Rural Heritage October/November 2025

and they can do that precision work really nicely. With the horses, probably one of the most fun things to do is harvesting the potatoes- dropping that middle buster in the ground and having those horses pull that across the field and unearth all those potatoes. RC: It was fun planting sunflowers with Pollux (Tillers’ oldest single ox), walking next to the string. . . KH: And single row cultivation is just fun with all the animals. I really enjoyed cultivating between the potatoes with all the animals. So yeah, hard question. RC: Using my Devon oxen on the over the row cultivator would be my favorite in the demonstration field because they're sort of like the donkeys. Once they know where they're supposed to go, they just just walk that path and life is good. Will the same demonstration field be used next year? KH: A portion of it. I am interested in opening up some new ground that hasn't been worked quite as intensely. And so giving some of the demonstration field a well-earned rest and putting it into a grass mix for animals to graze at least for a number of years. Managing the farm holistically, letting the land rest for a time is just the kind and proper thing to do for the earth. RC: Your horse background was driving carriages (on Mackinac Island) and being a farrier. Was it an easy transition to field work? KH: It was an exciting transition. When you're a farrier, you see the horses once every six weeks and you see the telltale signs of what the feet have been up to. But when you're actually there doing the work, you can see, you know, how the environment and the workload really does affect the health of the horse day-to-day. And so that's a cool and exciting process to be a part of. But for driving, it's different. When you're a taxi man, you're taking people from point A to point B. Obviously, when it comes to the harnessing and the health care of the animals, it's just as much work, but working out in the fields is way more precise and technical as far as the skills that you need for driving. Because you need to be able to guide an animal down a pathway with six inches of margin for error or less. Especially when you're cultivating, your margin of error might only be two inches.

And also, too, when you're driving a carriage, you don't really have to think about the mechanics of the carriage when you're out and about, as long as you've done a good job of maintaining it. When you're operating a tool that has many variables on it and you're trying to keep a team on the straight and narrow, that's way more stimulating and there's way more factors to consider. And so, yeah, in some ways it's more peaceful because you're not on a busy street. You're out in the countryside and in the meadows and birds are flying overhead. But in another way, it's actually way more technical and stimulating. So it's different, for sure. I would say the learning curve is much bigger. RC: One last question. What are you most proud of? KH: Hmm. I think I'm very, very thankful for, and I couldn't begin to list them off, but there've been so many — just a living library — of people that have come in to help offer their suggestions and advice. So that's something that I'm incredibly thankful for the last two years, it's not a one man show whatsoever. There's many, many thoughts and all the different interns and students that have poured their time into helping manage and to help the process. Sometimes it happens here on the farm, or sometimes in town, someone will say, “You know, I stopped by and I visited Tillers and it was so beautiful and I'm so impressed with the work that you guys are doing.” It's cool to be a part of that. I think when people pull me aside and share those types of things, I think I'm very happy.

October/November 2025

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