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

[getaclue]

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

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Thank you! It was an extra special weekend with lots to be thankful for!

Oct 9 2017 - Pond fish & pond plants safely in garage
ahead of winter​

The big stock tank works awesome! Happy fish = Happy humans!!!

Oct 08, 2017 - Right down town...waz that in the right hand top corner?

Yup...Gorilla (King Kong) in a pink tutu...only in the city eh....craziness like yeh... ​

All you can eat shrimp on Saturday evening
I've been wanting to go for quite some time...
Rick took me and there was all you can eat (and more) shrimps!
My fav food...swimps and booberries (no blueberries!) ​

Several trips to the city for dinners... Here's what happens in the parking lots of the restaurants we visit...

Dogs eating shrimp and baked biscuits
in the parking lot ​

​

And in preparation for Monday's dinner of Thanksgiving celebrations, Rick suggested we purchase some larger cast iron cookware (and a French fry slicer too!...make life easier).

Love cast iron...my wedding present from my renegade Gran,
was a cast iron Dutch oven...Gran knew me well! ​

The waitress brought us a "doggy bag" container,
and told us to take home some of the shrimp
Nice snack the next day​

For several decades, I'd hear locals talking about burnstick....burntstick...thought I was hearing things...Nope. It is literally THAT stoopid...no kidding around.... Here's what I mean! Here's yer signs to explain it...maybe?

​

So explain this to me...within easy walking distance of each other...

What we like ran outta names for places??

Couldn't come up with another name...

BURNstick and BURNT stick...
​

You made up too many signs and ran outta letters and had only the letter "T" left over? You needed to lose people..."Meet you at Burnt Stick!"...next day..."Where were you?" "At Burn stick...where were you...??" "We were at BurnT stick?"

The lake, the road, the whole scenario sounds stunned...stupid...like a set up for a very bad time...???

What the living ???

​

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

Ran outta picture files again...

Oct 9 2017 - Food glorious food! ​

Thanksgiving day feast preparations...get the VEG ready...

Sliced and diced and mixed and placed in the never bin used yet
new 15 inch cast iron fry pan!!

And while the veg cooked and
the prime rib went round & round on the spit

Girls & I took out the trimmings

GOOSE GOODIES!!!!
​

Lots of happy honker geese gobbling back veg...

Rick moved those two round straw bales outta the Hay & Straw Barn and there was some oat straw that required cleaning up and re-distributing...so we did.

Big cart fulla straw and down to the ram barn we trot
​

If'n you don't clean up during fall time...you get a messy messier than wanted spring time. Might get the mess covered over by winter white but that's just prolonging the ugliness to deal with on another day, eh!

Helper dogs...making me stop and toss floppy!
Too much work and no play (with dogs)...bad bad, eh!​

Cart fulla oat straw to ram barn​

The wee boys have been knocking this mineral/salt feeder
off the gate...so I wired it on this time!​

The ram lambs tore the top on one of my hanging hay feeders (use two, then always one to fill and one in use) so next task is to find a good corner feeder or I may look at making one (gonna put a hole in the divider wall there and use a chunk of chain to chain the divider gate closed...got the latch, need the chain and a hole next. Corner feeder of some type in the works, otherwise the boys just mix the hay in with the oat straw. "OH LOOKIT! We have NO food!" Yeh, sure...

Lacy inspecting; ensuring I am making the rams
comfy comfy!

Jest about the time the Girls had finished their inspections
Time to put the rams to barn
(that's the three Dorpy boys way up in the top right corner thar),
go play dog dogs and then...

Off the BBQ comes the beef and out comes the veg
​

Great long weekend had by all.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[drumstick diva]

I get so hungry looking at your photos, I am a beef eater hold the veggies.

 

[getaclue]

I just want to play with her dogs, and pet her sheep.

 

[Akrnaf2]

Wonderful cast iron pots and pans! And good food too!

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

I get so hungry looking at your photos, I am a beef eater hold the veggies.

BEEF? Emmy's favourite is BEEF...she's a beef eater too! Hold the nasty veg (she leaves carrots and other veg in her dog bowl when I try to sneak it in for dinners!)...it is always, always about the BEEF!

Emmy wants BEEF...meat...don't bother her with veg...she needs MEAT!

M ... E ... A ... T!!!!!!!!!​

I just want to play with her dogs, and pet her sheep.

Èva - still cute with a dirt snout! ​

You are most welcome to swing by...always a shortage of hands for....

Oct 11​

Tossing toys and petting sheeps!

​

Duro (the pet) getting her pets!
What a sucky ewe!
​

Beep the snout! BEEP BEEP!​

Wonderful cast iron pots and pans! And good food too!

Thanks Benny...

Only thing I warned Rick about regarding the new cast iron cookware...with a fifteen inch diameter on that fry pan...if I get angry and come after him with the frying pan...he's not going to ER, he's going to the morgue!

Got Eldad's registration papers in the mail yesterday...

Oct 11 2017 - Lacy is like totally like "HUH??"​

How good are Ruffed Grouse at avoiding predation?

Right thar Lacy...I said RIGHT THAR!?? ​

Sounds like the weather is to warm up to room temperature...today was just enough blowing snow to melt and make it a tad miserable out. Cold.

Had beef(eater?) liver and lamb shoulder chops for dinner yesterday. Got a good bone broth on the boil for the Girls to have in their kibbles. Both of them like lamb.

I don't prefer liver and Rick don't prefer lamb...so days when he gets beef liver, I can have something he won't eat and we are both happy with our dinners.

Drove up to do a country turn around yesterday at the top of a hill and looked straight at a cuteness large bull, googles and all, sitting tucked up in a corner watching the world go by. LOL...huge bull, and he belongs to the kids I had just picked up. They had moved their cattle from down below on some rented pasture land and I guess the one bull decided he was not done wandering. I can hear the barb wire staples going PING as he walked thru their fences. Bulls can do that if they wanna. LOL...and he wanted to. Mom was happy to get the notice and when I returned with the kids in the afternoon, woolly wandering bully was back safe and sound at home in his pasture.

My son is fully enjoying his time on the WEsT Coast...sends me this photo of himself...yes, he's driving a freighter that carries those many, many shipping containers...Captain Al!

Yes, I am always proud of our No. 1 son...

Well back to the book work I go. Another cold humid day to get the books caught up by.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

So count the last post's photos...that be ELEVEN! How did I manage that?

the one of Duro getting her pets...I have posted here prior and I just cut and pasted it...so you CAN get more than ten files...but the files over ten must have been uploaded on another post...not sure if that applies to a single thread or just BYC itself...dunno.

Oct 11 2017 - Sheepy chores
​

Get feed for the ewe flock...start to let the boys out...but not before the Girls give Boss Man his kisses...

Emmy kiss

Lacy kiss ​

Day begins for Boss Man on a perfectly wonderful note...girl kisses.

Then the widdle boys are let out...

Stock dogs doing their job -
directing sheep to where they need to go​

Bought a three foot piece of chain, install that...

Ram Lamb boy's night quarters​

Need to put a drilled hole in the wall side, but for temporary, missing link chained to eye hook.

lOOk out, make sure Girls are behaving...​

And the Girls are good girls...

Another job done...now to sit & watch the Girls...

Watch them act badly (I never wonder why the sheep listen to the dogs?)​

Poor sheep...what an example...if the Girl Dogs do that to each other...imagine what Girl Dogs could do to Sheep...LOL

Best way to know if you did a good job...
Sheep approval​

The mineral & salt holder is staying ON the gate and the lamb boys are using it...Bonus!

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[Akrnaf2]

Go easy on him! What happened to the old rolling pin?
I too like lamb!
And Tara I am really happy to see that you eat liver!!
Because almost every American that I spoke with in the forum don't eat internal organs!
We , especially people from my origin, EAT EVERYTHING! we have wonderful REALLY wonderful dishes for every part of the animal!
When I see that the head and internal is being thrown away the waste saddens me.

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

Go easy on him! What happened to the old rolling pin?

Not my fault on the fry pan ...

the handle is burl wood, the hook part is huge and nasty...​

Rick made a fireplace poker to stir up the fire (I've told this story before!). I asked him why it was so heavy and so big?

I mean you have to use TWO hands to hold the dang thing!

I took it out so I could get a decent photo of it
Emmy is sure interested in the hook...maybe
there is blood on it from the last intruder, eh? ​

He said he made it a Conan (the Barbarian!) sized because if I ever came after him with it...he did not want to suffer, he wanted to go...peacefully and quickly with one hit.

So no rolling pin will do...the NEW frying pan or the Conan woodstove POKER!

I too like lamb!
And Tara I am really happy to see that you eat liver!!
Because almost every American that I spoke with in the forum don't eat internal organs!
We , especially people from my origin, EAT EVERYTHING! we have wonderful REALLY wonderful dishes for every part of the animal!
When I see that the head and internal is being thrown away the waste saddens me.

Well unless you are growing the meat yourself...I fully understand the reluctance of many persons to eat internal organs! The animals can often be grown with steroids, antibiotics, growth hormones and many are fearful of internal organs because of high residues of these chemicals concentrating in these meats.

Rick likes liver, but I find the flavour too strong. I do like heart, kidney (steak & kidney pies are great!), gizzards cut up and fried in butter with garlic are a treat.

This is a gander I harvested Aug 2016
Note the fresh liver and gizzard!​

I also like to harvest the internal organs and check to make sure they are very healthy looking. Nice layer of fat (if I harvest a bird in the fall, should see a nice covering of fat...harvested in the spring, I would expect to see less fat as the bird is going thru winter and using internal fat to stay warm!).

Christmas turkey 16 month old tom - 2011​

Lots of internal fat for winter warmth on this tom!

Easter tom April 2012​

Still lots of fat in this one and nice coloured organs...healthy bird!

These two were Romanov/Dorsets...an Ozzie friend was coming to Canada
so I bought two lambs and had them processed, keeping
& tanning the hides...nice dog beds or sheep rugs​

I've tanned the hides of sheep we have had processed too (elk & deer too, if you soak the hide the hair slips off). Horns get used, hides, all the meat possible...waste not, want not. Besides, if you take a life for sustenance, it seems only right to use all you are able to use! Animal died for this.

This one is an elk hide
a friend's spouse harvested
it is still a bit hard and needs to be dampened
and worked some more to soften​

I went and looked up how big those c-can cargo ships are...my boy at the helm of this?

​

Mighty massive!​

Rick is working on getting my ten foot sheep hay feeder put together...got the metal bar and he had to weld one of the legs...the weld had let go. Maybe when it warms up a bit...dang miserable right now to do anything outside that requires precision use of your hands...nasty humid cold...it can get lost anytime soon. Want proper Alberta winter weather, cold but DRY...does not go bone deep...

Rick took my French Fry cutter inside and did her up...

Gonna make French fries pretty easy...
wonder if I can keep up with peeled potatoes to feed this beast? ​

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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