Stone boat story.
Worked on a farm near our farm that I eventually bought and live today. The older couple that owned the farm had a garden mule and a stone boat. We had used the stone boat to gather stones. Ms Shipley did all the farming, house building, etc. She built a stone castle/bunker solar powered started back in 1943 but that’s another story.
One winter’s day after an ice storm on top of snow my buddies and I decided to hook the mule up to the stone boat as a sleigh. Everything is hilly here. Tried first in the pasture it was great fun going down hill thru the crusty ice snow. Then we decided to try the driveway. It was coated in at least 1” thick of ice. Started fine on low slope but as it got steeper the boat started to go faster than the mule. The mule speed up, sled speed up till we were going at full Gallup. At one point the mule was sitting on us in the sled, faster faster then cartwheeling off road thru the woods. Good thing for the leaves, snow, winter coats, hats, gloves and much of the harness tied with baling twine. We all survived. Hurt more by laughing. Took awhile to catch the mule and she was fine too. Wasn’t the smartest thing we did but one of my cherished memories.
