My second pasture down near the torrent is too overgrown to be used as a pasture, and I've been cutting some trees in order to rehabilitate at least half of it, so I can use the grass to make my winter's supply of hay at some point in the future. Some of the logs I cut were really heavy and I could only carry them two at a time at most (and it's uphill) so I finally decided to ask Pirlouit to contribute.
I say “finally” because my donkey is afraid of everything so it was a very long journey to get to this point! When I got him he was almost a feral donkey and at first I could barely approach him, he’d just run away and hide. After a few months of hanging out in his pasture, looking harmless and not bothering him, I was allowed to stroke his nose but only if I was simultaneously offering him treats (progress! he used to stretch out his neck and lips as much as he could to catch my treats while maintaining a prudent distance.) After maybe a year he started consistently walking up to say hi of his own free will when I went into the pasture, but if I had a rope or a halter with me he’d run and hide. It took nearly three years for him to come to me willingly even when he could see I meant to catch him. I kept our outings pleasant, like taking him to a nice spot in the woods to eat brambles while I sat nearby and read and didn’t ask anything of him (beyond basic landscaping services.)
But I have a lot of heavy logs to carry up a steep slope all the way to my woodshed, and the time has finally come for Pirlouit to get a job.
Pirlouit: "Oh no"
There were a lot of preliminary steps here as well, like showing him the bag I meant to use to carry the logs and waiting patiently for Pirlouit and the bag to get acquainted. (Initial reaction: “AAAAAaaaahhhhh a big red bag” evolving into mere distrust then extremely wary nose-poking, then, when bag failed to attack, serene indifference.)
Pirlouit: "I've always loved this bag. Don't know what you're talking about"
I don’t have a girth to keep the bag in place on Pirlouit’s back but with a balanced weight of logs on each side it was quite stable. Pirou grudgingly tolerated having the bag on his back while standing still, but started freaking out when asked to walk with it. Maybe he felt that the logs were heavy cylindrical children who had been entrusted to him and he feared that they would fall down—he refused to walk if I didn’t keep my hand on the bag to stabilise it. The problem is, he also refuses to walk (in general) if I’m walking next to him rather than ahead of him. And I can’t hold on to the bag if I’m not next to him.
Dilemma.
(“He refuses to walk if I do [X] but he also refuses to walk if I do [opposite of X]” is a very donkey-owner problem to have.)
So, I walked ahead of him but at first we literally moved one small step at a time. Eventually when he realised the bag was solidly weighed down and didn’t wobble from side to side or slide off his back, he started walking more trustingly. (We went up the hill in a wide zigzag rather than straight ahead so the bag wouldn’t slide backwards.) At times he seemed to forget about the bag, then suddenly remembered its existence and stopped dead and became anxious again. It was a slow progress across the pasture, but then we crossed the road and reached Pirlouit’s own pasture, and he relaxed a bit.
The llama children were intensely curious as always and I think Pirlouit felt quite flattered. He didn’t stop walking and didn’t freak out once as we walked up to the house; the llamas followed us admiringly and Pirlouit walked confidently as if to say “Look what I can do.”
Since this experiment proved successful I will try to find some sort of girth to attach the bag (would love to have a proper pack saddle but they’re expensive...!) We made a couple more trips the next day—I was wondering how Pirlouit would greet me, because when he doesn’t like something we’ve done he straight-up sulks for a few days and refuses to let me come near. He did that a lot when I was starting to get him used to the halter. But the day after his first log-carrying mission he came to greet me as usual and let me halter him without a fuss, so he didn’t mind being hired to do this.
A round of applause for Sir Pirlouit, a donkey with a job!
in the source link you can find #100 gifs of robert pattinson in various videos. these were made by me so please don’t repost or claim as your own. feel free to edit in any way but please give credit by @’ing me in the post if posting publicly! please like/reblog if using! enjoy!
trigger warnings: flashing lights, shaky camera, body image, kissing, food/eating
When that bomb dropped, there was just one. Dead? At first. His injuries were truly dreadful. By the following morning, every doctor and nurse who had treated him, who had touched him, had those exact same injuries. By the morning after that, every patient in the same ward, the exact same injuries. Within a week, the entire hospital. Physical injuries as plague. Can you explain that?
a few ppl were interested and i can’t quite sleep just yet so here we go a few video essays for your consideration (note: some of them may not meet the definition of video essay bc idk what that definition is. but they’re good):
Bridgerton and the Problem of Pastel Progressivism
All Disney remakes are bad, hear me out – Garbage Retrospective
Downton Abbey - Aristo-Trash
Ronald Reagan: American Slasher
HBO’S EUPHORIA IS NOT “REAL” IT’S CREEPY
Click: The Worst Movie
Taika Waititi: Mastering Happy Sad Cinema
In The Mood For Love: Frames Within Frames
Why the Cynical Superhero Isn't That Interesting
Queer Theory in 80's and 90's Action Movies
How Documentaries Lie to You
Saurian Cinema: Gender & Jurassic Park
How One Cop Show Plays Police Politics | Copaganda: Episode 2
yup, it’s time. i’ve saved the three heaviest hitters for last. please submit me your favorite, most memorable, or most stupid patricia williamson quotes. i’ll find them and put them in the completed video. submit in the replies, my ask box, or however! feel free to submit as many as you want; i can never have too many. i vibe with patricia so much i hold her close to my heart, and if y’all don’t do right by her i’m gonna be BIG mad
now, these are the last ones, so i encourage you all to just go full ham with these ones. hold NOTHING back. literally don’t be afraid to submit EVERYTHING. with these last ones, i’m not concerned with trying to be reasonable and keep it to a 5-7 min video. like the jerome video, these ones are gonna be as long as they need to be, even if that means the videos are 15 minutes long. i called them the heaviest hitters for a reason. so get your quotes in!!!
I cannot stress enough how uncomfortable the actions of Killing Stalking had made me, nor how people could take those actions and think they represent love.