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

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

And the last St. Pat's Day tradition...I post me story about ACDog rescue...on Stoggar the Dogger that got to come here forever on St. Patty's Day. Stogs has moved on now to be with Makins and HyBlade...Sep 18, 2013 she was called away.

TISSUE WARNING eh...

Stoggar the Dogger
By Tara Lee Higgins - March 17, 2004

Please be forewarned, this one has a tissue warning...​

See her ears tipped down...over the years, they came UP...like the Flying NUN up!​

You still have the nightmares, you whimper and cry in your sleep. But we come and place a steady concerned hand on you...and out of the terror you climb, blinking & squinting at us with your kind eyes...behind is left the trouble and you remember where you live now. Your belly is always full of good food, tho you will never be trustable with snacks on the coffee table. We do not mind, for we know you will never unlearn how to fend for yourself...how to crawl under house steps and find heat near where people live. How to roust in a garbage bag for any scraps that are edible...how to judge the pace of someone's walk, the tone in their voice, and that glint in their eye...you have seen pure hatred; uncalled for and unwarranted. That you are always the last to come in the house, not because you are not welcome, encouraged or that you do not have a spot, but because you will never completely believe that this is your place and that YOU live here and that the mat at the door reads also for you too.

​

You will never be the whole and complete dog that you could and should have been allowed to become. There will always be times you snap back and regress, but each time it is easier for you to come back from where you were. You know we will not ask more of you than what you can handle...that we will wait and if you are never ready for some things, it does not matter.

Coats of many colours​

That only four months ago, while you instantly came when called, you never once ever came by your own free will to my spouse, even tho he is kind and careful to be gentle around you...but now he finds you sitting at his feet, peering up into his eyes, saying, "Pet me, I am no longer afraid because you are a man! I now know not all men will beat me, raise a hand to hurt me or shout at me so that I am fearful. Please pet me, I know you mean me no harm."

​

Stoggar still does not completely relax when sitting in my lap...she paws at me, like she is testing me to see if this is real. "Can I feel the vision I am seeing...am I allowed here, is this what being part of a family is?" She never takes for granted what her life has brought her...I sometimes wonder if she knows she never has to go back to a shelter, that when it is her time to go, there will be people there who love and cherish her...that we will hold on to her dearly and not want her to leave us. That in her world of being, pedigrees and blue blood and standards don't matter or count. That her being here has meant something, that we are not complete without her...that she as one individual matters and has made all the world of difference.

​

You are my pouncing pepperpot in my Australian Cattle Dog flavours...salty dog HyBlade, spicy Fixins and sugary Makins; where would any of us be without your presence my dearest Stoggar the Dogger. Thank you for sharing four years of your life with us, we have reaped way more than we have sown.

Foamy, Stoggar, Fixins, HyBlade and Makins​

Doggone love yah my Stooges...we love you--forever and ever and ever...

Tara Lee Higgins & the Australian Cattle Dog Rat Ranch Crew

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada
^~~^ Miss yah Makes (Dec 7, 1995–Feb 4, 2011) Miss yah HyBlade (Mar 23, 2000-Aug 7, 2012) Miss yah Stoggar (Mar 17, 2000-Sep 18, 2013) ^~~^

 

[drumstick diva]

Tara what happened to Stoggar's puppies at the kill shelter?

 

[CanuckBock]

Tara what happened to Stoggar's puppies at the kill shelter?

Not sure I really wanna go there...but well, better than not knowing. The volunteers at the Shelter all loved Stogs dearly (called her "Blue" because she looked so emotionally BLUE and sad)...I had gone in to post a rescue poster, not walk Stogs or later end up bringing her here. I already had three dogs and thought that was pretty decent number for a dog herd!

Here is another article on the wonderful Stoogey the Doogey, DD....

http://www.telusplanet.net/public/ranchrat/stoggar.html

Stoggar - A Story on Rescue, February 11, 2001:

Most often the pups find homes way easier than the older mother dogs ever do.

Speckled guardian dog angel indeed.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[drumstick diva]

 

[CanuckBock]

Ah Diva...don't cry about the ones that did not find homes, celebrate the ones that did. Not the dogs' faults. Spay and neuter, makes these things never happen, eh.

Stogs found a good home and so did five of the nine. I would sooner that unwanted dogs were humanely put down than left to wander at will like Stoggar was left. If someone had been responsible and had altered her and not abandoned her...then the nine would not have happened. Things like this are train wrecks just waiting to happen. Clean up crew AFTER the miscarriage of justice, eh.

Play time tonight...

​

Joy and happiness...

Foamy and Fixins are asking me why are we pausing as I take a "CLICK!" ​

I cannot save the world but I can make the world a better place for certain other living beings...and that, has to be good enough.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[Amberjem]

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

Hi AJ...lucky dog you get to be gardening...but it can always be worse eh...

About the time that spring swings in, 21st of March is coming up soon..., I think about what we were doing last year...

This year is no where near like last one...snowmageddon...

​

Lotta snow and a bit of the cold temps too...that -36F...

​

This winter has been sinfully easy compared to the last one.

Last winter...snow between the Pear-A-Dice Goose houses​

I was not sure what to do with the snow off the roof when it piled higher than the roof I had been clearing??

April Fool's Day...no fooling, eh...what a display of sliding off the roof snows...

​

Veg Garden Coop snow off one side of the roof...that's a 48 inch high metal combo panel buried thar....so a four foot pile and lots had melted off by April and it kept falling...and falling and falling...got to my veg gardening the middle of May last year...eep.

​

Mt. St. Higgins range...

December 2013 and running outta places to pile it, eh and it kept falling right on into the middle of MAY

It did finally melt...this is June 6th, same pile as on the left there ​

Out East, the Torontoites were bragging about golfing last year...when we were getting hit with six inches of white ever two or three days. I don't quite remember much past being tired of dragging snow off the canopy roofs, 200 feet long by 20 feet wide ever four or so days.

​

Fixins racing along the top of the pile of snow...

Mar 17, 2015​

So this was yesterday evening...beside the same canopy...

March 17, 2015​

No ramp of snow piled up to run on...do you think them dogs miss it?

​

Nah...so long as there is some snow coverage out in the Ram Pasture to do the rolly polly in...dogs don't miss the huge dumps. Foamy looks concerned about Fix eh? "Why you down? What you doing?"

​

Lots of gravel peaking thru...driveway out front is not snow covered.

​

Since Rick kept up and cleared off areas of snow in the Ram Pasture for the dogs to run freely on, there are now bare patches of no snow...

​

The dogs like this.

​

Snow out in the front yard is melting pretty good.

​

When we can see the heart shaped perimeter rocks around the water fall, I know the snow depth is going.

​

Around the fire pit in the front yard, you can see the pretty rocks strewed around it once again...things peaking forth that lay hidden during the white coverings.

​

Still treacherous on some pathways...ice still hanging tough but alot of green grass lays waiting under the snow and white.

​

Always blows my mind...sitting under all the WHITE snow and ice is that GREEN waiting, waiting to BURST out.

First turkey egg of 2015 - Jersey Buffs​

Those girl turks are the ones I posted pics flooffing and dust bathing a few days back...hee hee... spring has sprung and they are not immune to it.

Touch on a few more genetics items review and some new stuff too.

Recall this link and how useful it is...

http://scienceprimer.com/punnett-square-calculator

Plug in which traits dom and let it do the calculations for you.

One trait has four outcomes, two traits has sixteen outcomes and it gets outta hand from there on in with each new trait you want to calculate.

A question often posed is what happens when two traits are both dominant...when two doms are present...it is like expression of the Cushion Comb in the Chantecler chicken.

Pea comb x Rose comb = Cushion comb​

The comb expressed is not Pea or Rose but a combination expressed by both termed "co-dominance."

Cushion Comb - not Pea or Rose but BOTH; co-dominant
​

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominance_(genetics)#Co-dominance:


I would suggest that one avoid saying one colour is dominant over another. That just makes you more confused than you EVER need to be. Black is a strong pigment but may be diluted to lavender, dun, chocolate, white and blue. Black expressed as markings like lacings may be altered to be any shade from chocolate to white with variances in between these two extremes.

Quite the striking difference when feathers are edged in black or white ​

White birds may hide any colour genetics under the no pigment. Ironically, the best White birds are Black birds under the white no pigments. LMBO

A review of sorts here...Black is a speedier colour than red, at least you can say that if the black is round shaped (rod shaped black is the kind that is often seen leaking in blues or splashes made from blue dilution). Red (phaeomelanin) is slower to be expressed than black pigment (eumelanin). MDF feathers show a white spangle (no pigment) and is followed by black and then red pigments...black is faster than red to be expressed in the feathers. All the kewl hummingbird sparkly colourations are due to bubbles on the feather's surface.

​

One allele like recessive white (c) may change a coloured MDF to a White feathered bird...ONE allele is THAT powerful and substantial in altering phenotype. Woe be it to someone that shrugs off the power of a single allele to alter phenotype so dramatically. Feel the POWER...

Past differences in skin pigments, these Booted Bantams are basically identical colour wise except for one allele of recessive white.
​

Expression of how much black, red or white pigments between individuals aside, playing with chook colours can be that simple or complex, pending how you want to approach this.


Build a proper foundation so your progression is logical and you may add to this base as you continue to learn:

- E-series (colour distribution genes where expression is determined by gender) is the base and determines how all other colour genetics will be expressed. Determines chick down, adult colour, and zonal or basic distribution of black pigment. [E, ER, e"+", eb, eWh]

- Uniform colour changing genes determine how the entire bird expresses pigment - the more important being gender linked Silver/gold...Bird is Silver or gold when female; Silver, gold or Silver/gold (impure) when male. [I, I^D, choc, c, S, Bl, lav, 'rb,' dull black, cb, ig]

- Colour restriction genes - red and black pigments are distributed thru changes to black by restricting OR extending it to the foot, feathers in the tail, hackle and wing. [restricts (Co, Db, Mh, Di) or extends (Ml)]

- Pattern genes - Mottled, Barred/Cuckoo, & Pattern gene. [mo, B, Pg]


See, that was pretty simple...we have genetics that determine what flavour other genetics will have on a bird (e-series), we have uniform colour changing genetics, we have colour restriction/extension genetics for black, and then pattern genes (sorta like the parsley we sprinkle atop that soup we are serving up).

​

Rick and I are getting the urge to lounge in the Man Porch...

​

Sit around and admire all our junk...hanging on the walls making it an outdoor living area. Not really OUT but certainly not really IN...a place of transition.

​

I laughed at Fixins, we were on our way out to go do run runs and she had to go see Foamy waiting outside to do the big dog dog running play time.

​

My fav sign that Rick picked up a few years back. Said it made him laugh...

​

It still makes us both laugh...

June 18, 2014 - there's a green glow every where​

Feet kicked up, looking out upon Pear-A-Dice...

May 17, 2014; first day to celebrate the new Man Porch furniture​

Here is June last year with Fixins sleeping on her dog bed...waterfall plugged in and making a pretty gurggly sound...Rick's plants growing up a storm.

June 10, 2014​

The dog days of summer on the Man Porch beckon...put my carving tools out again on my ottoman, ready at a moment's reach to carve up some silly sign or such thing...

July 6, 2014​

Unfortunately, Fixins is not doing any better than she has for a while now; in fact I would say she is declining and it is ripping our hearts to shreds. She is really slowing down and I don't think we will be blessed to have her much longer here with us. I wish practise made perfect, she will be the seventh one I have had to say goodbye to in my lifetime. She is laying on my foot right now, sleeping very relaxed and content. She is in no pain but she sure has worn her body parts out. Rick and I figure she has lived life to the fullest and selfishly, we just wish it would remain the same old, same old. I could tear my hair out and scream "WHY?" but I already know it is futile and that here on Earth, no matter what, the worst thing to visit us here in Pear-A-Dice is death and diseases...not many things can jeopardize paradise here, but those two can and will end things with finality.

Lately have been noting she does not want to be alone...it is a sorta self-preservation thing we think...she sleeps so deeply and so thoroughly, she must have some instinct that warns her, she is not that nimble to leap up out of her deep sleeps, so she wants to be touching Rick or I when she is napping, which is quite often now. Napping is good...she still has four working limbs, a waggy tail with accompanying vocal cords, come dog run time...but she needs to lay more often during chore time and I am making more and more pauses to wait for her to catch up. I bring a dog bed along, place it in the sunshine for her to recline and rest upon. Mindful to watch she does not get chilled...all the old dog things but even more so it seems as of late.

I don't want to face this and it gets me all choked up, I don't think we will get to have another summer time on the Man Porch with her company and I shall miss her ever so much...just as I have missed the other six that preceded her living.

There is a frozen chook defrosting for roasting tonight. She had cheese and chicken for breakfast with a nice chicken soup stock I boiled up.

​

Let her feast and enjoy life...for this too shall pass as all things must.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[hennible]

My girls getting old too. Shes almost 13...

 

[CanuckBock]

My girls getting old too. Shes almost 13...

Thanks Henny...hope your gal hangs in there for you too.

Fixins will be 14 in July, her mother Makins gave us some 16 good years, HyBlade over 12, and Stogs we suspect was around 15, but Fix has always been extreme...world record ACD Bluey lasted over 29 years but we ain't getting that kinda mileage.

Wish things would just stay the same....can I say I am too old for changes...old dog, no more new tricks please? I am just too comfy and I guess fate wants to deal out some lashes of reality.

We spent the afternoon letting her sunbath and nap by the Pheasant Cabin...she likes that spot as she can survey her queendom quite well without any more than turning her head and flipping an ear. First thing she did out the porch door was put the run on two frisky squirrels; she still has it but peters out quick.

See about picking up some cottage cheese for her tomorrow. Rick figures the added calcium will be nice for her digestion and well, what stock dog don't like dairy, eh.

 

[Amberjem]

Heel low:

Hi AJ...lucky dog you get to be gardening...but it can always be worse eh...

About the time that spring swings in, 21st of March is coming up soon..., I think about what we were doing last year...

This year is no where near like last one...snowmageddon...

​

Lotta snow and a bit of the cold temps too...that -36F...

​

This winter has been sinfully easy compared to the last one.

Last winter...snow between the Pear-A-Dice Goose houses​

I was not sure what to do with the snow off the roof when it piled higher than the roof I had been clearing??

April Fool's Day...no fooling, eh...what a display of sliding off the roof snows...

​

Veg Garden Coop snow off one side of the roof...that's a 48 inch high metal combo panel buried thar....so a four foot pile and lots had melted off by April and it kept falling...and falling and falling...got to my veg gardening the middle of May last year...eep.

​

Mt. St. Higgins range...

December 2013 and running outta places to pile it, eh and it kept falling right on into the middle of MAY

It did finally melt...this is June 6th, same pile as on the left there ​

Out East, the Torontoites were bragging about golfing last year...when we were getting hit with six inches of white ever two or three days. I don't quite remember much past being tired of dragging snow off the canopy roofs, 200 feet long by 20 feet wide ever four or so days.

​

Fixins racing along the top of the pile of snow...

Mar 17, 2015​

So this was yesterday evening...beside the same canopy...

March 17, 2015​

No ramp of snow piled up to run on...do you think them dogs miss it?

​

Nah...so long as there is some snow coverage out in the Ram Pasture to do the rolly polly in...dogs don't miss the huge dumps. Foamy looks concerned about Fix eh? "Why you down? What you doing?"

​

Lots of gravel peaking thru...driveway out front is not snow covered.

​

Since Rick kept up and cleared off areas of snow in the Ram Pasture for the dogs to run freely on, there are now bare patches of no snow...

​

The dogs like this.

​

Snow out in the front yard is melting pretty good.

​

When we can see the heart shaped perimeter rocks around the water fall, I know the snow depth is going.

​

Around the fire pit in the front yard, you can see the pretty rocks strewed around it once again...things peaking forth that lay hidden during the white coverings.

​

Still treacherous on some pathways...ice still hanging tough but alot of green grass lays waiting under the snow and white.

​

Always blows my mind...sitting under all the WHITE snow and ice is that GREEN waiting, waiting to BURST out.

First turkey egg of 2015 - Jersey Buffs​

Those girl turks are the ones I posted pics flooffing and dust bathing a few days back...hee hee... spring has sprung and they are not immune to it.

Touch on a few more genetics items review and some new stuff too.

Recall this link and how useful it is...

http://scienceprimer.com/punnett-square-calculator

Plug in which traits dom and let it do the calculations for you.

One trait has four outcomes, two traits has sixteen outcomes and it gets outta hand from there on in with each new trait you want to calculate.

A question often posed is what happens when two traits are both dominant...when two doms are present...it is like expression of the Cushion Comb in the Chantecler chicken.

Pea comb x Rose comb = Cushion comb​

The comb expressed is not Pea or Rose but a combination expressed by both termed "co-dominance."

Cushion Comb - not Pea or Rose but BOTH; co-dominant
​

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominance_(genetics)#Co-dominance:


I would suggest that one avoid saying one colour is dominant over another. That just makes you more confused than you EVER need to be. Black is a strong pigment but may be diluted to lavender, dun, chocolate, white and blue. Black expressed as markings like lacings may be altered to be any shade from chocolate to white with variances in between these two extremes.

Quite the striking difference when feathers are edged in black or white ​

White birds may hide any colour genetics under the no pigment. Ironically, the best White birds are Black birds under the white no pigments. LMBO

A review of sorts here...Black is a speedier colour than red, at least you can say that if the black is round shaped (rod shaped black is the kind that is often seen leaking in blues or splashes made from blue dilution). Red (phaeomelanin) is slower to be expressed than black pigment (eumelanin). MDF feathers show a white spangle (no pigment) and is followed by black and then red pigments...black is faster than red to be expressed in the feathers. All the kewl hummingbird sparkly colourations are due to bubbles on the feather's surface.

​

One allele like recessive white (c) may change a coloured MDF to a White feathered bird...ONE allele is THAT powerful and substantial in altering phenotype. Woe be it to someone that shrugs off the power of a single allele to alter phenotype so dramatically. Feel the POWER...

Past differences in skin pigments, these Booted Bantams are basically identical colour wise except for one allele of recessive white.
​

Expression of how much black, red or white pigments between individuals aside, playing with chook colours can be that simple or complex, pending how you want to approach this.


Build a proper foundation so your progression is logical and you may add to this base as you continue to learn:

- E-series (colour distribution genes where expression is determined by gender) is the base and determines how all other colour genetics will be expressed. Determines chick down, adult colour, and zonal or basic distribution of black pigment. [E, ER, e"+", eb, eWh]

- Uniform colour changing genes determine how the entire bird expresses pigment - the more important being gender linked Silver/gold...Bird is Silver or gold when female; Silver, gold or Silver/gold (impure) when male. [I, I^D, choc, c, S, Bl, lav, 'rb,' dull black, cb, ig]

- Colour restriction genes - red and black pigments are distributed thru changes to black by restricting OR extending it to the foot, feathers in the tail, hackle and wing. [restricts (Co, Db, Mh, Di) or extends (Ml)]

- Pattern genes - Mottled, Barred/Cuckoo, & Pattern gene. [mo, B, Pg]


See, that was pretty simple...we have genetics that determine what flavour other genetics will have on a bird (e-series), we have uniform colour changing genetics, we have colour restriction/extension genetics for black, and then pattern genes (sorta like the parsley we sprinkle atop that soup we are serving up).

​

Rick and I are getting the urge to lounge in the Man Porch...

​

Sit around and admire all our junk...hanging on the walls making it an outdoor living area. Not really OUT but certainly not really IN...a place of transition.

​

I laughed at Fixins, we were on our way out to go do run runs and she had to go see Foamy waiting outside to do the big dog dog running play time.

​

My fav sign that Rick picked up a few years back. Said it made him laugh...

​

It still makes us both laugh...

June 18, 2014 - there's a green glow every where​

Feet kicked up, looking out upon Pear-A-Dice...

May 17, 2014; first day to celebrate the new Man Porch furniture​

Here is June last year with Fixins sleeping on her dog bed...waterfall plugged in and making a pretty gurggly sound...Rick's plants growing up a storm.

June 10, 2014​

The dog days of summer on the Man Porch beckon...put my carving tools out again on my ottoman, ready at a moment's reach to carve up some silly sign or such thing...

July 6, 2014​

Unfortunately, Fixins is not doing any better than she has for a while now; in fact I would say she is declining and it is ripping our hearts to shreds. She is really slowing down and I don't think we will be blessed to have her much longer here with us. I wish practise made perfect, she will be the seventh one I have had to say goodbye to in my lifetime. She is laying on my foot right now, sleeping very relaxed and content. She is in no pain but she sure has worn her body parts out. Rick and I figure she has lived life to the fullest and selfishly, we just wish it would remain the same old, same old. I could tear my hair out and scream "WHY?" but I already know it is futile and that here on Earth, no matter what, the worst thing to visit us here in Pear-A-Dice is death and diseases...not many things can jeopardize paradise here, but those two can and will end things with finality.

Lately have been noting she does not want to be alone...it is a sorta self-preservation thing we think...she sleeps so deeply and so thoroughly, she must have some instinct that warns her, she is not that nimble to leap up out of her deep sleeps, so she wants to be touching Rick or I when she is napping, which is quite often now. Napping is good...she still has four working limbs, a waggy tail with accompanying vocal cords, come dog run time...but she needs to lay more often during chore time and I am making more and more pauses to wait for her to catch up. I bring a dog bed along, place it in the sunshine for her to recline and rest upon. Mindful to watch she does not get chilled...all the old dog things but even more so it seems as of late.

I don't want to face this and it gets me all choked up, I don't think we will get to have another summer time on the Man Porch with her company and I shall miss her ever so much...just as I have missed the other six that preceded her living.

There is a frozen chook defrosting for roasting tonight. She had cheese and chicken for breakfast with a nice chicken soup stock I boiled up.

​

Let her feast and enjoy life...for this too shall pass as all things must.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

great sun room yeah I need to transplanet my dill out of the seedling tray...all my bazillion tomatoes are sprouted now