North Carolina Mule Rambles
Mule Days at Leatherwood Photos 2025
Herringbone bell bottoms, lotsa’ Long Ears (aka mules and donkeys) and happily hanging with friends. Mule Days at Leatherwood was a blast this year. Here are some pics of this years event you’ll enjoy. You gotta’ come next year!
Sunday Morning at Mule Days: How We Won the Parade
Happy Sunday morning from Mule Days at Leatherwood! Fantastic weekend among mules, donkeys, horses and friends. Plenty more pics coming! But first, coffee.
Ride a Travois, Pet a Mule: Mule Days at Leatherwood Photos
My wife Julia and I have been attending Mule Days at Leatherwood all week. She’s been giving individual sessions of the Two Step Way, of which she’s the founder. I’ve been fitting mules to hoof boots. We got some lovely pics of the goings-on and Mule Days and I thought you’d like these pics.
Pet a Mule, Watch a Parade: I’m Inviting You to Mule Days at Leatherwood
Mules navigating an obstacle course, mules wearing angel wings, mules striding the parade route, and mules being, well, just mule-ish. Yep, Mule Days at Leatherwood is this weekend, Saturday, May 3 and Sunday, May 4. My wife Julia and I will be attending with our mule. Mule Days at Leatherwood is free and open to public and we’d love to see you!
Winter Wanderings: A PBS NC Wagon Adventure at Lake Mattamuskeet
Phew. That was a doozie. I never expected to get snowed in my covered wagon, breast a pintail duck, meet so many amazing people and witness tens of thousands of waterfowl navigating ice instead of water. Stunning.
Join us For Mule Days at Leatherwood 2024
Big mules, hairy mules, braying mules and sleepy mules. Mules chewing tie rails, wallowing in mud, running loose and standing with their giant ears flopped out to the side. Yes, Mule Days at Leatherwood is underway this week, May 4 to 10.
My wife Julia and I are attending… Continue reading
Farmers Day in Robbins NC: Mules, Wagons and Faces
A teamster, a parade and a mule. This weekend mule Polly and I hung out with Ronald Hudson at Farmers Day in Robbins, NC. He and I were in the parade and I made some photos I thought you’d enjoy. They’re loosely in the order they happened.
A Mule Wagon Wedding in the Sandhills of North Carolina
How many different ways can you combine horses, mules, donkeys, wagons and carts? Last weekend, I attended the wedding of my friends Kenny and Myla Tyndal in the Sandhills of North Carolina. Talk about a whole lotta pine trees, crazy knots and ways to fix a wagon with a beer can.
Buck and Smile: Ty Evans Mule Clinic at Leatherwood
Sometimes, life throws a little buck your way. The best reaction is to stay balanced and grin. The photo above is of Brick sneaking in a little heels-up action at last week’s Ty Evans’ Mulemanship clinic at Leatherwood in Ferguson, NC. She did great and we learned a lot. I guess she’s recovered from her 2,300 mile walk from our farm in western North Carolina to Idaho.
Great… Continue reading
Dixie Faces
Friday, my wife Julia and I attended the Dixie Draft Sale. The Dixie Draft Sale is the biggest horse, mule, tack and horse drawn equipment sale in the south-east. Their catalogue is the only place I’ve ever seen the word “chattlel” used outside of a hand written Civil War last will and testament.
Dixie Dogs
Clydesdales, Meadowbrook carts and a Russellpit dog. Friday my wife Julia and I went to the Dixie Draft sale in Troutman, North Carolina. As a couple, this is an annual chance to catch up with friends. For me, it’s a chance to remember an ear ache and a soft ball line drive from the 1970s. And then there are the dogs.
The Dixie Draft Sale
The Dixie Draft Sale is held twice a year – April and November… Continue reading
Dixie Dogs and Faces
Dogs in denim, coon skin hats and Daniel Boone beards. Today Julia and I attended the Dixie Draft Sale in Troutman, North Carolina. We didn’t come home with a pony but scored a lot of great photos. Check in mañana for the Dixie Dogs photo essay.
Coming Tomorrow: Dixie Dogs
Plenty… Continue reading
Preppin' for Leatherwood
I sharpened the scissors. I caught mule Polly. Then I trimmed her mane and tail and took a swipe at her toes.
Man, she’s as spiffed up as mule can be for Leatherwood Mule Days. I’m already thinking Coon Jump, pasture camping and starlight dancing.
More over here on my LostSeaExpedition.com site.
Continue readingPack Saddle Temptation: Nearly Running Away with Mules Polly and Buddy
Mule Polly never was intended to be a pack mule. The mule that I drove from Canada to Mexico and across Newfoundland has made it clear she doesn’t count carrying a pack saddle among her duties. Last time she was doing the beast of burden thing, she ran away, crashed her packs into some trees and high-tailed it to camp. Ronald Hudson, Polly’s last owner, had warned me she was ticklish about the subject.
This weekend I could take it… Continue reading
Seek Work: A Mule Wagon Ramble in Search of Day Jobs
Then came the day I realized I was 45, my dad was almost twice that and I needed a job. Cash money baby. The folding kind. Not the kind that gets electronically deposited into your account on Friday. No, for that you need to commute and smell nice and tuck in your shirt.
The lifestyle that Polly and I had chosen just wasn’t up for that zeros and ones kind of monetary lifestyle.
