#Local Grains

[serpentface]

A kulustaig bull, the distinctive cattle landrace of the highlands.

Kulustaig have striking differences to other native cattle found across the Imperial Wardi claimed territory. Their aurochs ancestors were domesticated in a separate event from those found south of the Inner Seaways, and the broader cattle population kulustaig derived from may have trace bison genetics. The progenitors of this landrace were brought south across the Viper seaway by the ancestors of the contemporary Hill Tribes, and were gradually shaped into the kulustaig in adaption to the high altitudes, mild but dry summers, and cool/snowy wet seasons.

These cattle are mid-sized and stocky in build with large, broad faces, most distinguished by curly manes and 'beards' and thick, V-shaped horns. Genetically undiluted kulustaig are almost ubiquitously black, white, and/or gray, though breeding with other cattle has introduced a greater variety of coloration in contemporary stocks.

They are adapted to higher altitudes, having larger hearts and a bigger lung capacity than comparable lowland breeds, and grow thick, curly winter coats that allow for superior resistance to seasonally cooler temperatures. They can maintain condition on less food and lower-nutrition grasses than the average cattle, and are excellent instinctive foragers. This particular quality makes them attractive for crossbreeding efforts with cattle stock of the dry scrublands in the south of Imperial Wardin, though most of their other traits are highly unfavorable for hot, low altitude environments, and scrub-kulustaig hybrids with idealized traits are rare (and highly sought after as studs).

These are all-purpose cattle that can adequately fulfill roles as meat, draft, and dairy animals, though the latter role has the most importance in day to day life, and they show the most selection for milk production (though are not as high-yield as pure dairy breeds). Their meat is mostly lean and somewhat gamey, as they rely more on thick winter coats than fat stores to manage cold, and the vast majority subsist entirely on wild grasses and forage.

Most kulustaig have fairly calm, gentle temperaments, and accommodate well to human handling (it is not uncommon for cows and geldings to be passively ridden by herders otherwise traveling on foot). Their herds have strong, well defined, and stable dominance hierarchy structures, which reduces actual fighting and lends to them being more easily managed by their human herders. In most traditions, the dominant female in each herd is regarded as blessed by and belonging to the agricultural goddess Od, and will not be milked or slaughtered (this untouchable status is often maintained even if the cow's rank in the hierarchy is displaced, though traditions vary).

Bulls are almost ubiquitously given personal names by their owners (the honor often belonging to a family or clan's matriarch, who is generally considered the owner of the herd and other familial assets), while other traditions vary between just the bulls and dominant cows, personal favorites, or entire herds receiving names.

These cattle are of tremendous importance to the peoples of the highlands (particularly tribes and/or individual clans living above the river valleys, who fundamentally rely upon them for subsistence). They provide much of the meat and dairy that the core diet revolves around, and are the greatest measure of wealth within the highlands. Non-native cattle can be commonly found in parts of the highlands in the contemporary (and may be bred in to impart unique qualities to established stock, such as improved milk production or fattier meat), but kulustaig are typically prized above all the rest. These cattle are often a source of great pride for individual clans, and one of few agreed upon markers of shared identity and pride for all of the collective Hill Tribes.

Cattle raiding is a near-ubiquitous practice (both as a practical resource acquisition, and a less immediately lethal method of settling larger disputes than open warfare), and most cattle will be branded with a mark identifying their owning clan as a method of dissuading theft (often futile, particularly given cattle marked as belonging to certain wealthy clans may be especially prized). Nose rings are commonly used to assist in the handling of bulls, but have secondary protective functions that lend to their common use in even the most docile of cattle. Rings are usually blessed or have spells woven into their making as a supernatural barrier against theft, or against malicious (or at least devious) mountain spirits such as tiirgranul (who take pleasure in frightening cattle (and their herders) and are known to cause stampedes) or wildfolk (who are known to sometimes steal or curse cattle when offended, or just bored).

The word kulustaig derives from the common word 'taig'/'taigr', which refers to cattle in the contemporary languages of both the Hill Tribes and Finns, and the 'kul' root (heavily antiquated and not used in contemporary speech, most commonly recognizable in the name of the kulys plant), which has connotations of hardiness/robust qualities. The name would have derived from complimentary descriptions of the animals as 'the best and most robust of cattle'.

[the-wizard-dipper]

Masters' Academy AU: Magic Types

Art by @okkennymay

One of the million bit of lore I'll eventually need to explain is that magic users are divided by the energy source they draw upon...

Different energies are better at different things, but with time and effort they can be put to any task. For example someone born with an affinity for fire magic could throw a fireball better than any of our trio, but that doesn't mean the boys couldn't do it too.

There are also some passive effects holding the energies within you; like a proto-spell it's something a magic user does automatically and unconsciously to digest the energy they naturally draw in but aren't doing anything with.

The effects are the kind of thing you'd expect; to use the example of the fire mage again, they'd not really notice hot or cold weather. Norman can see the dead, Dipper has near perfect recall, and Danny has heightened empathy.

[louizepoggie]

Local Bovines want your Headscritches!

Look @bovineblogger

I love these ladies, their pasture is just near my standard walking route and if theyre out they always wanna say hello.

[dotpyenji]

happy bisexual day to those who celebrate

[yarnrocks]

s/o to that time I referred to the valkyries serving mead to the slain warriors in Valhöll as "the Hooters of the slain"

[calliopechild]

One day I will learn not to go on Petfinder right before a holiday (when I cannot responsibly adopt a dog only to leave it at the boarder's for 5 days while I go home for Thanksgiving) and get my heart set on a dog, but it is not this day 😭

For real, though, friends with dogs/training/shelter/vet experience, on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being should be fine and 10 being 20 lashes for being an inconsiderate clod, where would you put me getting a dog after I get back early next week with the knowledge that I'll be once again traveling for Christmas 3 weeks after that? My instinct has always been 'don't adopt until I know I'm not going anywhere for a couple months,' but the result has always been me missing out on dogs that would be a good fit (something that is already extremely hard to manage thanks to dumbass restrictive pet policies). But at the same time, I don't want to start off with a dog by potentially setting off any separation anxiety in him/her with going from shelter -> new home -> strange boarding situation -> back to new home (but can I trust it for real this time?). I wouldn't be going anywhere again until late March, and that's a trip I could totally drive rather than fly, which means pup could come too.

Am I underestimating dogs' ability to adjust? Being just worried enough about it? Do I just go for it? Help??

[carbonateddelusion]

I know I haven't said much about it, but legitimately, "running away" was one of the most pivotal life decisions I've ever made. Probably THE first major life decision I've made, and also the best. If you have an opportunity to go, leave. Get out of there. If you are not safe at home, emotionally, physically, whatever, and you're able to leave, do it. It's going to suck such major ass for a while because you're going to have to deal with the scars they've left on you, but I wholeheartedly, full-throatedly, with-my-chest promise you that it is going to be better. You're going to be better. If you have the privilege of being able to escape, no matter how difficult it feels, then RUN.

[nightshadeowl]

I know you said FNAF is placeless but it's also really funny when you get to consider it's also canonically set in Utah. There's lawsuit forms in Pizza Sim mentioning Washington County, Utah.

I didn't know that; good catch, anon!

It's frankly rather America-centric of me to say that anyway, but North America is pretty big population-wise and it spans a number of distinct groups- which is why it's notable to me that it feels like a story that could take place in Utah or on the East Coast or in the South or even in Canada. This thing is vaguely familiar or even relatable in a lot of small towns; who, from any of these places, hasn't been to a local restaurant that just didn't feel quite right?

[wildrungarden]

⭐️Currently reading: The One-Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka ⭐️

‘Just playing or doing nothing at all, children are happy. A discriminating adult, on the other hand, decides what will make him happy, and when these conditions are met he feels satisfied.’

The synopsis calls it ‘Zen and the Art of Farming.’ This book is about his experience over 30 years of using the ‘do-nothing’ farming method. He lets his orchard and rice/barley fields grow wild without any pest controls or fertilizers. That’s the basis of it (kinda?) — but what makes this book amazing is that he goes deep into why it works for him. Explaining why he doesn’t have to use chemicals to treat weeds and pests. Into the full circle of life & how to actually grow ‘natural’ food. We always want bigger and better quality & focus on high yields and money. How disconnected we really are growing from nature in agriculture.

If you aren’t into agriculture or learning about the exact ‘whys’ of his experiences from growing rice, barley & citrus on his personal field —- skip to part 2 of the book. I honestly wouldn’t recommend skipping(it holds a lot of useful information), but after part 2 is where I really got interested.

It’s not only about farming though - it also incorporates our health, diet and how basic our knowledge is as humans. It makes you think.

Even this book being written in 1978 - it still holds up to today. We’ve had all this knowledge since then and we still continue to do industrial agriculture and live/eat the way we do. It’s eye opening, for sure.

I’m not completely finished yet - I have about 40 pages left - but that’s what I think so far ☺️ You should definitely give it a try.

[ramvling]

the thing about being someone who likes to go to farmers markets and shopping local vendors is your favorite stuff can and will disappear without a trace because the one person running the show gets tired of slinging cookies or w/e in a crowded hot market every weekend. And one day you'll look up and realize you haven't seen them there in a while, and you go to their instagram, and their last post is from January like 'see you at the market this weekend!', but you won't. You won't ever again.

[mosswolf]

i keep seeing people who aren't usamerican reblogging that post about being protected under the migratory birds act and im like lol no tf u arent

[blujayonthewing]

at the oral surgeon and barely spent any time in the waiting room, where I could have been fooling around in my sketchbook and Vibing. I have, however, spent a LOT of time sitting here waiting in the exam room after watching their friendly informed consent video about how all procedures involving sedation include a risk of death

[arolesbianism]

Working more on the local group of Synchronized Light and hoo boy. There's smth wrong with these guys.

[durn3h]

I wonder if the old world didn’t have so many different people groups if we would have only had a single grain that we would have turned into something like corn instead of the large variety of lower yield grains that we ended up with

[whats-in-a-sentence]

They had Greece, southern Iraq, and central Asia by 6000, Egypt and central Europe by 5000, and the shores of the Atlantic by 4000 (Figure 2.4). (...) The second theory says none of these things happened, because the first farmers across most of the regions shown in Figure 2.4 were not descendants of immigrants from the Hilly Flanks at all. They were local hunter-gatherers who settled down and became farmers themselves. (...) After sweeping from what is now Poland to the Paris Basin in a couple of hundred years before 5200 BCE, the wave of agricultural advance ground to a halt (Figure 2.4).

"Why the West Rules – For Now: The patterns of history and what they reveal about the future" - Ian Morris

[supercantaloupe]

oh oh and the local grains stand was back today after a hiatus and they had my favorite brown sticky rice again!