour he would go to the well and draw a bucket of water for Maggie. He was very kind and gentile with his horse. He never owned a car and would hitch Maggie up to the wagon and off to the general store he would go almost four miles away. He would sometimes snake logs with Maggie and used same chains for that as hooked to the plow at the single tree hooks. He use to wrap rags around chains where they touched Maggie's belly and coat them with Vaseline so skin would not get raw.
Every couple years Grandpa would take Maggie to his brother Robert (a horse breeder) in Bumpass, Virginia to breed her. I sat behind Grandpa on Maggie for the long ride. It was a fun trip and I use to race next to train on Roberts property to get the engineer to blow the whistle.
Twice I helped Grandpa deliver Maggie's colt. I learned a lot from Grandpa. I think of him often and miss him terribly.---------------------------------------Ray
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dcon12: 31154575259803/comments/31154566720795
But what was it Eli had to do? Don
I had an Uncle like that, if the urge him him in the middle of the afternoon he'd park his tractor and head for the house, 7 kids he wound up with....Ole Eli must have had as many too 😀
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Toolman and dcon, if you are around the Amish enough you will quickly learn that they will take advantage of an Englishman in a heartbeat. What Eli was doing I didn't ask but real quick I figured out I didn't care. The opportunity to plow with a team was to cool to miss it.
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Junkballer I did consider that as a real possibility but I knew there were a couple of little ones running around house so privacy could have been an issue.
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Can remember when my grandad would be plowing (Hanover County VA) I was about 4. He would set me up on his horse, facing backwards- so I could lay out on the horse, and we could talk.
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great story a memorable day for sure, I would wager the horses could do it in there sleep like a gps guided tractor now or like the old cow punchers just sleep in the saddle and go along for the ride
as for the skunks we have seven also 5 young ones from this year . they do not bother any thing the cats and skunks get along same with the chickens even so with me I can be with in inches of them and ignore me as long as they food and they here me feeding the cats and like a any other democrat they come and get in line for a free meal
I have seen the cats smack the skunks when it comes to food 1st couple times I was standing right there and just knew me and cats were targets but they just backed off a bit waited there turn .
the dogs are a different story lucky the skunks avoid them but the dogs sure want to try one out and I know how that would end 😝
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How it ended for me was opening the door to let my dog in from her potty break. There was a really SMELLY dog blast past me as the dog shot through the house to our bedroom and dove under the bed. I'm lying on the floor trying to get a hold of the dog to drag her out and get her back outside. The first wife is screaming at me because it is my fault the skunk sprayed the dog.
At this point I'm screaming back "I told you not to dump kitchen scraps in the garden for the outside barn cats!!" "&^**#$@^^$& how many times do you have be told something you ))#**%@#^&**%^$ idiot!! <<< this might be part of the reason she is a X wife!! 😁
We had a house that smelled of skunk for more than a week!!
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The first wife is screaming at me because it is my fault the skunk sprayed the dog.
For just a moment, I thought you might be one of those Mormons dreher! 😁
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Cure for a dog that just learned about chemical warfare- 2 quarts warm water, teaspoon of Dawn dish detergent. cup of peroxide, half cup baking soda. Wet dog with mix, working into fur, avoid eyes. Rinse. Repeat if needed.
Don't ask me how I learned this. Just.... don't.
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