August 25, 2007

First team drive with Luc and Liberty by myself on the Camas Prairie, it was their 9th drive together as a team. It was a hot 85* with even hotter and stronger winds expected by the afternoon. We experienced some of those scorching dry winds on our drive today.

Changing Luc’s into a team setup involved robbing parts from Dev’s work harness . At MT State Fair Luc wore a borrowed harness. That meant some extra time with the hole punch and some reconfiguring. We did a good job and with a few more minor adjustments I'll have it.

I could tell by the way the team stood quietly as we backed away from the fence and lined the boys up for Jim to look everything over that they were going to be okay. What a relief as this drive was going to be by myself. I had originally planned to stay close to the farm but each time I asked for a stop, so they could catch their breath, I was reassured that they were just fine and we could go a little farther. We pulled into the second hay field from the home place for a nice long breather. As we were sitting there our first vehicle went by, a large dually pickup. We pulled back onto the road and headed to our next stopping spot.

As we started down the road I looked up and coming over the crest of the hill was a semi with a heavy load of large round bales. He had to come down a steep grade before meeting us on a flat stretch of gravel road. I immediately began to hand motion for him to slow down. He was raising a thick heavy cloud of dust that would soon encase us. The driver was grabbing gears and slowing down for all he was worth and was able to go past us at a safe speed. I gave him the thumbs up as he went by giving us the all time dirt bath. The boys were excellent and I breathed a huge sign of relief.

I reached for my water as we were resting in our turn around spot when I realized that somehow my red driving water bag was gone. I had just looped it over the edge of the rail and it must have been knocked off when I used the driving whip. I would have to watch for it on the way home. Didn't take long to spot my bag lying in the road…. Now how to retrieve it? We pulled near it but still to far away. I asked the boys to step up… one step and stop, one step and stop. I asked Luc and Liberty to haw over which they did. Then I took the butt end of my whip and got it under the handle and lifted it to the seat while the boys patiently waited for me. Now that was just plain awesome! I got a drink and we headed for home.

I have a perfect place to practice docking and decided it was never too early for us to start. I pulled up along side of where I wanted to back into. I had the boys haw over and pull forward until the wagon was straight and then I asked for a back. We did okay till the back up. Now I need to figure out how to back my wagon straight and get the guys to back up with their butts pointed in the same direction that would be nice… really really nice!! We did better the second time and figured that was good enough for now. Maybe I had better go to town and practice parallel parking them! Sure… who am I kidding??

I drove them past our driveway and down the road to the entrance of the east field so we could practice a turn around. Then we stopped and got the mail from the mail box before returning to home base.What a great drive! Here are the GPS statistics:

3.33 miles, 7.9 MPH max speed (must have been those few steps when I was trying to get Liberty to catch up and pull his fair share), 3.2 MPH moving average speed (that is all we did was just walk), 1:01:49 for time moving, time stopped 30.17minutes (part of this was hitching and making sure all looked okay but mostly our long and frequent breaks)

Kristi, Luc and Liberty the all newTEAM DONK! Yippee!!!! :)

August 26, 2007

A perfect team drive! Luck was with us as a semi truck without a trailer came barreling down the same grade as the one yesterday at probably 70 mph… definitely to fast for narrow gravel roads. We had pulled off the roadway for a break and I doubt if he ever saw us. It was pure luck as this could have been pretty awful.

We had a couple of great practice sessions as we toured the countryside. We worked on fanning the team from side to side. Luc was exceptional and Liberty will catch on quickly I'm sure. We also practiced docking. By using the fan method to turn the front wheels and by putting a butt rope on to tie them together I was able to back the wagon much straighter and further. I was pretty impressed with the boys and our little practice sessions.

To insure they are parade ready we did today’s drive in hames bells. The bells did not bother Liberty at all even though it was his first time with them, Luc is an old hand with bells. Luc is very patient with Liberty and a great mentor. This is working out better than I first thought and it is perfect for Liberty who will learn from Luc's vast driving experience. YES, this works for me!

GPS readings: 3:43 miles, 7.9 Max Speed, 3.2 Average, 1:05:28 moving time, 37:53 time stopped We took lots of nice long rest breaks. It was 76* with 24 mph wind gusts. Perfect!