Please excuse the dramatic sounding title. Historically, highwaymen were the robbers that waylaid travelers when they left the safety of their towns as there was little in the way of laws or practical enforcement to stop them from doing as they please. Rape. Pillage. Murder.
That's not what this post is about. Its about Costly, tax and fuel driven roadway maintenance and infrastructure. Highway Crews, Not highwaymen. At this time of year, people start noticing road heave, cracks and potholes, as tires rupture, axels break and frames bend out of alighnement. As the snow melts, it will get worse with runoff and washouts. Without constant upkeep, roads disintegrate rather quickly. Remove high taxes, a stable dollar, banking system, low oil costs, peace, government payments....and the roads disintegrate to the third world standards I have seen in my travels, when the highway crews don't show up or can only afford to maintain very selectively. Salting, Grating, Bridge maintaining, Tree/brush removal, Waterway clearing, Beaver removal, Road heave repair, Repaving...and in this case....SNOW REMOVAL. Why does everyone think it will be summer when they, "Bug Out" into their new refugee status?
This diatribe is simply to show off a rather simple build I did this winter. It was time to teach the puppy to pull. Its not just for the dogs as you can see it became necessary to use as a push cart to move heavy items around the farm. We've been dealing with an assortment of vehicular breakdowns lately and it reminds me how vehicles are one of the most unreliable, costly and short term items in the prepper tool box.
After a few experimental false starts...simpler turned out better. One second hand store set of skies, One quarter sheet of sturdy plywood already conveniently cut to size from the hardware store, One two by six stud cut in half, One small can of varnish, A couple feet of plastic covered clothe line to pull up the ski tips, Assorted screws and a few odds and ends. The recycled baby jogger handle was a bonus, though I will reinforce the joints at a latter point.
This lives up to my call signature- "I have a Tactical Harness and I have a Tool Belt. The Tool Belt is more useful".
I have a Tactical Harness and I have a Tool Belt. The Tool Belt is more Useful.
Wow, what great timing...I have been thinking about a sled project almost exactly like this.
I have 2 dogs, one more suiteed to pulling that the other.
Strangely enough, my big male macho looking husky is nothing more than a girly dog.
His advantage is his impressive size, which stops delivery people dead in their tracks on the way up my front walk.
The other is a pitbull/boxer mix...much smaller in size, but much stronger and has a bone chilling fercious bark that won't quite till the delivery person is long gone...and then some.
So being ready to tap a few maple trees (as soon as the weather allows), I had thought of hitching the pit/box to a sled mounted on a pair of used skis just like you did in order to pull the sap collecting buckets through the snow.
I have seen sled dog harnesses at my local coop for about $25 - $30, but wondered if I could make something myself.
Do you use a harness like that or did you just jerry rig something that works?
We bought a properly sized harness for the big pup but a less efficient shoulder rig for the older dog as he only has a few more good years in him. Im thinking of doing a slimmer, toboggan width version, without the push bar, for forest use, to be human pulled with or without cross country skies. Also good for hauling firewood...and should be fun to ride. And then maybe a wheeled version as well. Make them work for their dogfood. Don't count out the husky. It may trigger his ancient instinct to pull and the two dogs together will compete to see whose faster.
I have a Tactical Harness and I have a Tool Belt. The Tool Belt is more Useful.
Wow C5, you will be able to put a huge BoB on this!!! 😉 Sorry, couldn't resist...
Fingers in my ears. LA LA LA LA LA. I hear nothing 😆 . The unfortunate part of this is that I cant gracefully back out of sugar harvesting. I'm peer pressured into ad hock, Putting up or shutting up....and its damn cold outside. Sucks to be public.
I have a Tactical Harness and I have a Tool Belt. The Tool Belt is more Useful.
Nice rig for the purposes. Last year i made a similar large one, but for hand-hauling several flat loads/sheets of plywood and 100 sheets rigid foamboard over rough terrain in winter, and anything else awkward/large. I used the longest downhill skis i could score out of the garbage rounds, and mounted on 2x6 cedars, similar to yours. I just didn't have time to rig up a braking system!, and almost got my legs crushed going down a gentle slope of hardened snow. Also used it to harvest-load all my garlic earlier, pulling it alongside the beds on the grass with the lawn mower to the curing sheds.
Under 3 feet of snow now out at the leased gardensite....will send pics late spring.
Sweet! Yes, I need and want to start building a set of tools that I can use to build cool things like this. As for bugging out in winter, I am sure it could happen. My BO plans, should I ever need to, do NOT include a vehicle. If we can make use of one, then all the better, it's an added bonus, but I don't rely on the prospect of having one to use or the gas to run it for a second. Walking, biking, pulling a nifty handmade sled. Who knows?
First subject I see and it's on my favourite thing.. Dogs and pulling 🙂
My wife and I have two malamutes and we've trained them to pull and we have a variety of sleds. One project I want to work on in the very near future is a sled or sledge for hauling logs.
All dogs should have jobs 🙂
-John