Working on Mule Time

My mules will stand patiently in front of the wagon for hours every day with eyes forward but ears turned back awaiting my instructions. They will move a little and stop as the quail hunters move through the woods, all the while appearing oblivious to the shotguns blasts and the skittering dogs that run beneath them. All I need to do is rattle the reins and say a gentle “gitty up” for them to move and utter a “whoa” with a tug on the reins for them to stop. It all works like a machine until about four o’clock every afternoon. That is when Louise, the right-side mule, begins to act up whenever we stop. It starts with the toss of her head, progresses to the stomp of a foot, and culminates when she reaches over and tries to bite her partner, Thelma, on the neck. Thelma reacts by squealing and moving away—something that is difficult while harnessed to the wagon. I reach forward and flick Louise on the rump with my modified fishing rod and say a loud “Quit”. Both mules will stand still for a while, but after less than a minute Louise will toss her head and the process begins again.

I love my mules, but not in the late afternoon when I recall the thoughts of Harry S. Truman, who apparently knew a thing or two about mules when he said: My favorite animal is the mule. He has more horse sense than a horse. He knows when to stop eating – and he knows when to stop working. We are supposed to stop working every day at about 4:45 so we can take our guests back to the house for dinner. Louise, it appears, is on a different clock. She wants to stop working on her own time—which is apparently at about four o’clock.

Thelma and Louise are a couple of beautiful blondes with long ears, large rumps, and oversized personalities. Thelma stands stoically every morning while I place her in harness. Louise, on the other hand, will occasionally lift a hind hoof as I am brushing her and threaten to kick me into next week. There may be nothing to be learned from the second kick of a mule, as Mark Twain suggested, but I am doing my best not to receive my first one.

Louise, left, and Thelma

When they are in-harness and ready to pull and I give the command to “gitty up”, Louise jerks forward to get the wagon started and that’s the only work she does all day. The rest of the time, it is Thelma’s harness that is taut from pulling and it is Thelma that arrives back at the barn at the end of the day covered in sweat. Louise is as fresh as a vine-ripened tomato—no sweat, no heavy breathing, and eager to get out to the pasture for her evening graze.

Thelma and Louise are about seventeen years old, which puts them in their prime in mule years. The mules on the other wagon are each twenty seven and, with a life expectancy of thirty years or more, are nearing the end of their wagon-pulling days. That is why we are breaking in some new mules—a couple of light grey, short-haired, seven year old males I have taken to calling Bert and Ernie.

When they are pulling the wagon, Bert works on my left and is the steady one—much like Thelma. Ernie, on the other hand, is skittish. He refuses to walk through the wagon shed where we park the wagons at the end of the day. When I attempt to drive through the open shed so I can park the wagon, he suspiciously eyeballs the coiled hose, the garbage can, and the pallet of supplies on our right side and he eases to his left pushing Bert out of line. I have to stop the wagon and have someone pull the mules forward and into position. One evening as we were driving in at the end of the day, we encountered a basketball-sized pile of Spanish moss lying in the middle of the road. The horses stepped over it without hesitation but Ernie saw it before I did and tilted his head, looking at it nervously. The nearer we got, the higher he raised his head until he began to push Bert to the left into the tall grass at the edge of the road. No amount of pressure on the reins could pull them back in line. Thankfully there were no trees or ditches in our new path and I was able to wrangle them back into the road when the “danger” was safely passed.

Bert and Ernie came in at different times so they are not a pair of pulling mules that can work

Ernie, left, and Bert

together—at least not yet. This is most evident when I ask them to “gitty up” and they pull sideways in different directions. If I am not careful, they will even begin to back up. Eventually, after a lot of persuasion on my part, one of them will jerk forward and another uncertain journey will begin.

I view us as a team, my mules and me, with the three of us doing our part. I need them to pull the wagon as much as they need me to guide them. I get paid to drive a wagon and they also get paid—in food, water, safety and a life more at ease in the pasture than occasionally pulling a wagon.

When all is going well, I suppose driving a mule wagon looks effortless as we glide peacefully through the fields. But there are times when I wonder if Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. had me in mind when he quipped, you will never appreciate the potentialities of the English language until you have heard a southern mule driver search the soul of a mule.

With Louise and the new boys, I have certainly used some colorful language when searching the soul of my mules—if there is a soul to search.

A peaceful pace

Being the driver of a mule-drawn wagon on a quail hunting plantation affords me plenty of time to think. Sometimes my thoughts are directed toward the job at hand—the mules, the horses, the dogs, and the hunters—and sometimes my thoughts are drawn to the conversations behind me on the wagon—conversations that I treat as confidential. And then there are the long periods of quiet that remind me of the quote often attributed to Winnie the Pooh author, A.A. Milne: “Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits…”.

At the end of every hunt, we have a fifteen or twenty minute ride back to the house. The dogs are back in the wagon and the retriever is lying on the seat beside me as I follow the horse riders. The only sound is the conversation of the guests, the jingle of the mule harnesses, and the occasional bobwhite quail whistling in the tall grass. The pace is slow enough for a person to walk and I have never heard a guest complain about the length of our ride. In fact, people often remark on how peaceful it is and how they can feel their blood pressure going down.

Our wagon is like an old fashioned covered wagon with its heavy wooden body and tall, spoked (albeit rubber-tired) wheels. It is not a stretch to imagine a time when this type of transportation was the norm. My Grandma Porter told me of her grandparent’s trip from the Florida panhandle to Nacogdoches, Texas on a covered wagon in the mid-1800’s—a trip of about six hundred miles. Her grandmother walked the entire trip behind the wagon knitting socks for the men-folk. According to Google Maps, I could drive that trip in just under ten hours. My great, great grandma’s walk, at about three miles an hour, would probably have taken several months.

I wonder what it would be like for me to drive to work in the mornings on my wagon. I would not need to worry about running into deer or hogs. I wouldn’t be checking my speedometer or gas gauge. Of course the drive would last about three hours instead of fifteen minutes. It would be like commuting from Albany to Atlanta—with no ITunes or satellite radio. With all of that time, I could solve a lot of the world’s problems.

The people who hunt with us are busy people. They spend plenty of time on their mobile phones making deals and staying in touch with their offices. I even had one guest suggest that we make the wagon a “mobile hotspot” so he would have better phone reception. But on the ride to the house at the end of the day, all that seems to change. The phones stay in their pockets as their conversations steer away from business and toward family, good times, and the beauty that surrounds them.

In his Zen Habits blog, author Leo Babauta offers us Ten Essential Rules for Slowing Down and Enjoying Life More. The first five are to do less, to be present, to disconnect, to focus on people, and to appreciate nature. That about covers the experience of spending twenty minutes on a mule wagon. It certainly gives me time to think about such things as how the dog handler controls the pointers with a whistle and a “whoa”, why the retriever races out to find a quail with such enthusiasm, and what—if anything—the mules are thinking about as they stand immobile awaiting my command to “gitty-up”. I’ll let you know when I work out some answers. In the meantime, I think I’ll just sits.

White people must oppose those who preach hate

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Albany Herald, EDITOR'S PICK - Aug 18, 2017 

https://goo.gl/fyVgn4   

I grew up in the segregated south to a poor family — but a family favored with what has come to be known as the power of whiteness.

My dad’s family goes back generations in south Alabama and the Florida panhandle. They probably even owned slaves. But, I can’t turn back the clock and undo the past.

Slavery was an abomination that ended in the United States 150 years ago. What really makes me sad is that we Southern whites found a way to keep slavery alive for another hundred years. I saw the evidence with my own eyes. I remember the “colored” restrooms and drinking fountains, and the “white only” waiting rooms and country clubs. It makes me uncomfortable to remember that it took heroic effort and bravery for African Americans to earn the rights that a free people should have had all along.

So, what heritage am I, as a white Southerner, allowed to be proud of?

I am proud of the people, both black and white, of my generation and older who are able to put all of that behind them and work together in friendship and brotherly love.

I am proud of a Southern heritage of politeness where we say hello to strangers on the street and we teach our youngsters to say “yes, ma’am” and “no, sir” to their elders.

I love it that we make Northerners uncomfortable when we move in for a hug.

And I am proud of my parent who in the 1970s, when the schools in St. Petersburg, Fla., were integrating, sent my younger brother to a high school that had been all-black for generations. While the rest of the white community was huffing in indignation, my parents had the courage to stand up to the “white-flight” that caused others to flee to the suburbs.

My brother was an athlete who excelled at football and basketball. He was the only white player on the football and basketball teams his junior year. That meant my parents were the only white faces in the stands.

I can be proud of my Southern heritage without being proud of everything my ancestors did. But my Southern heritage is complicated. It is a heritage of white folks versus black folks, and a heritage of Southern gentility alongside the ugliness of racism.

I can’t change who I am – a white, Southern male – and I can’t change the past, but I don’t need a Confederate battle flag or the statue of a Confederate general to remind me of who I am.

I know there are plenty of good, decent white people who are appalled by the message of the Neo-Nazis and white supremacists. But this issue is not going to be resolved by more marches and sit-ins by people of color. This particular brand of evil needs to be squashed by white people standing up to other white people and telling them they don’t speak for us.

As for me, I’ll write about it. I’ll shout about it. And, if need be, I’ll stand up against those who preach hatred. It just makes me sad that nearly 50 years after the death of Martin Luther King, we are still having this conversation. “Make America Great Again” rings kind of hollow right about now.

Animals & Money

Shares of SeaWorld Entertainment plunged 33% Wednesday after the company's earnings missed Wall Street expectations. The Orlando, Fla.-based company also conceded for the first time that attendance at its theme parks has been hurt by negative publicity concerning accusations by animal-rights activists that SeaWorld mistreats killer whales.

Latimes.com, August 13, 2014

In the fall of 1971, Busch Gardens Tampa won the prestigious Edward H. Bean Award in the mammal category for the first captive breeding of the roan antelope. The Bean Award was presented by the American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums (currently known as the Association of Zoos and Aquariums – AZA) in recognition of a significant captive propagation effort that clearly enhanced the conservation of the species. The roan is a medium-sized, African antelope that stands about five feet at the shoulder and weighs-in at 5 or 6 hundred pounds. It is light brown all over with

Roan Antelope

the most distinctive markings being the black mask that covers most of the face. Ears are long and pointed, and horns are short, stout, and swept-back in a gentle backward arch. I was proud of the award, even though I had only worked at the Gardens for less than a month. I loved hoofed stock and this award, according to the criteria, was supposed to “demonstrate an exceptional institutional commitment”. So imagine my disappointment when it was announced the very next year that a new attraction was to swallow-up the roan antelope breeding pen. The section of the park known as "Stanleyville" opened in 1973 and was home to the park's first water ride, the Stanley Falls Flume. Animals, it appeared, would need to take a backseat to rides and other attractions as Busch Gardens faced some stiff competition up the road in Orlando where Walt Disney was opening his new Magic Kingdom.

In 1971, zoos were modest affairs, little better than the menageries of a century earlier. It is difficult to blame the planners at Busch Gardens for failing to appreciate their animal assets. For the next twenty years they chewed up animal areas and replaced them with rides, show arenas, and themed villages, but in the 1990’s things began to turn around. Zoos were thriving and building

Toledo Zoo Hippoquarium

innovative animal exhibits, like the Toledo Zoo’s hippo exhibit with underwater viewing. In 1992, Busch Gardens finally reversed course and opened the 3 acre Myombe Reserve as home to families of lowland gorillas and chimpanzees. In July of 1997, they opened the Edge of Africa, a section of the park where guests could walk through parts of the African veldt and get an up-close view of the animals, including underwater viewing of the hippos. Not to be outdone, Disney opened its newest theme park the very next year, spending what some reports claimed was a staggering one billion dollars on Disney's Animal Kingdom. The floodgates were open on zoo spending and zoos have not been the same since.

There are, it should be noted, more than one category when it comes to defining zoos and aquariums, most of which serve a local community. Large facilities, like SeaWorld, Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and Busch Gardens, are tourist attractions. They spend lavishly on their animals, but they also have annual revenues in the hundreds of millions of dollars. A January 2014 CNN report, for example, reported that “SeaWorld expects an estimated $1.46 billion in revenue for fiscal year 2013”. A single attraction, Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin, a first-of-its-kind motion-based, trackless dark ride, opened in 2013 with a reported price tag in excess of 40 million dollars.

Few zoo and aquarium projects can compare to that, but they are still spending some pretty impressive amounts for new animal exhibits. Detroit zoo announced its opening of a penguin exhibit in 2015 at $29.5 million, which is double the amount spent by the Kansas City Zoo on its Penguin Exhibit just two years earlier. In 2014 alone, as reported in the news media and on websites, we saw the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City open an African savanna at $16 million, the Indianapolis Zoo open its International Orangutan Center at $26 million, and the Columbus Zoo open its forty three acre Heart of Africa at $30 million.

Some attractions, like the Georgia Aquarium, are not quite theme park but are larger than a standard zoo or aquarium. Billing itself as “the world’s most magical aquarium”, the Georgia Aquarium officially opened its doors to the public on November 23, 2005. It claimed to feature more animals than any other aquarium in more than 10 million gallons of water, with more than 60 exhibits. Attracting more than 2 million visitors per year, it is an anchor for downtown Atlanta’s revitalization efforts and a benefit to both the city and the state. But with such an ambitious vision and an initial investment of over $200 million, the pressure on the Georgia Aquarium to succeed must be enormous. In fact, all zoos and aquariums are under pressure to generate revenue in every possible manner. Public food services are built into new animal areas, often with an after-hours catering component. Souvenir shops are strategically located near exits for those last minute purchases. Per capita spending is monitored down to the last penny and one zoo is even experimenting with something called “dynamic pricing” in which prices increase at peak times. Zoos and aquariums may be focused on conservation and education, but the bottom line is, well, the bottom line. Government agencies that once supported zoos and aquariums are struggling financially and cutting back their funding of “quality of life” programs. Zoos and aquariums need to run like businesses or they won’t survive to do all of that good conservation work.

But Zoos and aquariums aren’t the only ones making money from the business of animals. The 2013 documentary movie Blackfish made a relatively modest $2 million at the box office and

was seen by 25 million viewers, although director Gabriela Cowperthwaite claims to have taken none of the profits. Both the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) report revenue in excess of $100 million per year, which makes animal charities comparable to children’s charities like the Boys and Girls Clubs and the Make A Wish Foundation at around $200 million and around $70 million in annual contributions respectively. Images of abused puppies and hungry children apparently elicit similar positive responses.

Money is, as always, both a blessing and a curse. Many zoos and aquariums are blessed with generous supporters and plenty money for capital improvements—at least for now—but they must continue to attract new visitors and generate more and more revenue to support their operations. The cost of doing business is increasing and, as new animal exhibits are added, it will only go up. Whether or not revenue can keep up with expenses remains to be seen but, as the Ringling Brothers Circus can attest, this can be a slippery slope.

Ringling Brothers circus is closing. What does that mean for zoos?

The Famed Ringling Brothers Circus is Closing. The headline caught me by surprise and it made me sad. I knew they had decided to discontinue their elephant act and figured their other animal shows would soon follow. But the other aspects of the circus—the acrobats, the human cannonballs, and the clowns—could continue to thrill audiences. Just look at the popularity of the Cirque du Soleil. But, according to forbes.com, circus attendance in the United States has dropped by an estimated 30% to 50% over the last twenty years. That, along with high operating costs, apparently made the modern circus an unsustainable business.

I suppose the animal rights activists (PETA and HSUS) can take a little credit. They protested and picketed mercilessly on behalf of the animals. And the circus shares the blame for dragging its feet on making improvements to its animal programs. While I am not convinced that circus life in inherently bad for animals, I do believe that circuses failed to recognize how passionately some people feel about animal welfare.

We are, I believe, in the midst of some significant cultural shifts—many of which were evident in the recent presidential election. How do we make sense of our collective feelings about women in politics, gay rights, the legalization of marijuana, immigration policies, and health care reform. Is the demise of the circus a reflection of a cultural shift away from a particular type of entertainment or is it simply a matter of economics—the travelling circus is too expensive to produce.

Over the same period that circuses have been declining zoos appear to have thrived, perhaps due to their aggressive programs of animal welfare and enrichment. Zoos have spent millions on large and innovative animal habitats, and they have made sure their constituents were invested in their programs.

All of this causes me to reflect on how the history of American zoos and circuses are intertwined. The traveling circus menagerie was the precursor to the modern American zoo, and circuses and zoos have coexisted and supported each other for more than a century. (See my blogs from July 2015.) Now, I wonder what the demise of the circus means for zoos. Are zoos doing enough to stave off extinction? In the coming weeks, I'll take a look.