Hordville Hello

Published July 17, 2019

Greetings from Hordville, Nebraska. The mules and I arrived here this morning (July 17, 2019) and set up a welcome camp under the linden tree by the rail road tracks. A wonderful place to duck the heat before things heated up this afternoon.

Brick and Cracker grazing in the cooling shade of one of Hordville’s many large linden trees.

Temperatures have been in the 90s all this week with higher temps forecast. This limits the amount of time the mules can be ridden. The hot weather makes it easy to scald – or overheat – their backs. That’s why it was so nice to find a cool spot under a shade tree before the afternoon started scorching us on the road.

The start of a scald – or hot spot – on Brick’s back. I’m being ***really*** careful this doesn’t develop in to a saddle sore. I interchange riding and packing the mules. I’ve been leading Brick (and using Cracker as the pack mule) to keep the weight off this scald.

The land outside Hordville: soybeans on the South, corn on the North. We’re going from mostly dry land farming (only rainwater and natural moisture) to land that relies on irrigation for moisture.

Brick hanging with Cheryl and Murray Fowler. Murray grows alfalfa on the land I’m camped on.

Cracker soaking up some ear scratches provided by young visitors.

The Hordville community center, where I’m writing you this post. I have to rely on folks I meet along the way to keep my laptop, phone, iPod and head lamp charged. Without their assistance, you wouldn’t be reading these posts. Wonderful how generous and trusting the folks in Hordville have been. They even provided me with a key to the community center.

From here the mules and I plan to travel to Central City, about 9 miles away. There I hope to find a spot where I can give the mules 2 much needed days off.

Big Thanks

Thanks to:

Dale Wittgren and his son Michael: for last night’s mule accommodations, shower, beer, pizza, sandwich, cold drinks and stories of sailing a steel sailboat from Hawaii to California.
Hordville Town Clerk Scott Simonson: for making the call that got me the spot under the linden tree.
Murray and Cheryl Fowler for letting us camp on the land they lease from the railroad. Thanks, too, Murray, for the lesson in de-tasseling corn.
Carla: for directions and the key to the community center
The Town Hall coffee drinkers: for the coffee, banana nut bread and directions to Central City, our next destination.
Banana Rams bar: for peanuts and water when I was almost out of food. And beer. I’ll be right there guys!