He was on supplemental oxygen and mule Polly made his day (Salt Flat, Texas)

I met John Klingberg in Salt Flat, Texas, while traveling across America with my mule Polly. He was hooked to an oxygen machine, smoking a cigarette, and invited me to join him for a ham biscuit. The oxygen hissed, and he said, "I know I shouldn't be eating this way, but these biscuits are just so good." It was just him and me in the little gas station with some turkeys behind it, and he struck me as one of… Continue reading →

I met Bill Sailor as I was riding my mules up the road toward the Fort Hall Indian Reservation. He walked ahead of me and opened the next gate we came to. We parted a few days later and met again in Blackfoot, Idaho, where I was sitting out a patch of snowy weather. He and his wife invited me to breakfast at a local diner, and after that, he bought the mules a sack of feed and a salt… Continue reading →

I was riding my mules, Brick and Cracker, along a giant cornfield in Nebraska. It was early morning. The sun was rising and cast a beautiful shadow onto the wild hemp growing between the road and the corn.

I was pitching my tent in Centennial City, Nebraska while riding my mules Brick and Cracker from North Carolina to Idaho. I turned around, saw this weird creature and thought, "Holy, Crap!" There's a giraffe behind that tree." It wasn't. The body was Cracker, and the head was Brick. No special effects, generative AI, or Chat GPT involved. Real and surreal.

Mule Polly throws a long shadow as she browses the frosty grass under the walnut tree in our backyard. It's hard to imagine, on December 31, that in only two months, the grass will start sprouting. I hope 2023 went well for you, and I wish you all the best in 2024!

I use hoof boots on my mules instead of steel shoes. That allows their feet to expand and contract the way they should instead of being locked into place by a ring of steel. Plus, they don't have to wear them all the time, only when they need to. Nobody likes to wear their shoes to bed. Here's what the bottom of my mule Brick's hoof looks like right after I've trimmed it.

Our wood shed during an early winter snow. Our only heat source is our wood stove, which means it feels mighty good to have our wood shed full come winter. I built the shed from the ground up and sided it with old white oak and chestnut boards I salvaged off another outbuilding I took down. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! I hope you're cozy wherever you are.

My mules Brick (L) and Cracker loaded up in our horse trailer next to my wife's Haflinger pony Pie (R)