About 25 years ago at the outset of my farming career, I apprenticed with a farmer in MN for a while, then NH. I was exposed to lots of stuff I was unfamiliar with here in the southeast. Hay hooks were around, and there were lots of conversations about whether a hay hook made bale pitching easier. I never got in the habit. I never even got in the habit of using gloves. We mostly made rolls on the farm but I always made a few thousand bales of nice alfalfa mix squares for calves or to sell or just to have another baler picking up hay during times I’ve knocked a lot of acreage down. Usually 600-1000 bales in an afternoon. Handled twice.
Now a pulp hook is something I used a lot, apprenticing with a farmer in southern NH. He had a big woodlot, sawmill, shingle mill and used horses and oxen to skid logs. We did lots of woodlot work, thinning hardwoods, and would skid them into a big pile. Then we’d cut into 4’ sections. The pulp hook was used in the far end to pick up the 4’ sections to set on the splitter. After splitting, wed cut to cordwood length on a tractor mount saw rig. Ya, that thing was an arm eater. We processed dozens of cords over short periods of time. We burned a lot too.
We had a very nice wood stove where all the cooking took place. A lot of good cooking. I’m 45 now, and I eat a fraction of what I’d eat then. Pork chops, hamburger sized sausage patties, potatoes, turnips, hubbard squash, etc. Meals were huge and precisely on time. This was a well run Farm and household. He’d pull out a tub of ice cream in the AM occasionally. “It’s milk, it’s healthy” he’d say. He was a dairy farmer. I was 20, he didn’t have to convince me.
They had the most organized woodshed I’d ever seen. It was unbelievable. He’d take all kinds of time to perfectly stack the wood, so that there was little airspace in the rack, which held several dry cords. There was a big wood box by the stove with doors on outside and inside to fill with wood without letting a bunch of cold in. It was by far the most efficient and organized wood program I’ve seen on any farm. Besides big boilers.
Apprenticing with this guy really affected how I work, how I train others to work. It was good to learn this approach before a career of running commercial farms with only tractors. This guy built his barn connected to his house by a garage and wood storage. The wood was all milled there, shingles too. It was an old New England style home with low ceilings, heated easily. Could walk easily to the barn in weather, back draft horses out of tie stalls, harness them, and be out working within minutes.
I can still remember the feeling of that hook digging into the end of the wood. Then lifting vertical, then using a knee as a fulcrum on heavy 4’ pieces, and setting on the splitter. The thing would develop a sharp, flat little hook on the tip after a lot of use. I’m going to try and dig up some old photos. We stuffed all that away when the kids were little. Now they’re 19 and 23 and we’re starting to catch our breath, I guess I’ll see if all those photos are stuck together....yikes. We didn’t get AC until 10 years ago.
Thanks for the memory!
