If you, like most Americans, dread pulling up to the gas pumps these days only to find the price climbing rapidly toward the $4-per-gallon mark, then maybe you should consider what one family in Warren County is doing to reduce its gas budget. Local farmer T.R. Raymond, along with his sons Danny and Robert, have figured out a way to grow their own alternative fuel. And you don’t have to refine it. All you have to do is cut it and harvest it. And even better, you can use it to run the machinery to harvest the fuel source. And what is this wondrous perpetual motion material? Well, the Raymonds can tell you right off. It’s called hay, and all you have to do is feed it to a pair of 1-year-old mare mules, hook them up to a rake, and they will dutifully work to help harvest a field of this homegrown alternative fuel without burning an ounce of that smelly stuff from the Middle East. And you can even use modern machinery to do it. Danny has figured out a way to hook the family mules to a rake originally designed to be pulled by a tractor. Danny and Robert spent a good part of Monday morning raking hay on their dad’s Gath community farm using this method, which, though perhaps not as fast as using a tractor, is much more fuel efficient. The raked hay will be bailed or rolled using tractors, but the Raymonds are pleased to have accomplished at least some of their harvest the green way ‘ without the use of fossil fuels. And the Raymonds aren’t the only ones who have turned to this method of going green. A Tennessee student at Rockwood High School is riding a horse to and from school as a way to save on gas money. Bradley Walker, a senior, estimates he saves $25 a week by riding his horse, Pumpkin, for 45 minutes rather than making the 10-minute drive in a car. Pumpkin stays in a makeshift stall behind the school. The idea is catching on with other students, so they are looking for space near the school to keep the horses. The Raymond mules, called Dolly and Molly, were the brainchild of T.R., who purchased them last year. ‘I bought them at the Dixon Mule Sale in Dixon, Tennessee,’ T.R. said. ‘They were just a year old. I brought them in and we started putting bridles on them, and the first thing you know, we had them hooked up and started working them. They’re doing real good for just a year old. ‘Danny, my youngest boy, did the training, and now they’ll do whatever you want them to,’ T.R. said. ‘They’re out there trying to get this hay up before it rains.’ Though it may seem odd to see farmers actually using mules to work the land these days, instead of just keeping them for show, T.R. says it makes perfect sense to him. ‘We’re saving on fuel,’ T.R. said. ‘This fuel’s so high, you can’t afford it. We can feed these mules cheaper than we can buy fuel. That’s the truth.’ T.R. says it helps to have a son who is good at modifying modern machinery, like hooking up to a tractor rake. T.R. says he remembers when mules were the only source of power to pull machinery on the farm. ‘I miss those days,’ T.R. said, ‘and if this fuel keeps going up, they’re coming back. Maybe this will give some other people ideas on saving some fuel.’ Though it may be a bit more time consuming, Danny says he enjoys working the mules, so it doesn’t matter. ‘We’re trying to save a little gas money,’ Danny said from his perch on a cushioned seat behind Polly and Molly. ‘And I like using them,’ he added with a grin. ‘We’ve been using them quite a bit.’ Some might say the Raymond’s unorthodox methods are antiquated and regressive, but considering the alarming rise in the cost of fuel, Robert disagrees. ‘It’s the way of the future,’ Robert said. ‘The future is coming back home to the old-fashioned way.’
