Rural Heritage Reading Room


August/September 2018 cover
Above: Rural Heritage February-March 2019 Cover: Ben Burgess of Ky, drives his team of Suffolks into the woods at Berea College.
Vol 44, No 1
February - March 2019

Rural Heritage is a bimonthly
journal in support of farming
and logging with draft horses,
mules, and oxen. The February/March 2019 issue was mailed to subscribers on January 15, 2019. Below is this issue’s annotated Table of Contents, with a link to a full feature article to showcase the good reading delivered to your door every other month when you
Subscribe to Rural Heritage.

If, in your reading, you run across
a drafty word you don't recognize,
consult our online Draft Dictionary.


Table of Contents
Departments
Publisher's Post
Joe’s thanks subscribers who have donated to his "Fr. Eddy chicken project". He also gives us a rundown on his upcoming travels for the magazine as well as Rural Heritage on RFD-TV.
J.C. Allen Archives
Vintage photos of rural life by renouned photographer JC Allen including photos of barn painting crew, 1932 farm kitchen, and young boys watering and feeding chickens.
Rural Bookshelf
Joe reviews Charlie Tennessen's new children's book Haystack Rumors, the third in a trilogy featuring his three donkeys. He also reviews a wonderful garden planner that provides planting dates for many vegetables based on your spring and fall frost dates. https://www.clydesvegetableplantingchart.com/
Charlie Tennessen's
Haystack Rumors
Rural Heritage Bookstore
Selections from our extensive catalog of books and videos
on draft animal farming, logging, self-sufficient living
and much more.
My Card & Classified Ads
Events Calendar
(frequently updated online)
Our Advertiser Directory

(please tell ‘em you saw it in Rural Heritage)

 

 

Features
vetch cover crop
Eric Nordell hilling the potatoes. Between the warmth and insect protection of the row cover and rapid release of nitrogen from the vetch, the potatoes are off to a good start.
Know-Till and Vetch

Anne and Eric Nordells’ goals for tillage are moisture management, weed seed depletion, soil conservation and optimal placement of organic matter.   They explain their use of hairy vetch and surface tillage in various locations to achieve these goals.

Hairy Vetch as a Cover Crop – reprinted from Managing Cover Crops Profitably by SARE.

This SARE publication goes deeply into the use of hairy vetch as a cover crop to produce nitrogen, improving water penetration, and weed suppression.  Case studies in various locations are sited and research on the use of cover crop rollers is discussed.  Planting, killing in various fields, pest management, seed harvesting and much more are covered.  A special sidebar on vetch vs. plastic for moisture retention is included.

A horse powered canemill. Photo by JC Allen
Canemill Runaway 

Jerry Hicks retells a great story about a some young boys working a sorghum mill and a runaway mare that was attached to the sweep.  This one is worth retelling!

barn restoration
The barn at Jack Creek Ranch before restoration began.
Homemade Jerky

Bill Speiden walks us through his jerky making process after a little historical background on jerky. He includes his recipe for beef, bison or venison jerky.

 

Old Barn - New Roof

This is the second installment in Jenifer Morrissey’s series on restoring the Jack Creek Ranch barn.  This article is about restoring the three pitched gambrel roof as well as the side bay roof.  The photographs included in this article are spectacular!

 

 

Training a Runaway Mule with a Foot Rope− − − click on title to read this story in full.
After his Percheron mule, Pete, developed a habit of running away, Donn Hewes incorporates a single foot rope to retrain him. Donn explains the use of this draft animal training technique with some helpful photos and an illustration. Success is the end result!
Disaster the New Normal
Jenifer Morrissey spells out what she calls her "Six by Six" Plan for disaster preparedness on your rural property. She lists the six types of dependents and the six needs for each that will need to be met. This is a great strategy for coming up with your own plan - better sooner than later!
blue roan belgian twins
Three week old Belgian twins thriving at home.
Miracle Twins
A summer afternoon brought a surpise set of rare blue roan Percheron twins to Jaci Eden. The pair are very rare and were aided in their first days by the Iowa State University veterinary hospital. They are now growing and running like any developing foals.
Death Valley Wagon Train
Jenifer Morrisssey threads an extensive history of Death Valley during the time of the 49'ers into an accountin of the current wagon train that follows a 100 mile route each year. Photos and maps complete the picture of this beautiful place.

death valley wagon train
The approach to Desolation Canyon in Death Valley National Park, Calif.
On the Road with Rural Heritage - Berea College Horse Logging
Over a dozen horse and mule loggers spent a week at Berea College in Berea, Ky., last fall. Ben Burgess wanted to show students studying forestry there the viable alternative to conventional logging, give fellow loggers an opportunity to make a little money for the week's work and demonstrate to college administrators the best way to manage their woods.
horse logging at berea college
Chad Miano skids a log downhill with his young Suffolk stallion in the Berea College woods.

 

Index of Past Issues of Rural Heritage

The Reading Room is updated with each new issue. If you wish to be notified by email when new contents are posted, please Contact Us. If you wish to receive Rural Heritage in your mailbox every other month, please Subscribe.

 


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