Cincinnati Chili

My mom makes a good Cincinnati Chili.  Ordering it relies on a code system.  For those who've never had it, the system is pretty straight-forward:

Brandt Ainsworth, demoing "One-way."

• Two-way: spaghetti topped with chili (also called "chili spaghetti")

• Three-way: spaghetti, chili, and cheese

• Four-way: spaghetti, chili, cheese, and onions

• Four-way bean: spaghetti, chili, cheese, and beans (beans substituted for the onions)

• Five-way: spaghetti, chili, cheese, onions, and beans

I like mine three-way.  Turns out, the same coding system helps when logging with oxen.  I like mine three-way.  

Pollux checks out the competition.
"Two-way."

Last weekend, I spent all day Saturday and Sunday helping out with Tillers' "Logging with Draft Animals" class.  Brandt Ainsworth taught the class and was a fun to work with.  He's the real deal in terms of knowledge and experience.  (More about him in another post later) 

We had two great horse teams in the woods- Tillers' Sam and Solomon, a pair of Suffolks, and Rick Eshuis's beautiful Percheron Mares.  Plus, we had Tillers' oxen.  With 5 students and 5 instructors, getting plenty of driving for everybody was not a problem.  

On Saturday, we had Castor and Pollux, Tillers' main working team, out to give some basic instruction in driving. Then, they pulled logs with both a small logging arch and a chain.   Aside from testing the rookie drivers with their usual shenanigans, things went well.  That made for one-way. 

Sunday morning saw us back in the woods with both horse teams and Pollux in my single yoke and britchen.  It had been a while since Pollux had worked singly, but he's agile and it's always fun to see just how small of a path a single ox can follow.  We didn't skid anything that really tested him, but bringing out a few small logs still made for two-way.

For the afternoon on Sunday (following a nice lunch delivered from the Corner Cafe), we rounded out the options for working in the woods by yoking up Frank and Sparrow, Tillers' 10 month-old calves.  Ivy has been working them regularly and they were willing workers, responding beautifully to subtle changes in body position, while tolerating many beginning drivers.  Three-way.

Frank and Sparrow make it "Three-Way"

I suppose, given enough time, I'd start exploring more options for both my Cincinnati Chili and my logging.  Four-way:  Yoke two teams with a vertical evener and skid a really big log?  Five-way:?  Well, I'm not too sure about that.  Pondering that can wait for another time.  The spaghetti's almost done.