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

[CanuckBock]

New spread of limerock in front of the Duck Barn...it is nice to freshen up the topping occasionally.

View from the Shoe...baby birds out and about on the lawns...getting green grass and sunshine (and shade--always make sure they have shade too) time.

Laugh and laugh...CONDOR-attack Chantecler baby...perched on my leg...just being sweet!
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Dare's those shoes in the background...and poop on me pants...lovely...something to scratch and sniff later...was it chicken...nah...turkey, duck...pheasant...goosey, swilly swanney...hmm..."Let's have a taste shall we?" Ugh...

Here is another view from that day, July 2009...silliness for sure.

Dancing Baby Lilac Turkeys...​

And here they are being more normal...

As normal as heritage poults can be that is!

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May 23 2013 - American Buff Goslings...widdle waddling cutesters! ​

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So I have rousted up another set of photos regarding the View from the Shoe, but ah...those will keep for another time...good set too...has the Fixins conversing me...about the pros and cons of geese...yuppers...should be fun! I'll post those another day, eh...another day here in Pear-A-Dice...

June 24, 2014​

A whole new view...the View from sitting in the shade and marking of Hatching Eggs for Buster the Bator?

Quote:

Why not...why would you not be able to take a structure already built and dig down to put gravel in...are you meaning to say there is maybe a wooden floor already on the building, so that is in the way?

I know of people that have lifted up garages that were ON dirt and put a concrete foundation under it. I suppose it might be too expensive to do and I would want the building to be worth doing that to (in another words not some crap made building but a good structure, the only real fault being that it is on the dirt instead of nice concrete).

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lacy Blues

I have mice galore living in the floor of my barn and I hate the little mongrels but I can't see a way to rid myself of them. I don't want to use poisons and I have tried trapping them and they're either super stealthy or the traps aren't worth a darn. What I'd really like to do with the little well-fed vermin is to live trap them and then drown them all in a bucket of water, freeze and then chop to add to my birds' meals on occasion. Or, I suppose I could run them through a grinder before freezing, making mouseburgers for the birds!

I have looked and thought and planned different mouse traps... usually when I got to bed trying to get to sleep. These things keep me awake and then once I do get to sleep I mostly forget what it was I had almost settled on!

I don't think taking a sheet of paper to bed would help either as once I started drawing these things in the dark, I wouldn't be able to recognize them in the morning. Plus, all that actual thinking wouldn't let me fall asleep afterward either.

Meese trap...this one works when others fail. I do understand the mice get smart to certain kinds and totally agree that poison IS NOT a good avenue...they die and things you don't want getting sick will harvest the easy meal...blah!


http://fivegallonideas.com/bucket-mouse-trap/

Heh heh heh...warning to Scott...be very careful...go to the above link only if'n you got an hour er three...tee hee...

I am there for a few minutes..."oh a bee house, oh a bird house...air cannon...really...oops...need to go back to my BYC post there!!" ...heh heh heh... Evil site indeed!

I can say for sure...this site's chicken nest SUCKS tho...sucks!!

Rick's has always, always been the BESTEST

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Chook approved and both bantam and standard sized LUV them nests.

Red Chant henny in nesty of Rickies!​

Rick my Hero taught the entire Exhibition Poultry Club members how to make these...it was a huge success...love these nesties! Only negative, mice may build nests under these IF the bedding is deep under the nest BUT if you got nasty ladies like my standard sized Chants...I lift the nest, look away (gack!) and off scurry mice to be caught by the ladies in waiting...good gosh it's gross. Rick saw on of his fav hens snag a mouse and he was off eggs for a week...visions of one whole mouse floating around inside the cackle berry!

So I was thinking about the weather changing...we go from winters of this;

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and summers of this...

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For the F-crowd...-37.8C is -36F and 93C is 102F - Not the most extreme we have had...more average range here

I love the seasons and while I like the white one...but sometimes it is nice too to think of the green times too.

June 14, 2014 - Foamy and Fixins under the Dolgo Crabapple tree
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So what did I finally do last night, I grabbed the seed catalogue and started making a list, checking it twice...asking Fixins..."You want same like last year?," sugar peas of course, but maybe a new variety...

Let's see,

http://www.sandhillpreservation.com/pages/seed_catalog.html

Glenn has Dwarf Grey Sugar (65 days), Golden Sweet (70 days)...these ones are yeller!, Sugar Snap (60 days), even Mammoth Melting Sugar (75 days), then a Japanese variety, Yakumo Giant (65 days)...more still than jest these...

"Hmmm...we'll see my Dear Dog...maybe get some of all of these and plant a few different rows and let you do a tasting test...tabulate which ones you prefer...what you figure Fixins?"

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This is Fixins last year...by HER peas...
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"These are for me??"

"Yes, Sweetness...for you!"

"I am such a special princess warrior dog dog!"

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I also plant carrots for the dogs too! I never got more satisfaction from plantings as I did the time Fix's Mom, Makins, ran like a bat outta heck outta the veg garden. She had stolen a carrot, top and all and was off to snark down her stolen prize. Yeh, our own dog, a garden raider...of the worst kind! If she only knew I had planted the carrots special, 'specially for her...peas too of course but her weakness was the carrots...dogs, eh...garden dogs. Every garden should have a dog or two to make raids on it.

Makins was a much better behaved garden dog...she never had to wait as long as Fixins has...to be allowed IN the garden. Makins would stick to the pathways but not the Fix...born again REBEL..."I ain't following no worn path...I am walking all over, wherever I wanna!"

Fixins; micro-managing the goings on at the Ranch​

She has become much better behaved now, and allowed in the Veg Garden...she behaves...somewhat!

"I love this place! Let me in...I'll be GOOD! Heh heh heh!"
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Sep 6 2014 - the Sugar Pea...harvesting it or harvester...sweet which ever!​

So good time to be garden planning...a review of last year...hee hee...

April 9th, still snowing!​

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Now it is May...May 5th...

Still snowing...​

"Have a seat, eh...be a soggy bottomer, eh?" ​

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So this is April 1st, 2014...April Fool's Day...this building is the Veg Building, up above my veg garden...

April 15, entrance to my garden...yeh...

Now it is May 14th, same view of the Veg Garden Building...I see the snow is pretty much gone...YAH!

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The day prior to this photo above...Me beginning to work on the garden dirt...

So notice the straw...that is a mixture of used bird bedding...and I am put that into the dirt...hmm...good for the dirt!

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This is me garden--yes, yes...the Village Idiot's GARDEN!!

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I have always, always done the raised beds. Wonderful thing this...dirt can dry out, warm up...I love this!​

My trusty tiller...love this thing...so wonderful!​

I loved my tiller so much...when I bought me my tiller, my wonderful tiller, I special ordered the FURROW...yup, cost me another month and a half in payments...but I got me the Furrow attachment...adore it! Rick told me of them and well by golly by fig...excellent thingmajig!

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Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily.
Life is but a dream (of plenty of veg!)​

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And the pathways it digs me...they sure do act like a moat does...the excess water, well it ends up in the pathways. I don't compact the soil, gives the dogs a place to follow and stay off the beds...the soil dries out quicker, warms up...it is just way too wonderful!

June 29, 2014 in the New Orchard area​

July 24, 2014
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July 9, 2014 - Herb Garden



July 30, 2014 - inside the Green house...BASIL!​

I look forward to seeing the year unfold...spending time outside in the Man Porch...

May 5, 2014



July 6, 2014​

Aug 6, 2014​

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August 2104...the Village Idiot's Garden on the GROW! ​

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Yes, with the warm weather fanning up the ice and snow to melt...I know, I know it is FAR too early but not too early to flip thru the seed catalogue, get my order done as it will really be spring time soon and I'll need Inspector Fixins to be inspecting the plantings, so need lotsa seeds to sow.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[hennible]

Tara how does the coro... Coro... I can't remember what you called it...( I call it coroplast as in corrugated plastic... ) any way how does in stand up in your applications? How many years do you get out of it?

 

[hennible]

Oh beautiful gardens and that covered deck area is awesome, some serious inspiration for my deck once it's got a roof...

 

[lularat]

Never too early to get the seed catalog out. I don't have a large area to have a garden, so I do raised gardening. Do you have a fairly short growing season....your garden last year was so lush and green.

 

[hennible]

 

[drumstick diva]

Sorry to read that Henna but, I'd rather have S.A.D. than year round chronic depression that now and then sinks to major.

 

[hennible]

:/?

 

[drumstick diva]

Sorry Henna, the old brain and eyes don't function well. I just saw the S.A.D. part not about seeds - which I noticed when I just went back to your post. I'm glad I'm didn't blab that I outlived 2 psychiatrists - or maybe it was my sessions with them that hastened their demise. All kidding aside, I miss them badly.

 

[hennible]

Lol and

 

[drumstick diva]

Hennie thanks for the hugs, I come from a no-hug family and I am very much a hugger. My son accepts hugs through gritted teeth but, now and then he will actually ask for one. He lives quite far from me, so doesn't have to worry about getting them too often.