That Orange Thing.

Remember this?
Well.  It's back.
Yeah.  Only THIS time, she TIED the END of the ROPE to a POST!  Can you imagine?  And it was buckled around my pastern!!!  'Huff.'
I argued.  I struggled.  I tugged, pulled and then yanked.  I tried pulling backwards, sideways, even turning around and walking directly away from the post.  (That was a bad idea - I almost fell down when my front leg went under me.  How embarrassing!)  I tried holding my foot up really high, and shaking it really fast... I even tried biting it.
Finally, I was just mad, and I just stood there and fumed.
After everything else failed, I did my most Heartfelt, Plaintive and Mournful Bray.   (That involves lots of creaky squeaking build-up with a few extremely long and miserable bawling wails at the end.  It almost never fails!)  Girlchild relented and started bringing me handfuls of grass (which I was standing in...) but Woman just smiled at me and kept raking the flowerbed!  Well.  I was certainly not going to give them the satisfaction of giving in and actually grazing.  (Now Bubba, who was also "practicing", as they call it, happily ate every clump of grass within reach and never fought the shackle at all.  He has absolutely no pride.  It's embarrassing to be his friend sometimes.)
Good heavens.  The things a burro has to put up with.

The promised video...

Woman said if I frolicked enough she'd make another movie of me. Here I am joyfully kicking at my friends in the big snowy pasture! (I'm only pretend kicking. When I mean it, I don't miss.)

Guest Post from Woman - Artwork for Japan

Beach Dog - click image to go to auction

River Boy - click image to go to auction

Bug Finder - click image to go to auction

Spectator - click image to go to auction

Rider - click image to go to auction

*We interrupt this Donkey Blog to introduce a charity project:  Woman Donates Artwork for Japan*

Hello Burro fans - Woman here...   Juniper has kindly lent me her blog space to talk about a little artwork-for-charity auction.
As you may or may not know, in addition to being Junie's personal assistant, I'm an artist.

The disaster that befell Japan recently has been weighing heavily on everyone's minds. Like I'm sure you have too, I've been thinking about ways that I might be able to contribute in some way to relief efforts. Today I'm excited to offer my five little paintings for auction with 100% of the purchase prices donated to Global Giving Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund. They are framed acrylic paintings by me - all on 5"x 7" panels and all signed originals. Please have a look, and I'd be honored if you email, tweet, like, etc. to help me spread the word. I'm glad to find a way to take part, and I'm looking forward to sending these paintings to their future homes and knowing that together we helped people in need.


Thanks for lending me your ear (long or short!) and I'll now return you to your regularly scheduled programing.
(Thanks, Junie!)

The children adore me

Howling wind today - Woman is fixing the biting string so the boys and I can roam around a little.  However, we're still cooped up until the solar thingie gets it's battery charged.  "Tomorrow." She says.  "And if you do your 'Ha ha!  I'm excaping!' frolic I'll post a video of you."  In the mean time, I thought I'd leave you with these pix of the summer.  Ahhh..... green..... *sigh*

Juniper walks with Girlchild in March

Walking

Had a great weekend - hope you did too.

Saturday I did this practice walk with the pack saddle on. Woman's getting better at putting it on - and I like to keep it from getting too easy by doing lots of stepping sideways back and forth. I still hunch up my hiney when that breechen goes... well... it's just a weird feeling.

Sunday I accompanied Girlchild and Bubba to the arena and met a new horse - the beautiful black thoroughbred Elaina. She instantly became my friend. I told her she could borrow my pack saddle anytime she wanted.

Here's a little video of me - Woman got some new video software. I think she might need to keep practicing, but I'll try not to hurt her feelings.

Bonus question:

What's the title of the song? I think it might be my new theme song....

Ground Driving on a Sunny Saturday

Yesterday we tried a new thing - a bosal.

I liked it because it was pretty much like the halter. Also because I could pretty much do whatever I wanted. Woman walked behind me and pulled my head this way and that, and for a while I cooperated nicely - it was a beautiful day to be out for a stroll, and a change of scenery is always pleasant, as long as it's not too scary. Everybody was very proud of me. After a while, I started to feel sorry for Bubba and Dan being left alone in the corral, and they were making such a fuss that I worried about them. I wanted to go back so they could stop all that annoying whinny noise and running back and forth. (I wish I could teach them to bray - it would be so much more melodic, but they don't seem interested.) Anyway, Woman and I argued about that for a while. I didn't win, but I didn't loose either. I invented a really useful technique, in which I tuck my nose into my chest and turn myself around and around in tight little circles. I'm very bendy, and when I curve around in a C shape it's really hard for anybody to get me out of it! That's great! And if they do manage to get my head straightened out I can just curl around the other way and keep circling! Man says I was like a rolypoly bug. I think that's a handy trick to know, so I'll work on perfecting it.

Maybe someday I could travel around and teach workshops like those clinicians do. Wonder if I could copyright the "rolypoly maneuver"....

Junie

My Goodness!

My internet hero - the blogging mule Fenway Barthalomule mentioned me today in his blog (can you imagine??) - even posted a picture of me and Girlchild which made me feel:

1. Intensely proud (imagine someone famous like Fenway linking to little-ol me!

2. Intensely summer-sick (Human family and I all love that photo, but in today's howling wind and pelting snow, It's hard to believe there was actually green grass like that - and with all my fur I look like a different burro, now!)

3. Intensely embarrassed - I haven't posted on my weblog since the fall! (seems like I can keep up with facebook OR the blog, but I really struggle with both. Woman tells me that the whole thing with the full time day job, two kids and keeping animals fed limits her online-ability. I think she should just loan me her computer! I would try not to track mud in the house too much.

Well, it's an honor. And I should try to catch you up - I might actually get a reader or two, what with the link-love I've been bestowed!

So - since I'm asked to tell readers ten things they might not know about me, I'll combine that with the winter update and write another numbered list... events since September:

1. Bigstupiddog's leg healed up just fine. She's surprisingly durable.

2. Deer tore the biting white string down, so I took Bubba and Dan for a walkabout around the neighborhood. It was fun, but we've since been confined to the panel corral, since the ground is too frozen to re-set the fence posts.

3. I've decided I like the shed after all. I used to feel claustrophobic in there, but it's surprising how a brisk wind at -20 can make one appreciate the cozier places.

4. Girlchild got a steer. I guess that's not really about me, but I keep thinking about Fenway's "no bovine" post, and so far I've just looked at him through the fence.

5. I've done my best to forget everything I learned over the summer about blankets, pack saddles, etc. The kids are still welcome to climb on my back, and I gladly put my head into a halter, but I feign terror at the approach of a saddle like I did when I was "wild". Ha ha! Don't tell the humans I'm faking. It gets me lots more attention if we get to do that whole "desensitizing" thing again, which involves lots of petting and ear scratches.

6. Woman bought me a harness. It was an impulse buy on ebay and it's made for ponies, so we're not sure how it will fit, and since I'm feigning feral regression and it's been not much above zero lately, the wear-ability hasn't been pursued as yet. It has a collar, which looks pretty little to go over my ample and well-eared head, if you ask me. (Which no one has.)

7. I'm out of updates! So I'll finish with some pics of my favorite winter activity: Dog chasing while kid carrying. (dog chasing is fun on it's own, but it's much more fun with a kid on your back. You can pretend you are defending your human from savage wolves, and it's great when the kids bounce around laughing when I go fast and make quick turns.)

Now for the link love!!

I can't believe Fenway got www.hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com. and not me! She's probably worth a double mention - that's one of the funniest blogs of all time.

We love to read Gurney Journey for his well written collection of thoughts about art, illustration, science and such.

No Tech Magazine is great if one is into ... low tech. We love it.

Daily Art Muse inspires with contemporary craft and art.

Leo at Zen Habits inspires us to do more with less

Bearded Roman discusses art in the classical tradition

How many was I supposed to do? Woman loves art blogs, so a couple more:

William Wray has a take on realism that is great to keep an eye on

You will never get tired of seeing the landscape work of Marc Hanson

We could go on and on, but this is my longest post ever, I think, so I better wrap it up.

Sorry for slacking! I'll try to do better! Thanks, Fenway!