Love Draft Horses and Mules? Like to see how rural work was done in the past - and today? Interested in the rural heritage of the United States?
Joe Mischka travels the country in search of people who are doing just that - and filming them while doing it. Watch past episodes of our weekly show Rural Heritage on RFD-TV as well as some short raw footage from Joe's travels. We have DIY videos, draft horse, mule and donkey events, Heritage events showcasing the ways our ancestors worked on their farms, draft animal powered logging, wagon trains, and more.
Since 1976, Rural Heritage magazine has been providing information to people interested in using draft animal power on their farms and in their forests. As small-scaled diversified family farming and homesteading gains popularity in the US, we are here to show how to go back to the land and compete successfully with your “modern” neighbors while leaving a legacy of fertility for coming generations.
You guys must be based in Cedar Rapids, IA - that's a CR number at the beginning. Great people and topic. The interviewing is a bit awkward but overall glad you gave these people some kind of immortalization on RU-vid.
Great video! But I must admit I'm biased, that was my arch. My brother in law was the fabricator and Ben has made several substantial improvement on it. I'm happy to see it being used by such an accomplished teamster. Hope to get out some time to work with Ben and crew.
Thank you for loving this mill enough to keep it going. I saw Sickman's running back in the seventies, and it breaks my heart that all the equipment is still there, but it can't run. My gram told me stories about how all the cornmeal she ate as a kid was grown on their farm and milled at Sickman's. When the cornmeal got low, her dad would saddle a mule, throw a sack of corn over his back, and ride him down to the mill where the miller would grind it on shares. I loved those old mills as a kid. I found it thrilling how the whole building would vibrate when it was running, almost as though it was a living thing. Zook's mill was still running when I was a kid. We used to buy flour there.
Way to go! This is a great video and Ben Burgess is a hero. I'm just dragging windfall branches with a pony but I love it, and want to see good horses doing good work. Keep it up!
Horses or mules in Adair, Casey and Russell counties have got to be about half billy goat to be able to climb those hills. There used to be a lot of good mule men in that area that logged, but I guess they are all dead by now. Glad to see at least one young man carrying on with it.
Those horses are so well trained. I like the size and conformation of Suffolk Punch horses. Please show more of the horses working the logging operation.
My father was in the US Army Calvary in Monterey California in the mid 1930’s. All the soldiers rode Morgans. My daughter had two mares that we loved dearly. Sweetest tempered, calm girls that would do anything for you. Old style! The best!
Very interesting. Never seen anything like that before. The description says that those were baled for sale/transport, which makes perfectly sense. You wouldn't need that extra effort if you just wanted to use the hay locally. Thanks a lot for sharing!
Our barn on the family farm was built in 1962, and was equipped with a hay fork on overhead track for filling the barn with loose hay, but they had switched to small bales by the time i showed up. I had never heard of this particular way of making hay. Was this done for hay used on-farm, or only for hay that was sold? I had never thought of it, but there were thousands of horses in cities that needed to be fed, and this would have been much easier to transport than loose hay.
