Latest Events - Archive

Available Now!

It Takes A Team

Sneak Preview of a New Book Available In a few months


	T - Shirts Available by mail Starting 7/27/09 $15 apiece plus $3 shipping and handling Click Here for order information


		Please Sign my Guestbook

	Please Read my Guestbook


	Wagonteamster


	WAGONTEAMSTER .COM

6-3-08 - Most of the wagon construction has now moved inside. Yesterday, I finished most of the doors for the outside storage boxes. Today, I concentrated on the kitchen area. I also started some wiring and plumbing.

There never seems to be enough hours in a day. I’m out working by 6 am, the next thing I know it’s 6 pm. I need to bite the bullet and spend more time working with the horses. Yesterday, I had to put new shoes on Dolly’s rear feet, as she threw one (Dolly doesn’t like to hold her rear feet up very long, so we had to do a little training). I managed to spend at least 15 minutes with both of the other mares working on basics.

I never introduced the other member of the Wagonteamster crew. This is Clementine. She a 17 year old teacup poodle that my first wife bought long ago. She’s deaf, has no teeth and sleeps about half the day, but I think she’ll be good company. (I can just hear the guys at my old job saying, “He’s taking a poodle!”).



	5/31/08 - As you can see from the pictures, the “Wagonteamster - 2000 Horsedrawn Home” is starting to get too cool for school. Before I could do too much in the kitchen area, I had to install a stud to support the awning. So I installed the stud and awning. This actually works better than I thought. I get an extra 80 sq. ft. of living space for only about 80 pounds in weight. The next picture shows it retracted. If you look close, you can see that I messed up on the initial placement of the porch light. I’ll have to move it down about 3 inches, as the awning just grazes it. Inside I’m working on the bathroom and kitchen. In the top picture you can see the side rack on installed on the roof where the hay is going to be stored. Yesterday my buddy Bob came down and helped install the hydraulic brakes. Things are coming along, but there’s still quite a bit to do.





		Its tough finding time to do everything I need to in the next 20 days. Right now I’m working about 12 hours a day, but that’s going to increase to about 14 to 16 hours real soon. Between working on the house and wagon, running for parts, training horses and everything else, its a tough schedule.



	5/27 - 5/28/08 - My daughter Lisa is in town for a few days. We spent much of the past two days together. Yesterday we went to dinner and to the movies. This morning we went fishing, then we took Joyce and Dolly out for a spin.

		Joyce and Dolly drove pretty good together. You can see that both Lisa and I took turns driving them. Doesn’t Lisa look like a future wagonteamster? My son Dan showed up to pick up Lisa. They gave me a hand in hitching up Dolly and Deedee together. This was the first time that I’ve hooked up the two grays together. They have been battling it out for second place in the herd pecking order and I was a little leery of hitching them up side by side. My instincts were pretty good - as I was hitching up Deedee’s heel chains, Dolly decided to pull the wagon tongue to the side. She ran over a 6 x 6 inch hitching post, snapping if off at the base. After this minor rodeo, they drove pretty good. Note - if a full size pickup had hit this post at 10 mph, it would have stopped the truck without breaking the post - draft horses are big with plenty of power!


	5/25/08 - Good progress has been made on all fronts. I made up lists of tasks to due for the wagon, house and horse training. I’ve set a goal to knock off at least one thing on each list every day. So far it’s working pretty good.


	Wagon - Except for the storage boxes, all of the siding is now on. I also mounted the ladder and the “Wagonteamster - 2008” harness storage system. In the picture to the right you can see it modeled.


	Horses - Drove Dolly and Joyce with the wagon for about 4 miles, then hitched Deedee with Joyce for another 3 mile run. All in all - not too bad.

5/22/08 - The previous few days have shown good progress with the wagon and preparing the house for sale. I was going to drive the horses on the wagon a couple of days ago, but elected to go for an extended horseback ride/picnic with a friend instead (life in the slow lane can be rough)

The wagon is progressing well. I’ve installed the rubber roof, so it’s weather tight now. The siding is about 2/3 installed and I’ve began framing out the bathroom and the bed. The following pictures explain things better then a few words.

5/18/08, Deerfield, NH

Today was a day for mending, cleaning and oiling harness. After that task was finished, I started the pre-trip training for the horses. The first couple of day will be spent just ground driving them in pairs. By Tuesday, I’ll have them hitched up to the old wagon and we’ll begin the real “Rocky Balboa” stuff. I can just hear them mutter to themselves as we go down the road, “Getting stronger, getting stronger”.




	Three harness spread out on the ground as I clean, oil and repair them


	The girls after a couple hours of work, relearning how to work together and obey commands from my voice and driving lines. Joyce and Deedee kept swinging their butts out, so I had to tie their butts together for a while with a butt rope. Other than that, there were no problems. This was the first time I drove Dolly with another mare (Joyce) - she handled like a dream.

5/17/08, Deerfield, NH

Yesterday was my last day at work. Mixed emotions about that. It was nice to finally be free of the daily grind, but it was tough leaving some of the great people I’ve worked with over the last 15 years.

I spent today working on the wagon. I boxed in the ends of the driving compartment roof and installed the remaining equipment doors on the rear of the wagon.