Getting the flock out of here - a diary of a crazy chicken man

[katbriar]

Happy New Year all! May it be filled with things that are best for you and yours!

 

[ozexpat]

good to see you CB

dont forget to stke the fire

happy new year

 

[FridayYet]

Woke up to a sprinkling of snow! Happy New Year everyone, hope 2015 is a happy and healthy year for you.

 

[Tomtommom]

What a lovely coop, Canuckbock!

 

[Ashburnham]

Absolutely no snow here! 38 degrees today and 40 degrees tomorrow!

(And I'm not talking those silly Fahrenheit temperatures! lol)

xxxx M

 

[Amberjem]

 

[CanuckBock]

Hi Tara, what a wonderful surprise to catch you on here. I too get breathless trying to keep up with this thread. Maybe we need an OLDER folks thread with a slower pace, and bigger font.

Oz is inspiring...one of the better BYC threads to read and always makes me nervous to post on such a fabulous tale. This is Oz's place to THUNDER! Greatness of flashes and roars of successes!

I do love how we both think we reside in paradise (Oz's uniqueness is shared else where too!).

You wanna slower pace DD? Not here Baby and not on my thread either! There is barely enough time to get the proper amount of sleep...heh heh heh...always trying to remember have to snap a pic of it too...before something irreversibly changes.

The bigger font is no problemo Woman; just increase the size of your screen display. Forget how you do that (control key & something or other??) since I wear Coke (nfi) bottle thick glasses. Oh my eyes!

good to see you CB

dont forget to stke the fire

happy new year

Thank you my friend.

Woodstove has been burning 24/7 since September! LOL But that said, it is a beauty type warmth indeed...

Have to do some work to keep warm in the Great White North and therefore, burn off calories...and excuse to eat pie...extra slice!

Jun 3​

The overflowing excessive pile of Birch splits went from this pile Rick made in June in front of the two Buff geese pear-a-dices & the Black swan's eden...

Dec 29​

To this just this size now...almost gone and happy on that... Was a temporary pile (that Rick mentioned he'd like to see gone, gone GONE!) as it gives him more room to pile snow. If'n it ever decides to amount to 1/4 of last year's deluge of white we had!

​

Have not touched my 21 walls of wood...and happy on that!

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Used these walls up in 2013 (go figure?) and replaced it all with birch last March...my helpers and I earned a few extra slices of pie...meat pies that is! LOL

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Every wall of wood that remains air drying is like banked gold that we don't have to worry about replenishing.

​

This "temporary" birch split pile remains and needs to be gone as the next step in Rick's parking building project is to administer a roof this spring...half of a sixty foot truss load is expected to slide this way, so unless I like to dig for my gold...this pile needs to be burnt up some time before NEXT winter goes laden with the white.

What a lovely coop, Canuckbock!

Thanks...my Hero has built me 30+ buildings to play chooks in. That's the Coop fur Sure (1st chicken coop & his silly attempt at being bilingual--chicken soup de jour!) and the Lil' Duece Coupe (spelt "due" because we have more than paid our dues...and "coupe" because we also share the hobby of restoring vintage Chev vehicles-'36 Maple Leafs & '28 one tons).

A small listing of the Rat Ranch buildings (and many of the trucks) may be found on the My Coop link in the left side margin there. I got plumb tired out jest posting a few of the building completion processes...should go back and keep at it but yeh...too busy doing to stop and take tally I guess!

Absolutely no snow here! 38 degrees today and 40 degrees tomorrow!

(And I'm not talking those silly Fahrenheit temperatures! lol)

xxxx M

Cooee Cobber...I should hope your summer Down Under = no snow!

We get snow here every month of the year, tucked in so close to the mountains. Our month of August (summer time on this upper half of the globe) has seen 4 centimeters of snow come down--2001 came home from BAER hearing testing the Heelers at the U of Saskatchewan to a virtual blizzard at our place. It never stayed white and basically watered the plants but yeh, eh...

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Rick built me a greenhouse in 2007 because there is no way we could grow tomatoes outside his Man Porch...every month gets frost.

Jest a given as part and parcel for living in the Rocky Mountain Foothills.

April 2014​

Same sorta view into the orchard in July...

July 2014​

I am not complaining about having two major seasons; one white, one green--just stating the facts are that if you want heat, you gotta work at it. Temps do range from -53C to 45C. So extremes where you do get heat as one of them and I have to have both of the greenhouse fans on full in the greenhouse with the screened doors wide and the floor doused in water or we literally roast/cook living things inside the greenhouse. But then the opposite is that I knew about the early September snowstorm coming last year, so began sewing up poly feed bags to blanket my veggy garden from freezing before I had harvested it all (cut the spinach and romaine that day; the birds & us feasted royally green for that week!).

Might try growing corn here again this spring...but you need to start it inside (don't disturb the root system, so grown in peat pots) if you want any cobs in the fall here. About 90 day window to grow up outside and harvest it. We lived on the WEsT Coast some 20 years back...there you battled it being too wet...putrid stinky mucky mud! We managed that by building drainage systems...excavated two meters down to place drainage pipes encased in a layer of washed rock covered in filter cloth, to whisk the deluges of rain away so I could get on the land to begin planting and keep things from drowning and rotting. But we never had the white snows I adored in any amounts...much happier here even if you don't always get weather conducive to seeing the ears of corn or the tomatoes ripen on the plants outside...was a challenge on the Coast to grow corn too but a whole other set of hurdles. A drawer full of green tomatoes with a ripe apple is a good solution; same old, same old at both locations figuring out what works.

I guess we like battling challenges and winning. I see that satisfaction in Oz and admire his tenacity to greet adversity with zest, research, planning, and application; and if one method fails, he hits it again from a whole new angle till he gets what he desires. Kinship in liking to win even if you get a few kicks & scars along the way trying. Don't say "can't" because that ain't in our repertoires!

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What I find the most amusing is that I'll not likely happily accept a vacation to lay on a beach for sun, sand & surf and he'll not likely take a tour in the dead of winter to go dog sledding with my mushy mutts and me...but we are both happy where we want to reside and that screams content. What's not to love about living those lives?

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[perchie.girl]

OMG are those queensland heelers hitched to a sled?

I LOVE it

deb

 

[CanuckBock]

OMG are those queensland heelers hitched to a sled?

I LOVE it

deb

Of course my Dear Deb...Gee and Haw are no more difficult than Over and By for the herder dog breeds. Ask me about the Jacob Rams we have in parades as draft animals to draw the covered wagon Rick made me...braided the harnesses & assorted gear, trained them to love to pull...if its got legs, its got drafting potential!

April 1998 Photos by The Western Producer - Makins & me; 2nd time for the both of us, EVER on stock! Go gather Girl!! ​

Whoa and Down are pretty well understood by the dogs, as is That'll Do! though I certainly have a better recall some dazes on my Jacob Sheep than me dawgs. My Cattle mutts will respond to voice, hand, whistles, body & stock stick placement (plus the occasional exhaled curse under breath) in order to get the job done before the sun sets. My pampered pups are spoilt and very barn sour...they get away with murder on a good day.

2001; My embarrassed son, Stoggar doing rolly pollies with Makins doing diggy digs for cooties - not always focussed on the task at hand, eh?​

In reality...some of the top winning northern sled dog teams have a widdle bitta Australian Cattle Dog in their Heinz mixes--a little bit mind you! Makes for a very hard working tenacious dog that if bonded to the human at the helm...are as diligent, smart and faithful as any dog breed there is. Another real good sled dog breed to add is the Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog. I helped get Canadian Kennel Club recognition here in Canuckville as spokesperson to see them in Miscellaneous Class...the breed is now fully recognized by CKC and I got to see my neighbour show two in Herding Class coupla years back. Made me EVER so proud!

Told you it was dangerous for me to post here...Oz will trounce my ears for going off on an icy walkabout here--not even close to "bush," more like an ice crusade out on a precipice of no good return. I will NOT hijack his thread (repeat, repeat!). You are more than welcome to post on Jest Another Day in Pear-a-Dice if you wanna go off topic there; not sure what to label "off topic" on that thread thar?

It is OK to amble, but not ramble. Now, I need to zip my lip (kiss a steel post outside perhaps?) and go back to frozen lurk mode before I get too carried away. Bad bad bad...crate moi time!

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

Edit to fix dates to correct ones...time flies having when having too much fun!

 

[anjovi6]

Isn't it illegal to post pictures of delicious looking foods without being able to enjoy the consuming of said food????