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

[Wisher1000]

Speaking of laughing at the dogs. I went out after dark last night to check on the chickens. The little 12 pound house dog went along to protect me. It has been rainy and warm for the past week so I wore my Crocks and promptly stepped in a mud puddle. The dog had a wonderful romp with the LGD and ran huge circles around and around until she was covered in sandy mud. When we went inside, I picked her up and hopped on the clean foot to the shower stall. We both had a rinse and she actually seemed to enjoy that "bath" more than her usual one. I guess it is because I was in there with her and not just leaning over her in the laundry sink!

 

[perchie.girl]

Speaking of laughing at the dogs. I went out after dark last night to check on the chickens. The little 12 pound house dog went along to protect me. It has been rainy and warm for the past week so I wore my Crocks and promptly stepped in a mud puddle. The dog had a wonderful romp with the LGD and ran huge circles around and around until she was covered in sandy mud. When we went inside, I picked her up and hopped on the clean foot to the shower stall. We both had a rinse and she actually seemed to enjoy that "bath" more than her usual one. I guess it is because I was in there with her and not just leaning over her in the laundry sink!

Thats how I bathed all my dogs.... strip down grab said dog hop in the shower and close the door. Bought a detachable shower head just for them occasions. Then I would throw the dog out of the shower on the previously dirty towels... human dirty so she could rub on the floor to dry. Then finished my shower and the shower clean up.

Greyhound loved it... I would get in and pull on his collar and he would lift his legs up and over the rim of the tub .... then look up... "did I do good Ma?" he was such a simple fellow....

deb

 

[CanuckBock]

@CanuckBock

Could there be perhaps another option for your "half and half" Roo? Like Chimera-ism? Seen it in horses. Some horses that are brindle can often times have two different sets of DNA.


http://americashorsedaily.com/one-in-a-million-part-2/#.VQH9meEYO-c


""Dunbars Gold, a 1996 brindle stallion by Two D Nine and out of Outa Chiggers by Outa Utopia. Genetic testing has shown the horse to be an extremely rare chimera, an individual with two DNA types.""

But Chimeraism comes in many animals even humans and plants.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimera_(genetics)

very interesting stuff.

Hey do your black skinned hens have black meat?

deb

Yes, our black skinned Booteds have black meat, organs, tissues, skin, etc...black black black... and more BLACK! The vividness of the white feather contrast to the black skin blows my mind. Some have black faces, light rest of the bod, some have light faces, dark rest of the bod, some are half and half in places...

The ones I labelled "Pinto" rock...both light and dark skinned...this one is not even outta the egg, lookit the wing on the left...both dark and light skin...

​

​

Same chick floofed out now...kewl eh?

​

This is half/half boy above...all floofed on out...lookit the feets...hee hee hee...so neato!

​

You can see the dark pigment...

​

You can see the light too.


The entire adventure with my Booteds is posted to The Coop. Seven pages and lots of photo records. I figure the Booted Bantams are far too much fun...having WAY too much fun to be LEGAL, eh!

http://www.the-coop.org/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=113412&page=1

Considering the MDF Booted was my pick for chooks...nothing to do with Rick...he liked the Brahmas and Wyandottes...it was my doing and my ordering and waiting on them cute lil dotty dotted chickens to be ready for us to go acquire. Who knew the White Sports would be so much fun...from their rarity and need to be conserved, to the difference in the Breed regarding the in skin colourations.

As I have mentioned, we have PINTOS in the Booteds...not as dramatic as Half/Half boy is, but segregation of parts one colour, other parts light...pinto patterns on the skin...to a colour junky like me, yeh, I have my FIX in them Booteds...even past just skin deep level!

Female Booteds; top female is a dark, bottom female is a pinto​

Mess of legs, eh...shanks of Pintos half/half white feathered female left, half/half white feathered male middle, and MDF male right​

Pinto shank - SEE the half pigments, top of shank is dark, bottom of shank is light...PINTO! ​

Now to follow the advice by Dr. Carefoot, that one dose of recessive white is required to make the MDF colour pattern POP...and the advice of my Booted Bantam mentor Mr. Gordon Ridler...I had to have the RIGHT skin colour for the variety. Sure it was OK to have LIGHT skin for the White feathered ones (homozygous for recessive white, c/c) to be SOP complaint BUT for the MDF's they had to have the DARK skin to be SOP complaint...this meant I had to make dark skinned WHITE feathered Booteds for breeding purposes to use in the MDF line to get the one dose of recessive white in the mix as Ridler had labelled it, having all the right stuff (recessive white). Now that I have both genders in White feathered Dark skinned Booteds (NOT SOP complaint for the White variety), I am set up proper to keep the colours in the MDF a POPPING! Was this a kewl project, you BETCHA...been a lot of years in the making but last season was THE season to celebrate SUCCESS!

Yeh, I know, silly dancing chook YA HOO...but yeh...best we celebrate the successes loud & proud, because it sure takes a looong time to see some of these projects in the chicken flesh materialize. Not like it is painful to have an excuse to hatch out little fuzz butts, but sometimes it does seem a tad crazy on why you would bother to breed for a variety of birds you cannot even show...just for breeding ones you could show that are eye popping coloured for all they are worth.

So questions I posed to The Coop, answered by Henk and Weislaw regarding the WHY Half/Half exists (never mind the Pintos)...no worries about their short and concise answers, go to page two and see I act as interpreter to explain what their very scientific and short (for most of us we just go, "HUH??"...what did he type?)

I plucked back most of the white feathers off one side, to show the DARK SKIN better. She was BLACK, through and through.

​

I had also saved one of the "Pinto" males that had also passed due to old age...here he is to compare insides with her.

​

See, the normal "chicken" light skinned, light meated colour of the Pinto Male. Obvious his pigmentation of dark does not fully saturate his entire body, eh.

​

See my gloved finger tips on the top left...that is me holding the breastbone with some meat on it...NO question the flesh, organs, tissues, etc....are DARK, eh. The Dark Skinned Booteds are dark through and through...right to the very bones...BAD to the bones, eh!

​

​

This is the female's heart, placed next to the black handle of a steak knife to give one a colour perspective. Heart is dark...yeh.

One thing I was VERY pleased about...whilst both Booteds passed due to old age, I love that their internals are covered in nice fat areas...nice to post a bird that passes and KNOW they are in wonderful good healthy condition. Love that my oldesters are plumpsters!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Wisher1000

Speaking of laughing at the dogs. I went out after dark last night to check on the chickens. The little 12 pound house dog went along to protect me. It has been rainy and warm for the past week so I wore my Crocks and promptly stepped in a mud puddle. The dog had a wonderful romp with the LGD and ran huge circles around and around until she was covered in sandy mud. When we went inside, I picked her up and hopped on the clean foot to the shower stall. We both had a rinse and she actually seemed to enjoy that "bath" more than her usual one. I guess it is because I was in there with her and not just leaning over her in the laundry sink!

Cute story...Thank you for that!

What a brat dog as I know what she is inciting...now if you don't shower together, you are on the crap list in her books. Those dogs eh.

Thats how I bathed all my dogs.... strip down grab said dog hop in the shower and close the door. Bought a detachable shower head just for them occasions. Then I would throw the dog out of the shower on the previously dirty towels... human dirty so she could rub on the floor to dry. Then finished my shower and the shower clean up.

Greyhound loved it... I would get in and pull on his collar and he would lift his legs up and over the rim of the tub .... then look up... "did I do good Ma?" he was such a simple fellow....

deb

I like the detachable shower head...one day will get me one of those, eh! Sure nicer on the back for bathing dogs, birds, etc.

Last bird show I prepped for, was in February and I did up an entry of 40 birds...yeh...I can still feel the pain, eh.

I use to dread the bathing before I would take my doggy trooper poopers to show. Yeh, four dogs at the time...it was certainly an ordeal of a marathon. As far as getting into the tub with them, mighta been a better plan because after doing the first one of the four, I was drenched anyway, from head to foot. At the end of the ordeal, I always grinned, four gleamy, happy, rompy dogs and one wretched person, looking like a train wreck.

Rick would be in the living room, awaiting the arrival of the first pupper bound in towels, my hope that the dog would be so sedate from all the warm water and ruby rubs, it would just lay there and soak up the heat of the woodstove! NOT get all frisky right away and blow the towelling confinements right off and start diving around the house, rubbing up on the furniture...such happy dogs--AFTER bathtime, never during, eh.

Happy sure is not the way they GO into the tub...oh the forlorn mopey faces...still see everyone of them...especially HyBlade..."DO I hafta?" The first bit of water was like, it was ACID rain...it BURNS...but after they give up and realize I am determined and Rick is not going to appear at the door to SAVE them...they submit and put up with the misery of wetted for the shampoo...rinse, then the conditioner and the multiple rinses...poor, poor doggies, such misery. So mean of me...them Heelers, they hated smelling like flowery dog dogs...more natural for a predator canine to go run off and roll in something to mask their doggy scent...like sheep beans or turkey plops...EVER so lovely ... can't SMELL dog anywhere now!

My big laugh was for one November show, I had the girls (Makins, Fixins and Stoggar<--she had her Performance Event Number, so while a rescue with no pedigree, she could go to the shows with the registered ones...her PEN said she was allowed to be exhibited at the shows too and I then chose to have her promote ACDog Rescue too!) all pottying the morning we were to go...and what does HyBlade do? He is a light red dog, so yeh, he runs under Rick's work truck and gets this streak (of misery?) of the blackest oil all down his top line. I just thought, "Yeh, whatever--too late now to do much about that!" We are suppose to be leaving in 15 minutes to go to the show (three day event and it is held over an hour away from us) and the "A" in Australian Cattle Dog means we are the FIRST of the morning to be in conformation ring with the judge, but an hour ahead of the judging time is when you are suppose to be checking in...AGH...no matter... He went as he was, tissue papered up what oil I could and that working herding dog went and he won his class and took breed anyway. Bugger Boy! I guess the world is still left to the WORKING males of this world still willing to show off that getting greasy and oily is just part and parcel for being a working dog...bad boy...BAD!

Mommy Makins and a young Fixins - junkyard dawgs​

HyBlade was a boy...no doubt in that. I hired another handler to handle him in the ring as I had the two girls myself and what a monster...he had very little respect for people...big Galoot...he decided the handler I had hired was not moving off fast enough to show his big old stride well, so he decides to heel her...yeh, right in front of the woman judge (absolutely NOT correct...you can get tossed outta the ring for having a dog bite!). Thankfully it was as early as it was and the judge chose to ignore the rules, made a comment about him being a "good herding heeling" dog. Yeh...whew! Such a boy, being bad as much as he could...loved that side of him...BAD dog...and he lived it.

HyBlade, posing as a good junkyard dog?​

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

Yah know...yah know I am SO happy to be old...I can literally DUCK out (FTD) of the world...leave in peace with a clear conscience that I never saw this DREADED day transpire...

Here IS totally hoping the biggest HOPE ever...that I DO get to LEAVE this world before this prediction comes to light...heh heh heh...praise be to being OLD and being able to DIE before this is a reality... I ain't no chicken because I wanna leave before this happens...and I guess safe to say neither is what they are purposing to do, a chicken either...

Good GACK & Cripers...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/a...r-test-tube-chicken-is-next-on-menu-1.2992049:

Yeh...

And I call them factory farmed birds MUSH MEAT now...imagine the texture that not moving or being REAL living this test tube meat is gonna have...never mind the flavour--Oh yeh sorry, we already got that PINK slime in the body bags on the meat counter that taste like...supposed...chicken, eh. I just shake my head...yeh...

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[perchie.girl]

Hey Tara there have been over the years doggy wash places here where you pay them five bucks and you get to use their wash stations and what ever handfulls of soaps they have.... NOT advocating this...BUT Their setups are awesome

This one place had single piece bathtub and surround all fiber glass the kind where there are no seams and you have to build them into the apartment or condo... They built a platform and a false wall to support the tub so that it elevated it to a comfortable level for bathing a critter.

IN the wall in the middle instead of a soap dish or wash cloth hanger was a big honkin stainless Padeye.... or eye bolt. eye bolts have to have washers... Pad eyes have the washer cast in to them.... Both are strong enough to tie a horse to. ON that eye bolt was a short leash long enough for the dog to turn around but not jump out.... Bathtub fixture was just a hand washer.... But you could stop the drain and fill the tub if need be... Letting dirty feet soak.

And the next item of the equipment was a rubber Apron...

I bet your hubby would love to build you a critter washing station if you needed it. You probably could find all the stuff needed on Craigslist.

Something like that would work for just about anything you needed to wash... OH and a ramp for said critter. The places I went didnt have ramps and I had to muscle my dogs up.... The greyhound weighed ninety pounds... Oh they look slim and sleek but Muscle is HEAVY.

deb edited to add the floor of the tub had a rubber anti fatigue mat... No slipping there...

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

So keep in mind, one thing you may see some flogging which never ceases to make me grin...LANDRACE breeds/varieties of poultry. Oh the hottest, newest of rages of all, eh. Hilarious really...bonafied mutts the moment they are displaced from their place of origin. Move them, you lose them.

Landrace...Icelandic Chicken, Swedish Flower Landrace chickens, amongst others. Guess what? The moment you move a landrace, it no longer is LANDRACE. Why...because to be labelled that...it HAS to be residing at the location where it was developed (the place MADE it what it is--take it away from that place and it is no longer landrace)...the moment you ship it off the geographical location that created that productive or not productive bird ...it is no longer OK to label it "landrace"...only a mongrel and a mutt. And sure, we can go about making that mutt into a breed, but the label of landrace cannot be affixed to it such as SWEDISH when the Flower chicken is being raised in Montana or Saskatchewan...whilst residing in Sask...it now should be labelled, the Saskatchewan Flower chook...location, location, LOCATION!

Buff and Dark bantam Brahma Chicks - Two Days Old

​

- In praise of the Light Brahma - Dr. Charles W. Gersenberg, early 1940's.​

Buff Brahmas (Buff Columbian)
Photograph by reporter Cameron Strandberg - Published in The Mountaineer, October 2009​

In the Brahmas, we keep the Buff and Dark Varieties plus Light and Partridge. White and Black are also recognized in the bantams by the American Bantam Association (ABA).

Light Brahma pair
Arthur O. Schilling air brushed actual photos...creating a true to life masterpiece!

​

Pair of Buff Brahmas (Buff Columbian)

​

Brahma males - who else SEES slight differences between the varieties drawn?
Buff Columbian / Silver Columbian / Silver Pencilled​

The Brahma as a breed continues to evolve...the top drawing is from the 1880's and the bottom one was being cited in the 1980's--
hundred years difference
Keep it paramount in mind though, it is not the IMAGES that guide us but the WORDS in the SOP's ​

Brahmas are an Asiatic breed thought to be developed from crosses of the Cochin and Malay. They are a long lived breed and usually do not even begin to mature until their second year. We have never had a bad tempered Brahma...big chooks but very mild mannered-nice birds indeed.

​

One of the Brahma breed features is the dewlap...and the stern & steady gaze...LOL

Who's gonna mess with this chook...steely stare er what?

An incredibly excellent setty bantam with feathered legs and pea comb resulting in a great winter bird. With their lovely feathered feet, you will not often find them scratching up their bedding or tossing gravel off the pathways like some of the clean legged breeds will. The hens remind one of ladies in great feathery housecoats and fluffy slippers! They all have an easy going temperament and are exceptionally good brown egg layers.

​

Dark Brahma females (Silver Pencilled)​

​

​

Our Dark Brahma lines are double mated for adherence to the Standard.

Dark Brahma cockerel​

Note the white dotties in the chests...these are PULLET breeder Dark Brahma males​

One of our strains of the Dark Brahma and one of the Buff Brahma are lines that have had sixty years of selection put into them and we have had these ones for an additional 15 years; a 75 year investment thus far. Our lines of Brahmas trace back to Honest John Kriner, Sr. and Maurice C. Wallace...both very iconic poultry persons. Makes me grin...like eternal life lives on for these old folks in their chickens, eh!

Brahma chicks - two days old​

Here is a very kewl little ditty, written by Mr. Wallace and how he went about making his strain...some of which we here at the Ranch are still enjoying. People use to raise NUMBERS of birds and back then, used them for meat and egg production...there were no real factory farm breeds...no mush meats and swill eggers. REAL birds gave us eggs and graced our plates with their production. REAL BIRDS...pretty inside as outside too. Chicken breeds and varieties for showing had productive benefits they shared with all of us.

Maurice Wallace of Iroquiois, Ontario, Canada:

the take out gang of yard birds
​

The egg production of the bantam line of Brahmas we have is awesome...huge eggs for the size of the birds...comparable to Standard sized breeds, eh! Easily three Brahma bantam eggs = two Standard sized Chooker eggs.

December 8, 2012 - Four Year old Buff Brahma Hen egg; 54 grams LARGE Size​

We find the Brahma hen is a far superior setty mother...she not only sets tight, she is a devoted mother and careful chick caregiver. One Buff Brahma hen actually carried a plastic floor egg under her chin to add to her nest clutch. When a Buff Brahma goes setty, I make sure and swing by twice a day to ... toss the dwarf off her nest... Uh sorry, toss the bantam chook off her nest...so she will take time out of her duties of setting to eat, drink, and relieve herself. Very, very devoted Mommas, these Brahmas!

​

Buff Brahma Hen "Hannibal" feeds hardboiled egg yolk to Booted Bantam Chicks she hatched

​

​

BREEDER VS. HATCHERY STOCKS in BRAHMAS​

Pretty much a waste of time for us when we bothered to try hatchery Brahmas...let the photos speak for themselves...ONE day old Higgins' birds compared to FOUR day old hatchery ones...

Dark Brahma bantams
LEFT Hatchery 4 day old RIGHT Higgins' 1 day old​

Dark Brahma bantams
LEFT four Hatchery 4 day olds / RIGHT three Higgins' 1 day olds​

There was one year where one of the hatcheries posted on the front cover of their catalogue, a Dark Brahma hen...oh how I laughed at the pathetic expression, of both breed and variety.

It may sound overly snobby of me, but the case for true breeders producing typey Brahmas can never be repeated enough. It takes the special care and attentions of decades of years invested in this breed and the varieties to do them any justice. As Sigrid says, in her Genetics of Chicken Colour book...

Page 95:
The beautiful pure patterns, was we know them, are thanks to selection. What counts for selection in patterns also counts for all Standard colour varieties. One glimpse in the pens of somebody who only breeds to increase numbers, will be revealing, although the original birds were suitable for exhibition, the offspring are not.

Murray hatched out 290 birds to send us a mere handful...keep back three percent of your season for breeding prospects...it is that critical and if it is done for 60, 75 years...yeh, every year it keeps on getting better and better... Now really, how can a hatchery only interested in sending off healthy numbers of birds to paying customers care about whether or not the birds are of exhibition quality. Many a hatchery state a disclaimer right off, not exhibition quality.

To me, it often costs LESS to keep a good strain of birds for producing your meat and table eggs...plus the added bonus of good looking birds, if you hatch lots, you have lots to choose from...to select from numbers of birds because you have use for the EXTRAS in meat and egg production. Why would you keep average birds when you could actually have the opportunity to make a real improvement in the heritage breeds and varieties...even if you only choose to produce 25 birds like Maurice speaks of...you, yourself have an opportunity to make a difference by contributing to the HERITAGE POULTRY cause! Your flock, your energies, your resources, eh.


What I was able to do with the lines of Brahmas we have...every bird now exhibits a full set of toes and toenails. The feather footed lines sometimes have missing sections of their toes occur (Brachydactyly or short toe-Danforth 1919, incompletely dominant) and I made it my number one pet peeve in our bantam Brahmas. So over the past 15 years we have been blessed to have them...by selection for breeders that had TOENAILS (no foot, no animal in my books), I have happily seen an improvement in the lines that I can lay claim to adding to them.

PARTRIDGE VARIETY


Partridge Brahma (UK - Gold Pencilled) pullet - Bea
November 2009
​

Deeper ground colour and firmer feathers
2011​

Back in 2009, we began to work on the Partridge variety of the bantam Brahma. At that time, we had not heard of anyone else with this variety in the bantams. As of 2015, I believe some people are working on them and even heard they may be working towards having them officially recognized.

Bantam UK Partridge Brahma Chicks - Two Days old​

Pair of UK Partridge variety Brahmas​

March 2015
​

UK Parti pullet - GOLD Partridge as some label it.

Excellent egg and meat producers; truly a "gentle giant" of a general purpose heritage fowl.

Width of body to make eggs in and hang meat off of...

​

So some common faults in the Brahmas...

Vulture hocks seems to scream to be noticed, eh! Yeh, I love how feather footed breeds are less tossy the bedding in their water, or cast limerock all over the lawns, but the feathered foot requires softer more pliable feathers (brittle ones break easier--soft and flexible is good) to stay in nice condition. Birds run, they can break their footsy feathers so easily...reminds me of those royalty persons with the long fingernails...do ABSOLUTELY nothing for themselves, and look fine!

See the vulture hocks on this BOOTED MDF...
Hock feathers that extend straight out, expressing a marked pattern well because they are wing like firm in texture? ​

So judges go anal over VH's and any feathers hafta be vulture hocks--this debate rages even with Fanciers (has for YEARS--see below!). So the Darks were sent over to the UK where they don't give a ratz butt much about VH's, sent back here to NA and many try to blame the Brits for instilling the VH fault more into the Darks...I think it is something to watch for, but more about them being WING like feathers, so I am much more tolerant. Besides, unless you show and want to avoid disqualification, what does a VH really matter on a backyard bird...less eggs, less meat, less purdy (OK maybe less breed like is a good comeback). LOL Who knows, but we continue to work thru it...like a haunting that can revisit if you do not watch and make selections away from it.


By John Miller Freeman (a.k.a. Hi Cockalorum)
SOME THOUGHTS ON JUDGING:

Pinched wings or a soft set of tail feathers can make the tail look like it is a bunny's tail...not good...as does overly soft feather textures.

Lack of width of back...again, no place to make eggs or hang meat off of...not Brahma typish!


Pinched skulls or crow heads; sorry but the Brahmas I feel are so laid back because in those big old noggins of theirs, the BIRD BRAIN is bigger and much more intelligent. The breed just knows how to be happy go lucky, kind and sweet...unless it is a hen on eggs...then in some, WATCH OUT! They will bruise yer grabby fingees..."MY eggs, MY babes...now bugger off!"

Other issues abound...hackle black and the diamonds in the saddle, how much of the break to have in the saddle feathers of the Buff and Lights, what quality the ground colour has, any leaky reds, how about black feathers in the Buff male's chests as they mature, how rich the eb Brown slate grey is, how even the self-buff colour is, what shade of buff (is personal preference, must be even), how much of a contrast, is there mealiness and unevenness, uncrisp pencilings, lack of three defined pencillings...the list can go on and on... to the finer chicken points like production, disease resistance, vigour, width of body, width of skull, how much foot feathering and does excessive lead to vulture hocks or vice versa, when does it lead to a bare middle toe...and on it goes.


I hate seeing the CUSHION BUMP in the females...soft feathers that bump up and ruin a nice top line. Because the Brahma breed was thought to be formed from a Malay (firm) and Cochin (soft) feathered breeds...then it makes sense that some will allow their Brahmas to steer to the SOFT side. BAD!


SOP APA 2010, page 77 on the Brahma breed:

Buff Brahma hen
The thickness and density of the bone structure always amazes me in the Brahmas - slower to mature than the average breed,
but WOW...what an outcome to be delighted by.

The Brahma breed is one that suits its SOP Economic Quality definition of "a general purpose fowl for heavy meat production."

Many sing the praises of the Brahma as a breed of chook...

From Fred P. Jeffrey's Bantam Chickens on the Brahmas...:
The Brahma bantam is the dual purpose fowl of the bantam tribe. In type they are solid and upstanding with a pea comb and feathered legs. For eating purposes and for egg production they are hard to beat. Many Brahma breeders are reporting over 200 eggs per bird per year and three Brahma eggs will equal two from the large fowl. They make excellent sitters and mothers and are easily confined because they don't fly very much.

Forney (1949) observes:




So that be enough to overwhelm even the most Brahma of advocates, eh!

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

Edit to add some oldtimer Brahma stories...and more Brahma images & photos I rousted up, eh...

 

[scottcaddy]

Reading, it's late.
Scott

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

Great weekend...far far too early for spring but if March wants to act lambish, who's to fight it.

So bin BQing a bit, eating the summerish foods of potato salad, dogs and burgers on the Man Porch. Fixins has been loving the hotdog sliced pieces that Dad puts in her din dins.

​

Rick gave the Man Porch a general vacuuming; start to get "springish" cleaning up the winterness.

I have noted my trips to fill cart with birch have lessened.

​

The birch pile is nicely evaporating...would like to see these ones gone by the time Rick gets to putting the sixty foot trusses up on the Parking Building. The pile of birch bark, well that can stay as it is simple to relocate if needed.

​

Ice is going (yah) and seeing a bit of water standing but seems we never really did get the 15 to 20 foot down deep freezing...so not alot of frost in the ground to stop the water from sinking in.

​

I don't mind at all seeing the bare gravel. A bit of flakes last evening and during the night put a white cast on the gravel again, but certainly pleasant enough.

​

Fixins has been flopping near any old place, sun soaker dog...getting her Vit D, eh from the sun's rays!

​

You can see the bit of moisture, but so many places bare...this was yesterday.

​

Still snow coverage...this will melt off but provide good wetness for GREEN grass for them grassy nippers.

​

The Veg Garden still continues to provide refuge for the ice worms.

​

​

Fixins jest LOVES being out and about, she sits beside Dad and appreciates the attention...

​

​

Even took out her Parking Building inspection station...the wooden pallet Rick saved jest fer her, one of the dog beds with a blankey (sucky puppy, eh)...set it up for her.

The Modern Mobile dog - has moveable dog quarters...she's content!
​

So the springish conditions had Rick out working on the trucks. He replaced the battery in the BOO one ton, took it to town early in the morning of Saturday for a spring cleaning to removed the winter dusty dust off the paint.

Then he came home and parked that unit and took out the Red Chev. Asked me if I was into doing a big loser lap and take that one to the city for a nice cleaning.

​

So I got me chores done all up and ready to go.

​

The Red Chev's had a nice winter rest and after Rick went over her to make sure she was all good to go, put some air in her tires, checked the pressure, started her up, checked the fluids...she seemed to have enjoyed her rest and away we went for the afternoon.

​

This is the Ronald McDonald house located in the center of the city of Red Deer.

​

Funny this view, it is a shot about a block further, center of the city at one of the Timmy's. Rick got himself a coffee for the drive about.

​

Not alot of snow or ice here either...the leafy trees have not woken up (good thing too) but you can see the green tinge that is waiting to burst forth.

​

One day I need to stop at this store, an art one and see what they have on offer...love the murals on the side of the building...right across the street from the main city bus depot.

While Rick washed the red Chev at his fav car wash...I had seen this on a trailer by one of the RV places as we drove past...so well, yeh, I had to go for a short walk to stop and shoot a few pics...Max the Hereford woolly bully...sorry, I am easily amused eh!

​

I could so easily say, let's get one of these as a lawn ornament. Hee hee...so silly--the child in me WANTS THIS!...probably better I get one of the massive chook statues they have instead...I really don't have any bovines anyway! Something about farm, eh...

​

This one is located in Calgary, for Chicken on the Way (nfi)...February 2013

Course I always incite the maximum silliness in everyone...the cashier saw me outside doing the silly clicky the big roo-a-doo and this is what they did to greet us when we went in to place our order...

Bwah ha hah...a big ol' BOCKER eh??

​

Interesting news for us, we noted the Chicken on the Way location in Red Deer shut its doors sometime last year. Funny that because their chicken is way better than KFC's (nfi), but no matter. I guess if we need a fix of CW, we will have to make a trip to Calgary for fried chicken and corn fritters...sigh.

​

Had some marvelous luck...stopped by one of the Rocky Dollar Stores and voila...plastic Easter Eggers in the sports theme.

​

So now I am loaded for bear with the SOCCER duck themed items...

​

On the 14th, I got a fun surprise...in the Call pen was a whole buncha eggs and boy are they into the production now, two more eggs, warm when held were left just during chore time. I guess they are ramped up and ready to have ducklings...I dunno, fer me, it is almost too early when them duck ducks decide to natural hatch them ducklings in the beginning of May. I went inside to show Rick and he asked me if I was going to go fire up the incubator. Hmmm, I don't know, that March in like lamb/lion, although the first of March saw some nasty conditions, I just don't now if I am ready for ducklings in a mere month. Oh well, I have a small wire basket in the garage started up...swung by the Call pen last night and one gave me a warm egg...yeh, they really are NO help now are them ducks...FTD!

​

On Saturday, I heard some extra happy noises coming from the one turkey pen and looked in side and LAUGHED...them girl turks were going to town, eh.

​

FLOOF FLOOF and POOFERS...there was bedding and dust just a flying...

​

And the fluffy and tossing of the bedding was contagious...next area I go, yeh, there are Chant Gals doing the same thing...

Sunny happiness abounds, eh.


Stopped long enough a few evenings ago and clicked some pics of the two Chantecler Bantam project loosely termed "self-Buffer" pullets.

​

First pullet​

​

I know not many breeds recognized in the buff laced variety, Polish and...I think that's it, eh.

​

I got the more proper self-Buff trio picked out already but was also considering adding these two females...the buff lacing one makes here more a Chamois variety (buff laced) but I do like the firmer feathers in these two gals.

Second pullet

​

She seems to have the photo negative reverse markings...in her hackle she is light and edged in buff.

These girls are dark enough I could flog them off as a good start on Blue Laced Reds (pigment red diluted to an orange like shade, eh!), but I think I will just continue to pursue the Self-Buff in the Bantam Chants and behave. Get rid of the Buff miscolours.


Been laughing at the opportunist that Fixins is becoming...age brings on wisdom, eh...

Yeh, one says SLED DOG and you figure...it involves one of these!

​

Yah...nope, no way...not here, not now...

Sled Dog here means this...

"MUSH! I am waiting to be taken to the next location...I said, MUSH ON!" ​

And often it is encouraged to happen when chore coat is donated to the cause...

​

Fixins finds the sun bathing even more blissful when done in the ORANGE sled...nice reflection qualities in the orange...

​

Tormented Alexander's pets on Sunday...Turps is old enough, she just ignores us!

​

Cookie likes the added participants in play time...

​

And Glorph jest notes his house has been invaded and is content to await for when the invasion subsides and returns itself to its own home place.

Box of Cookie??​

On the way outta the city, oh yeh, jest had to click this one...really, really?

​

Hmm, no argument from moi...think I'd hafta agree...if'n you wanna go by that handle, whatever...it makes me laugh, eh!

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[perchie.girl]

I love doing tourist in my own town... Amazing stuff to see and get back in touch with. We do about four or five trips a year... sometimes to look at the lights some times to find a road we never been on.


About three months ago I took a wrong turn on a night drive and wound up Right next to the Mexican border heading down Dairy mart road. Heading toward the ocean. It was about 1:00 am NOT a good time to be in the area... But its an area full of horse and cattle ranches and Strawberry farms.... mixed in with routs for smugglers.... sigh. I only worry about the drug ones. Didnt want to scare my passenger so I kept quiet but kept moving.

The view was stunning. Bright blazing lights marking places locked up tight with razer tape around the top of the fence.... But beyond a warm glow from Mexico with its random looking streets and different sized houses.... on the other side deep deep dark.... Part estuary/river bed and the light of San Ysidro on the other side.... Flashes of white fence and sleeping horses standing in the corners.

Since I do the driving i rarely get pictures.

When we came to the end of the road we stopped for a moment and opened the windows you could hear the ocean and smell the Iodine in the air....

deb

 

[CanuckBock]

Kids were THRILLED...pencils, erasers, stickers, temp tattoos, and funny coinage...yeh, makin' memories eh.

I am now blessed to have a morning getup and an afternoon one for St. P's...lucky, lucky moi!

Biggest dang Leprechaun they'll ever see!

I am not Irish but love to have the kids all covered for NO PINCH 'cause the driver gave them all some GREEN and St. Pattish too! In year's past, man oh man did the youngun's look scared when they realized they had no green on them--nice to SAVE them, eh.

This is how much snow or white fell, not alot, eh...

​

I am really enjoying how much the critters are enjoying the weather...nap outside type weather, eh.

Fixins by the birch firewood pile...exhausting work keeping an eye on me--jest watching me tires her out, eh. ​

Quote:
Originally Posted by perchie.girl

I love doing tourist in my own town... Amazing stuff to see and get back in touch with. We do about four or five trips a year... sometimes to look at the lights some times to find a road we never been on.


About three months ago I took a wrong turn on a night drive and wound up Right next to the Mexican border heading down Dairy mart road. Heading toward the ocean. It was about 1:00 am NOT a good time to be in the area... But its an area full of horse and cattle ranches and Strawberry farms.... mixed in with routs for smugglers.... sigh. I only worry about the drug ones. Didnt want to scare my passenger so I kept quiet but kept moving.

The view was stunning. Bright blazing lights marking places locked up tight with razer tape around the top of the fence.... But beyond a warm glow from Mexico with its random looking streets and different sized houses.... on the other side deep deep dark.... Part estuary/river bed and the light of San Ysidro on the other side.... Flashes of white fence and sleeping horses standing in the corners.

Since I do the driving i rarely get pictures.

When we came to the end of the road we stopped for a moment and opened the windows you could hear the ocean and smell the Iodine in the air....

deb

Thanks for sharing that...you make me laugh Deb.

That photo of mine of the trees, park whatever GREEN space it is across from Timmy's...yeh... I don't do cities for more than a few day trips every so often. I am the kinda person that can't shut what maybe I should not be seeing about the city...I can't turn it off and I often wonder why some are down on their luck. I make eye contact with probably the people I should not be noticing, eh. I have too much empathy and I often ponder, "Hey, that could be any one of us if we had a run of bad luck, eh!" If you placed a human on a curb side and then ten paces away, a forlorn dog just as abandoned looking--we all know who would get the most positive attentions, eh.

So while in the line up at the drive thru for a Timmy's fer Rick's java on our drive on Saturday, I look past the green space and see...three persons waking up, shaking off their naps, and getting about their day...yeh, it's like 16:30, but I figure, they probably have addictions, they are night owls, they are sleeping in a city park, so yeh...makes sense the life they are leading. They are gonna have issues. Now it is not like I want to walk up and shake their hand, get to know them or anything, but I do wonder, how does Society let persons drop...how the cracks in a community let people down...sometimes really hard. Sometimes the people there choose that life, sometimes they don't figure nothing is wrong with that lifestyle. Sure ain't my idea of a right and proper FAMILY type LIFE, but who am I to judge that life...for all I know it could be a good life compared to any others they have been existing with. I simply don't know I have a right to judge how others are existing.

There are places we don't go. Very dangerous places like you finding yourself on some road at 1 a.m. I think it is the knowing it is a place like that, that is important to your safety. You can be an innocent by stander and get wrapped up in something you have no idea you just placed yourself into. Where we choose to go, don't mean the sharks aren't about. We keep to the public thru fares, areas that want traffic and business like grabbing some take out to eat on the fly by. Even so, on Saturday we saw a hostile take down in progress...four police cars with lights a blazing in the parking lot of Crappy Tire, North side of the city. Let's just say we kept on letting the wheels on the red Chev roll on, not that we had any intentions of swinging on into that parking lot. Cripers. I expect it was drugs as the suspect vehicle had its doors all open and looked to be in the middle of being searched, could even be from smuggling that is coming up here from down there, small world...hee hee...like who knows, eh. There is a big economic hard time swing and I suspect many are not going to be dealing with it well... Might have no funds left to pay the rent or buy food, but always seems to be some currency left over for addictions to give someone an artificial break from the downers. Our family is clean, I wish others were of the same mindset.

One positive in the harder economic times, with oil related lay offs...people may well find the time and energies to raise some birds. It was tough economic times that had so many put a few chooks in the backyards historically. There are times where the poultry flock was actually housed at night in the human quarters...the chooks would roost in the rafters, safe from people that would try and steal them. No laughing but a bird that gives you an egg a day for providing them with some table scraps and safe free ranging time is indeed like the goose that lays the gold egg, eh!

​

There is a historical story from around these parts where a fella rode horse back to Calgary (two hour drive in a vehicle today) to go to a job where when he finally arrived, he worked hard labour for room and board for two weeks but got to take one chicken hen home as payment past living and eating for two weeks. The story told of that night on his ride back to home up here...how the hen laid an egg in his coat (he was carrying the bird inside his jacket to keep her warm and safe. The fella held that precious egg in his hand...HIS egg that his work had earned and how he felt so blessed to have a food supply like a laying hen to take home to his wife and the kids. Sometimes hard times teach one to appreciate what so many of us take for granted nowadays. If every thing comes easy and is given to one, there is just a natural ingrained lack of appreciation for not having to have earned or worked to achieve any of the rewards. Does a soul good sometimes to endure a bit of difficulty to realize when things are good you need to be thankful and enjoy that.

During war times, the Canadian fighter pilots sent off to England, they SIGNED for their ration of one egg per day. That's how important egg consumption was seen to benefit humans--eggs were thought to be keeping them pilots in excellent health and fighting ready.

​

There was lots of encouragement to turn what might be considered waste into golden centered opportunities, eh. Yer patriotic duty...

​

Maybe the economic slump is what needs to happen so people pay attention to real life things like the hobby we all enjoy here. One can always look for that silver lining I guess.

So on Sunday, our son gave Rick an early b-day present that included food...hee hee...imagine that!

​

He does work for a Hutterite colony through his employer and he had the opportunity to buy some chickens. BIG chooks...the one he gave Rick is nine pounds...yikes! At two dollars a pound, we are considering that we may include this as part of our regular eats. It costs us $35 to produce a meat cull or a POL chicken...so to test out the quality of their birds, I chose to stuff and roast it. Gotta be a good bird to work for that.

​

So I treated it like a turkey...

​

Covered the white meat portion so it would not dry out by cooking too fast. Basted it several times, too.

​

Same stuffing and cooking methods and it turned out very nice indeed. I was impressed with it.

​

Candied sweet potatoes, mashers, good ample amount of gravy, tasty stuffing, white & dark meat...YUM!

I have a pot of bones on the stove boiling up some soup stock and we shall be eating off this bird for a few meals and then some. Delicious!

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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