Living in Dryden

Plowing the back yard

Although we've done some very large things to my yard and gardens this year, there was still a large area in the back yard that was basically just lawn. After turning a smaller area in the front yard by hand, I wasn't exactly enthusiatic about doing that to a space five times as large. Josh had a friend, Eric Kincaid, with horses and an interest in plowing. Eric apparently plowed a much larger area in Brooktondale yesterday, and came by today to try plowing in my yard.

While it may have been a large area for turning by hand, it was a rather small area for plowing by horse. Still, I think in the end, it was pretty successful. The plow was from Syracuse Chilled Plow Company, though I don't know how old it was. Kincaid's horses were an Appaloosa (Strangely) and a mule (Errata), and his dog Tuffy was there to help - sort of - as well. The horses, which normally pull Kincaid's cart, seemed comfortable pulling the plow.

Setting up the plow.

Josh makes a first run on the plow as Eric directs the horses.

Chris makes a later run on the plow.

The area was too narrow for the horses to turn around comfortably, so instead of plowing the usual straight lines, they plowed circles, diagonals, and whatever seemed convenient. Since our purpose was primarily to break the sod to make it easy to do further digging and landscape change, it didn't have to be perfect. (Given the space, it couldn't be.)

It was definitely a pleasure working with Eric and his team, and I'd recommend it, though I think it probably makes a lot more sense if you have at least half an acre to an acre, with space for the horses to turn around. I'd say it was successful experiment, if unusual.

If you'd like to see more, including the horse cart, plow, and more of the horses, I've posted a gallery. Thanks also to the folks over at The Orchid Place for letting us park a horse cart in their lot, and hitch and unhitch horses there.