One of those days I shoulda stayed in bed

[Robert R]

And now I can't even whine about it and understand what I am saying!!

I had cut a couple a walnuts on the back of my place.  It was really sorry footing, lots of vines and underclutter but I figured, hey, it is the horses home turf.  They won't get frazzled.  Well, to make a long story short, my feet got tangled and I fell.  In doing so, I gave the reins a good hard jerk and unsettled the mares, who blew up and took off with a 12 foot walnut log in tow.  Of course, in the woods they didn't go very far before they wound up straddling a tree and came to an abrupt stop.  Luckily no torn hide but I am going to have to make a visit to the harness shop for repairs before I can get going again.  Man, if I'd only spent 10 minutes clearing a lane. . .

[Robert R]

And just as soon as I post though yoopin disappears and now I feel like a double fool.  I'm going to bed.

[Tom]

I enjoy hearing the Mule stories from the old loggers around here.   One reminds me of your predicament.

Two brothers would hitch two mules to the wagon and go to the hill in front of the swamp.   The elder took the mules down into the swamp to get the logs and the younger stayed with the wagon.

The log was hitched to a mule and the mule, by himself, headed for the hill.   He dragged the log to the uphill side of the  wagon and positioned it where it could be cross-hauled (parbuckled) onto the wagon.  He stood there while the younger unhooked the log, and when told, went back to the elder in the swamp to get another log. 

Sometimes the log would get hung on a stump.   The mules were pretty smart and would try to get it loose.  They would pull it this-a-way and then that-a-way a couple of times and if the log came loose would continue on to the hill.  If the log didn't come loose, they would bray and stand there until someone came and got them.

When it was dinner time, the wagon was loaded, the mules hitched to it and everybody went back to the farmhouse were the mules and the brothers were fed.   One of the mules knew when it was dinner time and would let everybody know.  One day, it was dinner time and this mule was in the swamp hooking up to a log.  Once hooked up he headed for the hill, but at a good pace.  The elder brother was having trouble keeping up.  When the elder got to the wagon, there was only one mule, the wagon and the younger brother.  The "dinner" mule was no where to be found.

They hooked the one mule to the logs and rolled them up onto the wagon.  Then hitched the mule to the wagon and headed to the house.  It was a load for one mule but he was handling it.  When they got to the house, there was the "dinner" mule standing at the closed door to the barn with the log still hitched behind him.  He had carried it about 3 miles back to the house when it was dinner time and he saw that nobody else was ready to go.

The Younger, who told me the story, said that it was so funny that nobody could be mad.  They just unhitched them and acted as if nothing was wrong.   That mule would still let them know when it was dinner but never left them in the woods again.  It's like he new he had done something wrong. 

[beenthere]

Similar mule story as Tom heard about, was when I was in Western New Mexico one summer, and two loggers had two mules working a side bringing out D.fir logs (16'). One would cut up top and hitch a mule, while the other would stay below and unhitch the log, then sending the mule back up top. They were remarkable the way they would find their way down, and like Tom's mule story, would work a log to get it un-caught, and then bring that log upside the ones on the deck and stop with the ends nearly perfectly lined up.   Very impressive to watch. The mules stayed there at night, with water, grain and hay trucked in.
Seeing that almost got me in trouble one summer when another college friend heard about some pulpwood needing cut, and he thought the two of us could make some money working on that pulpwood during the summer. The more I figured, the more I realized the investment in equipment alone (and he thought the mule idea would work - ha!) would take every bit of money we might earn. Besides, at that time there was NO market for pulpwood in SE Iowa! A college professor was trying to create one, I think. Glad I didn't give that a go. 

[Robert R]

I don't think I am smart enough to qualify for mule ownership.  I have sure thought about breeding Molly and Ginger to jacks to make a second logging team but they would have me whooped before they were ever even broke.  Sometimes I wonder if the reason God didn't make mules is that even He would have been outsmarted by them--tongue in cheek of course.

[Fla._Deadheader]

Easier to train Wimmin than to train Mules  ;D smiley_horserider smiley_horserider smiley_horserider

[Roxie]

Do ya think?   :D

[etat]

Fla.  I wouldn't touch that with a twenty foot pole.......

Much less with a ten foot one!!!!!!!!!!

[asy]

Easier to train Wimmin than to train Mules  ;D smiley_horserider smiley_horserider smiley_horserider

yer a brave man, deddy.

when was it you were leaving the country???

CK... Smart man, as usual.

Teri, we'll let you handle this one.

asy :D

[timberjack240]

i like my mule its a jack... a Timberjack  8) the meanest donkey in the woods  :D