Both Birmingham Bill and Punxsutawney Phil may have predicted another six weeks of winter today, but it's a little hard to believe when it feels so much like spring outside. All the hype over a little hog's shadow led me to wonder a bit about the origin of Ground Hog Day and do a little online digging.

Apparently, the holiday was first referenced by name in America 1841 in the diary of a Pennsylvania man named James Morris. He wrote about the German tradition of a watching for a groundhog's shadow on Candlemas Day, Feb. 2, to determine the weather forecast for the next weeks of winter, according to an article on MentalFloss.com.

Records for Punxsutawney Phil's prediction of the weather date back to 1887 and show that he was correct about the weather only 39 percent of the time.

What started out as a community-wide art project of painting 20 fiberglass mules soon turned into more of a demand for the brightly-decorated creatures than the Walker County Arts Alliance had anticipated.

The arts council decided to cap the number of mules at 50 after quickly obtaining sponsorships for 40 of the mules, and thus the 50-Mule Team Public Art Project began, said Beth Sargent with the WCAA. Local companies, schools and individuals are paying to sponsor the painting of the mules and several of the mules are already on display throughout Walker County.  Once each mule is completed, the arts council plans to have an interactive map posted on their website to show visitors where each colorful creature is located.

Much like the annual Mule Day in Marion County, this local art project pays homage to the hard-working animals who labored on farms and mines for decades, helping Alabamians make a living from the land.