Cobb's Hyde Farm Park to get a kick out of mules

By Mary Lou Pickel

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Cobb County’s latest hires have a strong work ethic.

And contrary to the stereotype, they aren’t stubborn, the county says.

Jack and Jill are brother and sister mules from Alabama who will work on the county’s historic Hyde Farm park.

“We wanted mules with a good temperament,” Cobb County Manager David Hankerson said. “These mules are calm. They will not bite.”

Now, the county is ready to re-create the days of yesteryear, when brothers J.C. and Buck Hyde plowed their farm near the Chattahoochee River to raise sweet potatoes, melons, pumpkins and peas.

Hyde Farm park, made up of the county’s 42 acres and an additional 53 acres that will be owned by the federal government, should open to the public in October. The mules will live there permanently next year, Hankerson said.

The County Commission approved payment of $7,800 for the mules Tuesday night, including harnesses and some plowing equipment. The mules are supposed to arrive Thursday.

Cobb received many calls in the past year offering this mule or that mule, but none lived up to the temperament test, Hankerson said. He grew up on a farm near Augusta, plowing the fields with mules until his parents switched to tractors.

Hankerson and county workers traveled to Pell City, Ala., to inspect the mules last week.

Jack and Jill are fully trained to pull a wagon or a plow, he said.

“They respond to ‘gee,’ and ‘haw,’ which means turn right or left,” he said. “And to ‘Whoa!,’ which means stop.”