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How many of you know what gee and haw mean?? Without Googling it.
dreher
Member Posts: 8,893 ✭✭✭✭
How about single trees?? Double trees?? Haim straps??
If someone hands you two metal shoes, one horse shoe and one mule shoe do you know which one is which??
Comments
the mule shoe would fit pelosi..............
yes sir I do
I work with engineers and sometimes say this ain't gee hawing when working off of their prints/design
We have to go to Chubby Checker in 1961 and his hit "Do The Pony."
"Turn to the left, when I say 'gee' Turn to the right, when I say 'haw' "
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyaxcvHSyZY
Old antique single trees work good as gambrels for hanging hogs, deer, and such.
Please do not mention Pelosi and mules in the same breath. A good mule is something special. Nothing about Pelosi is special.
I was plowing when i was six in 1941. Plowing a double team at age 8. Know all about a "georgia stock:", "breaking plow", "distributor" , and all the other things used on a farm.
Anyone ever use a slide?
I knew about gee and haw from watching shows about the Arctic and dog teams. Never in actual use. And know nothing whatsoever about anything equine, nor do I wish to.
I grew up on the farm when we used horses for most things but I have to admit I never drove a team so didn't learn gee/haw. I did, when I was 5, have the privilege of riding a run-away on an empty hay wagon with my 10 year old brother trying to hold the lines. I didn't ride it out: when we went through the ditch, the wagon bounced, I went up, and when I came down the wagon was not under me any more. A year or so before my brother died we were talking about that incident and he said, "That was my fault!" I said no way! You were 10 and doing a man's job (we were not big kids). You didn't have a man's strength or a man's judgement but you got 'em stopped with no harm except a scared father and grandfather and my bruised behind.
Yep, I've worked a few teams.
My grandfather skid timber with livestock when I was little. Yep, I know.
I can tell the difference between a mule, a donkey, and a burro. That is about all I can say. Mule shoes? 😁
How do you think I got this crooked smile? I geed when I should have hawed! Don
Yep
As a kid I worked for a select timber company and saw mill. They used mules sometimes to skid logs out of the woods. I never ran the mules, I was running an old Poulan Chain saw with a bow on it bucking the logs, but I watched the guy who worked them. Very cool.
One time the loader broke so these old guys made gin pole to load the logs and powered it with 2 mules.
I also know what a geehaw whimseydiddle is !
Didn't know about there use with mules, but did with dog sleds, probably could tell the difference in the shoes...
I know gee. I know haw. I think I could tell the difference between a mule and horse shoe, but I am not betting a lot of money on it without seeing them both first. I know single trees, but I have never heard of double trees or haim straps before.
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain
Mule shoes are a different shape- sides are straighter and longer. Mule's hooves are different shape than a horse. When I was about 4 i would ride on my great uncle's mule- facing backwards- so we could talk while he was working. Yes, learned how to harness a mule. Learned to hate rocks, since I had the job of walking alongside a rock skid, picking rocks from the garden and tossing them onto the skid.
Chme you are dead on about the difference between a horse shoe and a mule shoe.
Haim straps run from the horse collar to the single tree. One strap on each side of the horse collar going to each side of the single tree. You then hook the two single trees to the double tree. If you know anything about leather work you would enjoy watching a skilled harness maker sew haim straps. Multiple layers of thick harness leather sewed together.
I learned those terms as a kid from reading Little House on the Prairie books... The Wilders used them driving their horses. :)
Stay safe.
+1
Mule
We alway called them "Tugs" and folks that used chains called them "Traces".
To us, the haim strap, buckles the Haimes at bottom of the collar and has a heavy snap to hook to the neck yoke. A lot of older harness has no snap, but long heavy leather strap to attach to the neck yoke.
we have 5 sets of harnesses to fit everything from a 600 lb pony to "tonners", all built by the same harness maker, who has unfortunately passed on.
The "Tugs" he built were multiple layer heavy duty nylon webbing with thick biothayne on the outside, super strong and much much lighter than leather tugs and easier to clean and maintain, but these were the only non-leather parts in the harness he built
RIP Monte Piquet, teamster, horseman, harness maker and friend.
BTTW, I use Come (left) and * (right)
Mule
Who knows what "jay or Jay hole" means? "Jay" Grabs?
Those that logged with horses should.
Dad and Grandpa use a team of oxen for logging, plowing and such.
Don't to start a ruckus but, Gee means to the right and haw means to the left. The haim strings we used on the haims, top and bottom. No buckle, tie a knot in one end of the leather string, run the string through both metal loops then wrap the string around the knot, loop a couple of times and it will hold or break.
We used chains back to the single tree. Leather straps would not have lasted very long when the breaking plow hit a solid stump. We called these chains, trace chains. Very heavy gear for logging and light gear for farming. No belly band for farming.
As a child, I had mules and horses run away with me often. No problem unless they were hooked to a plow or wagon.
I can remember several uncles having oxen, but I have never plowed with them. Oxen are mean to anyone they don't know.
I have a friend that was into dog sledding.....that was where I heard those terms used....
I think this is why it is so confusing which one is right or left
old world(England) and new world(United States)
Our Scout Master was always teaching us 'stuff'. He worked as a Lineman for Detroit Edison and taught us the various line voltage. He used to quiz those of us in his car while on the way to a campout.
He also introduced us to Gee and Haw when he made a Gee Haw Whimmy Diddle.
Hobo, what part of the country are you from. I know there are people that can and do use oxen in all parts of the country but I was under the impression most people that use oxen are in the northeast. Is this correct??
This one is worth a HAW HAW, but not until they turn right
And here's a major GEE....
Some of the old folks around here that have gone on made whimmy diddles and sold them to stores that sold folk art.
They made several toys, paddles, dancing men, dulcimers, and the likes.
Must have stumped my toe!
When I was a kid we had a truck farm with veggies. I cultivated with a horse and he always knew which way to turn at the end of the row by himself. Cant remember ever using those terms. If he occasionally stepped on a plant by mistake, he knew he did wrong and got real nervous. I made the mistake of getting on his back once on the way back to the barn, and about halfway he started to run, knew water and feed was waiting. He didnt step on any of the flopping harness, but I sure got my arsh kicked. LOL always walked home after that.
I knew a few but was lost on the Haim straps .
I DID learn one very valuable lesson about harnessing a mule to a wagon- harness has 3 groups. 1. Communication- used to tell mule to go, stop, turn. 1. Go- harness that lets them animal pull the load without choking or hurting. 3.- the part that I had missed- harness that STOPS the wagon. Without it, mule stops quick, wagon keeps moving forward, The GO harness slides forward, and off the animal.
You are now left holding #1- communication- the reins. Which you wrapped around your hand. That will be the method where the mule communicates to YOU what a bad choice you made- as he drags you right off'n the wagon.....
Mule is like a collie dog, work with you for years and bite the fire out of you.
When you are hooking one up and he looks back at you with is ears laid back best be ready to jup far and fast.
Yup, had draft horses (rented with their owners/drivers) at the farm to move people from the parking area to the Christmas trees and back.
I did not know, I googled.
At my last move twelve years ago I gave my neighbor the heavy horse set of harness that my Grandfather bought in the 1920s when he mowed weeds for the city of Topeka. I had had them oiled and hung up for several years. I still have a pair of mule collars and one "new" single tree. The single tree is painted red and still has the price marked with wax pencil. It came from my BILs Dads closed hardware store. Behind my barn I still have a walking plow, walking lister and dirt slip. I don't know why. When I was a kid I had a neighbor still farming with horses, so I did get to help put up loose hay and once got to help hauling bundles to a steam belted threshing machine.
I didn't know until I had the harness oiled the process. They put the harness in a wire basket, lower it into a stock tank filled with water with a couple inches of oil on top of the water. They totally submerge the wire basket through the oil into the water. The water opens the pores in the leather, then they raise it slowly through the oil layer.
I was about eight the first time I tried to drive a team. They were hitched to a corn wagon and my Grandfather handed me the reins. On my first attempt at driving one horse stood still and the other turned clear around and stepped across the wagon tongue. It was a mess, but not a total horse wreck.
"That mule, Old Rivers and me".
Hah, you think it's tricky hooking a MULE up without getting hurt?
I live in Amish country and have always been in awe of Amish horsemanship. Running a horse cart or buggy along our fast and busy highways takes a lot of skill and faith! They train their kids at very young ages using ponies here on our secondary dirt roads.
I share the roads from my car or truck and always go slow and WIDE around them in my travels. They always wave and show appreciation with actual smiles.