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

[drumstick diva]

tnspursfan09 miss you, haven't seen you around - hope everyone is OK

 

[Blackhorsehill]

Thanks for the invite, Tara...

Everyone should have as much fun as you.....

Those black swans are WILD!

 

[Northie]

Been a busy summer out here trying to get all of our projects finished so this late but..... Yay I'm subscribing for sure!

 

[CanuckBock]

Tara, seems to have been a slight miscommunication on my part. Since our national bird is "laulujoutsen" in Finnish, and "sångsvan" in Swedish, I assumed the direct translation would be "song swan", but after looking it up it seems it's name in English is whooper swan. That's what I meant to ask about, not imply anything else. It's a beautiful bird, sadly it only lives in the northern parts of our country during it's visits here. In the south we only get mute swans, they can be pretty to look at too, but they're a tad aggressive with their babies around. Here are a few pics of some mute swans I snapped at our cottage.


This pair has been spending summers there for as long as I can remember. This summer they lost all their young, but the summer before that I think they managed to raise 4 through the summer. Don't know what happened to them after their migration, but hopefully they're alive and kicking.

Your photos of the pair of Mute swans (Cygnus olor) are just marvelous...thank you for sharing that window into your life with us.

I kinda liked the thought of the "swan song" and its implications of retirement, but not the DEATH part...LOL

But it did give me an excuse to post more pics of the silly Black Swans and all their silly antics here.

Our version over here of the Whooper swans (Cygnus Cygnus) is the Trumpeter swan (Cygnus buccinators) which is the heaviest bird here in North America. Several times I have suddenly looked up (spring or fall) and seen a small wedge flying directly over my head--so close I could feel the air moving from beneath their wings--freaky! Seeing them this close really does take your breath away...so magnificent. I think maybe the sounds of the waterfowl that live here year round made them think there was this safe LAKE to rest upon. I know the Canada Geese do a bit of circling in the spring time every year until they realize our silly geese are just teasing them with their welcoming HONKS!

"We're HERE...We're HERE!"

Yes, it seems everything loves to eat waterfowl...sigh. Some years are better than others for cygnets to make it and that migration endurance testing can sure be taxing...but they seem to manage somehow.

Always late to the party. Tara, thanks for the invite. My computer has been out for almost two days. Talk about crazy!!!! Can we talk addiction here?

No worries...here I am, SIX days <<a BIG>> behind...oh well...late to the party is better than never!

It is not so much an addiction but a way in our farmy life style choices to get a nice social thing in--I'd be a hermit pretty much otherwise!

Works nicely to have e-mails waiting for us to find a moment--I get visits in and indulge in laughs and giggles without EVER breaching our biosecurity!

Far better than the old method of the phone ringing in the house and getting our answering machine because I am rarely inside during daylight hours. I have a land line--no cel phones er pagers for me...Rick does have a cel but he works mostly alone way way out and I need to keep in touch to make sure he's OK--have had him call, barely audible for rescues like need tires or a trig took out the back window on the grader and he's freezing driving!

The barns are mostly wired for ele but not phones. I did have a hand held phone for the house for a while there but that was too invasive...don't have enough hands for chores as it is and don't miss that kink in the neck from nestling the phone to your ear--do I really need another distraction from the fun tasks at hand? So I enjoy techno advances but I don't let them rule me...I use them, they don't order me around. I just happen to be forcefully QUIET at times when the service provider don't provide the SERVICE!

I live far enough out that we can NOT get cable. They just laff when I answer one of their Ads and give my address. So I'm used to DSL and spotty outages, and yes we have a generator, kinda need the well waterpumb to work for the critters.

Scott

Yes, we too have always lived OUT (far and away enough to qualify for a "Northern Living Allowance" for 25 odd years). Living OUT is where you learn to have two of any item you can't live without. In my teen years when the flip hair style was a MUST have thing (makes me grin now...but when I was young, I was sorta stylish...now...HA on that! If it's comfortable, that's a BONUS!) I owned TWO curling irons. We have always had a year's worth of food provisions (cup of sugar?...heck no, here's a spare SACK of sucrosed beety pulp crystalline white death!), water supply in storage in case things go astray...

One needs the basics to be secure...water, food, shelter with heat...I think Rick and I have always had provisions.

I went to visit my sis in the city...was on a company trip to the city where she lives and saved the hotel fee by bunking out with her plus I figured we could visit too! I told her my treat was dinner, so we stopped at KFC...in the city...was told they had NO CHICKEN at Kentucky Fried Chicken (nfi)...really? So fine, said I would cook dinner then even if I was tired from travelling. I asked my sister what she had at home...flour, nope, any meat, nope, veg, nope...potatoes or rice, nope! She was not joking either...I had to buy everything to make a meal. Got there she had three kinds of exotic mustards and three bottles of Corona (nfi), but no lime! Not even poultry seasoning which I had bought too. Heaven forbid there is ever a crisis for her in the city...she'd starve within THAT DAY! Blows my simple country mouse's mind!


So you gottaa be prepared I figure...your basic needs need to be in place...well we got all that we need to survive and more...21 walls of wood and more stacks of firewood...THREE woodstoves; one in living room, one in man porch and one we took out and plan on setting up in Rick's cabinet shop...there is the barbeque in man porch too as I had to cook last year's Christmas turkey din on that when the gas stove we've had for 13 or so years gave up the ghost--back up...for living onwards and upwards!

We are on well water too...love that! And of course, we are in charge of the condition of the well and its pump...water has to be had or the animals and birds don't live past a day.

Water storage is imperative...this one is bird yard sized at 55 imperial gallons...it can be hooked up to the ride 'em mover to be moved about wherever I might need it.

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One of the first "spring" jobs Rick did when we moved here 15+ years ago, was refurbish this metal tank...now THAT is water storage, eh?

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Filled with water, it is a larger spare supply AND a good supply for fighting a fire (outfitted on skids, it can be lifted by the tractor into one of the trailers to be moved where needed) should we get hit like we do ever four years or so with them random wild fires--2013 we had about three 'copters bombing the quarter next to us. Scary crapola when fires are that close! Some years back, across the river from us was blackened right up...blah! Fire is scary.

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And we also have a generator and large fuel tank to run it on. Just added insurance in summer and winter you will not run dry in a water supply or freeze the creatures--no plan to put wood stoves in the Duck Barn!

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These items are not pretty but pretty nice to have out in the Boonies...LOL

Water in the rain barrels in summer is always on reserve but I did sigh a huge sigh of relief when we got the generator because in winter, there are NO rain barrels to retrieve water from--I empty and put them all away. While I do keep some five gallon containers in the garage full of fluid water...that is a ONE day supply at best...after a day, you'd be scrambling!

After the flood of 2005...we hauled ALL our drinking water for over a year afterwards--every few days, an hour round trip to town to fill up milk jugs...was part of the daily living routine we did what we had to do. Shock treated the water well every week or so but the illegal outhouses up the road from us at the nearest privately owned campsite; that contaminated our well and the pastures (toilet paper on the fence wire--not nice) so we had to feed the ruminants for two months baled forage because they would not eat the pasture grasses (blick, no doubt!) and we had to haul drinking water for a lot longer than we liked. We bathed in the water as the Health Department said it was fine for that but not for drinking. Kept shocking the well and taking water samples in for testing to no avail.

It shakes you into reality when things you count on like turning your tap on and having safe drinking water is taken away. I appreciate so many things having survived them being removed....really is like camping here some daze...LOL I do not camp by choice...far far too much work for my likes!

We will do an upgrade on the generator because this one we have now will run things on the place but only the mandatory items. One would not want to live like that for weeks on end! On the "to do" list to get a far bigger generator, but we may or may not get to that in our life times and so be it.


And then the list of evacuation items...for the dependents and us.

This is our dog kennel on wheels...I never want to be without a place to call HOME...LOL

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This is an old but kept up nice holiday trailer for the dogs and humans--we used this to evac the dogs and have a safe residence for us in 2005 when we got the Father's Day flood...three feet of water and it decided to quit but it could have kept rising--we had a place that was still safe and dry!

Two trailers to haul critters and provisions with...already posted a photo of the bigger one...this is the smaller one. Also has a hydraulic lift...so it DUMPS too!

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Cages and crates for the birds--oh my...gotta have those containment thingmabobs.

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This area with the containers also serves as a quarantine area too.

Bought two three tiered rabbit cages for all the bantam ducks...x-pens for dogs and the larger birds to exercise in if we have to contain them for any length of time.

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Might seem over the top until you deal with fires and floods--disasters...then you get a really good "action" plan in place...'cause you just never know, eh?

After the flood, I braided up halters for every sheep, goat and llama...one each.

Holiday? You get a holiday weekend? I'm too long removed from the area so would you please remind me... what holiday?

Yes, we Canucks up here had a civic holiday called "Heritage Day" here in Alberta on Monday. Newfoundland and Quebec don't celebrate the August holiday on the first Monday in August. And this is why we had no internet service...everyone and their dog was here in the bush texting and cel phoning. Is really quite hilarious. Six days though...sheesh!

We had a dinner date with my SIL at their campsite out here on Saturday...could not contact them...Rick's phone was useless and when we turned around and went all the way back to the house to use the landline, they had no service on their cel phone...so I left a voice mail...agh!

No matter, we drove out and we found each other...I brought along a cake because we all had a birthday we missed...hers some moths ago, mine some months in the future...so sounded like a GREAT excuse to have chocolate cake, eh...

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This cake did have two of those sparklers on it going but I waited until the sparks were over to wrangle my own camera for a shot...otherwise it would have been fun to see me ON FIRE...trying to put myself out! LOL



I have had two hatches...July 30/31 and one in the midst today; now have 36 ducks, 18 turkeys and 197 chickens--will breach the over 200+ chooks later today as there are three Wy and some more Bantam project Chanteclers...whoop whoop...TWO HUNDRED and onwards!

Today is also most exciting because I have a chick hatching from the mating of our F3 Higgins White Dove bantam project Chanteclers--first of what I hope to be many--never count chicks before hatched, eh!

We also had some nice Buff, Partridge and White bantam F4 project chicks hatch on July 30.

So to all those that recall the RAINBOW of colours we had in the F1 & F2 crosses and for any that doubted we could pull it off...

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I totally love that we are getting on with the three varieties we wanted...White, Partridge and the Buffs...bantam Chants with real Chantecler blood! Donald Dearing of Ontario made the first bantam Chanteclers but he used an imperfect recipe using bantam chickens instead of the original standard sized chickens to get smaller Chants. These ones we are working with are from standard sized Chantecler hens bred to bantam sized Wyandottes to bantamize the large fowl!

So here are the two Whitish-like feathered parents. Not perfectly White, but I'm happy with their overall shape. She looks a bit rough (what's that term to use...barn fresh?) with some broken feathers but me is SO pleased.

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Both these birds were hatched under a setty bantam project hen on November 24 of 2013...so not even a year old yet but looking pretty matured.

Nov 25, 2013 with brood Mom and eight other hatchlings​

I think these two project Chants will add some nice things to the project...if only they weren't "sitting on the fence" over it.

Yeh, that Chantecler boy is living up to his namesake...SINGING BRIGHLTY!!!!!!!!!!!!! She looks like she is ready to keel over from the sonic sounds...Bwa ha ha...

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So the hail came and went on July 31st / August 1st...got a good dousing of moisture...fer sure!

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The ground was "crunchy" to walk on...we got so much pea sized hail.

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Piled up and reminded me of winter...oh my...the WHITE!

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There was some severe wind and so much of it...

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The hail hit the lettering in the weathervane I designed (had a neighbour with a plasma cutter cut it...kewl, eh?) pretty hard! See the letter "E" is outta kilter...will have to get up there one day and straighten her back out.

The winds and rains (softened the earth) also tossed my veg garden ornament...the mutant metal statue that Fixins' sis's owner made for me...

Gave me a name for the figure though! It is a mutant duck, a mutant chicken perhaps? I was never quite sure but who cares, eh...he can be BOTH a duck and a chicken...right?

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Say "Hello to CHUCK...CHicken and dUCK!

He' s OK now...

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Chuck is GOOD!​

I will choose to show the romaine lettuce...before, during and after the hail...

Before hail, almost harvestable...sigh...can y'all just TASTE the green goodness...I sure can!

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BEFORE​

Right after hail with pea sized all around it--like a frozen spray of hail surrounds the torn and tattered lettuce;

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DURING​

Morning after;

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AFTER​

And as of today;

August 6 - five days hence​

By jove...she is looking SO much better!!!!!!!!!!!

So the veg garden WILL recover...there is a bit of a setback but I know that about planting gardens where we live...always a risk you will get hit by hail, deluge of hard rains, and the winds. Got another month for the Village Idiot's Garden to produce and prosper...

The bush beans are flowering...as are the scarlet runners...

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Ripped and torn leaves but FLOWERS!
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Yah...

Me is SO happy....yippee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!​

And besides...Fixins has found out...that I have planted her absolute FAVOURITE <<to steal>> veg garden plant.

I caught her sitting and looking, ever so sly l00king...looking at the perimeter veg garden fence! A most strategic planting place...because dogs can wander right over, even if the garden gate is shut...the garden fence is accessible to the hooligans...the dog thieves...the Raiders of the lost BARK!

"Are those...are those PEAS against the outside fence thar?," says the Fixies Gal!




"The hail hit the lettuce but did not hit the peas so badly...?? 'Cause you KNOW that would break a dog's heart!"​

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"Yes, Fixins!," I say, "THOSE are the covetted PEAS and they are all OK!"

& so SMILES the DOG!​

"Now Fixins," I say once more, "You DO know you have to SHARE the peas with Foamy too...Fixins, you heard me, right?"​

"Yes, yes, share with Foamy. I hear you...but there is a huge row of the peas...two dogs will NEVER eat all these!"

"BOW WOW!"

As I have said...more hatchings today and at the end of July.

Sneaky Choco Call whispering sweet nothings in another Call duckling's ear! Trouble maker...spreading secrets!

July 30/31 Hatchings
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Three more Heritage turkeys and more DUCKS!



A mess more of the chooks; these being Partridge Chanteclers and a small blue bin of Booted Bantams in White and Mille de Fleur!

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And more ducks...Silver Appleyard Ducks - FTD!

Hatching today...no turks but more ducks and chooks...




Six ducklings this morning - Appleyard, Greys and more Calls​

Same six ducklings later today in grocery bin brooder - them Calls are never shy...right to the water...like a duck to uh, yeh...

This morn, had sixteen chicks hatch out...anyone know the song, "Sixteen Chickens and a Tambourine?"

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Well ah, if'n yah don't...here yah all go... get out the kazoos and start up them spoons and knee slappin' beats! Buckshot and Benny the Bear & Clyde the Owl..a little LOCO (ahem...) local history here fer yah's.

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:
One of CFCN's locally produced shows, The Buck Shot Show, began in 1967. For the next thirty years, host Ron Barge was a comforting and familiar figure to Calgary children. Every noon hour, he appeared on television wearing a battered cowboy hat and shirt alongside his sidekicks, Benny the Bear and Clyde the Owl. Three generations of kids grew up with Buckshot, Benny the Bear and Clyde the Owl. Local police officers, firefighters and paramedics visited the show and taught kids how to be safe. A humorous song that was popular on the show was "16 Chickens and Tambourine" by Roy Acuff. His birthday wishes to local children with their name on the screen was the highlight of many children in the 1970s and 1980s.

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Just wanted to post an update on that Stalker of mine...the crested Black Bibbed duckling that was always STALKING moi!

At that gangly polly wog stage...still EVER SO cute and still stalking!

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Fixins and her yard roos on the morning of August 1st

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Had a June Bug in the water barrel by the Duece Coop...

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Summer has been long enough for them to be noticeable now. I love using rain water for watering the baby birds! Very healthy start for them, I figure.

June Bugs and them HUGE wonderful blue dragon flies...love to see those helicopters buzzing about.


Plants in the Man Porch are doing well...

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The one in the dragon pot in the porch looks swell.

Even sporting a few new shiny leaves​

Now I will address what Rick has been doing AFTER his work day is over and on the past weekend...

Rick split the last of the firewood in front of his gravel pad ... cleared up all the debris that came from splitting wood in that area. Looks very tidy now.

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I would say Fixins approves of Rick's work! She is in the "in front of the woodstove" position (carcass?) in front of all the splits! Dad makes sure I stay toasty warm in winters!

Rick added four more feet of gravel to his Parking Building pad on the back side...

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He tilled up one of my pastures--composted all the used animal bedding...tilly tilly!

Before


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After
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So on Monday I spent three hours tossing forage seeds...felt like I was chucking chicken scratch but far more lasting than tossing grains to chooks!

Looks the same but notice all the TROMP marks...that was ME and my moosey feets tromping abouts! LOL

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I also seeded the Point Pasture with seeds because it was tilled last year and we never got round to seeding it...so lots of bare patches...now she is done like dinner and can grow the good greens for the ruminants!

Arranged some of the ornaments around the Taj



The perimeter sure finishes it off nicely!

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Only half completed.

Piper & Pearl on pond​

Birds have been enjoying POOL time a lot...had rain, hail, sunny spells...usual Alberta summer weather.

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Good to see the Ruddies on their pond...they were moulting and would NOT go swimming.



Love their fancy feathers!

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Hauled out my ele netting & fencer and Rick had been kind enough to charge up my battery, so got the sheep on trimming duty in areas where the netting keeps them out...like the caragana in the shelterbelts.

Hear the hum of "Hmmm, grasses are good! Num num..."​

Done a ton of stuff more but I do have a few more hatching birds to transfer from today's hatch...so I should end this off...

I will close...fer now that is...unless we "have no network" again...sheesh.

Doggone &

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

 

[scottcaddy]

Thanks for your post!

I was starting to get a bit worried after a few days had passed and NO Tara Post showed up!
You guys have been busy for sure!
Take care.

Scott

 

[Lacy Blues]

Wow! What a post! I was missing you today and wondering if everything was alright up thar in the north country. Glad you mentioned the holiday. I forgot.

Busy, busy, busy... my goodness! You guys sure do keep that place nice. Your list of birds about took my breath. I almost showed my husband and said "See, I hardly have ANY!"

Thanks for posting all that Tara, I enjoy your posts immensely.

 

[LindaB220]

Hey Tara, glad to see you are on going. Looking at your metal tank I wondered what you did with the cannon.

Great pictures. Your life is so different from my hot flat Louisiana piece of land. But that's ok. I don't have snow. Just HEAT.

 

[Teila]

Wonderful post Tara! Thoroughly enjoyed it.

I have been to KFC before and also been told they had no chicken! Lol

I am in total awe of your ‘action plan’ and organisational skills .. kudos to you! I believe I mentioned I was a tad on the jealous side but after reading about the floods, lack of water, lack of internet etc .. not so much now lol

Good to see poor ole Chuck is OK!

Loved the Fixins peas story and all the beautiful images.

Looking forward to the next one

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

Thanks for your post!

I was starting to get a bit worried after a few days had passed and NO Tara Post showed up!
You guys have been busy for sure!
Take care.

Scott

I apologize Scott...never my intentions to produce negative feelings...fun, fun, and more fun is the objective; fun and good times! I appreciate that you noticed I had not posted in a stretch. I just knew starting a thread just before a looong weekend was gonna be a booger...oh well!

I suppose the silver lining is that I just kept on clicking pictures as usual and got more than I would get completed if I stopped to post, eh? Forced labours?

Now realize...we have to squeeze a whole summer (construction) into two months, eh...ten months of winter here...so we need to get the game on or get iced in.

Sure sure, and I got a bridge with ice free decking to sell you too...might I interest you in some ocean front property in Alberta (just as good as Saskatchewan's)? No tall tales here in Red Neckville!

Wow! What a post! I was missing you today and wondering if everything was alright up thar in the north country. Glad you mentioned the holiday. I forgot.

Busy, busy, busy... my goodness! You guys sure do keep that place nice. Your list of birds about took my breath. I almost showed my husband and said "See, I hardly have ANY!"

Thanks for posting all that Tara, I enjoy your posts immensely.

Always happy to provide enjoyment! I missed being here and thought...Monday was long enough to be without service but Wednesday...yeh!

Yes, please USE ME as the "bad" example...hee hee...Do go ahead and use me as an example of "it could ALWAYS be WORSE Dear!" Bwa ha ha..."You could be married to Tara and oh my...how terrible it would seem!"

My Hero is into the poultry too so that helps alot (he has HIS birds like the Ruddies, the yard chickens, half the swans, and most of the geese)...but he also has his own number of items with the vintage trucks and his collection of guitars...think he is at six guitars now.

Nope, I had to go look! He only has the FIVE in three 6-strings and two 12-strings--maybe me just hoping he gets a Dobro eventually--love their sound! But in all fairness, this is some of my fault since when I met him, he had just turned on to learning how to play. Had a nice vintage but borrowed Martin on loan but it was not HIS...so we trekked around to many a guitar store to listen to him TWANG the strings looking for that special sound he wanted. He finally chose an Ovation six string which he kept going back to because it had that tone he wanted. He spent many a time serenading me and the kid at the park...him on the tailgate of the truck while the kid played in the sandboxes and I listened to him improve day by day in his playing. I lived thru his pain of callousing up the ends of his finger tips and complaints of sore fingees.

One bad day...like a death in the family...a Frisbee found the face of his Ovation 6-string. I saw it coming and yelled but he was so in the zone of playing, he merely looked up as the guitar got whacked...young kid did it and felt bad...no matter! You gotta use things to appreciate them. Off Down Island we roared to get her doctored up by the best guitar repair men we could muster. I guess this one is personalized now--the repair stopped any further damage but like the first scratch in the paint of a new truck...gonna happen. Needless to say, we went out and bought a "park playing" version in his Yamaha 6-string (which the kid has right now...part of his inheritance coming to pass as our son plays banjo and guitar and we are very proud to see him enjoying this endeavour too). Something you can work at all your life and never quite feel you did as good as you could. Never ending pastime of fun stuff!

The first of many git-hers...​

I don't play any musical instruments past the spoons (and poorly!) but I appreciate those that have the tormented talents to make sweet sounds. He don't play as much as I would like to see him play anymore. I guess the urgency for him is the Parking Building as summer wanes and winter threatens to show up. Sucks that your physical capacities have to be divvied out and construction wins over making music. Now I did buy the last guitar for Rick few years back for Christmas but as he says, he can only play ONE guitar or drive ONE truck at a time... Hee hee...unlike in the poultry passion...we have indeed need to have the flocks, braces, gaggles, and bevies!

Robert Owen (my BIL) designed and painted this on Rick's first guitar case ​

I asked permission and used the above painting to make and apply this glass etching for Rick's 1984 Chev's canopy glass ​

I have just the one Sportsman (nfi) incubator...I have a friend out East that has four of these incubators AND two Sportsman hatchers. He had a hatching house long before we refitted the feed room I out grew...so we do have notches on the barn wall that are lower and higher than our own marks! LOL I don't have to explain anything to my spouse as I have a part time job to buy most of the bird seeds and he gladly covers the rest I can't cover...which reminds me...where are the rest of those rubber buckets we had to prepay for...been a while...got to make a follow up call and find out where exactly they would be by now! Hee hee...leave it too long and will have to call over Liza to get Henry to fix them holes in dem old buckets, eh?

My mentor in Booted Bantams was 93 year old Gordon Ridler...boy the stories he would tell...I could listen for hours and indeed, we did a fair number of 4+ hour long telephone "chats!" Ha ha ha...burning up the phone lines like the two old fools we were and are! Heck I even mailed him a feather collage of my MDFs for us to go over in fine details...hilarious!

He recounts back in the day helping to prepare birds for showing for his father. He said as a boy he grew EVER so tired pulling out all the white feathers from the East Indie ducks they showed! These were the times of what we refer to as "Stringman" that had strings of show birds that they took to exhibit. Very serious biz this bird showing! And get this, not a van and a trailer...they travelled to the poultry shows in railway BOXCARS...like Boxcar Willies, eh! Old man Ridler says you would go out to your coops and from the thousands of birds you had produced, you would select the best of the best to show.

He spoke of his hands aching from all the letters he would hand write in the evenings back to people making requests for birds. He always replied as it was just what was done and besides, someone had shown interest in you and your birds and you respected that with the same courtesy returned. Those were the days of refinement and politeness I suppose! The common man and the common sense that prevailed.

You made a living and fed your family very well in poultry.

Rick talks about his Uncle having a chicken coop that they kept since they lived along the railway tracks...any spilt grains by the granaries and along the tracks was happily scooped up and used to feed those chickens. Every Friday, his Uncle would go round to the bars in Drumheller with fresh put by chickens to sell to the people that had enough money to buy booze in the bars. The patrons liked this idea very much because they might have been spending a bit of the grocery money on pay day...but arriving back at home with fresh chicken helped mend up the cold shoulders waiting on them back at home!

I have spoken about poultry shows beginning back over in Jolly Ol' England (the London Zoo had one of the bigger 1st ones in 1845) where you went and grabbed a coupla good looking prospects from your chicken house (showing off Sebrights, White Faced Spanish and Hamburghs--not your average run of the mill bird breeds for even today's standards!) to take to the bar for a pint and some friendly competition with the neighbours that have done the same thing. Imagine the chooks strutting proudly across the bar...crowing for all they were worth on a Friday night? I wonder if they had peanuts on offer and if those were used to make the chooks stand purdy? Eventually they got more formalized in places to meet to compete but the prizes offered were all aimed at working folk...joints of meat and copper kettles! LOL

One thing I know...people that choose to keep poultry know how to eat well...fresh cackleberries and delicious tasty meats...yes, yes, our feathered friends and their shared benefits with us and our gatherings, eh? What Cook don't appreciate good eggs and poultry parts in recipes!

Quote:

Hey Tara, glad to see you are on going. Looking at your metal tank I wondered what you did with the cannon.

Great pictures. Your life is so different from my hot flat Louisiana piece of land. But that's ok. I don't have snow. Just HEAT.

Oh you bad girl! LOL

Well you are not the first to think of that metal tank as being a TANK! I have always wanted to find a mannequin head (cheap cheap!) and a length of plastic pipe...spray painted both that grey primer colour (nice one Rick...half the thought process is when it goes to it being a water TANK but the grey colour don't help the cause either!)...make it look even more tankish!

What got us the one day...a neighbour dropped by and the water tank use to sit atop the one pile of grey limerock crush. He somehow mentioned we had a "bomb shelter" and Rick and I both looked at each other...very puzzled. "BOMB SHELTER? Where might THAT be?" And the neighbour said right there pointing at the tank on the top of the limerock. Well that one took the cake for sure...we both burst out laughing...bomb shelter...way way out in the Boonies! Not likely anyone is gonna step up to bomb the wilderness...so yeh, there's us all crammed into the WATER tank waiting on the bomb to drop! Sheesh--really?!

Me happy, you happy...you can keep the heat and me keep the snow. I can deal with another layer of woolly undies going on but once I have gotten down to the very skivvies...what comes off next...the SKIN I am in to try and cope with the heat?

We both seem to love where we live...that is a GOOD thing too!

No shortage over the years in snow...count on it and love that!

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2012 - Pathway from my Veg Garden coop...The Luge!




April 2013 - Snow in the yard
Usin' one of my snow sleds and haulin' the 5 gallon pails of bird water! Remember to toss toy for helper dog.




April 2014 - snow fall on the mailbox...very pretty I figure!

May photo from this year..."Pull up a chair eh...have a nice soggy bottom, eh?"

Always happy to see the WHITE go...a little over anxious some years...drag out the lawn chairs and forget to put them away...we pay!
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I do like winter, maybe not in the amounts of snow we had LAST winter...but I could not see anyone being happy here in Alberta if you did not generally like snow. Spend a lot of mopey time indoors pouting if you did not like winter and thrived in it. Places like Switzerland...they celebrate the season...a lot more people should do the same. Put on the right clothes, get out and enjoy the bright skies, spectacular coatings of white (makes everything picture perfect) and have a blast. The extra slice of pie to generate more heat is no consolation prize either! Wee hee hee...

Keep in mind, I live in Paradise...all year round...from sunrise to sunset...no matter the season, no matter the temperatures--days to celebrate being alive and living the dreams with your eyes wide open and breathing it all in, eh?

Sunrise - Feb 28th of this year...twenty below and temps still falling



Aug last year...sunset in the ram pasture!​

I think we all should live where we love it...sure makes it a whole lot nicer greeting each day with that attitude of "Bring it on!"

Wonderful post Tara! Thoroughly enjoyed it.

I have been to KFC before and also been told they had no chicken! Lol

I am in total awe of your ‘action plan’ and organisational skills .. kudos to you! I believe I mentioned I was a tad on the jealous side but after reading about the floods, lack of water, lack of internet etc .. not so much now lol

Good to see poor ole Chuck is OK!

Loved the Fixins peas story and all the beautiful images.

Looking forward to the next one

Kewl...KFC & no chicken too...I am not exactly sure what else they have to sell one? Maybe fries soaked in chicken fat for the flavour...I just shake my head. The city, eh? Full of conveniences...har har! Sure, sure keep thinking that...no less or more convenient than the country!

Nope, no worries ever here...the bad things make you appreciate the good things more. We seem as humans not to appreciate our good fortune until the very things we take for granted are removed. Truly there are no perfect places here on Earth but that does not mean we don't have to enjoy the journey and master the adventures in our paths. The trials and tribulations and surviving the worst of it all--earns our right to happiness. Plus makes for some rather good stories about us persevering against all odds. Don't want people to think all we do is nap in hammocks in the sweet breezes or just sit on the couch eating chocolate coated bonbons, eh?

Larry's mutant duck/chicken now known as CHUCK!

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Thought some would appreciate the naming process of Chuck being chucked...fine, fine weather that evening...really fine and dandy. But he got named and is no worse for wear! His tail is a small pointy pitch fork! So when he arrived, I was worried about where to put him so one of the creatures (me included) did not get skewered by a "lawn" ornament!


Fixins was not always food motivated like her mother Makins was...but she is learning to appreciate her veggies; "Peas please!"

Glad you like the photos...from the Land of Milk & Honey...the legends lives onwards...

We are in the shadow of, in the foothills of the Rocky Mountain Range...not the Big Rock Candy Mountains but sorta.

You need no money, free food and drink, plus there is no snow, sleet or winds! The Law has wooden legs, bulldogs with rubber teeth (right Fixins?), and the hens lay soft-boiled eggs! Certainly see where these people were outdoorsy and knew how to appreciate the smell of new mown hay, paddling canoes, lotsa tree fruit and bushes full of berries! Whereas personal hygiene was of no real consequence...cig trees & lakes of gin, eh? LMBO


Big Rock Candy Mountain
Burl Ives:

So before I meander off again singing my royal lungs out off key and screeching the lyrics I can remember in Big Rock Candy Mt.! Since I believe lots of us enjoy seeing others' places of residence and knowing what we can grow here in all our different climates...

Not sure you can read the conversation caption but it says, "I hope summer falls on a weekend this year."
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Some fruits of the fruitful plants here during this short lived season of summer time in Alberta...

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The new orchard​

Red Currants ripening


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Several kinds of Basil growing in the greenhouse​

Prairie cherries - called "Pin" Cherries and YES small but oh so sweet...sorta like wild strawberries, small but what a punch!

Ah yes, and a classic fav, grown here both in domesticated plants and wild along the roadsides...SASKATOONS!


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Absolutely DOG APPROVED..."More Saskatoons!," she says...not like she ain't sneaking some while I pick but she appreciates we know Fixins has as sweet tooth...

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Special berry for the special Princess Dog Dog!​

Also got raspberries ripening up too...took some pics of the fruits but all fuzzy wuzzy. Ah yes good excuse to go visit the patch my son planted...in the shape of the province of Alberta, too. That kid, eh!

Raspberry patch...right corner of photo with Bluebird house planted in the patch!​

Before I meander off...replaced the stump for our very rare and exotic Stump Chicken (endangered breed--almost went extinct too!) ... the chook goes from a seat on a poplar stump the ants consumed to....

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A birch round that Rick suggested would work...and work it sure does. Rick to the rescue as always!

One bird at a time...Conservation at its finest!

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Off to the berry patch I shall trip trop...before the skies open up and drown us...rain forecast for this afternoon some time. Yah, me no have to water any plants past the porch ones...yip yip YIPPEEE!!!

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[Lacy Blues]

I have dreams of greenery! It's gray and brown here mostly where I live, but not too far down the road, there's trees. Lots of 'em! Some day, I will get some planted, but first I need a drip system installed. We don't have the rain you get so all the trees around here need to be seriously watered til they get their roots down ten feet or so. Its amazing to me that the water table can be so high and yet the surface is so very dry.

We've been here 4 summers this year. I'm hoping that this fall, I can order up a bunch of berry bushes and trees and whatnot, for fruit drop and for shade in the runs... would look a whole lot nicer than shade cloth strung up everywhere!