mule Cracker
Covered Wagon Shadow Puppet Show: A Homemade Christmas Video
You’ve watched plenty of AI-generated Christmas videos this season. Now watch this home made shadow show I made just for you, projected against the side of my covered wagon. Talk about really raising your holiday spirits!
That’s me in the video above riding my mule Cracker and leading my pack mule… Continue reading
Shadows of Mules and a Covered Wagon: Sneak Peek
I got an idea while I was putting the new cover on my covered wagon this weekend.
While I was dinking around on the wagon (“dinking” was one of my dad’s favorite words, along with “piddling” when it came to describing just messing around with something), I thought of a new art project. I don’t want to say much more about it at this point, but I wanted to let you have a glimpse because it’s so beautiful. Enjoy!
Losing My Mule Cracker While Riding the Virginia Highlands Horse Trail
I recently committed a major blunder. I let go of Cracker, one of the mules I was riding up the Virginia Highland Horse Trail. Here’s what happened next…
To be continued tomorrow.
Read more posts from this ramble: Virginia Highlands Horse Trail : A Mule Ramble.
A few years earlier, my wife Julia and I rode a good stretch of the Virginia Highlands Horse Trail together. That became its own adventure. Julia documented that ramble on her blog Saddle… Continue reading
Listen to Mule Cracker Eat Breakfast: Virginia Highlands
Brick, Cracker and I have been on the trail for nine days following the Virginia Highlands Horse Trail from Elk Garden to Ivanhoe, Virginia. Grain is too heavy to carry so I picket them out along the way to fill their bellies on the grass that we come across. Most of the ride is through deep forest but luckily, we have come across grassy openings along the way.
This morning, Brick, Cracker and I are camped at the Hussey Horse… Continue reading
Queen Valley Mule Ranch Trail Lite Saddle Review: 2,300 Miles from North Carolina to Idaho
This is a review of how my Queen Valley Mule Ranch (QVM) Trail Lite saddle performed after I rode it 7 months and 2,300 miles from North Carolina to Idaho.
I may be calling… Continue reading
Mule Mushrooming: Hunting ‘Aeyer Schweumli’ from the Saddle
My mom used to point them out to us as kids. We’d be walking through the forest in western North Carolina and she’d point down at an orange mushroom and say, “Lueg. As Aeyer Schweumli”. “Lueg” means “look” in Swiss German, her native language. Aeyer Schweumli is what she used to call chanterelles.*
My brother Christian recalls a… Continue reading
How Hoof Boots Work in the Snow
This week we had our first snow of the season. It wasn’t a blizzard. We only got about five inches of snow. Still, it was fun taking Cracker and Pie for a spin in the white stuff. If you’ve ever wondered how hoof boots work in the snow, this post will interest you.
About Hoof Boots and Me
None of my wife Julia’s or my horses or mules wear steel shoes. We ride… Continue reading
Weekend Wishes
Have a great weekend from Cracker and me.
More adventures by horse and mule: Travel by Horse and Mule.
Mule Wrestling
Mules Brick and Cracker are doing their best to distract me from book writing. This afternoon I was writing the second draft of traveling across Wyoming with my mules on the way to Idaho. A thudding brought me to the window. Brick and Cracker were wrestling just off the front porch.
Tonight I’m putting together photos of a completely different nature –… Continue reading
For Sale: Trailer for Hauling Horses/Mules and Wagon Together
Sold Sold Sold: Enjoy your new trailer Etienne and Hahna!
How do you haul a horse and wagon in a single load? With a trailer that can do both. I’ve owned and enjoyed one of these rare trailers for 15 years. It’s served me incredibly well. This week I’m putting it up for sale.
Slushy Sunday Shadow
Howdy Sunday. Julia and I woke to a light snowfall this morning. By noon, temps were in the mid-forties and it was all melting away. Here are few pics I thought you’d enjoy.
Road Training a Haflinger Pony: Pie’s First Day Pulling a Cart
Just too nice a day to sit inside today so we hooked Pie to the cart and took her… Continue reading
Butterbean, Mule Wrestling and Old Dog Guy Christmas Greetings
Merry Christmas from the homestead up the holler. “I’ll be Home For Christmas” is playing (the Bing Crosby version), the wood stove is glowing and Snookie is pondering another cookie. “I’ll be Home for Christmas” rings true this year, just not in the original way it was meant (it was written from the point of view of a WWII soldier stationed abroad). With Covid numbers spiking, my wife Julia and I are hunkering… Continue reading
November Herd
The forecast threw us off. It was supposed to stream down sun beams but instead showered us with water.
The mules don’t care. They graze the November grass as the rain beads up on their backs and their bellies fill with fescue.
Please Help
Cracker has learned 2 of the 3 Desert Mule Travel Rules.
- Drink when you find water
- Eat when you find food
- Don’t eat prickly pears
Cracker’s still working on Rule 3.
