As friendly as our oxen are, as awesome as it is to watch them put their heads down and sled a 32-inch log to the landing area, as cool as it is to watch them plow my driveway during a snowstorm, or clean out my cow corral in the spring, or haul manure to my garden . . . And as proud as we are to watch our 12-year-old son catch the three-year-old team, hook them up and then spend a day hauling nearly 1,000 board feet of lumber from the sawmill site to our shop with help from another 12-year-old boy and one of his younger brothers, none of our exciting adventures or memories would be possible without the ox yoke.
And the ox yoke wouldn't be possible now days except for a few men in the United States who still know how to build them well.
Nathan Hine from Massachusetts is such a man. If it weren't for his knowledge and skill, we might not be where we are today.
Our two teams are getting bigger and the first yoke we bought from Nathan was getting too small for the big team. Especially going into the summer season with unlimited green grass and the resultant weight gain on our cattle. We figured it was time to order the next size up.
And a few days ago, it came. CW, and his brothers, exercised strained self-control in waiting to open the huge box until daddy got home late from work.
Nathan's signature red duct tape was soon sliced and the smiles couldn't be stopped as we all admired a beautiful work of art. Nathan has mastered art, beauty and functionality in his yokes.
This new yoke is nearly as tall as CW!
He managed to pick it up, but told daddy that night he was glad he had lifted and hauled all those hay bales this past winter because he might not have been able to otherwise!
It was a few days before (because of very inclement weather that refused to stop raining) this boy could try out the new 8-inch yoke on his team.
Finally, the sun came out one evening between rain storms, and the guys quickly grabbed the team to try on the new yoke.
The team hadn't been worked for several weeks and they've been on green grass for a while, so they were feeling rather full of themselves! CW opted to have daddy drive them the first few trips to the woodlot to take the edge off.
CW chose to ride in the firewood sled with JW2 and MJW. They are allowed a free ride down the hill on the sled, but if they go, they have to load the sled with firewood and unload it when they get back to the house.
They hauled two loads before the sky started looking threatening again and we decided it was time for supper.
Before the sun went down we took a few moments for some pictures of the team wearing their new yoke.
Another day the guys decided to try out the new yoke in the woods doing some skidding with the team.
A few days later we again had a few hours of sunshine so we took the white team out and had them try out the new yoke also. It seemed a little large.
They made a few laps around the field and then they headed down below to get a load of firewood also.
They weren’t quite sure they wanted to work.
Our pond area below the house is gorgeous this time of year. The hawthorns and June berries are starting to blossom and everything is such a lovely shade of green.
There's only one thing better then owning a Hine Family yoke and that is owning two Hine Family yokes! The boys took the edge off the teams dragging this waterlogged pine log out of the creek, up the hill, and up and down the field and driveway.
We tried using the No. 7 yoke on the white team and the new No. 8 yoke on the front team. We'd eventually like to get the teams working together so we can do some larger logging and maybe even farming with them.
Here’s a big thank you to Nathan Hine and his wife for such a beautiful, yet functional ox yoke!