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

[Tomtommom]

I love that little stove, Oz.

My 6 year old would love that.

 

[Wisher1000]

Cool, a pig in a poke.....I've never actually seen one, although I've heard them mentioned many times. It's a southern thing........

 

[vehve]

That pic made me think "Älä osta sikaa säkissä", which basically means the same thing, Wisher. A small Finnish lesson for you guys again

 

[ocap]

Tara, I have had the fun of living in a place that was so cold that the fuel oil was like jelly, and had to use heat tape to keep it flowing.
It didn't need any humidity to be bone cold.
Scott

in 1976 the USA's National Science Foundation heated the building and generated electricity at the south pole using diesel fuel and needed a special blend to keep it liquid, hence DFA (diesel fuel Antarctica), the winter over personnel would join the 300 degree F club....turn the sauna up to 200F and run outside to a temperature of minus 100F....culture and climate shock

 

[tntchix]

Oz, that fence is something I would love in my yard.

and those kids are adorable. I just wanna squeeze them tight. Love their smiley faces.

 

[CanuckBock]

Tara, well maybe a bit of both

I'm guessing your place is slightly more isolated than what they're used to too.

Isolated in a good way...pavement right up to both of our gates (invested in dust control since Rick fixes up the vehicles nice enough we'd hate to have to negotiate any gravel and chip the paint!!), but yes, not in any downtown area. Isolated with scenery, clean air and water, lots of wildlife and nature, not enough artificial light here to compete with a beautiful night sky full of star light. But close enough to amenities...proper hospitals in two directions are only 20, 25 minutes away...big cities are an hour to two hours (to international airports). Surprising, we are ten minutes away from the best Chinese food restaurant we have found in all of Alberta and the tiny village grocery store actually brings in the finest produce in the general 3/4 of an hour vicinity. We are spoilt indeed. Fast food places half an hour either direction if you are so inclined. Fuel stations, hardware, grocery & feed stores, hotels with restaurants...all ten minutes away on pavement. We are just tucked in a bit off the main thru fare and that's perfectly fine by us. Blinking and missing us...no worries, eh!

Tara, I have had the fun of living in a place that was so cold that the fuel oil was like jelly, and had to use heat tape to keep it flowing.
It didn't need any humidity to be bone cold.
Scott

The dif I found with humidity is I could not sneak out to the garage and grab a bit of something outta one of the freezers on the Coast. I would stick a toe out and wince. Here, like last night...ran outta bread, so I bopped out dressed a tad too scary and zipped back inside to finish up Rick's lunch. Not cold that instantly grabs you. Sure, you can easily die of cold...but it will take alot longer to creep in and chill you. The cold here takes a bit of time to happen and yes, it can get driven deep down into the ground...6 to 10 meters (20 to 30 feet).

December 2013, working on building Mt. St. Higgins range!
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Last year was a killer for snows...never seen so much and it kept on snowing right into May...ran outta places to pile it.

Oz will get a charge outta this...I thought about maybe using the snow to sell snowcones off the side of the highway in July to all the tourists that fly by going "out West" to camp...but like alot of my money making propositions...it was doomed to fail...

This is the very, very last of that snow pile from above...gone...gone...GONE!

June 6, 2014​

I had had high hopes the yellow coloured snow cone would have caught on...Fixins & Styra could have helped with the flavourings, eh? But I was foiled by the warmth...oh well--back to the drawing board on making any cold hard cash at the ranch-a-roo.

in 1976 the USA's National Science Foundation heated the building and generated electricity at the south pole using diesel fuel and needed a special blend to keep it liquid, hence DFA (diesel fuel Antarctica), the winter over personnel would join the 300 degree F club....turn the sauna up to 200F and run outside to a temperature of minus 100F....culture and climate shock

Ocap & Scott...Rick (bad man!) did a stint in Tuktoyaktuk as a young man. Much better cold weather clothing I expect nowadays but I find it amusing he used a down filled coat and coyote fur ruff on the hood (yote fur will not freeze up so bad when you breath on it). He said as a man, you could pee outside and watch it pile up...hee hee...them bad boys took some of the camp provisions (his job was to keep the airport runway free of heaves...the planes would land and make big landing site ruts in the run...so he ran water truck to apply seawater to smooth it out)....they took out some "frozen" turkeys (even here I smile...tis warmer IN my freezers than outside at many times in the winter here...think my freezers run at -10C/14F er so...so that is t-shirt weather as far as I consider it midwinter here!) and them brat boys played "bowling with turkeys." He said if you nailed one with another bird...the impact caused the frozen turkeys to shatter into pieces...bad bad bad men! I like hitting the rubber bird frozen up water buckets here at about -20C/-4F...the ice shatters with just a few taps of the mallet...at round about -5C/23F, the ice is less prone to shatter up so quickly and you work harder at loosening it from the bucket.

Other things Rick noted in Tuktoyaktuk...plagues of animals...first the Snowshoe Hares in white...followed by the Arctic Foxes (also white), then finally came in the Polar Bears (more white beasts)...nothing came following the bears though. Rick said you were not allowed to carry a gun (good thing, cabin fever made you a little unstable to have guns about) or kill the bears...you had to hire a local native person to do that if a bear became too much of a hazard. They could hunt and shoot the bears by law. Problem with Polar Bears (them and water buffalo and tigers I heard but not sure on beasts like Mozza past her busting into gardens to eat up the human's greens...hee hee), is they will HUNT MAN. Rick had to be very careful and have his wits about him...he said the bears would lay in wait, hide in snow banks and push their faces under the snow so you could not see their eyes or noses (blackish colour)...and them bears would wait for a human to blunder into their reach.

They never EVER shut the machines down...never get them going again. One time, Rick was tired (24 hours sunshine is tough to get use to) and he shut the machine he was on down. Suddenly he hears this BOOM BOOM BOOM and he is startled...it was the sound of his heart beating...not only cold up North...but quiet...strange quiet. Rick remembered the bears and lucky for him, it was only seconds later and the machine started right up.

He has left the grader run all night here on occasion when it gets past -40. Tiger torches can get some of the yellow machines going in a pinch...but dicey at times. We never take a vehicle out on a trip without having adequate garments as part of the 1st aid kit...all year round. I think the funniest thing I noted was that snow here begins to squeak (ratz?) at about -20C/-4F...coldest I had experienced in 25+ years on the Coast was minus ten (14F)...but with the humidity, that felt like -40 here. Cold is cold as is winter for whatever area you are acclimatize too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lowest_temperature_recorded_on_Earth:
The one thing that we do share with Oz and I quite like it...we have alot of sunlight hours. We do NOT get the moderated climate from the sun shining. But we do have UNcloudy days...many many blue skies! Average amount of sunshine per year is 324 days a year...2,208 hours, 47%. When we resided in Port Hardy on the WEsT Coast...same stats there run as...283 days a year...1,462 hours, 31%. Huge difference. Rick and I had to wear sunglasses for two years before our eyes adjusted to the the change from the gloomy ninety days straight of rain...like moles is what we felt like!

I think Oz's kids and Mrs. Oz will do just fine if he moves them to LA...it will be a little different, but I figure the fact that his fam will be together alot more than say now...that will make them hardly notice the place might not be exactly like Cocobeach. Love and devotion makes all the worlds of difference.

True love is all about facing the challenge and overcoming the hurdles to make life a bed of roses.​

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I spent about three months living alone at one of the government jobs I had won...awaiting on Rick and Alexander to sell our house on the Coast so they could move...it was sheer torture being separated...but we managed as best we could. I remember phoning home once and Rick answers huffing and puffing. He was loading up one of the two tractor trailer units we bought to move in. When he finally caught his breath enough, he cursed and said, "I musta packed the rope!" and I said, "Huh?" He was joking but in a sick sick way...he had packed the rope so could not put himself outta his misery...Eeeek...the house sold soon after this and we have never looked back...I do not remember those months fondly--more like a test and a yearning I don't ever want to have to face again.

Love gives you that strength to face all hurdles of life, fights against all odds and still emerges out to be as beautiful as it was when it started.​

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I cannot stand being apart from my loves and I know what regal tenacity the Oz family has to be so steadfast and diligent in seeing their plans thru. I look forward to the day when Oz posts they are all together on US soil and there together--for good. This too shall pass.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[ozexpat]

Tara, well maybe a bit of both

I'm guessing your place is slightly more isolated than what they're used to too.

Oz, yes, because that LA climate is so cold

I'd be sweating like a pig. I'm guessing your niece is an Ozzy?

That was a Filipina neice.

Ozzies get winter in most of the country.

 

[ozexpat]

Cool, a pig in a poke.....I've never actually seen one, although I've heard them mentioned many times. It's a southern thing........

Its the easiest way to weigh a pig under 100lbs.

Getting them in the bag is easy. Once its over their head they sort of just run in.

Once they get a bit older we just tape them

Measure from the top of the neck to the tip of the tail (L), and then around the chest (D).

(LxDXD)/400 will give you a pigs weight +/- 5%.

Its a lot easier than picking up a 300lb gilt.

 

[ozexpat]

I love that little stove, Oz.

My 6 year old would love that.

Thats a minature version of what our employees use as their kitchen stoves.

They really work well and we have more firewood than you can imagine.

The ash goes into the compost on its final turn.

 

[ozexpat]

Oz, that fence is something I would love in my yard.

and those kids are adorable. I just wanna squeeze them tight. Love their smiley faces.

There is a word in the local language that describes that feeling - I am not sure of the spelling but it sounds like kolumo.

The garden fence is just utilizing the scrap from the coconut trees. It was a lot better than the previous rendition. We are trying to be creative.

Thanks!!