Thread by @homemadeguitars

I need to get outside every day, for my mental health. It is better if I work with my donkeys.
My mental health has been precarious ever since the war. Since I turned 21. Before then, the whole year before.
*Please* do not thank me for my service. Seriously. No. Please.

2. Besides the usual shit I have a hole in my brain.
The life I live, with the donkeys and stuff, is at least partly because evidence shows that daily interaction with nature is good for anyone's mental health. Virtually any human.
You take a broken one, and it's more critical.

3. The biggest thing I do with my donkeys is gather food for them. So, if I didn't have them I wouldn't "have to" do that.
But research proves that productive interaction with nature, where the human effects positive change, is good for us.
And the grass has to be cut.

4. The humans before us maintained the savanna by setting it on fire every so often. That's good.
They also had vast herds of bison and elk that rolled through eating everything that didn't have thorns. And some that did. And then rolled on.
Mowing is an imitation. Simplified.

5. We've got all these fences, and I own this part and you own that part and Bill Gates owns most of it, and it's not realistic to set it on fire and get out of the way.
I wish we had pastoral nomads in the US with herds of cattle. Come through and remove all the grass, shit, go.

6. But, barring that, if you don't want it to grow up in thorn trees, you've got to mow it. Or spray poison on it.
I've got all the thorn trees I need, thanks.

7. Now I'm mowing it with fossil fuels, either gasoline or diesel fuel. And it doesn't have to be gathered at all, it's good for the ground just as it is. But I gain peace and comfort from my donkeys, so I gather it. With them.

7. That pic up in 6 above, that's Abraham before his retirement. I've still got him but he can't work. He's just a pal. That's enough.
Anyway.
I'm planning to put quite a bit of the mowing burden on the girls, but I can't guarantee they can do it.
Taking a chance. We'll see.

8. I bet they can.
I had a team of Belgians that could pull a 7' John Deere mower all day. I'll bet my girls can pull a 4', more energy efficient, I&J. Am betting. It's ordered and will be built soon.
They like to just walk. They get in a zone and just walk. If there no scaries.

9. And if it gets ahead of us, something grows up too thick for them, well, I've still got the fossil fuel mowers if I have to.
Clara was really pulling with enthusiasm today, hauling carts of hay up the hill to the barn.
Clara hates to stand, but she's happy walking.
Video soon

10. I used the neck worn camera holder again today, but I had a better grasp of it. I haven't put it together yet, or uploaded it. Gonna go do that now.
Later, y'all.