Fred and Jack
June 15, 2009
Fred and Jack
We got another pair of mules today, seeing that Andy’s foot problems will take a little time to be corrected, and it’s good to have a pair you can dismount without scaffolding. These guys are sixteen hands and barely distinguishable from each other in both coloration and temperament. Fred has a small bone spur on his jaw, and Jack has a small yellow spot on his flank.
We’ve put the cows across the street to keep the bull from going into paroxysms of bellowing at all hours of the night. I just started building a small shed there yesterday, where we had contractors stretch a woven-wire fence through a thicket of Virginia pine, greenbriar, poison ivy, and some of the biggest aileanthus trees I’ve ever seen. The mules will be a big help carrying the lumber there, as well as riding over periodically to make sure coyotes haven’t attacked the calves.
The horseflies are bad this year ( probably because of the incessant rain) and I swear they’re bigger. We’re also seeing dragonflies that appear to have been feeding on hummingbirds. We watched a few of them bounce a termite swarm a couple of days ago, eating the little bastards in flight. The wings were drifting to the ground in clouds of scruff. It was delightful.
I can not believed I missed this!!!!!!! What charmers. May I use them for my Gemini the twins postings? please pretty please. pgt
(agree- the rains- the plague,locusts, Mosquitoes with lances!)
Certainly. We’ll bring some more eggs the next time we get to town. I hope the greens weren’t too laced by the flea beetles. They’ve finally figured out that arugula is tasty. Pretty soon we should have tomatoes and peppers-probably about a week from now.
You have a higher tolerance for vet bills than I do. On the other hand, my guess is utilitarian mules have little need of the sort of pampering your average show horse requires.
Nance: So far, the only problems have been Andy’s overgrown toes(which he finally let the farrier trim), and our adjustment to the relatively scant dietary requirements of equines. They put on weight like I do. God help them if the ever discover how well blue cheese goes with a salad.
My biggest concern is that if any of them expire, and we’re called upon to dispose of the body per our usual method (cremation), will we be hauled to court for violating some provision of The Clean Air Act?
Emerging from my DIY spend-money-so-as-to=not-lose-as-much-money home improvement hell to say: Aww, lookit that adorable pair of mules. What fine fellows. Which I could stroke their noses and feed them carrots and sugar lumps.
You could. They’re extremely gentle and patient. I’m preparing to hitch them up briefly today to help me transport some scaffolding and 2×4’s just across the road. That’ll be enough, we’re expecting sickeningly hot weather.
I get the name Jack, but Fred? Fred Ass does not have the same ring to it.
Imaginista: We just adopt the names they come with, but “Fred” does seem a little outside for a mule name. You usually want something with one sharp syllable.
On the other hand, we also have Andy and Barney, so we’ve got a sort of Venn diagram of sixties television programs going. If I live long enough to name a mule myself, it’s going to be Larry (Hagman) or Tallulah (Bankhead).
I had an uncle named Fred- and his nickname was Mustard. A nice alternative.
I had an uncle Fred, too. He’s another one of those Faulknerian characters that show up in my family history. He and my mother caught a hell of abuse from their crazy father. His personal history is largely closed to me, though, as it comes through unreliable narrators. What little I saw is consistent with someone who’s been raised by a bullying, violent drunk.
My grandfather’s disciplinary weapon of choice was a frying pan to the head, apparently. I’m surprised there were no sanctions against bastards like that back in the day, and that the moral weakling didn’t kill anybody.