Jest Another Day in Pear-A-Dice - Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm in Alberta

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Glorph - what beautiful soulful looking guy!

I'm pretty plumb proud of that Boy (man) of ours. Glorph was at the SPCA and was pretty much doomed there till he found freedom by passing...sigh.

Old dog...Alexander figures old farm dog (not saying the owner did not pass on first and that's why & where the dog ended up!)...simply because of how the ol' boy acts. I am not sure his exact age, maybe he was 17 or so years old...I too forget...or he is seventeen years old now. But the Boy has had him for three years. Said they use to put Glorph in with the cats (25 cats) in the c@t room at the Shelter. Glorph being a dog, was never very impressed about that situation. He is a dog and well even dogs that tolerate or even get along with cats would have a limitation on that...twenty five cats??? Argh.
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Anyway, the reason I am so proud of that Boy of ours is that he could have just as easily turned away from Glorph knowing full well his days were limited. He adopted him and decided it would be like having a temporary roomie over visiting. If Glorph made it thru the first winter, good...well he's made it thru THREE winters. He has accumulated a mass of toys (he prefers just a few but likes hording toys to show Alexander's two cats he is still the dog man of the house!) and taken over the house where two cats reside; Turps (who went to live with the Boy after he got his engineering degree) and Cookie (spoilt rotten and hardly knows that dogs are suppose to be wary about).

At first Alexander thought Glorph was deaf but he CAN hear certain sounds (selective hearing...many males in the human species know of this advantage, eh? Hear what they wanna hear, oh yes they do!) and a sharp hand clap works to get his attention if needed. He has been working on him getting use to having a real home, a forever one indeed. Got him on a nice diet, regular vet visits, some meds for some of his conditions (old age) and he is much more mobile and active, perky and happy. He knows when the Boy gets home from work and his neighbours have told Alexander they have seen him watching out from the balcony window a half hour or so before he gets home. He has a routine and knows the regiment. I like that about dogs, they like schedules and stick with them.

He is not too vocal a dog but we all laugh because if one of the two cats invades his space (last year the younger cat, the "kitty glitter" one--pushed him off his new Christmas dog bed), he will get up and give room but grumbles and makes rumbly growls. Never does anything to them but makes it well heard he has an opinion about cats. LMBO
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Of course Rick is very bad and when we visit...Glorph KNOWS he is gonna be hand fed treaties. Alexander feeds no human food by hand to Glorph (he is on free pour kibbles) but bad man Rick does. Glorph meets us at the door..."Welcome, welcome! You guys can come on in anytime at all!"
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Yup, I am very proud of that Dear Boy and figure, we musta done something right with him to be so willing bring out a new leash on life for an old, but obviously a goody dog, dog.


And it looks like you guys got some of the same frost that coated everything out here. It made this one of the prettiest Christmases I can remember. Of course this was also the first Christmas that I actually relaxed in a long time... I wasn't chasing mini wildling children jacked up on sugar, chocolate, candy, cookies and all sorts of other amazing Christmas goodies this year... The kids are still wildlings, but they're big enough that I don't feel like I need to hover over and chase them as much. I got to sit! Oh my goodness I got to actually breathe in look around and think "wow look how pretty it is today!"

Surprisingly, we have had a dusting of snow to clean things up several times. I love that...got some snow to make it a blanket but it gets a tad dirty with the winds and warmer weather... A bit of icing sugar to run along the fence rails...cheers things up immensely.


Sunset yesterday

It does make it very pretty. Suppose to be some more dusty snow in the forecast too.
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Yeh, yikes the mercury was varied the past two days. I woke up to -27C (-17F) yesterday and by evening, it was hovering at just above freezing (0C/32F) ... that is quite the swing on temperatures but the animals sure enjoyed the reprieve! LOL


Ah yes...the young whippersnappers. I am not so sure us Moms ever stop hovering but it is very nice when the kiddies have to start fending a bit on their own and making better choices without our intervention.

Another bonus to older offspring is that Christmas can be reined in a bit more. Not having the Hub hanging off ladders (Rick use to somehow find the worst weather to put up the lights in...not sure how he managed but in the early years he was like a bad weather barometer on that issue!) and huge amounts of Christmas baking. We have really toned it back and it is a most relaxing and joyous occasion for all of us.


The most excitement with energy around here now during the Christmas season is the dogs and tossing their toys!



Enjoy the fruits of your hard labours my Woman...the kids get older and then eventually comes on the grandkids. But those ones are great...you feed them up full of goodies and send them back home to wreak revenge on the direct progeny. Hee hee hee...jest like my parents did. I swear I did not know what kid we were picking up after a weekend at the Gran's! They even bought him new outfits so he even l00ked different...yeh, the one time the gash on his forehead was the direct result of "flip flops" from a beach hike...yeh, really...what was wrong with the "hiking" boots he arrived in...whatever! Momma bear has to let go one day and allow the baby bears learn to fend for themselves...agh....
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im hating this cold weather

Now now Bama...we could take this as a vivid sign you are just getting ready and conditioned for that demising eternal hot place...
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End results only if'n you misbehave which I expect is happenin' a bit less often (OK, misbehaving and getting CAUGHT on it--jest means you are getting much older and wiser about life!)...
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Gibberish... What's Fahrenheit?
I know...I know...I try to remember and always include the "F" numbers...F for that "f"oreign language, eh?
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We are pretty tolerant here in Alberta...drove past this display yesterday...flappin' in the winds!


Canada, Alberta, those Yanks (our cords!)...
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Celsius...now how more simply logical can it be? Zero is water freezing...100 is water boiling at sea level. Yeh, whatever...some of us, we've evolved to the more astute system. Now jest awaitin' for the others to catch up to the brilliance, eh!
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Quote:

Now don't be lying to us Bama...could be construed to be insinuating anything that goes on here is much in the likelihood of normality. Which you gotta say, "Just isn't so!"
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i noticed that. Im trying to keep my nose clean

Brown nosing aside...
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That's my Man...learning the art on how not to get caught red handed. Yeh, going to jail even once learns one on how not to get caught the next time. 'Cause for sure there is always going to be a next time so long as we keep breathing, eh?



So Rick had a to do list going on what loser laps we were gonna be doing over the holidays. We have now officially done did the list...

There is indeed no moss growing under his rolling along tires, eh.


Trip to big city of the greatest outdoor show in the world...Calgary.



I love the change of scenery...we reside in the Rocky Mountain Foothills...so when we take a trip out to the wind swept Prairies, it is nice to kick back and let the views roll by.


See the cattle windbreak on the right...covered with a blanket of snow...it is windy here...always the winds...


Mountains appear close...like you could reach out and touch them.

Decided to go thru Cochrane, man alive this place has gotten populated...use to be some range land with a few cows and old ranches...now it is home to golf course sized houses!


Rick and I laugh...this decrepit tired out house up on blocks has been sitting here for quite some time. We laugh because this "mansion" would be all we could afford if'n we bought land in this area now...hee hee...



Not sure what the people here do about water. There always has been an excessive shortage and you could probably run one cow/calf on maybe 30 acres...but I guess if you sell in Calgary (which is also booming in real estate), you could afford to have your water brought in to a cistern. Not my forte...I like having lots of water in our well, good clean drinkable right from the tap water. But that is a livestock person speaking I suppose.
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Pretty church on the outskirts of Cochrane.

Townhouse prices...yeh...tho it is in Canuck bucks...LMBO
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This is a school in Calgary...sandstone, ain't it fabulous...the door is oak and the trees are old...luv this!



SAIT...Southern Alberta Institute of Technology

Stopped to pick up a heated wild bird bath that Rick wanted. Been searching for one ever since he saw one at this store some years ago...guess they are not that common an item. So we went back to the original source.


Stopped at Lee Valley (nfi) and I bought a gardening book...on the topic of what I have always done in my veg gardens; raised deep, wide beds! I suspect I am gearing up for veg garden season so a bit of sit and read with a dog in the lap time is in order. Then to order up some more seeds and wait for them to show up. Yes, routine of the regiment of winter time. Love that.
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Part of the Calgary visit included food...yeh, Peter's Drive In for the second time this year.



Once in summer and once in winter...such fun!


Burgers, onion rings and wonderful milkshakes!


On the wanna list for probably 30 years is a decent meat slicer. I have purchased <<ashamed>> two cheapy unworthy meat slicers in my lifetime...more a dangerous contraption with a spinning take fingees off blades...yeh. Hard to use, hard to clean, general nuisance and dangerous too. But you cannot help but be tempted to attempt to slice up yer own meats when you see the cost savings you can have. But not with the threat of losing digits and causing yourself dietary hiccups...can't clean the gizmos so well....so, in the plans for decades was to bite the big bullet and purchase a decent restaurant supplied meat slicer.



TA DA!

You know it is sorta ironic...as you get older, you are more able to afford to purchase items you did without in your younger years. Then you hafta ponder, "well being older now, eat less, do we really need a meat slicer?" Can we even justify slicing up a great big ham into sandwich meats and steaks for breakfast? Agh...hee hee...oh the dilemmas we fight with eh?

I can say I am gonna like slicing up ribbons of thin slices of roast beast for piling high on bread. Jest like the Deli's can do. Oh well, I guess we just acquired a family heirloom...gonna last and last...out last Rick and I!


Uh and yeh...on the way out to home, homeward bound...saw this done up firetruck! Which about sums up being in the city--anything goes eh?
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Yeh ... the "No Peeking," the "Bringing smiles to the world ... one kilt at a time!" Franchises available it says under the "CAUTION - kilts on board" warning sign...

So any takers?? I figure some of the lady folk on here might like to have their windows cleaned...it is a truly rather dirty time, winter and all...LMBO
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Oh my eyes!
Glad to be home...headed fer home and pear-a-dice...


Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada
 

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