If you look around, you can always find some fellow who is still plowing with a mule.
All good, and the mule is well-loved and the old fellow standing on the plough is having a lot of fun, getting good exercise, producing quality food, and maybe even making a few dollars.
A great recreational hobby.
But this not a business.
His mule plows just 8 acres. I doubt those 8 acres produce enough to cover food and bed for man and mule, the taxes on the property, the vet bills, the water bills, the health care bills, the electrical bills, and gas for the truck. Without Social Security and a retirement pension from his previous employer, those 8 acres are not much of a going concern. A part-time jobs as a greeter at Wal-Mart is likely to pay better.
And working a mule at age 83? That's not going to last forever.
To say working a mule is hard work does not do it justice.
A single acre plowed with a mule is eight miles of stumbling over clods. Sweat runs down your face, bugs bite, and your bones ache at the end of the day.
And is that eight miles behind a mule walked only once? Oh no! It may take four or five passes per acre to break up the land -- and more passes to spread manure, work in lime, and run a seed drill.
A single tilled acre is equal to a 40- or 50-mile walk behind a mule in hot sun, wind, and light rain, starting in the dark and ending in the dark as well. It's only romantic from a distance.
And is the day over when you decide to call it quits? Not by a long shot!
You can't run a mule into barn and turn the key off like you can with a John Deere Tractor. You have to unhitch the mule and hang up the bridle, rub down the animal, and water and feed it as well.
You almost never have to paint a tractor or check its tires, but a mule will require manure shoveling, bedding, grooming, attention to the feet, and an occasional visit from a large-animal vet.
And is the day over then? Oh no!
After a day of plowing behind a mule, your pockets will be filled with dust, and your feet may be rubbed raw from small stones and dirt that worked its way into your boots.
“I bought her from an old Amish fella up in Tennessee,” said Stanley Underwood, 83, giving a firm couple of pats to the neck of his mule, Hat. Yes, that’s her name. It started out as Pat, but … “I didn’t much like that,” he said, brushing his hands on his Liberty overalls. “So, I called her Hat.” From where she was tied behind Underwood’s Fulton home, Hat could look out over several of her owner’s eight acres of farmland … rows of corn and beans and fruit. It’s land she helps plow every year.
All good, and the mule is well-loved and the old fellow standing on the plough is having a lot of fun, getting good exercise, producing quality food, and maybe even making a few dollars.
A great recreational hobby.
But this not a business.
His mule plows just 8 acres. I doubt those 8 acres produce enough to cover food and bed for man and mule, the taxes on the property, the vet bills, the water bills, the health care bills, the electrical bills, and gas for the truck. Without Social Security and a retirement pension from his previous employer, those 8 acres are not much of a going concern. A part-time jobs as a greeter at Wal-Mart is likely to pay better.
And working a mule at age 83? That's not going to last forever.
To say working a mule is hard work does not do it justice.
A single acre plowed with a mule is eight miles of stumbling over clods. Sweat runs down your face, bugs bite, and your bones ache at the end of the day.
And is that eight miles behind a mule walked only once? Oh no! It may take four or five passes per acre to break up the land -- and more passes to spread manure, work in lime, and run a seed drill.
A single tilled acre is equal to a 40- or 50-mile walk behind a mule in hot sun, wind, and light rain, starting in the dark and ending in the dark as well. It's only romantic from a distance.
And is the day over when you decide to call it quits? Not by a long shot!
You can't run a mule into barn and turn the key off like you can with a John Deere Tractor. You have to unhitch the mule and hang up the bridle, rub down the animal, and water and feed it as well.
You almost never have to paint a tractor or check its tires, but a mule will require manure shoveling, bedding, grooming, attention to the feet, and an occasional visit from a large-animal vet.
And is the day over then? Oh no!
After a day of plowing behind a mule, your pockets will be filled with dust, and your feet may be rubbed raw from small stones and dirt that worked its way into your boots.
Any wonder the world was so quick to switch to tractors?
1 comment:
There is an event in Columbia TN called 'Mule Days' where working mules still work (especially when it comes to logging). muleday.com
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