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

[drumstick diva]

You notice the kitten lashes out furiously while the gentle ducks don't even peck it. They just want to cuddle. Hope the little fur ball grows up to be afraid of poultry and becomes a vegan.

 

[Bunnylady]

He looks like he thinks he's a Minecraft player in a zombie dungeon . . . .

 

[CanuckBock]

I usually just lurk and enjoy the genetics lessons, and the tales of your adventures and endeavors but I saw this gif and thought you would enjoy.
FTD!

Indeed a true visual of the concept of Fear the Duck!

Yeh, I do sorta feel sorry for all involved...the ducklings are pretty calm but since I suspect they are being squeezed into the situation, not much they can do with bills for defence. I never have to worry too much when ducks are aggressive (unless huge weight difference or age) towards each other...not like what the pointy beaked chickens or turkeys can do to each other...sigh.

Thanks for coming out of lurk mode to share that with us here!

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Here is a funny and one more serious one (sorta) I have stumbled upon...

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I think this saying above is a good send off to post some pics for Perchie (no, I don't seem to have the required "@" icon in my toolbar so not sure if I will EVER get to shout out to BYC members...oh well!).

I know that she likes rocks...a kindred spirit livin' in the desert. Woman, feel free to post that awesome pic of yours with the standing boulder...awesome totally!

Rock bench I made from choice pieces of rock from the area where our stone came from for the waterfall and pond.​

If one figures rock collection and admiring of them is silly, I suppose the long standing concepts of mediation and inner peace will remain elusive for many persons. Alot of oriental cultures focussed on Feng shui, Zen gardens like the Japanese rock garden layouts, and even yin yang for expression within the natural world of complimentary components for tangible dualities (light/dark, female/male, fire/water). So nah nah nah...anciently approved pastime!

There's that toe of the shoe in the View again, eh!​

I know...I know, they are just dang rocks but I find them very nice additions...cost is finding them and hauling them home...having some place to display them.

Pink sparkly (usually I abhor pink but this one was neat) and on the right, a heart marked one! ​

Me, I like rocks because, well uh...I lost mine eons ago and bin trying to shore up the losses by distributing rocks all over the place here.

June 2012​

My cheese rock collection had grown exponentially having been here...I find lots right in the pastures here...bonus!

June 2014​

Now I have had lots of help too...Rick is always on the look out for kewl boulders to haul home.

Large petrified stump Rick wrangled home...​

This one below is my most favourite. We were a young couple and he was working FAR too many hours away (sorta like he still does...agh!)...and he stumbled home one late afternoon with a present for me. Announced he had me a ROCK, and it never ever occurred to me that it was a diamond on a ring or pendant...that would not have been as treasured as this rock was...and still is...

On the left is more petrified wood, you can see the tree rings in this one, and the all time BEST one, my round ROCK from Rick​

I think it is granite and well...it reminds me of being a kid at summer camp where one of the most important (tho we had not quite caught on to that point yet) items in the scavenger hunt we were set out to do, was the ROUNDEST rock possible. If we all sorta got what was on the list of must haves, the roundest of the rocks would be the tie breaker!

This fav rock is an oval moreso in shape, but she is some plumb roundy roundish eh!

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Inukshuks are an important symbol to many of us Canadians too...a sign that MAN was here, often used to mark paths or destinations.

I want to find a triangle shaped rock...this man needs a dog beside him...forever like, eh!​

One of our territories even has one on its flag.

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Yeh, love me rocks...

The white quartz in this one looks like a blade of grass or wheat...kewl!​

I know a few friends of mine that have rock collections...yeh, yeh, like minds attract and well, we could be all be just a bunch of crazies, eh??

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Everyone that knows me knows when you come for a visit, bring me a widdle rock...we put it around the fire pit and it joins all the others that I know were once chosen and held by my friends. I know it sounds goofy but hey, go back and read the picture I just posted of the dancing woman, 'kay?

Found in 2014 whilst Rick was hauling gravel home for the Parking Building foundation.​

This is a puzzle rock...I found it intact, like one big egg and I noted it was shattered...kinda neat because it has a hard center and an outer shell...so yeh, an EGG shaped puzzle...yeh, I like it!

Patiently waiting? Swamper load up, eh...​

Rick just laughs at me when we get to the pit...as I jump outta being swamper on the gravel truck he's driving to get gravel with. "You don't be too long or I'll leave you and pick you up next trip!"

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Course I am terrified to be left behind (I like the ride to and from the pit with me Hero!) plus the incentive is what will I do if the ranging cattle herd comes by to drink...there are a few bulls in the herd that don't look too inviting and I don't want to have to abandon my rock heist to go scramble up some rock pile and hope the cows don't go mountain goat and chase me up it! Stupid cows probably smell beef on my breath from the burger wes had last night!

Rock haul Jun 7, 2014 ​

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So even despite my interferences with the production of bringing home the gravel...

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The objective still got done and I got me more rocks...

Who else likes to replenish the marbles (uh rocks) we keep losing in life...with more...of the same.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[perchie.girl]

I moved into my rocks... I am surrounded by these. The lighter green bushes are Ribbon wood also called Red Shank. The dark green bush is actually a Live Oak. If they have access to water they are real trees .... here a fifty year old one could be as big as the one in this picture.

The individual rock leaning at the top is probably a good five feet tall.



This is actually a picture of my house from my neighbors driveway. The rust red in the foreground there is a 40 foot storage container. It is next to the horse corral.

deb

 

[Wisher1000]

Me! Me!! Me!

I love rocks! I always collect rocks when we go on vacation in the mountains. I have several large ones that I snagged on our honeymoon. I brought them home in the trunk of a Mercury Grand Marquis. We drove up hill all the way home, the gas mileage was awful!

 

[Northie]

I have always collected rocks. I still have the special ones I collected as a kid in a rock/flower garden that I'm always adding to. Rocks are easy keepers

 

[scottcaddy]

I have always collected rocks. I still have the special ones I collected as a kid in a rock/flower garden that I'm always adding to. Rocks are easy keepers

Yes rocks are the easiest keepers on this place, and some of the fastest movers da-boot. I can always find some rocks hiding in some odd places after the grand-babies visit, They claim they don't move the rocks, they didn't see any rock moving, they don't know how/why/when the rocks moved.
Scott

 

[CanuckBock]

I moved into my rocks... I am surrounded by these. The lighter green bushes are Ribbon wood also called Red Shank. The dark green bush is actually a Live Oak. If they have access to water they are real trees .... here a fifty year old one could be as big as the one in this picture.

The individual rock leaning at the top is probably a good five feet tall.



This is actually a picture of my house from my neighbors driveway. The rust red in the foreground there is a 40 foot storage container. It is next to the horse corral.

deb

Thank you, thank you!

Love that big balancing boulder! It jest screams "NOTICE ME!"

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Those c-cans are remarkable things. We bought two that were used once and the two 20 footers will help support a sixty foot span of trusses for a massive Parking Building for some of our vintage trucks. Handi things, eh! The difference in price for 20 to 40 is not huge but we have a limit on how deep we wanted the building to be. Very nice to have that security to put yer stuff in, eh! Very...


Amazing landscape you have...what a lovely view indeed...very kewl how some of the growth takes ever so long to grow, but I suppose it utilizes what comes naturally. We cherished the Yew trees (Taxus brevifolia) on the Coast (more a bush than a tree) to make all sorts of wooden things; dining room table, lamps, wine rack, picture frames... The fishermen used to love it because it would take a beating and really stand up well. Air dried, even then it would sometimes take a route all its own. Rick would be cutting it on the table saw and it was like a gun shot went off where it would crack and take off on its own way. It was funny to see Rick and I both hanging out the truck windows on our bushwacking trips...lookin' for the RED bark. Yew is poisonous and now the bark is harvested to make toxal, cancer treatment. When we lived there, it was considered garbage wood...sigh!

http://www.na.fs.fed.us/pubs/silvics_manual/Volume_1/taxus/brevifolia.htm

I recall a cute story about some culture being taken over...they served up their ample wine supplies in goblets made from yew wood...t'was not too long before the conquerers crated (died) and they went back to ruling themselves. LOL

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Yew also makes an awesome bow for archery as it bends well and I have made a carved walking stick outta it ever so long ago now. I am not so sure I like the absorption potential of holding it, so it sits unused by the back door. I suppose I could braid a covering of rawhide or just leather over the handle part to limit touching the wood. Maybe I can use it to crack some unwelcome visitor over the head with it...ha ha ha...or use it as a spear...never recover from the wound it would make, eh. How very nice...we seem such a welcoming sort, eh!

Wild rose on the top, leaves on the side, with a banner saying "HIGGINS" on it...

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Course it had to have a RAT on it too...gotta brand lots of things R A T...
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I swear if you wanted to get Rick's attention, you'd don a wood grain T-shirt and he'd have followed you home like a lost puppy dog. "Got WOOD? Me LOVE you!" Silly, gullible man.

I thoroughly enjoy the lil' peek into your patch! Tres interesting and certainly not boring. Sometimes when someone says dry or desert you figure Sahara barren sand dunes...not that at all! Beauty!

I expect there is a lot of wildlife...as you have mentioned some of the winged free loaders...nicest of the birds are the ones that come if you put the food or water dish out but make like the birds when conditions aren't favourable (some migrate and mark certain times of the year or how bountiful the food supplies grew...the stripe headed birds and the pine siskins have been bobbing around the yard as of late!). I like the wilds because I am not required to do things like setup heat lamps like we have right now for the 30 below they are predicting for tonight! I don't mind my winter chores but I feel it is bonus to have wild ones flitting about (Rick will exclaim it is like an airport some days) as added fun that does not require containment or special intensive care like our domestics and captive wilds will.

What me and the pack of mutts found up in that wishing well...tucky tucked up on the left side, under the roof thar!

May 24, 2012 ​

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I do have to say though, that one year I did a photo take per day on a nest of Robins (after being reassured I would not be overly harming them by clicking pics...I was very worried I would be doing harm and I have no intent on doing that!) and when the ravens came by, I was quite beside myself the babes would be taken. Think of silly me, scurrying about waving sad wingies in the air bellering, "Bugger OFF ... Go eat something ELSE, already!" Yeh, scary indeed.

June 5, 2012 - ugly eh...look like mice babes!

I had bonded too hard with them babes...bad bad bad! Especially since they do get progressively cuter...major ugly at hatch...MAJOR UGH, especially them eyes...oh my eyes!!

June 12, 2012 - now those are neon mouths that demand filling!​

Told myself I have to dislocate that need to keep things safe, since well, yeh, the ravens have to eat too but maybe not MY four babies...lol

June 15, 2012 - LAST day the babes were in the nesty nest...squishy squished!
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I got to see the four out and about on and off during that summer and early fall...they flew in to eat the rowanberries off the two trees we had planted by the waterfall and pond. It gives you goose bumps to see the wishing well Rick built and we hauled from the Coast...gave a nest refuge, that trees we bothered to plant gave them a boost of energy for getting ready to migrate...a place too to perch on (learning to fly sucks--lotsa crashes at first, eh!) and the waterfall we put in was a place to learn how to bath and get a cool drink from. No wonder I ended up with a link to their welfare, eh!

September 20, 2012 - Hoarking up for the big migration! ​

Yeh, a fake environment I suppose but with us humans removing so much natural habitat to make it for our own uses, I don't feel a tad guilty about setting up an environment here conducive to thrushes (Turdus migratorius) like them Robins.

June 15, 2012​

Mah and Pah on guard duty, the day the four spread their tiny wings and stumble soared & fluttered for the very first time.

So the past two years, in 2013, there was a nest but the eggs ended up with minute holes drilled in the shell. Not sure what got them...you would figure the eggs would have been consumed more, but no matter. Indeed, I did kinda breathed a sigh of relief there was no babes...I know, sick sense of selfishness on my part but then I knew my heart would not be worn on my sleeve for that year at least! I did see a pair in the pines up along the edge of the New Orchard. Ravens live a long time and well, maybe the mature pair of Robin parents decided if the nest got noticed last year, then it might have been safer to go more natural in the trees than in the Wishing Well (still grin, put a nest of promise in the WISHING well, eh!). Last year, no built nest this time--they do not reuse a nest (seeing how filthy it is, the smell of it alone probably announces Robin babes lived here!)...so I have removed the nests to keep the space open if needed. Lot of resources are used up to make a nest and lay eggs, so kinda glad the pair did not attempt a nest in 2014. Maybe this year some pair will again...or not. What will be, will be. Bitter but sweet pill I suppose.

Me! Me!! Me!

I love rocks! I always collect rocks when we go on vacation in the mountains. I have several large ones that I snagged on our honeymoon. I brought them home in the trunk of a Mercury Grand Marquis. We drove up hill all the way home, the gas mileage was awful!

Hey now, ain't that EVER so kewl! Fellow rock hounders--you just never do know someone's inclinations, eh!

I am sure I got blamed for the intensive weight of the two 45 foot reefer trailers we used to move here from the Coast with (I kid you not, they had to scrape off some of the snow on the roof going thru the mountain passes at the scales to keep from being over weight for the legal road allowances! Dang woman and her ROCKS!). I know my roundy granite rock was packed up in there. I can totally relate the precious cargo needing to be hauled home. I am sure Rick does a double take when we go places and chooses NOT to mention my clepto tendencies...not sure anyone will care, but he does mumble at me that gravel pits are in the biz of selling, well uh, ROCKS...but I just shrug. Maybe they should weigh the truck in and out, instead of calculating the cost by the box size. I think sometimes I know things I should not, eh.

I can see the "Just Married" sign on the back of the Marquis with tin cans and whatnots being scraped off the back bumper, sooner than later with that precious "cargo" in the trunk a dunk...hee hee...well at least the spouse knew what he was getting himself into right from DAY ONE!

I have always collected rocks. I still have the special ones I collected as a kid in a rock/flower garden that I'm always adding to. Rocks are easy keepers

Remember the PET ROCK? Sorta like that weather rock too...hee ha hee hee!

Yes rocks are the easiest keepers on this place, and some of the fastest movers da-boot. I can always find some rocks hiding in some odd places after the grand-babies visit, They claim they don't move the rocks, they didn't see any rock moving, they don't know how/why/when the rocks moved.
Scott

Hold on now ... you seen this one yet...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailing_stones

Wonderful to hear of rockers...you got any admission photos of some of your more choice rocker piles? Maybe have to wait till summer for you's all to click us a pic & post it. I love seeing and admiring others pretty pebbles!

Here's another shot of mine; all tucked in hiding for the snows to recede! ​

I better post a coupla pics on food...been a bad foody as of late...more eating and less clicking.

Decided to make wontons for a chicken soup I had made.

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Been a while and forgot how to fold the wonton wrappers...hilarious, not hard...so here is a step by step process of folding wonton wrappers.

January 31, and YES, those are new plates...Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

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Rick picked them out...pattern is Corelle's (nfi) True Blue and since the last set I bought for regular use was like some 30 years ago...kinda jiving on them. I know, I know, easily amused but well that's often a good thing, eh.

I always, always put too much filling in the wrappers...so the first one there is too much filling, recipes say about one teaspoon and I guess because Rick says I use an OAR to eat my soup, maybe my measurement is a tablespoon over the (raise yer pinky when you read this...) TEAspoon. LMBO

Filling is a combo of ground pork fried with crushed garlic cloves, dash of soy sauce, few drops of sesame oil, dash of ground pepper...toss the cloves and add a tin of minced water chestnuts, carrots and cabbage sliced and diced, green onions, slivers of red pepper, some diced up slices of black forest ham and chicken breast (yup, we tried out the big stainless steel slicer and she works like a hot darn!)...think that was it. I gave Rick a spoonful (if he don't go BLAH...then at least I know its worth all the wrapping to bother further with) and he said simply, "No idea what you're making but that's some GOOD!" So it was a go.


Not sure any more Man Porch pics are required but I snapped a few more constructed type ones...

And yeh, I laughed when Rick (I'm not the only KID loving living here) bought and installed the whirly roos on each side of the one door.

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Rick used beams made from three 2x6's to support the porch. You can see the grey painted chunk of 2x6 used as a brace to keep the sections in place.

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Bottom half of each of the four sections ... each piece is a separate section. He tried different configurations and decided to use 2x6's (white painted) with bull nosed edges. He thought about beams made of 2x4's but the 2x6's just all seemed to fit together and make up the whole length without having to patch in cut down pieces.

We do get dry rot here...so placing chunks of wood under the support beam is a good plan. We want this porch to last more than just one season, eh!

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Dog Door...the ramp is gone. Fixins is old enough now she would hurt herself going up and down that ramp (and she's got that attitude of I'm not old, eh!). It was covered in rubber (anti-fatigue mat) but now she is made to use the entrance ramp. I laugh because I was half expecting Diva to mention how long it was taking Fixins to get to her dog bed on the Man Porch. A few posts back (page 61), I showed the Man Porch thru a progression of time and if you look at the sequence...first of three shots, NO Fixins (May 5, 2014), second shot, there's Fixins (roughly two month's later- July 6, 2014) at the bottom of the pic and the last photo, ONE month has gone by (August 6, 2014) and there she is...finally made it onto her bed! LMBO!

Sucks getting old to a point, but well, you do get to stop and smell the roses, if you can GET to the rose bushes without doing a header upside down IN the prickles and all! Eeek....

"Help, I've fallen and it hurts to try to get up!"​

Goose GOODIES!

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Yeh, the tufted buffs get some celery trimmings...might be making chicken soup (some bird had to pay for that!) but some birds benefit from it too...LMBO

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So bin no rest for the wicked...

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With the warm ups, means I don't layer bedding in the Duck Barn...I heave it out since it is not frozen in. Now good thing is that I will have an easier spring...no huge clear outs to do. So far I am two bins up on Rick but then again, I told him to wait to fire up the tractor as it is getting a tad cold to be running it AND we have forecasts for more snow in the oncoming week. There is enough snow now I have traction over the ice...a blessing indeedy!

New powder...THANK the HEAVENS!​

Had about two weeks now where temps have gone above zero, so melting off the snow and turning it to ice--not good, not nice...hate, hate ICE (and mud too but we have so much gravel here...so happy to say we are rarely ever dealing with mud!)! Don't like this type of weather much and while I realize the animals outside enjoy the break BUT I absolutely hate it. Sure, it can be this way when there is a chance of SPRING but it is not no where near spring time AND I don't mind it happening FOR spring, but it is sure plain annoying when it happens now. I don't like to see spring replayed over and over...the NASTY parts are what I would happily avoid, eh! Slip sliding around on ice, dancing to no music and such...just awful! Add in the fact my mind automatically switches mode to spring time and I am doing goofy things like checking on the status of the veg garden snow pack..."is it down, is it passable?"...yeh...stunned and just plain stupid.

Yeh, tiz snowed in, natch!

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So yeh, thankfully it is back to being normal for January/February now...twenty below and thirty for tonight. Thank heavens! Any more warmth and I will completely DE-climatize and start whining about how I feel cold. I don't need to feel cold yet...I need to stay the way we are and keep on keeping on. Yeh, won't be until middle or end of May when I can seriously begin to look at snow off the veg plot. So it needs to get back to same old/same old sensible weather. Has all sorts of bad behaviours coming up and that needs to cease. I do not appreciate the Chinooks as it causes plants to wake up and then get SLAMMED as in killed because they did wake up and should be sleeping..."Stay down, don't get up, eh!"

People seem to forget that just a taste of warmth will do no more than make them switch gears and we need to be winter mode. Nothing wrong with winter mode as it makes you appreciate ALL the seasons. Let it snow, it needs to stay cold and sensible.


Got a decent amount of snow here...the swan yard looks very nicely loaded up. Good amount of moisture even with some of the pack melting off.

Decent accumulations...will ensure the grass in the yards is green and growing...for the birds to nip and trim. Good year indeed.

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So I grabbed a few standard Chant males and laughed at the one...sure can tell these are the boys and not interested in sitting still and be photogenic.

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This young male is more of my favs for head gear in the older boys from last season. He's got a decent cushion comb and has small and round wattles. Comb might not be as blocky as some but not half too bad.

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Got a few Quebecer Chant friends that like my absolutely NO wattle males but I still figure the SOP mentions small round and they need to be there. Really interesting watch the boys mature out...you are never quite sure how big the wattles will be as chicks and have to wait to see. Absolutely none on the male on the right...more in the middle boy and decent small yet round on the far left.

January 31, 2015 - Puppers playing in the fresh powder​

Kick the ball, eh...my toes are getting cold.​

January 31, 2015​

I always figured chickens were difficult to snap pics of...one is always goofing off, trying to sleep and such! If I pick one up that don't figure that is a decent thing to do to a chicken, I'll get a pecking for my insubordination! Yeh, but them dog dogs... Dogs even in packs of two can be sheer murder...what's with Foam...no smile for the birdie, nope, she's gonna close her eyes and look like she is nodding off... "HELLO??"

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Jacobs enjoying fresh snacks...​

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So enjoying the more seasonal weather, looking forward to more snows...happily enjoying winter being proper winter.

Another sunset, another day in Pear-A-Dice comes to a delicious close...

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Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[scottcaddy]

Yes, I have seen the walking/sliding rocks of Death Valley, Not Moving at the time thou

, what a place to see all sorts of strange things. The Air Force payed me to stay in the center of Ca. for about 6 long, hard years back in the early 70's.

Scott

 

[perchie.girl]

Yes, I have seen the walking/sliding rocks of Death Valley, Not Moving at the time thou

, what a place to see all sorts of strange things. The Air Force payed me to stay in the center of Ca. for about 6 long, hard years back in the early 70's.

Scott

I was on a trip home from Las Vegas.... Stopped at Baker to get fuel and use the facilities.... Baker is very close to Death valley. Looked out toward town and there was a giant thermometer. It topped out at 130 degrees and the marker said it was 120 degrees... I vaguely though... Hmm thats pretty hot....

Then I opened the door to get out... I couldnt breathe. I shut it quick. Holy Moly I realized I better put my shoes on. My son and I hopped out and scurried to the quick mart to pay for gas and get some HUGE drinks. In order to get back to the car. Have you ever been so hot you get goosebumps....

Imagine opening your oven door and stepping in to walk about a hundred feet.....

My desert is just dry we get about 10 inches of precipitation per year. But our temps are very similar to San Diegos. Thank goodness. We do have days that are hot around 105-110 ish. but they number about a weeks worth. The rest of the summer is very livable...low ninetys in the day and low eighties in the night. Most times I just need a fan to keep the air moving.

As far as the sliding rocks I saw it explaine on one of the science channels. Because ALL the rocks in areas of a hundred acres or more move in the same pattern. Not just one or two.

They lay in dry lake beds that fill with about a half an inch of water during the winter snow melt. Of course at nigth the sheet of water freezes over then defrosts in the morning during that time the wind is blowing pushing the whole sheet and rocks in one mass. just a half inch or two...

Its like you taking a sheet of paper and setting a filled salt shaker on top of it... then pushing the paper from the end very carefully and evenly... you wind up pushing the salt along with the paper.

deb