The Old Ways

We visit the farm of AJ & Kortnee Woolstenhulme of Teton Valley, Idaho. With the help of their four children they are recapturing the spirit of a working farm and ranch right out of the 18 hundreds. They are the 6th generation of the family to work the land below the Grand Tetons and are on a mission to keep "The Old Ways," alive.
Using draft horses and antique farm equipment -- found on the land and restored -- they are plowing and cutting hay the way their ancestors would have done it. They are preserving the tradition of "Loose Stack Hay," done in the days before the hay was bailed. And on the farm, friends and family tell us the stories of the past -- and the legend of the two most famous barns in America.

[@niclandstrom3516]

The Woolstenhulmes are the best

[@bombardier3qtrlbpsi]

Excellent thank you 👍

[@klauskarbaumer6302]

I'm in my 61st year of working with horses and still enjoy it, now mainly working them on our market garden farm.

[@veloebrasier1352]

This was my dad’s (Russell Murdock) farm given to him by his dad (Albert Murdock) just a mile up the road and where I was born and raised the first 5 years of my life. Grandpa Murdock got very sick and died before I was born in 1937. My Grandma tried to keep the farm running (milking cows and selling the milk or making butter and cheese) with my dads youngest brother, age 16 who half the time never came home from school to help, so it got too much for my Dad running the home ranch and his ranch also. Dad sold his ranch to Uncle Sylvon and bought the ranch from Grandma and moved Her into Driggs into a small cabin called Harris’s Cabins. She went on a trip to Heber City, Utah and met a widower with 6 sons that Grandma ended up marrying and raising those boys. We loved the trips each year to see her and take beef and pork to her and Grandpa Simmons. I loved Grandpa Simmons, he was so kind to me!! And I was always told I looked like Grandma Murdock. She taught me to cook a lot (especially Rhubarb pies)

[@jeynjohnstone5917]

Love rhubarb pie 🥧

[@mystic24100]

Thank you for this wonderful video.

[@blueboats7530]

Not only is the fieldwork so much more work, but the care a feeding of the draught horses is a great deal of work too

[@nolanbowen8800]

I grew up in Bates of the Teton Valley. I have seen all of this. When I was a boy in the 40s I ran the derrick horse. I remember the hay field having several teams and a Ford tractor side delivery and dump raking to bring the hay to the stacker. 1 or 2 guys would be stacking the hay. I even remember a thrashing machine, which predated combines in my grandpa's field. I remember grandpa on his mower with his team of horses. Most all the farmer/ranchers had teams and other horses in that day. We knew the Woolstenhulmes. Daryl and Ruth are acquaintance of mine. My Aunt Rhoda Furniss was a Moulton. My cousin still has our grandpa's brothers old sheep camp. I stayed in it more than once for about a week with Uncle Walt, Uncle Hugh and sometimes Uncle Ted. I miss them and I miss the old days.

[@laurasluder9816]

Thank you Brent for documenting this for all to see!

[@savingamericana]

You bet Laura. And thanks for getting those great shots inside your wagon. There was just no way both AJ and I were going to get into that thing without creating a classic blooper. It's just such a cool event.

[@tozobozo4142]

When it sinks in what "non-renewable" means you know oil is going away, (and will in fact become economically impossible without being literally gone,) and you understand in addition that all today's so-called "renewable" technologies are not renewable at all but rather just "rebuildable" provided the oil economy they are dependent on is chugging along you realize horses are coming back in our lives. The math is not difficult. It's just something most people don't want to acknowledge.

[@newdayfarm9463]

I love this video. I learned stuff I never knew.

[@wild_mustangs_and_parrots]

Wish I had spent more time with Marvin Brisk before I moved to SW Oregon to be with my daughters. He was game to put my mustang mare in with his team while working once. Fun. I want to go back. I lost both of my daughters.

[@brianferris1233]

🌲🦅🌲 thank you for posting stay safe and healthy out there 🦅

[@mtbalpinecounty]

Great to see new content!..

[@moosa9850]

Just came across your channel, subscribed immediately. GOD bless you all

[@savingamericana]

head to our new website. It's SavingAmericana.com several new videos

[@allanlavallee7171]

Put up hay like this in the sixties in Manitoba

[@mervjb809]

Chain those logs as close as you can to the log cart, and when you start pulling, it will lift the front of the logs for easier pulling... plus better control when the logs aren't stretched so far out behind.

[@Kyle-bb9zp]

Awesome way to live get rid of new technology leave it behind

[@blueboats7530]

Yep, the term haystack came from somewhere . . .

[@kwnilson88]

Great video! I grew up working with horses with my Dad. Not sure if you'll see this but at the 2:05 minute mark there appears to be a left-handed horse mower, I've never seen a lefty before. Is there any way to find more about that mower?

[@wesbrackmanthercenthusiast4695]

Looking at the video it looks like a international no9 where the video was mirrored I'm slowly becoming more knowledgeable about the horse drawn equipment so I'd say that it's probably a 9. I'm Saving up for a shop here in southern ohio because I want to restore and remanufacture horse drawn farm equipment for my friends in the horse shows and the local Amish communitys the first tool I ever bought was a 3d printer for making master casting molds of lost or broken parts , second was a rubber tire machine for horse carriages ,third is a 1888 frick sawmill so I will always have a good supply of lumber cut to what I need as well as speed up my funds for getting new equipment to get myself closer to opening up my shop

[@mystic24100]

I was born in 1944 and grew up on the home place. I saw the sweep and stacker sitting and never used so I had to imagine how they worked. The binder was sitting in a building and wondered how it worked.