Across the country in a horse drawn covered wagon

[homesteadelectric]

Saw this outfit on the shoulder in E. Washington. Three Suffolk draft horses and two dogs, he is going coast to coast (10-20 miles a day). Has a website: leehorselogger.com

[rbrgs]

Another cheap oil luxury.....

[Chip Haynes]

So has he really gone almost all the way across the US- or did he just start out?

(I'm obviously too lazy to check out the link.)

 

[rainman531]

Lee has gone across the country. His first trip he left Montana in 2006 and went to Massachusetts. He is planning on going to Alaska at some point.

Another guy that did this was Ron Dakotah. He has more or less retired from traveling at this point. He traveled for 26 years. www.rondakotah.com

Another one that started last year is Bob Skelding. www.wagonteamster.com  He was rear ended by a semi in February 2009 in Mississippi. He lost 2 of his 4 horses in the accident. He has since recovered, built a new wagon and is back on the road. Bob blogs almost every day using a wireless internet connection.

There are some others too. I don't really consider this folly. These guys are keeping old technology going. There may be a day in the future that a lot of us need the knowledge of working horses. We can't rely on the Amish for everything.

One that I do consider whimsical is Tioga George. www.vagabonders-supreme.net  George is a retired 72 year old living by himself in an RV. He blogs every day and has mostly lived in Mexico the past 2 years. He's a cancer survivor and has a sunny outlook on life.

They all show us that we don't have to be consumptasaurs to be happy in life. Simple isn't always bad.

[rbrgs]

There may be a day in the future that a lot of us need the knowledge of working horses.

I find this very difficult to believe.

[EyesWideOpen]

I've been following Bob since CNN wrote about him during his first trip, before that horrible accident.

Yes, I do think we're going to need this kind of info, in our lifetimes. During the depression it was a common sight especially in the South to see a mule hitched to a car with the heavy stuff jerked out. Those days will come again.

I'm trying to decide if I should keep my tiny KIA, or buy a 67 ragtop VW Bug, or just give up now and get a bike, a cart, and a mule.

[PoppyMcGee]

I don't know which guy it was, but one of these (or another one?) went through our little town this summer and the local paper did a piece on him. Apparently, during a horrid storm, he stopped and asked two or three farmers if he could park in their barn for a few hours and the first few said no, thinking he was some crazy guy.

My stepdad has horses and mules. He has a little buggy, a big hay wagon, and several pieces of horse-drawn haying equipment and a horse-drawn plow, and stuff. Right now he mostly uses them for fun, and we go on buggy rides during the summer. His buggy was built by the Amish a few years ago, and looks really cool.

[EyesWideOpen]

Poppy, are you learning how to drive the teams?

[pamela]

I love this!

They all show us that we don't have to be consumptasaurs to be happy in life.

LOL, that's a great word!

p.s. i'm going to use it for my quote for awhile! 

[HungryRaven]

I took a couple draft horse classes a couple years ago to get ready for the future.  We got to handle the care, harnessing and driving a couple different style of wagons and different numbers of percherons.  We also practiced how to haul logs with a draft horse.  I also have driven dog teams a few times and kept a dog team for a few years so I know the ins and outs of that.  For winter dogs would be king unless roads are plowed.  But for heavy loads horses would be the best with the travel planned in summer assuming bridges aren't all washed out.  As far as what I will actually keep in the future?  A few dogs of course since they bark for intruders and pull loads.  Other then that I hope to have a couple cows multipurpose as oxen and milk.  I don't know if the future will allow enough resources to grow food for them and a horse but if I do have a horse it will be a light saddle breed that will also pull a cart not a huge draft horse.  They just need too much food. 

[pamela]

i'm still wanting to train a goat to pull a cart.
the bigger ones can do light plowing as well.
they eat a bigger variety of things and can forage.
I'm going goat baby! LOL

[PoppyMcGee]

Eyes, I've held the lines a few times in the buggy, and I've ridden the horses, but I'm not really comfortable with them. My husband knows how to drive them, and hitch them up, though. (Hitching up is totally baffling to me...all those lines and buckles)

[EyesWideOpen]

Old Horseman had a killer thread last year about learning, maybe you could pm him to ask him to bump it.

It's been a while for me, but I will say as I recall, learning to hitch one makes learning how to hitch a team a lot easier.

[jonny2mad]

I know quite a few gypsys that still live in horsedrawn caravans I also know a guy who builds traditional gypsy caravans , they wouldn't have a team of four horses normally they have one horse .

Four horses seems excessive especially big shire type horses they take a lot of feed where has gypsy horses mainly live off the land .

What gypsys used to do is have a tent if they wanted more room than inside the caravan, the tent might just be a big piece of tarpaulin and some sticks they gathered .

[EyesWideOpen]

Jonny, when I was a kid I knew I'd pushed my mum that one step too far when she threatened to sell me to the gypsies. For a couple years I begged my dad not to send me to visit because I was sure she would really do it.

When my dad told her that, she was mortified and took me to meet her friends-the Travellers, who stopped on her place every year for a month. The wagons and horses were so interesting!

I think getting to know them and the way they managed so well with ingenious use of small space may be why small housing attracts me now.

I'm in a stationary Tin Shack, small and slowly incorporating many of the things I learned back then.