Lady – Page 2 – 3MULES.COM

The Mules had a scare on Friday; we are all okay

On Thursday morning, we packed up and left San Emigdio Canyon where we had spent the previous day. That night the temperature at 6,085 feet elevation was below freezing (in the low 20s or high teens with wind chill) – much colder than it was below the mouth of the canyon where we had been camped. Our intended destination was San Diego. The El Camino Viejo a Los Ángeles (Old Road to Los Angeles) is the route to get there by foot from Wind Wolves Preserve.

We traveled up the canyon for 2 hours 45 minutes, then reached the highway at Pine Mountain Club and proceeded east. We reached Frazier Park (elevation 4,542 ft) about 4:30pm. We had walked 6 hours that day with temperatures in the high 30s and decided to stop for the night and exercise our God given and legal right as well as anybody else’s whether traveling by horseback, bicycle or merely walking to use public space when in transit from one place to the next for the purpose of rest.

I unpacked the kids, put them on picket lines, made them comfortable, pitched my tent, ate some oatmeal, and went to sleep.

Upon awakening in the morning, I walked up the bank to check the kids and found Lady to be in distress. I maintained a watch for one hour and decided to get her to a vet.

I called the lady who voluntarily serves as the 3Mules.com admin and informed her to the situation. Using the 3 Mules Facebook page, she contacted the many people who follow and offer their help and support to the Mules on their endless journey through the Megatropolis.

The help the Mules needed materialized in a very short time in the form of Scott Rogers, president of Backcountry Horsemen of California – Kern Sierra Unit, Gretchen and her boss Tom, who came with a horse trailer.

We loaded Lady and Little Girl into the trailer and went to Bakersfield Veterinary Large Animal Hospital where she was thoroughly checked and declared to be in excellent condition for her 38 years of age. (Vet thought that the freezing temperatures at high elevation may have caused her stress as her condition improved at 300 feet above sea level.)

The Mules are now at Scott Rogers ranch where they will stay a few days then return to Wind Wolves Preserve. The Mules can no longer expect Lady at her 38 years to serve the Mules as she has so admirably done for most of her life. She is nearing retirement. She has earned and deserves it.

The Mules say thank you to all those who have joined this new nation, a nation growing up within a nation, by giving their hope, faith and energy to this nation. Respect and reverence for this earth and all its inhabitants.

The Mules

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California’s Nomadic Shepherds

The other day as we were heading back to Wind Wolves after getting groceries and supplies in Bakersfield, the Wild West was materializing before our eyes with a large amount of sheep tracks and droppings left everywhere.

Curious about where these sheep came from and where they were going, we did a Google search on “Bakersfield sheep” and an interesting Los Angeles Times article returned called “End of a Tradition: Young Basque Shepherds No Longer Flock to Calif.” The article discusses the Basque immigrants who have been coming to California for over 100 years to herd sheep as few Americans want these jobs.

What caught our eye in this article the description of Aleman and his nomadic life as a shepherd in California.

“For 21 years Aleman has lived the lonely, nomadic life of a California shepherd. After the winter lambing, Aleman spends April and May in the Mojave Desert watching his flock during spring grazing. He spends his summers on the mile-high meadows of the Owens Valley on the slopes of the Sierra. In the fall, he returns to the Kern County foothills.”

“At one time, Aleman and the other shepherds lived in tents and followed their flocks’ peregrinations by foot over the century-old California Sheep Trail. It was one of the longest animal drives in the nation–400 miles over the Tehachapis to Mojave, up past Lone Pine and Bishop to the high mountain summer meadows of the Sierra and then back to Kern County.”

“We adapted to the loneliness of shepherding better than a lot of people because most of us are from very small villages with few neighbors. We grew up with the isolation.”

Maybe sometime in the future, the Mules will find and explore this 400-mile trail. Have any of our readers ever traveled the California Sheep Trail? If so, tell us about it.

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The Mule Train vs. The Bullet Train

In California, there is a high speed bullet train being built at a cost of $64 billion dollars. The Megatropolis plans the first prototype to run from San Francisco to Los Angeles. It will split the state right down the middle much like the San Andreas Fault with no less potential disastrous consequences.

It will require a massive surveillance apparatus to guard and protect from terrorists at a cost of billions of more dollars. People living anywhere nearby will be considered a possible terrorist threat by the surveillance state. Their children will be tested in school for possible terrorist tendencies. This will all be done under the guise and pretense of providing a fast, quick way to get from point A to B in complete comfort and ease.

Pull back the smoke screen of glitz, gadgetry and endless discovery and the Mules see the Megatropolis using this bullet train (machine) to seize and bring under its control more space to satisfy its insatiable appetite for contained and controlled energy (be it human, animal, wind, sun, etc.) on earth.

The bullet train is yet another scheme brought forth by the Megatropolis to drag the Human Race down a dark hole to be disconnected from ourselves, each other and our home, the Earth. To be forever wandering and lost in the manmade world of gadgetry, glitz and endless discovery. You bump into somebody, they ask you who you are, where you are from, and you won’t have a clue.

The Mules have an alternate proposal to the Megatropolis’s bullet train:
A multi-use trail system going in all four directions,
– Hooking all communities to all communities
– Connecting people with reverence and respect for each other and their surroundings
– Moving at a pace that is in harmony with the natural flowing energy that flows around and through us
– Learning to use that energy to heal our bodies and nurture our souls
– Teaching the children the magic and joy of being real human beings connected to the Natural World
– Bringing people together to solve the problems that face them with cooperation and respect.

The Public Thoroughfare, a multi-use trail system, is the place for the fist step in the right direction.

The Mules

Note: If you agree with this, please make a copy and send where you think it will do the most good.

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The Mules say thank you to Sam Gonzales

The Mules want to thank Sam Gonzales for inviting us to stop and rest on his property for the past three months.

We had come to the Coarsegold area by the direction of the energy that surrounds and guides us. Here is where my oldest mule Lady was born 37 years ago.

We decided we would head for Oakhurst, buy groceries, then find the place where I bought Lady and she was born.

As we were walking along Road 415, we saw a sign Tomatoes for Sale. We stopped. Sam was there. We asked to buy some tomatoes. He came back with some. He asked where the mules were going to spend the night. We said we weren’t sure. He said they could stay here and that there was plenty of grass for them to eat. There was. We accepted.

We’ve been here for 3 months. The Monk was having a physical problem due to age. Meeting Sam was a godsend. The Mules now continue this ages old nomadic journey practiced by many through the ages.

The Mules

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Highway 41 Coarsegold Roadside Memorial

While walking to Oakhurst along Highway 41 to buy groceries, we came upon the latest roadside memorial for a fatality brought about by the High-Speed Motorist (HSM) on one of many highways and roads which are totally unsuitable for the speeds being driven.

The Mules, cyclists and pedestrians have the absolute right to use Highway 41, a public thoroughfare, but are put into a suicidal type circumstance when doing so.

The state of California has built and continues to build and maintain a public thoroughfare that is suicidal for the other venues, equestrians, cyclists, and pedestrians, therefore denying those venues their rightful tax-supported use.

The State of California has trapped itself into a totally illegal condition. It must act immediately to build alternative trails for those other venues for not to do so will open the courthouse doors to a lawsuit in size and scope which will dwarf anything herefore ever seen.

The Mules

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The Vegan Cyclist interviews the Mules

Met Tyler last Thursday. He said he passed us while riding his bike a few days ago. His wife Kristin later saw us walking on the public thoroughfare heading for Oakhurst. He contacted us via Facebook and wanted to know if he could come by and get some pictures and video of the Mules to post on his Vegan Cyclist Facebook page and YouTube channel. We said sure.

Tyler brought his wife and young son, who met the mules and also got some tomatoes from Sam Gonzales, farmer extraordinaire of Sam’s Tomato Farm.

A good time was had by all. Mules, human beings, dogs, donkeys, ground squirrels, frogs, blue jays, flies, and on down the line. Above is the video that Tyler produced.

The Mules

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Road 415, Coarsegold, California

This morning as we were walking along Road 415 going to Coarsegold, a highway patrol officer stopped and told us he was responding to calls that we were walking on the roadway.

We said, “Yes, at times, we do walk on the roadway because there is no place else to walk. All city, county, state roads are public thoroughfares. They are open to all comers – person on crutches, driving a wheelchair, pedestrian, bicycle, equestrian and extra terrestrial (ET) on a vacation. These thoroughfares are not for the exclusive use of the High Speed Motorist (HSM) and its most favored and valued friend the Automobile. When the HSM sees a pedestrian, equestrian bicycle or an ET moving on the roadway exercising their absolute legal right to be doing so, the HSM must reduce its speed or stop if necessary so all involved can pass safely. There is nothing in the law stating the HSM has a legal right to be going at the speed limit regardless of the circumstance.”

The officer responded, “Be careful.” He went on his way and we continued our way.

“Run for the bushes, jump in a ditch, you all be damned. I slow up for nothing or nobody.” This is the pervasive attitude held by many HSM.

This HSM attitude is the main cause of death on the public thoroughfare in this country. The public thoroughfare is a place where people meet, trade goods and knowledge, experiences and generally enjoy moving freely from one place to the next. It was never intended to become a High Speed Dragstrip for machines running everybody else into the ditches in fear of becoming a bloody mess.

The Public Thoroughfare is the tenuous tread by which The Mules exercise their right to move freely in one of all four directions when they choose and how they choose. We will never give up our legal and mystical use of it. Nor should anybody else.

The Mules

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Below is National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Press Release from July 1, 2016.

“Every American should be able to drive, ride or walk to their destination safely, every time.” – U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx

“94% of crashes can be tied back to human choice or error.” – NHTSA Administrator Dr. Mark Rosekind

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The Mules vs. City Council of Clovis

On Friday, June 24, 2016, the Mules arrived in Clovis, CA. We got onto a nice multi-use trail in the afternoon and were heading north. Upon walking for awhile, we met a TV news crew from KMPH and they asked if they could ask questions and take film for their FOX26 KMPH 10:00 news broadcast. We said sure.

We went to Trader Joe’s to buy some cranberry juice, then went back to the trail.

It was getting late so we decided to stop off to the side of the trail and rest for the night. A lady named Janeen brought the Mules some hay when we were at Trader Joe’s so they (the kids) were set. [Thank you Janeen for unexpectedly appearing out of nowhere and bringing the kids hay and carrots for their dinner.]

After fixing and eating my dinner, I was sitting on the water bucket on the Fresno-Clovis Trail, relaxing and enjoying being off my feet. At about 9:30pm, two officers with flashlights from the Clovis Police Department came upon us wanting to know what we were doing. We said that we have stopped here to rest for the night. The officer said the city council of Clovis says no camping in the city limits of Clovis. We said we were not camping, we have stopped here on this public right of way to rest for the night.

The officer said they were responding to calls from citizens about us being here. We said we were exercising our legal right to use a public thoroughfare and any attempt by the use of codes, regulations or laws to deny us that right shall be considered blatantly illegal.

The officer returned to his cruiser, came back in a reasonable amount of time, used discretion, in regards to the no camping law and said we could stay for the night if we would agree to leave in the morning. We said yes we would, which was stated intention.

So the kids and myself slept peacefully through the night, arose in the morning, ate breakfast, packed up and were on our way for another day living in balance with the Natural World all day, every day

Note: The Public thoroughfare in a free country must be open to all comers. The Mules are one of those comers. Our use of this thoroughfare is not the same as those who live, eat, play, and sleep inside houses then come out of those houses for some fresh air and exercise.

The Mules wander freely throughout the day then stop and use the public space to rest for the night. Any law that prevents the Mules from resting and sleeping, a most necessary function to sustain life, must be considered by any common sense mind, to be illegal.

With the above being said and understood, the Mules will not and cannot obey these no camping laws. For to do so will be the end of us. This place of any one human being wandering with his or her animal companions, has access to many dimensions. This dimension on this earth is the one we love the most. The Mules will not be removed from it. Long live human beings and their connection to Earth. There is no future without it.

The Mules

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Tent City Canvas House custom-made tarp for 3 Mules

Back on June 6th, we posted the following question: “Can anybody out there make us a green-colored, 1000 denier nylon tarp measuring 75″ X 105″ (8’9″ X 6’3″) with 1/4-inch grommets on all four corners and on the middle of each side? Color preference is green, tan, brown or grey, not black as that would absorb and retain too much heat. This is not a tarp that we can simply purchase at a hardware store. If so, please message us with total cost (material, labor and shipping to California), time to deliver, and contact info.”

Thank you to those who took time to research and send us information on places that we could contact. We followed up on each lead sent to us. Most places quoted 4-6 week time frame to make or could only make the tarp in black color, which we did not want.

On Tuesday, June 21, Raj Sharma, owner and president of Tent City Canvas House in Fresno, contacted us that he read our story, looked at the 3 Mules website, understood our request and specific need, and wanted to make and donate the tarp as described for the Mules. We said thank you and accepted his kind offer.

We were 25-miles away in Reedley. Mr. Sharma said that this is Tent City’s busy season as they make tents all over the country and around the globe since 1958, but he would make it a priority to get this done for us to pickup on Friday morning, our estimated our arrival to Fresno.

On Friday morning, the Mules arrived at Tent City. Everyone was very nice. The tarp was made exactly to our specifications. The Mules are very appreciative to Mr. Sharma and his staff at Tent City for their effort and support as this tarp is a necessary item in our day-to-day nomadic way of life.

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Sanger, California

Yesterday late afternoon, we arrived in Sanger, California and stopped to rest between two buildings. Earlier in the morning while we were in Reedley, Linda posted that she could bring hay if we needed it. When we found our spot to rest for the night, we wrote Linda back asking if her offer to bring hay to us was still available. She said yes. So the kids had nice hay for dinner and breakfast thanks to Linda, Matthew and Jacob.

As we were packing up to leave in the morning, Javier and Efrain from Apache Smog and Tire in the building next to us, came over and asked what we were doing and what we were all about. We talked a bit and they looked up our website. Javier said that Academy Feed Store is 3-miles down the road and asked if we needed anything. We said that we needed two horseshoe files. He said to go to the feed store, and if the store had what we needed, tell the store to give him a call and he would pay for it. We walked to the feed store, which had what we needed and they called Javier. Thank you Javier for your kind support toward the mules.

While securing the kids in a shopping center parking lot so that we could go buy bread, an animal control officer told us that we were not allowed to be walking through the City of Sanger. We said that we had the right to walk in any public thoroughfare in this country. I went in the store to buy a loaf of bread and when I came out the animal control officer was still there. The officer said he had looked at our website. We talked briefly and went our separate ways.

We went to deliver the Declaration of Emergency (DOE) to Sanger City Hall, then continued our way towards Fresno.

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