Tell me about your farm workhorses...ATVs, 4 wheelers, tractors, side by sides, etc.

[Baymule]

Bee, we spread those wood chips all over. Sand clouds drifted with every puff of wind. The “yard” with its single weed, was just a sand pit. The barnyard at the horse barn was so dusty that poor Sparkles, our TW old mare with heaves, gasped for every breath. We covered these areas with wood chips to hold the dust down. We could get stuck in the sand driveway so we paved it with wood chips. Later we rocked it with crushed concrete, in several stages as $$& allowed. We used them on our so called “pastures” trying to add humus to the sand. And yes, we used lots in the garden. Last year, we got 11 loads, for which we were grateful. Plus we shared with Robert so he could mulch his garden. The improved soil in our garden is now about a foot deep. Wood chips and animal manures is what we have used.

The barnyard is still dusty, but nothing like it was, likewise the yard. Those wood chips were a blessing and made a huge difference.

 

[Beekissed]

Bee, we spread those wood chips all over. Sand clouds drifted with every puff of wind. The “yard” with its single weed, was just a sand pit. The barnyard at the horse barn was so dusty that poor Sparkles, our TW old mare with heaves, gasped for every breath. We covered these areas with wood chips to hold the dust down. We could get stuck in the sand driveway so we paved it with wood chips. Later we rocked it with crushed concrete, in several stages as $$& allowed. We used them on our so called “pastures” trying to add humus to the sand. And yes, we used lots in the garden. Last year, we got 11 loads, for which we were grateful. Plus we shared with Robert so he could mulch his garden. The improved soil in our garden is now about a foot deep. Wood chips and animal manures is what we have used.

The barnyard is still dusty, but nothing like it was, likewise the yard. Those wood chips were a blessing and made a huge difference.

I hope you get more and can keep building a top soil layer with them...that dust sounds miserable!!!

 

[Baymule]

I hope you get more and can keep building a top soil layer with them...that dust sounds miserable!!!

It’s a lot better than it was on September 2014. We’ve come a long way. It’s still dusty though.

 

[Alasgun]

Finally getting back to this @Beekissed, took some digging!
As i mentioned previously, up here wheelers are serious tools and many times you are trusting your life to them, if you wanna see any of the cool stuff you don’t see from a road.
these are just random pictures of pictures, this was from back in the “film days”.
for some perspective these cover a number of Hunt’s that ranged from 2 days to a week in duration. None of them are closer to a road than 25 miles and a couple went over 65 miles (one way) into the wilderness.
first picture, the rig on the right is one i rode for many years, dragging that meat wagon over a lot of different terrain.
next, the second from the front outfit is the one i pulled out with broken steering. He and that trailer, my rig and trailer with a total of 5 caribou strapped on just about anywhere we could get them.
next, my buddy coming across with his son after i found a place where the tires would grab on this side of the river. This is where i bobbed along being pushed down stream by the current till i got a bite. Typically if your pulling a trailer the current will push you around pretty good but just wheelers by themselves do pretty good.
next, the end of the road! Sometimes you come to places where there’s no way thru, in this case we were spring bear hunting and needed to get up high to look for them emerging from dens. Great time of year to be out in Alaska.
last, there is only one place in this state where you can ride a wheeler all the way into sheep country and this picture is taken from that camp. I did not shoot a sheep but we did have caribou all around us and they provide plenty of entertainment!

it wasn’t always about shooting something, many of these come into the “journey is the destination” catagory.

Now days, i plow snow with mine.

 

[Baymule]

Those are some fantastic pictures and I’ll bet some fantastic memories.

 

[Mini Horses]

That terrain I want to see only in pictures! Wow!

 

[Beekissed]

Finally getting back to this @Beekissed, took some digging!
As i mentioned previously, up here wheelers are serious tools and many times you are trusting your life to them, if you wanna see any of the cool stuff you don’t see from a road.
these are just random pictures of pictures, this was from back in the “film days”.
for some perspective these cover a number of Hunt’s that ranged from 2 days to a week in duration. None of them are closer to a road than 25 miles and a couple went over 65 miles (one way) into the wilderness.
first picture, the rig on the right is one i rode for many years, dragging that meat wagon over a lot of different terrain.
next, the second from the front outfit is the one i pulled out with broken steering. He and that trailer, my rig and trailer with a total of 5 caribou strapped on just about anywhere we could get them.
next, my buddy coming across with his son after i found a place where the tires would grab on this side of the river. This is where i bobbed along being pushed down stream by the current till i got a bite. Typically if your pulling a trailer the current will push you around pretty good but just wheelers by themselves do pretty good.
next, the end of the road! Sometimes you come to places where there’s no way thru, in this case we were spring bear hunting and needed to get up high to look for them emerging from dens. Great time of year to be out in Alaska.
last, there is only one place in this state where you can ride a wheeler all the way into sheep country and this picture is taken from that camp. I did not shoot a sheep but we did have caribou all around us and they provide plenty of entertainment!

it wasn’t always about shooting something, many of these come into the “journey is the destination” catagory.

Now days, i plow snow with mine.

Wow......just....wow!!!!! My son would LOVE to meet you, that's for sure. He's always wanted to go to Alaska, hunt in Alaska and even live in Alaska. What beautiful pics!!! I can't even imagine depending on a 4 wheeler to get me 65 mi. and back to the hard road, crossing swift rivers and uneven terrain. That right there takes some faith!

Back when men were men still and would actually get off the couch and experience the outdoors...the extreme outdoors. Thank you for the glimpse into just what these ATVs can do....you guys really put them through a lot more than they go through nowadays. Ours will likely only get a little mud on the tires now and again, pull a wood wagon, a few trees and such, our field wagon and shelter, etc. No truly sustained hard stuff like you put them through.

Thank you for finding those pics!!!! If you find more, please post them....Alaska is a beautiful place I'll likely never get to on this present Earth, but would have loved to have seen it all the same.

 

[CLSranch]

I got a Kawasaki Big Bear 400, and a little trailer it barely fits on. I got it well used and cheap with a busted head gasket and needing new suspension in one spot and still does. It will hold a rick of wood on that little trailer, which is about max for both. It has pulled all sorts of things all over this little town. Great in the wet times where a truck would tear up a pasture.
I have used horses at the old place to pull up wood from the creek bottoms, but only close to the house. With a 4-wheeler I could have gone a lot further out and bought a lot less wood.
Another great thing I finally got last winter is a hydraulic splitter. I would only do about a wagon load a day by hand. That's about 2-5 days of burning depending on weather. And had to cut everything big real short to do so. Now in less time and I can split a 24" log faster than I could an 18" log depending on how seasoned it is. I could do a couple fast then it really starts to slow down.

 

[Beekissed]

I got a Kawasaki Big Bear 400, and a little trailer it barely fits on. I got it well used and cheap with a busted head gasket and needing new suspension in one spot and still does. It will hold a rick of wood on that little trailer, which is about max for both. It has pulled all sorts of things all over this little town. Great in the wet times where a truck would tear up a pasture.
I have used horses at the old place to pull up wood from the creek bottoms, but only close to the house. With a 4-wheeler I could have gone a lot further out and bought a lot less wood.
Another great thing I finally got last winter is a hydraulic splitter. I would only do about a wagon load a day by hand. That's about 2-5 days of burning depending on weather. And had to cut everything big real short to do so. Now in less time and I can split a 24" log faster than I could an 18" log depending on how seasoned it is. I could do a couple fast then it really starts to slow down.

Love my gas log splitter!!! It's a Swisher and 21 yrs old now, so very hard to find parts for, but I just can't let this one go.....too many pieces of firewood with that one. I don't like to change out equipment if it's still good, you know? We have grown old together.

We use the 4 wheelers here for the same reason you stated....to keep a low impact on the pastures. We have very thin topsoil here and hard pack clay underneath, so the soils are a tad fragile if you want them to grow anything but weeds. We are trying to build that topsoil by rotational grazing, rolling out mulch hay, etc.

 

[Baymule]

My son called this morning, he found free wood shipping crates an hour from me. They look like a pallet bottom with plywood sides. BJ was too tired, I didn’t insist because I need him Thursday and Friday in the garden. So I shared with Robert and he is gone to get some. He got our flatbed trailer to stack them up on.