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

[Teila]

Tara, I hope you have a speedy recovery and that the Dr.'s hands are guided well!

x2

x 3

 

[drumstick diva]

X to infinity -

 

[bamadude]

And beyond

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

Jest popped in to say, "Well aren't you guys all sweet with the get well soon wishes!"

Yeh, steady Eddy on the surgeon's hands, eh...no slicing and dicing moi up to too much s’il vous plaît!

I am more worried about getting over the "feel good/relaxed & happy drugs" they will be putting into my system. Can't handle the artificial happy makers...I am stellar about staying clean and like it that way...drunk on the air is the best medicine for moi. Those artificial ones I find are real mule kickers...dragging my muled-up behind for days after, eh!

Three days of winter cold forecast...last night it went down to minus 24 (they updated to predict -29C/-20F but I think they just did that to scare us and make us think..."twenty-four's" not so bad, eh?)...

Nov 11, 2014​

Warming up steady, now only minus twenty (-4F)...lots of sunshine and WAY too gorgeous out! There is NO place finer on this Earth to reside in than here on the ranch a roo a doo! Got some photos to post of green versus white (blink over one day's time and she changed seasons!) but save them for another time...

Fer now...FUR pics from yesterday...Fur pics about the joyous weather we are enjoying here at home.

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Snowshoe hare's evidently still here...me and them prints in the snow (as Rick quipped..."my clown squirrel!").

Don't believe me that SNOW = JOY...lookit the happiness smirking plastered on that Fixins girl dog's mug! ​

Jest about a foot of snow on the ground now...covering and protecting everything from the chill...blasts of gorgeous sunshine to make snow crystals sparkle remarkable in the snow...happiness abounds in the cheerfulness.

Dang I luv living the life here!

Snow dougal Fixins...dives face first into the powder...she loves it almost more than even I do!​

Here is her threatening to find the nearest metal fence post...

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"Gonna stick me tongue on it and you'll hafta run to the house to get some fluid water to UNstick me...better take care of me and THROW that BALLY...hurry now...any minute I could...I could lick a post!"

So like who is well trained in this human/dog relationship?

Gotta fly again guys...got goose goodies to divvy out...and fluid water to top up for all the cold weathering fowls' pleasures.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[scottcaddy]

Thanks for the update!!
Edit to add, that dog is having toooooo much fun ya-know!!
Scott

 

[lularat]

That snow is beautiful...and that blue sky..wow! Don't know about those temps though...not used to anything like that. Looks like Fixins is having a good time. Thanks for the update!

 

[CanuckBock]

It does amaze me all of the little bitty computers out there now. A good desktop will last 5 plus years. Tablets are designed for a year or so but now much more. Laptops are expected to make it 2 plus years.

The little ones are disposable too so they cannot be repaired for the most part. People will usually spend a lot more money on them over the life of a desktop.

My son is a computer engineer so has lotsa techno savy. It is beyond belief that perfectly good working items are obsoleted in such a short period of time...and the amount of $ required is just amazing...makes MY hobby seem very cheap (cheep cheepies?) in comparison to staying current with the technology available these days.

Surprisingly, Rick is very "modern" in that he has & uses gizmos like GPS, subscribes to Sirius radio for years now, smart phone (sent his first text for work a few months back...was easy he says!), and a dashcam is his very newest acquisition--I made Rick buy the dashcam (when we bought my camera) for his grader situations. He is frequently on way out there in the boonies roads where you are suppose to be calling EVERY kilometer (mandatory road use agreements!) regarding the dangerous conditions--oilfield big rigs, logging trucks, service units, etc. This way he can pay attention to avoiding an accident when some other driver does not comply...the camera records the details and leaves him to stay SAFE. Technology should compliment our lives, never over rule it or overwhelm what our budgets say we should afford. Making things throw away just makes no sense to me...and short life spans of items are even more sinful. Slaves to constant consumerism...blah!

Here's wishing you a speedy recovery from what ever knife work you are getting done. It sounds like the weather people are thinking that the flakes will be unsettled for a while, be carefull!

Again last night, -24C...was so nice to go inside the house after making my rounds to top the feed pans with cracked corn...looking in on all the nestled deep in oat straw widdle feathered bods under the heat lamps. I always get a charge outta the old geriatric chook gals...there were six or so of the ladies all under the heat lamp making floof floof dusting under radianting warmth.

We have the Ruddys and the Mandarins on camera in the Taj Mahal...so Rick can sit in the house (after a long day at work making more dough to keep the critters in comfy conditions!) with the one shot of them taking up the full screen; admiring them soaking up the heat lamps. He says he loves it when he knows all is well here...he can go to work and slug it out with all the mayhem full on with no worries that things are just as they should be back at the rancheroo.

The Mandarins are especially comical to do the Peeping Tom on...imagine bantam ducks, waddling, round and round their water bath tub...I always hum the conga song (cookarach, cookarach...da da da...-->three steps and a side tap with the WEBBies!). Makes me grin from ear to ear...ducky FTD brats!

edit to add: Rick can get 6 ton of feed in a load, he has a real good truck!
Scott

It was on our wish list for quite some time. Rick was holding out for a good one ton 4x4 dually in the older style he likes...he found it as a cab and chassis (Chev 1989 K3500) along with the fact that he had also eyed up a nice metal deck for it too. He got it all prepared and hired in a welding crew to re-enforce the deck and extend it...was shorter than the truck. Pretty scookum work truck. He had them weld up brackets so he could affix our heavy duty winch on the back...probably strong enough to winch the whole truck and trailer up if'n he wanted to! He uses the winch to pull last of the four pallets up inside the big trailer nice and tight (by only taking on 3 pallets in two loads, no need to mess with the winch--faster and meant he could do the two trips in one day)...winch is also used to winch in some of the 1936 Chev Maple Leafs we have here and use to use the winch (pre-tractor era) to tug my ruminant barns which are all on skids and moveable to new ground.

Running joke here is that we laugh and say she's rigged out for klepping (kleptomaniac--as in stealing!). BEWARE...me and my partner in crime can show up in yer yard and have anything of value tugged up and loaded on in a matter of minutes...and be gone like the wicked winds with YER really good stuff!

Boo truck hauling some BIG load...in a rather small statured but big hearted RED dog Fixins​

Actually the most we have brought home in one load is five tons on the big trailer. Never like to push capacity and we like to enjoy the ride...so why rush it and have it all over and done too quickly.

Last year with some of the totes of grain in the big trailer​

Nov 6, 2014 - Our big trailer ready to head for the second load of bagged poultry rations...



Boo truck and smaller trailer​

I suppose he could put another ton on the deck of the one ton truck (got a set of three very heavy duty straps built right into the deck) but I would be happier with making another trip over seeing how far we can push things...ha ha ha. Suppose to be fun and use getting provisions as an excuse to "take the trucks fer a ride," eh?

Getting hay round bales in September 2012​

Fall 2013 - hay round bales and note the V shaped flock of Canada geese vamoosing in migration
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Yeh, the one ton is a lil' snotster...I call her the "lil' Boo truck" and she is quite the snorter. After market carb (Rick put on), um uh...a larger fan (Rick knows all the fiddling and gadgets he has installed to get the most outta the old girl) to keep her running cooler; new this, new that (sorry, it is mostly HIS hobby to undertake so like if you ask him how many birds I hatched this year...he'll say, "whatever she wanted!"

). Rick's always working on getting his trucks to a point where they are more and more reliable (both of us don't do "standing on the side of the road stranded too good!")...and with her 454 engine...she's got lots of healthy torque to tug loads with. We never went diesel because I do believe in that year (which he likes) the diesel engine Chev had going on some models was a converted gas engine (I think this is what I recall) and besides, the cost of a new diesel (should one have issues) is probably double a gas one...yeh, nice to have diesel but not if you project ever having to get a new one. We have a spare engine crated for his red Chev, gas also...not as much cash laid out for gas engines over diesels. Sorta like the option of buying a lighter all aluminum hauling trailer...easier to haul because its way lighter than a metal one but you do pay sometimes double for that positive feature...in my mind, sometimes it is OK to buy the metal trailer over the aluminum one because you can buy TWO for the price of one...unless weight is a deciding factor...then I certainly DO get paying double for the needed feature if it means more to you.

All the metal work was done on the cab when we bought it...a nice feature, so if we want to repaint her...she is pretty much ready for that if we so choose but going down gravel roads to haul home farmy provisions....suddenly you need to be concerned about flying gravel giving you rock chips and such...this way the paint is not so terrible and it can always be done in a few years if'n we wanna.

I believe the kicker here in the province of Alberta is what your tires are rated for...not so much the allowable gvwr. So I believe he upgraded the tires to class "e" (similar to what was called ten ply??), I believe...any how, whatever rating you are legal for is based on the tires over the truck/trailer max capacity. He's more like the one to have equipment overrated for the maximum job you think you want to do and that is fine by me! Nice to have room for MORE if you decided you needed more.

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Rick is always tinkering on his trucks...this is what he was doing back before the snow hit on November 5 (day before he did the double trips to get the bagged rations)...put down new insulation...

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New carpet (and note how things come these days...the rug was butchered...BRAND spanking new and short on the driver's side--come outta the factory that way...AGH...but he has ways around this to made her work). I was working so did not get to go on her maiden voyage with the new insides he put in but Rick said the stuff he did sure made the operation of the truck WAY quieter...very nice, very nice indeed...fer a working at PLAYing truck!

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He installed a new but old seat from one of his other "parts" trucks (the first and only NEW vehicle he ever purchased--he has taken excellent care of that truck and the seat is in wonderful shape--too bad we lived on the Coast and its use there of salt on the roads has rusted & worn out the body of that particular truck...but no matter...the seat is still GREAT!!) and voila...the improvements he continues to make are substantial and continued to be enjoyed! Love the drive...all about the drive...whee hee hee

So some changin' green to white photos and off I go again...

November 8th​

November 9th​

November 11th ​

And a funny thing about Alberta...all that GREEN grass under the snow...

Taj Mahal - Nov 8, 2014​

The White might covered it up but come spring...

NEXT day...Taj Mahal - Nov 9, 2014​

The green grass is there pretty much staying green awaiting its reappearance UNDER the snow. When spring break up shows up...never ceases to amaze me how quick she greens back up and gets on with it...

Course with ten months of winter...and only two month for summer <<wink, wink--nudge, nudge>> to be growing in...well, you know...NO time to waste, eh? Suck it up Buttercup...

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[drumstick diva]

Perfect, another episode of Pear-A-Dice before I think about going to bed. Goodnight Tara, Rick, Fixins and all....sleep tight

 

[Chipper Chicken]

Best wishes for tomorrow, hope all goes as planned.

 

[drumstick diva]

TARA