lol, Jay....got the Donks and Horses both pegged, doncha?!
OMLET!!!
hi all
we finally got the chicken house done
they must like it
we get about 11 or 12 a day
elle
After 50 years, I have learned a little bit... not near enough, though. LOL
My motto... Seemed like a good idea at the time...
ooooh....like the motto in retrospect...covers a lot!
elle -Doing great it sounds like!! I only dream of double digits like that...
We had ourselves a wreck last Tues.... see the First Snow thread on Homesteading...
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1051280/#new
and after we got back from the vet's, the SO said...
"Well, that was different."
LOL! The rural gift for understatement...
LOL Jay, Sometimes my horses can be just as stubborn as a mule... Come to think about it, so can Billy
Still no eggs
You might get away with using a come-along on Billy...
or you could just entice him with another chicken...
LOL
Im thinking one that will lay eggs so he can collect them again...
Here Billy, com'on boy, here's a nice little layer for you... that's right, just make your bed like a good fella, there... ain't this a nice chicken... oh, don't go gettin' all snorty... that's right, good work, here's your layer, there's a good fella.
I'm getting 2 or 3 eggs most days. I don't look for more than that in the cold and short daylight hours.
My friend had to use a come along to get his mule into the trailer to go to the vet. In the pouring rain! I'd have just shot him. :) I don't have any that are hard to load, thank goodness. I hate it when that happens.
I tried firing my pistol off behind a mule that wouldn't load... the neighbors came by to see what was going on, but the mule didn't load... he did flinch, however.
They'd told me he wouldn't get in a two horse... but it was the end of a long, long day packing out of the high country in the rain and I just had to try.
So now you know you can skip that step...
I just finished reading Stevenson's Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes. He had similar problems getting his pack-donkey to move along with him on the paths, and finally a kindly innkeeper introduced him to the wonders of The Goad - a stick with a sharp pin at the end. It worked like a charm - far better than the stick that he had to flog Modestine with to get her to walk at all. Maybe you should invest in one next time you have a mule to transport?
Please, let's be clear... a donkey is not a mule.
A mule is a half-assed operation, the other half being horse. Most of the usual horsey things work with mules... training, treats, whips... if anything's going to work. They respond very well to training... it's said you HAVE to train a mule the way you SHOULD train a horse.
Poking a mule in the butt will likely get your head kicked off, just like poking a horse with a sharp stick in the rear.
Donkeys, asses, burros, jacks... they're all the same thing, and what works with a horse will not work with an ass (in the biblical sense). They are the more opinionated half of a mule. They do indeed respond to a goad... until they don't. You can draw blood then and they won't move, or they will kick and break your knees (kicking higher being a waste of energy).
Both mules and donkeys AIM their kicks very carefully. There's an old saying, "If a mule kicks and doesn't hit you, it's because they didn't intend to."
My jenny was in a testy mood one day and I walked behind her when she was eating. She very carefully raised a hind leg and gently bumped me on the thigh with her hoof, just to let me know she didn't appreciate my presence back there. She could have really nailed me, and she choose to just warn me.
A mule and a donkey can also kick sideways and forward much better than a horse.
I've used a goad... it works OK when the donkey is just being lazy or a tiny bit sullen. But if you get a full blown "NO", then it's worthless. They just flat tune it out.
I've always wanted to read Stevenson's book, haven't got around to it yet. =0)
I can now honestly class BIlly as a Donkey...LOL
Oh now... you'll have to present your evidence... CMoxon's influence here... not just anyone with big ears can claim such an esteemed moniker...
Is it the power of the 'NO' or the precise aim? Or is it because he responds to a goad when HE feels like it.
Mostly I jes' wanna hear the tail... tale. =0)
Jayryunen, I do know that a donkey's not a mule, but I still thought the information was worthy of sharing. Stevenson probably had to resort to ye olde goad for a short enough period that it was still working for him.
I had thought I had an old copy of Stevenson's book on the shelves but of course I couldn't find it, so I ordered one from Amazon. Irritatingly enough the edition I got has no page numbers, but otherwise it's fine. Stevenson was among the first of the travel writers and the book is just wonderful; you don't expect that wry sense of humor in something written in I think the 1870's or thereabouts.
When I read it, I took out my French road map and followed his trail through the tiny towns. It was amazing that some of the places that he described as consisting of just three houses on a hill were right there on the map - in tiny letters to be sure but still marked.
I know lots of folks here who ride gaited mules. They breed jacks to gaited mares and come out with some really nice mules. They are very sure footed and safe rides for the mountain trails. I don't have a mule because I know I am not patient enough to train one and I'd sure hate to ruin a good animal.
My grandfather and his family use to cross Tennessee Walkers with donkeys....they bred mules for the Army....which was a big business at one time.
Mules have held their price pretty much. Ponies still sell good but you can hardly give a horse away these days.
g_g... sorry about that, I just run into a lot of confusion about what's a mule and what's a donkey and an awful lot of people think they're the same thing. And I also thought it important to say that using a goad on a mule might not give one the desired results, but something raaather different. =0)
Lots of 3rd world donkeys are trained with a goad and so respond to it well. But it's usually used the same way spurs are on working cattle horses... mostly as a cadence device. If you watch, the cowboys keep time with a bit of a bump, they don't just let their legs hang... the jinglebobs on silver spurs make a nice chime and the horse moves in time with the spur music. I've even found it works with my donks when riding. (Yes, I have silver spurs... no jinglebobs, but large rowels that chime)
With the goad, you'll see the driver taps out a cadence on the ox or ass and the animal moves in time. I've tried it while driving and it works... just tap, tap, tapping my donk with the driving whip. Works best when things get dull and the animal just wants to wander off in its thoughts...
Somehow I don't think that Stevenson knew that trick! You should really look for the book; you'd enjoy it.
Thanks for the encouragement, g_g. Stevenson wrote another one about coming to America (I think). I've read exerpts and they're a hoot.
Right now I'm reading "Travels in West Africa" by Mary Kingsley, the first Victorian lady to venture forth, complete with long skirts and toque hat, into the dark dank interior. She's a scream!
Before she set out, she tried to gather pertinent info....
"I find, however, that it can almost all be got in under the following different headings, namely and to wit:
The dangers of West Africa
The disagreeables of West Africa
The diseases of West Africa
The things you must take to West Africa
The things you find most handy in West Africa
The worst possible things you can do in West Africa..."
Miss Kingsley went off to West Africa and upon arriving wrote:
"One by one I took my old ideas derived from books and thoughts based on imperfect knowledge [see above] and weighed them against the real life around me, and found them either worthless or wanting."
The more things change, the more they stay the same, eh? LOL
Love old writings like that...
I know, there's a flavor - a charm - about them that we lack today. Jayryunen, are you sure you're not thinking about Mark Twain's books about traveling around the U.S.? I didn't know that Stevenson had been here, but then, there's a lot about him I don't know. I grew up with A Child's Garden of Verses, though.
The Kingsley book sounds interesting, too.
I love that book!
Just wait until Miss Kingsley opens the juju bag in the cannibal's hut....she is the toughest nut there ever was...and died tragically nursing soldiers after an unrequited love affair (though that is not in the book).
Sigh. Maybe Moxon can play her in the film? Firm, adventuring, bold and a lady. You used to be able to get by with murder if you were a lady.
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Wkingsley.htm
I am all for lady-like murders... indeed, our standard for murder and mayhem is at a deplorable low...
Do you think creating a 4th degree felony for common, base, ordinary murder & mayhem would serve as a deterent?
I can't believe someone else has discovered Miss Kingsley! She is quite the one... I had a friend who dwelt for a year in Belize and I sent her the part about the infernal croaking of the night creatures while the maddening buzz of the mosquitoes swarming outside the bed netting drove one to the brink of...
well, unlady-like murder!
No, I'm pretty sure it was Stevenson, because I was surprised... and needless to say, he didn't speak kindly of our rugged pioneer ancestors. Now I have to go look...
Yes! It was Stevenson... he's actually written 3 books about his American adventures...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Louis_Stevenson#Travel_writing
The one I was thinking of was "The Amateur Emigrant"
Now I have to add them all to my list! =-)
Sweetness...I may have to go booking...