Idea on life without a tractor

[Avalon1984]

So I thought it would be nice to come up with a thread that discusses how to do things, get things moved, etc. without the help of heavy equipment. I face this problem more often than not and it takes some ingenuity to get things done. As we strive for self sufficiency and simplicity, not many of us may have a tractor available to do the work so I figured we could pitch in some ways to get er done by yourself or with as little effort as possible. Lets face it, how many times did we think That would be easy if I had a tractor but fact is we dont, so we need to be creative.

Here are 2 examples.

When we buy round bales of hay for the horses, they are placed in our truck bed. We lay down plywood before we leave to make things slide better. When we are home, we drive the truck into the paddock where the round bale is supposed to go and then hubby takes the tailgate off and we can push it off the truck bed together. If it lands wrong, we use nylon straps, wrap around the upper end of the round bale, attach to the truck and have the truck push it over.

Last year we didnt have a hay elevator yet and our hayloft is 10ft from the ground. With 1,200 bales, that is quite the distance to go. So we built stairs out of some of the bales which then allowed us to walk up and bring the bales into the hay loft. Still more work than an elevator, but much less work than trying to throw them or lift them up one by one.

Another time I had to move an old wood shed across the yard (200ft). Obviously you cant just tie it to the truck and pull, so we propped it up with poles, using the good old leverage method, put 5 round poles underneath it and pushed it along like the old Egyptians did with their stone blocks. It worked fantastic. We still use this method to move our 2,000lb shoeing stock.

So, tell me about what you guys do?

 

[so lucky]

Do you think we could include ideas on other jobs that are too big for us? I rarely have things that I would consider needing a tractor for in my small garden, but I am often brought up short by my relative lack of strength and abilities. I used to be able to sling a 50 lb bag over my shoulder and carry it up or down a flight of stairs, but I wouldn't want to try that now. So, when I buy a 50 lb. bag of chicken feed, I let the guy at the co-op put it in my trunk. At home, I open the bag in the trunk and remove about 15 or 20 lbs into a bucket or other bag. I can then carry the original bag without problems. If you would rather this variation of your topic go into another thread, I'm ok with that.

 

[pinkfox]

im hoping to use my mastif mix puppy as he matures as a draft animal, he will hopefully be trained to pull a small wagon, dogs have insane pulling stregth (just like a horse) so im hoping by training him to pull a cart itll make transporting water and heavy feed square bales ect easier. i only have 4 1/2 acres so i cant imagine having enough serious hauling needs to need more than a small draft animal to help

i definatly like the idea of the "rollers" for moving large opjects too...im also abig fan of pully systems...you can lift ANYTING if you have enough pullys lol.

 

[Denim Deb]

I hate putting out RBs w/out a tractor! The tractor ran out of gas today and my guys needed my last RB. (I have no square bales out at the farm right now.) So that meant I had to roll the dumb thing across the field by myself, then lift up the RB feeder by myself, roll it into place and put it back down.

 

[the funny farm6]

We haul RB the same way. But the way they drop is the way they stay- the horses eat them the same...


FAST!


I have to haul a lot of 5 gal buckets of water to different parts of the farm. Plus square bales of hay, and unload 50 lb feed sacks. I have one of the heavy duty wagons, it will hold like 800 pounds of weight. They have them at farm and home and menards. It has big wheels that you air up like a car. I wouldn't be able to get nearly as much done by myself without it.

 

[Avalon1984]

Do you think we could include ideas on other jobs that are too big for us? I rarely have things that I would consider needing a tractor for in my small garden, but I am often brought up short by my relative lack of strength and abilities. I used to be able to sling a 50 lb bag over my shoulder and carry it up or down a flight of stairs, but I wouldn't want to try that now. So, when I buy a 50 lb. bag of chicken feed, I let the guy at the co-op put it in my trunk. At home, I open the bag in the trunk and remove about 15 or 20 lbs into a bucket or other bag. I can then carry the original bag without problems. If you would rather this variation of your topic go into another thread, I'm ok with that.

That is a great idea! Keep them coming! Everything that makes our self sufficient life a little easier!

 

[Avalon1984]

im hoping to use my mastif mix puppy as he matures as a draft animal, he will hopefully be trained to pull a small wagon, dogs have insane pulling stregth (just like a horse) so im hoping by training him to pull a cart itll make transporting water and heavy feed square bales ect easier. i only have 4 1/2 acres so i cant imagine having enough serious hauling needs to need more than a small draft animal to help

i definatly like the idea of the "rollers" for moving large opjects too...im also abig fan of pully systems...you can lift ANYTING if you have enough pullys lol.

That sounds so interesting. Can you share with us which training method you will use on your dog? Would you train it similar to a horse? I can't imagine you'd have it in a round pen pulling tires, but maybe it is similar?

I agree witht he pulley system too. We have an old one in the barn and next time my hay stack is big enough (at about 1,000 bales) I can reach the barn ceiling and get it going again.

 

[Avalon1984]

I hate putting out RBs w/out a tractor! The tractor ran out of gas today and my guys needed my last RB. (I have no square bales out at the farm right now.) So that meant I had to roll the dumb thing across the field by myself, then lift up the RB feeder by myself, roll it into place and put it back down.

Arrg, don't you just hate that? I don't have a RB feeder yet, I am using straps to hold it together. worked until this morning

 

[Avalon1984]

We haul RB the same way. But the way they drop is the way they stay- the horses eat them the same...


FAST!


I have to haul a lot of 5 gal buckets of water to different parts of the farm. Plus square bales of hay, and unload 50 lb feed sacks. I have one of the heavy duty wagons, it will hold like 800 pounds of weight. They have them at farm and home and menards. It has big wheels that you air up like a car. I wouldn't be able to get nearly as much done by myself without it.

See, I would love to have something like that! Our barn has small nooks and crannies (sp?) so I barely get a wheelbarrow through it at times. One of the stalls used to be the milking station and we have big concrete troughs in the way and the isle is very narrow so I am having a hard time carrying squares through there also. Can't wait to have a barn add on with a large central isle.

 

[Denim Deb]

I hate putting out RBs w/out a tractor! The tractor ran out of gas today and my guys needed my last RB. (I have no square bales out at the farm right now.) So that meant I had to roll the dumb thing across the field by myself, then lift up the RB feeder by myself, roll it into place and put it back down.

Arrg, don't you just hate that? I don't have a RB feeder yet, I am using straps to hold it together. worked until this morning

As much as I hated putting the money out for the feeder, I had to. Otherwise, Licorice will pull it out, and poop and pee in it. Then of course, the horses won't eat it!