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

[CanuckBock]

Lacy
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<<What did I tell y'all about autumn being Lacy's season...yeh...sweet!>>

Quote:
Originally Posted by scottcaddy

How often do you shear the sheep?
Thanks for the update.
Scott

Don't the sheeps look ready for winter, eh! Love the amount and quality of their fleeces...nothing like those that keep Jacobs in say Texas where they haven't got the growth in their forage crops like us or the need for insulation like our sheep do for the winters. It also helps that I selected heavily for good fiber qualities too. You gotta have both in great supply, lots of balanced rations (best feed for sheep is alfalfa...I believe the Arabic word for alfalfa translates out to be "perfect fodder!") AND the genetics to have good fiber. With ours, you can put a slip of fleece against your skin and forget that it is there...perfect wool for socks and garments that are worn against your skin. No harsh and heavy carpet fibers from our Jacobs...I am a firm believer that there are never any bad fleeces, just bad applications for their uses but also relish our flock makes excellent handspinner fleeces for things like socks and shirts worn next to our skin.

So how often do I shear? Pretty much like everyone else with regular sheeps; once a year works well. I use to have to shear the draft rams earlier as the one parade was May long weekend and under load, I did not feel it quite right to have the rams pulling their wagon in full winter fleeces. I coated them after shearing middle of April and transported them in coats, harnessing them up with no coats and then rubbing them down after the parade and suiting them back up in their coats. You can almost make guaranteed bets the parade or the rodeo will have one day of snow showers...bitterly cold winds too. May is touch and go, so June is always more a predictable better weather month as far as pleasant and not severe cold wise.

I believe the Angora Goat persons shear more than once a season (twice being norm) and those with sheep breeds like Soay, that moult or shed their fleeces off (one may roo/pluck or comb their fiber off if shed by themselves in May and some do it naturally as late as July or even August), the sheeps do it themselves when they wanna. Wool is insulative and has just as much use in cold as heat to insulate the sheep from their environment.

http://soayandboreraysheep.com/articledetail.php?Soay-Fleece-Structure-and-Variety-in-Soay-Sheep-10

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soay_sheep:

This is me stopping to take pics...sheep and fleece are still attached​

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Yah, two separated entities now...Nascor and her Fleece!

Always blows my mind comparing the two to each other...hee hee...separated, look so foreign to each other
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Even find myself getting quite wary of the rams as their fiber gets bigger and bigger on them; then I shear and think, "I was intimidated by this??" Bwah ha ha...

This is Nascor last year...fleeceless...hee hee...​

I also find the hand shearing leaves a nice layer of wool on them (you can use combs to do that on your shears too I suppose)...I don't show, so don't need them BALDED up or even to have the fiber all one nice neat length...a few rags and tags and like who cares? The sheep sure don't and in fact...one of the main reasons people shear once a year is their sheep can get fly strike. Not here, we are ever so lucky not to have that kind of issue with our location, so no fly strike problems. Indeed, it is paradise for all!

Here is another set of pics of a Jacob and fleece...

This is one of more of my homebreds; Lilac ram Regi...unshorn in 2008​

And his fleece sans him ​

He is what is called a "Lilac" Jacob which is any colour (browns or greys) other than black with the white.

I also find our horn growth in the Jacobs to be magnificent too...feed them what they need and look out...growth in all departments from tips of their head gear to their very clothing!

Back when I worked for Alberta Agriculture...I vividly recall the Beef Specialist taking Kentucky Cowpersons around on "forage tours" here in Alberta. He always loved it when the people from Kentucky marvelled at how well their Kentucky Blue Grass grew here in Alberta. We have perfect conditions for it most years...so much so the Beef Specialist said they envied how much better THEIR grass did here...nyuck nyuck...name change perhaps??

Keep referring to this as paradise and indeed, it is!

Quote:
Originally Posted by hennible

Wow! very nice building.

Glad you like...hoping to see the last of the roof trusses go up before the first decent snows hit but we'll do what we do and work thru to see it on before serious winter...we hope!

Electrician came as expected yesterday...

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One more visit and ready for power to be shut off fer the new hook up to be completely finished.

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I burned up the last of the dead tree branches in the fire pit yesterday...kept stalling because Rick said we'd have a weeny roast but I got tired of us suppose to be stopping, fall time is go, go, and more go. So I set it ablaze yesterday and fed all the messy tinder dry branches to the fire. Not like there won't be more if we wanna have more with half the place treed up in forest, eh.

Harvested all the potatoes in the new tater patch. Rick is plumb tickled and pleased...kept saying how BIG the potatoes looked and so many. Hee hee...payback for his work and mine and diligence to keep it watered (if not for him reminding me, eh).

Some had a bit of scab but that is caused by us fertilizing the ground in the new area...next year, even more time between pooped on bedding application so next harvest of taters will be even less scabbed up...yee haw!

Got a total of three five gallon pails outta the 100 feet of row (past the new ones we stole early in the season)...we are pleased with that...
plus some seed potatoes to keep over for next season too​

Removed the gate and panel blocking access to this area and took out the corn stalks.

So should now be able to turn the ruminants loose to mow down the forage there before Rick tills it again and we put it to rest fer winter
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Have not given up our summerish tastes tho...

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Put on a batch of 8x's my BQ sauce recipe this morn...got her bubbling down on the stove. So BQ season is still on the go...all year round in fact here! LMBO

Probably put on a half chicken and two pork steaks for the heck of it...in the Man Porch tonight. Called Rick and asked him...you got choices for din...what yah want and he wants chicken and I still want pork steaks so doing up a double meat dinner.


On the Harvesting agenda for today...maybe the carrots and the beets...jest in case it gets wetter, eh! or


Yesterday while I fed the fire pit with branches...Lacy discovered that windfallen crabapples are not the only option for you when yer a smart houndy dougal...

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Dang it all...that's one smart puppy dog!
<crunch a munching apples on the branches>​

Coupla chews and self serving dog is happy in her bounty
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Emmest is still quite happy to pick up windfallen...by them falling, she already knows they are the sweetest and best ripness crabs of all!
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Even if she makes the funniest of faces...and spits chunks on her paws which she savours after horking down the main course...I so wanna BEEP that nose!​

Speaking of funny...yeh...

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Don't even crack a smirk...no laughing allowed...none!

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And fair is fair in puppy play...

Emmy has that goofy Lacy by the scruff..."Got yer scruffins!"



Lacy has Emmy by the throat..."Got yer throat!" ​

Uh oh...Emy's down...

There's a carcass littering up the lawn...wonder if I can toss it on the firepit, coals are hot enough, eh...

Oh, oh, Emmy's back up from the dead...up to more play fun antics...

Emmy is still UP fer a game of peek-a-boo--round the trunk of the Dolgo Crabbapple tree...​

over again fer another day...another day here in Pear-A-Dice...let the BQ sauce cool now, bottle it on up later and voila...ready to be used to remind me of summerish endeavours...even if'n it ain't summer no mores here officially speaking...them Crazy Canucks, eh!

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[Wisher1000]

Tara, you make me tired..... but I love the "Rat Ranch" rock in the last pic!

 

[CanuckBock]

Tara, you make me tired..... but I love the "Rat Ranch" rock in the last pic!

Tired...yeh, FALL (season?) down tired...

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I use to have one of my "rat" decals on it too, but it long time ago weathered off...been in jest a few of my candid set-it-up <be silly> shots.

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Most recent rock shot was August 5 fer them dougals here on their first day.

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Fellow rock hounds know we love to lug our rocks around...

Lost three days...more like five days...to bus illness.

Oct 5, 2015​

Didn't eat for four days but made turkey din the first day so Rick got lots of "pin feathers" to get tired of...came home from my morning run and slept straight 4.5 hours (woke up, stuff the bird and put it on) but knew something was terribly wrong, as I NEVER was one for naps in the day time!

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One of Rick's complaints about me driving the petri-dish on wheels, eh! Oh well, went to Doc on Tuesday, got all doped up and now back on track (sorta!).

Having lost five or so days, this thread got shoved off to the side because there were more things still needing doing.

Got my photos all sorted and saved but not posting all of them today...still making up for lost time, eh.

- Got the last half of the roof pretty much ready to crane up...

Oct 12, 2015​

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- Electrical is done deal, just a power off when the craning happens and it is done up completed.

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- Me, I harvested

Oct 4, 2015
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And spread the wealth about from the last of my veg garden... onions, carrots, lotsa lettuce and spinach and beets. Gotta rototill my veg plot for winter wrap up next.

Pups adore the hard thick romaine stems...lovely chews for dogs!​

Oct 9, 2015​

- Bought new fake fur that was on sale...on sale at the store because of Halloween costumes no less!

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This round, Rick was less than pleased with the PINK ones, but see, I balanced it out with some more dog fur coloured ones too...tee hee...they ARE girls eh...sorta...wish sometimes they would act more like DELICATE girls...bwa ha ha...yeh sure...

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Lacy the Houndini is still up to her same ol' tricks (the full tale for another day...sigh!). This is her third crate mat and this one is toasted now--nice hole sans stuffing off sides. Lacy's on a strictly fake fur blanke diet only now. If'n she eats the fake fur blankies, that's about it...she'll be on an empty crate sleeping regiment...oh well. Fake fur continues to work fer now, lotsa fake fur.

So from Oct 10th, y'all can like guess what this is...or was...

Spent October 10th taking care of this incident...never enough make work projects here, now is there?

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Easy fix as I originally wanted this type of item used but Rick would have none of that...but we went back to what works and continues to work...as said, a tale fer another day, eh.


- Bought two new dragon statues (compliments of Rick's eagle eyes...here was him telling me how I HAFTA go into this store and I'm like, "Nope, I can wait here in the truck..." "NO...you NEED to come in the store!" "Nope...," I continue to plea... "Get in the dang store...They got DRAGONS ON SALE!"...ha ha ha...some nice surprise, eh!).

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Purdy sweet, eh!

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Before I stowed all the concrete away (yeh, another thing I forgot I done did--stow the concrete ornaments away fer winter), I put the two new ones out to see how they will look fer next year...

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Amazing skies as of late...these are from the 9th.

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Got snow on the third...

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Dogs LOVED it!

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Never stayed...but enough them puppers learned about snow noses and how wonderful it is to lean down and get a snow drink...

Oct 07, 2015 - pups flushing two spruce grouse into...the spruce trees ​

Here's a pic of one of the grouse...

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Fer other pics clicked...go here...posts 395 & 398...

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/946654/calling-all-wild-bird-feeders/390#post_15936308

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Lots of fun times playing here...

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Pups are now over five months old and really getting quite keen to play as much as possible...

A fav with Rick is running silly for the air brake diaphragm... ​

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Emmy telling Lacy, "Hey, get over here...they are giving out FREE pettings...

"

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"FREE PETTINGS!! Me love pets!"

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- Yesterday afternoon, like we had not done enough already fer the weekend...

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So let's go get our hay bales, eh??

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We hauled home our hay supply for the ruminants.

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Tarp it up later today.

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- After getting the roof all pretty much completed up, some during the week after he worked a full day

Oct 7 2015



Oct 8




Oct 9


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Rick still did more this weekend.

Oct 10​

He tilled the front pasture yesterday evening after we got home with the hay bales...giving the dogs more roots to chew!

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He tilled up the new tater patch and made it twice as wide.

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- Cooked Ham and Scallop potatoes on Sunday...

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So dog hair colour question fer yah...jest cause I like to torment you guys with silly colour genetics questions...

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So is Lacy mottled or speckled or ...?

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[drumstick diva]

Lacy seems to have both speckled & spotted areas. BTW was that the indestructible rubber mat that she sorta nibbled at?

 

[CanuckBock]

Lacy seems to have both speckled & spotted areas. BTW was that the indestructible rubber mat that she sorta nibbled at?

Yah DD!

Yup, Lacy has speckling on her legs and mottling on her shoulder. Much more prominent now that she is losing some more baby white hairs.


Yeh, Lacy nibbled up the older industrial grade rubber backed mat...but thankfully I placed the new one we bought, under Emmy's containment area. So I guess if one of the mats had to be chewed up...I would prefer it be the older one. Sigh.

Now it goes without saying that I asked Rick that we put one of the one inch thick horse mats under one of the pens instead of getting another mat...would have likely been Emmy's so a given that we were gonna lose one mat. Originally I thought, horse mat like we use to have for the ACDs but they are so darn heavy and we had had help with our son helping us heave the original mat in the room out. Well back inside the horse stall mat has gone...to Lacy's area.

Emmy has her mat, the new industrial carpet one...but then Emmy does not have a top on her pen and Lacy does.

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Here is a visual for you...above is Emmy's pen the morning of Oct 10...

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And...this is Lacy's...

See any slight difference between the two pens? Any dif? There was no difference in the time the dogs were put away for night naps...no change in feeding, exercise regiment...nada difference.

Difference is between the temperament of the two dogs.

I do have to admit when you said Lacy might be an easier Cattle Dog and you might prefer having Lacy over Emmy ...well depends on what you define as EASY?

Lacy is a indeed a love bug...Emmy is the thinker and is more reserved...Lacy is not afraid of anything except maybe the bathroom...not sure why the bathroom but she arrived that way.

Lacy loves nothing better than BEING with the PACK...so I guess Lacy wanted to be with the PACK...MORE than Emmy did.

I shut the door on Em's pen and she happily waits to rise and shine when we come to get them...Lacy on the other hand, she wants to work at deciding she never wants to leave our sides. Velcro, shadow, eternal twin side by you Swamper dog. How can you not love that!??

Lacy could not get up and out or thru the sides of her containment pen...so she decide to EAT her way to China perhaps? Can't go up, or sideways, so how about DOWN!

them both...EQUALLY but I can say the morning of the tenth...I mighta kinda liked Emmy just a smidgen, a tiny smidgen better than Lacy. There, I admitted it...I got weak...for a nano second...but I am back to loving both...EQUALLY no matter what, eh!!

 

[perchie.girl]

for moving those horse mats I use two C clamps clamped tight on the short edge, spaced about about two feet apart on the short end. This gives you grip for dragging them.... Then for pulling them through the house put some cardboard underneath.... since you are only lifting about fifty poiunds by letting the rest drag a single person can move them.

I have six that have man handled from boarding facility to home.... on dirt dragging is easy but on floors that you dont want messed up.... cardboard

deb

 

[drumstick diva]

Tara, I think if you brought in a forsenic team they would prove that Lacey was fast asleep when the paper got torn and a mysterious hole in the mat appeared. Suspicion seems to be pointing to a canine that doesn't have a top of her confinement area. You know the one with marvelous balancing ability. Obviously she tip toed out of her pen , opened Lacy's area -did damage and then snuck back into her crate- looking like the wonderful angel Tara believes her to be. How about that?


PS I don't mind Velcro dogs, if Lacey was totally housebroken she would be welcome to sleep on my bed. To be honest her containment area looks a lot like my room - you know too much neatness and nice -nice, can be a sickness. Thankfully I don't have to worry about that.

 

[scottcaddy]

Scott

 

[drumstick diva]

why thank you Scott.

 

[CanuckBock]

for moving those horse mats I use two C clamps clamped tight on the short edge, spaced about about two feet apart on the short end. This gives you grip for dragging them.... Then for pulling them through the house put some cardboard underneath.... since you are only lifting about fifty poiunds by letting the rest drag a single person can move them.

I have six that have man handled from boarding facility to home.... on dirt dragging is easy but on floors that you dont want messed up.... cardboard

deb

Moving the horse stall mat was a non-issue...as usual Rick ramped up and was my Hero as expected. Ratchet strap, hand cart dolly; yeh, easy peasy. Roll mat into smaller size, tighten up strap, stand the mat on end, slip dolly under and voila, portable mat that goes thru doorways and down tight hallways and into the room, EASY! We would not be able to drag the mat thru the porch entrance, the doorways in the house, the hallway, etc. as it is WAY too wide. We did not require a grip to drag as Rick chose to make it smaller, lift and roll 'er.

Love the prints EVERYWHERE!​

It was the cleaning and dismantling/reassembling parts that I saw as so redundant. See, I dunna do the Cinderella, on the knees scrubbing for all I am worth very well. I don't do laments about how "someday my prince will come and save my wretched butt" because my Prince Charming already resides here and saves me all the time...Rick tried using a boat brush on the mat but it was not going to get cleaned that way...elbow grease and good hearted scrubbing was the task.

Love the socks & army boots...no socks & sandals, ARMY BOOTS! ​

Besides, I look more like Carol Burnett than some future princess.

Part of the distasteful work was dismantling the entire one containment area. The crate, ex-pen and border all had to be removed down to an empty room so the mat could be put down. The stall mat had to be scrubbed to clean it. It had gone from "house dog mat" to being used under the one pair of swans' pond. I rolled the mat up, Rick came with the tractor and pallet forks, we slid it on to the forks and he delivered it to the driveway by the house facet. Then I got my sleeves rolled up and began the process of cleaning so it was house hospitable again.

So the work bee focus was the cleaning part of the stall mat, sure it was heavy and it took both of us to turn it but that was not the major not wanna do part. Cleaning it was, tearing the whole room down and then redoing the room all over again were the not wanted parts. I have issue with work where you do it only to end up relatively back at the same place you shoulda been at to begin with. I had said horse mat and Rick said nope that he wanted cushy soft soft mat. Cush cush ended up as moosh moosh.

Yeh cleaning; swan crap, dirt, sand, leaves, other unmentionables...yeh. First I swept off the accumulated debris with a corn broom. Then right when I was getting the five gallon pail of hot soapy water to begin scrub a dub...the power went off. Yeh, Sunday of Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, and the power goes off. I can only imagine what that did to others that reside here...seeing as many a T-Day dinner would have been IN the oven at that time...all hoping it was COOKING. Rick and I have natural gas service for a reason. SO many ele power outages here...and you never get a reprieve on your bill for power, eh when service is interrupted. Now of course it was perfect...right off I only needed hot water enough for one pail, so I did get that (and had to pause till the power came back on later to complete the job fully) but we both gave each other the l00k, knowing look of "Yeh!," and we are so near to having the generator tied into the house for power! Exactly for times like that. Never doubt one second why we are doing what we do...boy it will be grand to have the power switch in place and be able to regulate our own power supply to have when we want it. Power to have power over your own destiny...independence and self-sufficiency...can you see the both of us doing the thumb to nose nah salute!

Rick was not slowed down one iota because he just fired up the generator to cut what he needed to cut for the roof.

We sure know why the generator and fuel tank are an unimaginable luxury for living here in Pear-A-Dice. Switching the power over...too kewl!

Tara, I think if you brought in a forsenic team they would prove that Lacey was fast asleep when the paper got torn and a mysterious hole in the mat appeared. Suspicion seems to be pointing to a canine that doesn't have a top of her confinement area. You know the one with marvelous balancing ability. Obviously she tip toed out of her pen , opened Lacy's area -did damage and then snuck back into her crate- looking like the wonderful angel Tara believes her to be. How about that?


PS I don't mind Velcro dogs, if Lacey was totally housebroken she would be welcome to sleep on my bed. To be honest her containment area looks a lot like my room - you know too much neatness and nice -nice, can be a sickness. Thankfully I don't have to worry about that.

We have all pretty much heard the line about "clean desk is the sign of a sick mind."

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If yer desk is not piled high, then you don't usually have too much in the way of job security...I like ORGANIZED CHAOS...and lots of it. Thrive on that...job security = more work than sanely do-able!

No forensic team required. If Lacy cannot get OUT of her confinement pen, there is no way Emmy could get IN and then back OUT. Emmy can get out of her confinement pen, no doubt on that.

Case in point, last night, Rick says as he comes into the kitchen to get dinner..."Did you see Emmy in her pen?" "Nope," I reply and grab camera because it is gonna be a good one...

Here she is.

"Yeh? What's up...you need to eat yer dinner in peace sans us pups...cause after then, WE EAT our dinners! Hurry along...I'm here patiently waiting for my turn."​

It is all about temperament. Which pup CHOOSES to act in what fashion...totally a choice the pups make for themselves and the humans have no bearing on how the pups choose to behave; we just work with what we are given.


As far as housetrained...HA...Emmy is the hold it till she gets outside the den/cave type puppy...Lacy, not so much. Lacy goes when the mood strikes her even if you just had her outside ten seconds past; soggy bottomed gal indeed. You'd not like how your bed got wetted down if Lacy resided thar with you!


Lacy is a free willed spirited ACD...Emmy has free will and is spirited too, but for some reason, she chooses to stay put when her humans ask her to, even if she could be a houndini. She can do all that Lacy can, she just chooses not to plus her potty training efforts are amazingly steady for a five month old ACD. Emmy is easier to manage in a human cohabitation aspect wise. Lacy is more of a challenge and the Love Bug is totally worth the extra efforts--her only guilt is that she wants to be with you--always & forever. How can one not love that?

For a nano-second, I thought ACK when I saw the mat had been chewed through...nano-second because I knew it would take hours & hours of work to rectify, but so what? Had the mat to replace the other...was able to do the work, I just didn't wanna because I had a lazy moment since I am still recovering from my five day illness. I am after all...only human and I am weak because I would rather be playing with the dogs than redoing facilities for them.


As far as angels and devils...HA...

Internet server is over capacity today so I can't post any further photos...maybe later it will oblige me, and we can see photographic proof as to how angelic or demonic either one is... <<can't even post emoticons...agh!>> See if I am able to post this one even...

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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