Kitten VS Donkey

JuJu the donkey made a new friend. Sort of. He seemed to be just chasin' tail!

XoxoXOx

Hanging Laundry To Dry (with JuJu the donkey and Bruiser the dog)

The Flagyl antibiotics are wearing off.... and just in time for the sunshine to come back out... and i can be in it's bright heat again! I call um' hot hugs.
So, now i have to wash all the new underwear i bought because I burned all the ones i was wearing while having the Giardia parasites. Fuck that parasite, it stole my whole summer... i show no mercy. I play no games, and i take no chances. Out with the old farted panties, in with the new!

Time to wash down all my clothes and really scrub the cabin (to shine like the top of the chrysler building?) too... just in time cause my mom who has cleaning OCD arrived in town yesterday and due to come over this week.... HELP mom, you must use your special talent on my sinks and toilet! Make it safe again! ;) ha ha

Oh yeah, and here is my life in video.... exciting yes? Just me and the animals hanging laundry together.



XOOXoxox

Magical Carrots::: ft. bruiser, juju and jen

My friend jen came to visit me and the animal crew today... and she brought JuJu her own bag of carrots. They really helped JuJu with not wanting to stomp on Bruiser the Dog...
Here is a video of how the carrots work like magic...



Thanks Jen for coming for a visit! You are such an awesome friend !!!
XOxoOX

Just Me and JuJu (the donkey) and Chickens

the gang. today.

Xoxox

Gettin' JuJu Back Home, On My Own....

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I thought I couldn't do it by myself... but like all human invention, necessity is the birth of all brilliance. And really, i did nothing brilliant except to work with what I had, and that was not alot.
A truck, a short rope, and lots of sweet talk/encouragement.
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Usually in these tough cases with JuJu not wanting to come home, i have a longer rope and tie it to the back of the truck. Then one person drives the truck while another keeps the rope in check (making sure it doesnt tangle in the truck tires!)
But... sometimes its a lonely rainy day... and sometimes I get determined to do it all on my own. Hard headed? Reclusive? Loner? Not in spirit, but in action.
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So this time, I drove right up to where she was staying (under my neighbors house/porch). JuJu was happy I had come over since she really wants us to move there (she greeted me with a long insane Hee Haw), but we are not moving there... i took her rope without a word and brought her to the truck, I got in the door and hooked the rope on my outside truck mirror. This was not planned ahead of time, i worked this on a moment by moment basis ...
I really thought as i did it --- !!!kiss that mirror goodbye, she is gonna rip that piece of crap right off!!! ---- but...

instead, we were liberated! We were a team...

Watch here...



xoxoxx

JuJu the Donkey's Buck Wild Hike (ft.) Bruiser the Dog

Today was the first time i have dared to take JuJu the donkey on a walk, since her last run away stunt to the neighbors house. In our case, the grass really is always greener, cause we dont really have any grass. So, she has a point.
Our odd herd (trio of unlike species- human, donkey, dog) had an awesome time hiking to the top of "bob knobs" ridge and overlooking one of the most fantastic parts of Western North Carolina.
On our walk JuJu really made the saying "buck wild" come to a reality (watch video below)...
Once we got to the top,
JuJu ate grass, Bruiser was the ever ready body guard, and I listened to headphones, felt the wind, handed out treats and enjoyed it until the cold felt less good then the view.
On the way home,
JuJu did run away AGAIN... and ya'll know how that goes.

Anyone wanna come help me get her back home?



xoxox

Morning & Evening

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here is my morning...



....
and then my evening...



everything in between was cold wind.

xoxoxo

JuJu the donkey Comes Home For Valentines

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Mission : Get JuJu and bring her ass home!



Thank you SOOOOOOO much Jenn and Ian for helping me get JuJu home in an easy, non violent way! Ya'll are great friends! :)))))

xoxoxox

JuJu the donkey, Lost and Found Part 2

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I try again to get JuJu to come home with me.



As you see she doesn't make it all the way. My new suspicion is that she does not like the neighbors dog- which has always been true but it may have been a bit more acute with her hormonal state. Donkey naturally hate canines, particularly coyotes, and are only a bit tolerant of domesticated dogs and sometimes they are not even that - they will kill them.
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So here is my next plan of action::::
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Plan #1 --- go get JuJu without the dog around
Plan #2 --- tie her to the back of my truck and tug her home slowly (but i need help with that one...)
Plan #3 --- hold up a mirror and let her fall in love with her own reflection, and she can follow the mirror home. (thanks for the idea Noel!)


oxoxox

JuJu, Lost and (sort of) Found

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So this morning when i got up all was quiet. Too quiet. No hee haw's coming from outside the cabin and I thought maybe JuJu was really busy digging on some hay, but when i called her and walked all around the property she was no where to be found.
I whistled, i yelled, i started to cry. No donkey.
We had snow last night and locating her tracks was a little confusing at first because the snow had filled them back in some, just enough to make them sketchy to identify while i was in a panic.
Eventually there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow....
or a donkey in heat.
And trying to tell a donkey in heat what to do is like trying to direct a tsunami.



xoxoxo

Chicken Chasin' & Shovelin' Sh!t ( ft. JuJu the Donkey)

I don't really make plans anymore. I think there was a time though, many years ago that i could make plans and stick to them, that i could decide way in advance what i might be doing a particular day. Now I wake up in the morning and have no clue, i might get asked by the first person who rings my phone "what are going to do today"....
usually I have no plans, i have to make it up as i go along. I am almost living "in the moment" (maybe Eckhart Tolle would blush), but I wasnt trying to. I just fell into the abyss of no time frame (no watch, no schedule), and I can't say whether it is good or bad, only that I remember that alarm clocks are stressful evil noise makers and I think had i stuck with using one i would be mentally ill now.
I dont really know what i am doing with my life, but I know for me, life is for living.

Here is a video of today. I spent alot of hours, shoveling donkey poop that finally defrosted in JuJu's stall.


Xoxoxox

Beep Beep the Chicken RIDES JuJu the Donkey

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JuJu the donkey gives rides to Beep Beep the chicken.
I LUVVvvvvVVVvVVVvVvVvvvv freakin LUV them!!!!!



xoxoxo

Talking With My Ass (donkey!)

xoxoxo

Going To and From the Grocery!

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Going to the grocery aint what it used to be.
Walking a mile to a plowed road where the truck is parked, scraping snow off the truck, getting down the mountain safely, (i didn't film inside the grocery, sorry, that place was a crazy house!), and then the hardest part.... coming back up the mountain and hoping to get to my front door.
Pretty mundane, but pretty complicated.
Luckily I had a special friend who rode with me...



xoxoxx

Snow Walk (ft.) JuJu the Donkey

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Me and JuJu went for a walk today in the snow, looking for sunshine and finding other fun stuff like turkey tracks, ice in the creeks, pretty waterfalls of water.
But then JuJu runs off with some kids and I have to go find her in the dark.



Xoxoxox

Breaking Icicles ft JuJu the donkey

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______________________________

I like, I dont like, I like. What do I like?
I like JuJu. I like life.



Xoxoxoxo

Gumby Holiday - Santa Witch

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So, lately things at the Luck Cabin have been... what some might describe as bad, stressful, when the shit hits the fan, when the going gets tough and downright UNlucky....
I am escaping into the world of GUmbY and PokEy for comfort from this hell-a-cious winter. With no running water for almost a month and one chicken dead, I am ready for a one way ticket to the island of BALI.



Xoxoxoox

Hell Froze Over, A Snowball Has A Chance

When I woke up this morning I had this horrible vision in my head that my animals would all be dead and frozen despite all I have done to make this storm OK for them...
Maybe cause the other day when I drove to town for supplies I saw a horse somewhere in Leicester laying on the ground in a big field, appearing to be dead, after the last snow storm. And I thought, PLEASE gawd don't let that happen to JuJu Bean.
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The last ten years here in western north carolina had really been pleasant during the winter (on a hot sauce scale it was the bland, mild, without spices) - until last year's hell-a-cious snow frenzy. It seems this season has picked up right where last year left off it's white fluffy drama (on the hot sauce scale it's now spicy, tongue burning, tear jerking, nose running, red HOT).
Except, it's FrOcking cold.
So frigid in fact, the water i filled up in my tub INSIDE my cabin is now frozen solid.
The spring water for the animals to drink finally froze over too. A thick layer of ice formed which i crushed hard by kicking it in with my boots then lifted pieces up outta the way. Unfortunately, not much water was underneath, and I had to smoosh the pot into the cold mud to gather anything. I also had to smash/slam the hell out of the pot against a tree trunk to get the frozen water out. (A rebel yell or grunt makes it easier when swinging!)
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JuJu the donkey is now limping also. Which worries me, i kept scraping snow off the favored hoof and breathing warmth onto her ears. As I pushed my feet through a foot of snow back to the Luck Cabin I was thinking about tropical islands( yes, mmmmm), i was finally 'getting' why people are obsessive about moving to costa rica and some such places. I was longing for my hometown of New Orleans, if only for a lil warmth and sunshine. I was also thinking... building a sustainable place to live, all alone, in a frigid cold harsh winter'ed location is NOT a good idea. (Note to self: Dont ask if you made a mistake cause it's too late!) Too hard, unless you have a partner who is there to help each day and minute with the unforeseen trials and tribulations of this kind of lifestyle.
Until then I can go between laughing and crying when i fall down in the snow over and over, and beg all powers in the universe to spare my animals.
Not much is making me feel better....
but Billy Idol helps. Thanks BaBY JEzuz for keeping Our ELECtricty On! ;)


Xoxoxox

I Liked When Ms. Buttersworth Lived With Me

I had put Ms. Buttersworth the chicken back out with the other chickens........
but not really. She's been staying in the feed section of my mini-barn where the rooster and most the other chickens never go. Anytime I tried putting her back with the others they immediately picked on her, pulling out her feathers, the rooster mounting her so violently I could tell that this was why i had found her in a corner shivering in the first place. After bringing her in the cabin for a week, we got to know each other. We spent many long hours sitting with my cat Toots by the warm fire.
I never imagined a chicken would love me, but Ms. Buttersworth now loves me in a chicken love kinda way. She wants me to hold her, she coo's when she's warm in my arms, she perches on my arm, and nests in my lap. I miss her being in the Luck Cabin with me.
I don't know if chickens are really smart creatures, but they are definitely sensitive with a range of feelings - even if those feelings never form into thoughts as we humans know it.
( Side Note: i am not meaning to make any statements on whether we should eat them or not, I eat what I can eat AKA what I am not allergic to... these observations are just how i see nature.)
Of course... JuJu the donkey wishes she could live with me too. Why can't all my babies be potty trained? Or maybe I should move into my barn instead! ;)

Xoxoxox

JuJu the donkey Luvs Her Neck Scarf

This is a lil' story about JuJu and her love of sassy neck scarves ::::

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For the last two months I have not been able to go for walks with JuJu because she had found a way to jump a neighbor's decorative fence and roam their pasture. Mr. Dontlikedonkeys next door was more then unhappy about it, and since he'd caught her on his surveillance cameras JuJu the donkey was guilty as charged for her trespassing offense.

A sad long 2 months passed as we waited to come up with the right solution to the problem, and built a small fence this past week along the creek to block her from her habit. Yesterday was our first day to go for a walk again, and she was more then ready to get outta her fenced area - she was pushing with her head on the gate and jumping and swinging things- so when i took out her halter to put on her face (the ultimate symbol of "walk time") she grabbed it in her teeth and shook that donkey head in a big resounding YES YES YES!!!

I put the halter on her face and we were all ready to go...

but then... JuJu went inside her barn stall and stood there... patiently...staring at me. She would not budge. We stared back and forth in silence.
I was confused.
"Are you scared JuJu? Do you not remember? DO you want to go for a walk?"

JuJu then pointed her soft nose to her special blue neck scarf tied to the side of her stall and gave it a nudge. I had taken it off that morning... and thought, does she really want it back on?

I took the possible cue and pulled the silky scarf down and tied it around her neck. Then i stood back and walked towards the gate...

She now was ready to go for a walk, and followed me at almost an excited run right out the gate!

All she wanted was her pretty neck scarf on before she went out in public...

........... I dont know where she gets it from (the fashion sense OR the trespassing?!? ;)

Xoxoxox