Feb: T-shirt and sunscreen

Ryan DeRamus from Tillers drives Castor and Pollux.

A year ago this weekend, I helped out with Draft Animal Logging Class at Tillers and the temperature never got to 5 degrees (F).  In the woods with no wind, it wasn't unpleasant, but that's still pretty cold.

This weekend, my school took Friday off for mid-winter break.  The weather forecast called for 50's and 60's!  A little ox work seemed in order.

Friday, I headed out to Tillers to give Blue, Castor, and Pollux a tune-up ahead of next weekend's logging class.  All three were perfect gentlemen and willing, if not exactly eager, to pull a slipscraper and a log.

Zeus insisted on a selfie.

Then it was home to do a little work with my own oxen.  By mid-afternoon, the temperature was above 60 and Brutus was panting just getting yoked, so we did little more than driving practice.

Saturday AM saw us out spreading compost on the hayfield.  Our spreader is a bit large for out-of-shape oxen in the "heat of February," so Zeus made a few trips with a slip scraper and Brutus and Cassius used a cart; We were delivering compost to the field corners that the spreader will miss, so the inefficiency in our delivery wasn't too worrisome.

Cart work for manure.  Having the removable
back on the cart is handy for raking it clean.

With more and frequent extreme fluctuations in our seasons, I may have to keep the sunscreen handy in February.