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

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

And as if there were any doubts...

Here is what the water lily blossom SHOULD look like on its first blooming day...

PINK...​

She's a very pinky PINK flower, this second bloom from the water lily ... ​

Pink is fer girl dogs like Fixins!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks thar girl. We all hear yah loud and clearly! Bow WOW!!! Bow wow...

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

Share about some good news!

Another community in Alberta has gone online with chickens (and bees)! Yee haw...

www.660news.com/2015/07/22/high-river-is-going-to-the-chickens-and-bees/

Mayor Craig Snodgrass of High River has allowed chooks and buzzies within town limits.

Now for some stranger type conversation...

Anyone else getting rather bizarre poultry requests as of late?

I mean I just got an e-mail this morn asking for "American Buff Goose HATCHING EGGS??" Quite frankly, nobody minds newbies but the simple fact they don't even bother to investigate who they are contacting blows my mind. A little common decency is to know thy quarry, right?

We NEVER sell hatching eggs...EVER...that is strike one and if you were a goose person (which is fine if you are not), but if you were, when was the last time you had geese laying eggs...end of July? Not likely if they are experiencing a normal natural life cycle with amiable weather patterns. Most of ours have finished laying AND are finished moulting and this time of year is when they get to roam around, either raising their brood or just muncha crunching the green grasses of lovely summer time being silly gooseys. Not hunkered down and laying eggs time--tis warm happy summer time frivolities goose time!

Buff Pied gander, Buff goose and goslings gnawing on broccolis ​

I ponder the sensibility and morality of selling someone hatching eggs for a species they have obviously never had before. Geese are geese and lay eggs in spring time...pretty set in that unless you mess with their internal clocks and people that do that, to us, I would not be sending off any of our geese to anyhoo. Our issue, not theirs but we don't have to contribute to it, right? The best raiser of goslings in my opinion are the parents...so way more sensible to get a pair and raise them up and let them do the rearing. All I ever do is provide the room service (servant, hired hissable at helper!) and maid duties and that be that in goosedom.

I have always gotten strange e-mails, usually newbies asking about flocks of goats or herds of sheep, things that set them apart instantly as newbies but no matter, part of the fun of educating people and sharing our hobbies with others. We've always enjoyed helping others join the Fancy and have some fun...but when does helping become hindering to the giver...these takers seem set sometimes that we just need to drop all we are doing and just step up and give until we bleed from our very eye sockets at the expense of our own farm operations...a little graphic but kinda where some of us oldtimers feel when it comes to the "on demand" instant gratification, you owe me type queries. I am going to suck all your resources out your nose and you will give me what I want to know...immediately and at your expense too!

You know, I was doing quite fine minding my own business taking care of my life's work before you contacted me...I will survive post YOU... Not to be too rude but really...I was OK and am still OK in the skin I am in...nothing Earth shattering or terribly urgent here...and besides, one of the true tests of someone you do not know from Adam or Eve...that they will wait, patiently for you to find the time to do a reply, a dignified decent reply, sometimes to the one liners we all seem to get in our inboxes...incomplete request from people for all we know are located in Africa...have always had birds and you just have to obey their commands...because they bothered to contact you in the first place...oh my, you should be honoured by their attentions...

"Got eggs? Me want; give them over now!"

The one I got last week was out thar. I am a retired accountant, so I do get pricing things out, making projections, and researching investments but really...this one makes me giggle, giggle far too much for it to be too seriously offensive...as if I was paying attention during the summer time! I admit I jest simply don't pay much attention to the computer and all its pitfalls. Too giddy running about's doing things that need doing, outside. Me be outside unless it is pouring rain and well, coffee break chatter time up and a good laugh with me Buds in 'puterland.

Person is obviously e-mailing me from work, the accounting firm info is plastered all over it but the questions make me giggle--oh how giggly and giddy can I get. Rick says it is someone stringing me a summer time line, but I dunno...could be point blank serious...er not! I just laugh, can't help it. I laugh because if I paid too much attention, I might come off offended by it. So I laugh and enjoy the joke...at my potential expense.

I get a list of questions that range from asking if one breed of chicken (no idea if they want bantams or standards, just the "breed" listed that they desire--most want standard or large fowl because they just expect to get grocery store sized eggs, eh--we have one standard sized breed chook & that be the Chanteclers), so one BREED of chicken can have another breed's VARIETY (Cornish variety of White Laced Red on the Wyandotte breed--I think that is what they want...could be BLUE Laced REDs fer all I know...dunno I never asked the questions) and then in the next question, someone please tell me, for sure, what the heck is a "Red laced Wyandotte chicken/Americano?" It is the AMERICANO part that mystifies me...are they wanting crosses? I don't even OWN Araucanas or Ameraucanas to start with (see the above requesting hatching eggs, at least invest some effort in MOI, the one supposedly with the goods--if you want me to send you off something)...if that is what the word is trying to represent.

So to start, I pretty much know right off, waste of time for me (it is afterall all about ME too...I can be just as selfish as the person on the other end too...my right since they have made it their right...fair is fair I figure) since I can pretty much guarantee, they are not after Chanteclers and those are the only breed of chook we have laying the just expected to be grocery store sized eggs. Done deal if I went by a process of elimination. But let's not stop there, go further since by golly, this is one of the ones that is more than a one liner of "give me your eggs." Remembering of course that the accounting firm they are employed by, is the one paying their wages for the time they are using to investigate the cost effectiveness of owning your own home flock versus grocery store purchases fer cackleberries.

Goes on to ask how much to deliver a dozen birds (of course it is 11 hens and 1 roo...I am guessing this is to be their instant fertile egg layer flock because they also ask questions about when the females begin to lay and on average how many eggs can they expect each week??) to what I presume is their location which is three hours away I believe.

Has anyone tried to ship live animals three hours away...I can muster across the country, got the concept of around the world too--using airlines...but a mere three hours away with live animals. It is a tricky thing and usually, far less costly to jump in your vehicle and GO to the location of the creatures you want. Rick and I spent alot of lovely weekends making long, long, long drives (8 hours round trip--we'd get up way early, do the chores and off we'd go) but enjoyable, because we stopped, ate, did the touristy thing (as much as we do that in a family way), enjoyed the whole process because we both knew that once we had acquired the creauters in the province we lived in, that would be that for the day trips to get stock. We planned to get setup up but enjoy every moment of it, because before you know it, you are set up and the trips to get live critters, those become far and few between. So we planned to enjoy the getting part...as much as we were able. Now we enjoy the owning part...do we EVER!

Yes, I have all you desire! And best part, they just take care of themselves, by themselves, so I can instantly drop my former previous life of home on the biosecure range and jump in the truck and whisk up those 11 females (obviously I am to dispose of those 10 males because you don't want them...given the likelihood of gender ratio is 50/50 males to females) and 1 male. I'm gonna travel now the 3 to 4 hours (plan on getting lost because directions people give are usually terrible...so you go round and round the spot you are suppose to be going to!), 2 or so hours at our place to turn around and drive home 3 more hours. I mean as I said, Rick and I use to do that when we began but hmm....we have alot more now in the summer especially that we do here...we have more to look after and we aren't as eager to do this part some 15 to 20 years later now. We did our acquisition driving...yer turn!


So I am being asked to provide a cost projection fer yah...11 females and 1 male that are delivered to you (hmm, lots of investment of your time & efforts already going into here, eh) ...sounds like a set up for disaster if you wanted my opinion which happens when you contact me, get my opinion<--"Oh, oh I may be getting a tad rude, need to be careful, eh!" When the ONE MALE ends his life (or the very least gets roughed up good enough he can't breed his hens no more) protecting his harem of ELEVEN FEMALES...I am gonna guess you want me to drop my current life again and grab one of these less than desirable MALES who are suddenly very precious and deliver you ONE more male to replace the male that use to exist to service your girls. I am totally against the concept that you keep ONE male...ever, ever...you can begin with a trio for breeding if you like, but you need that insurance policy of more than one precious male...he is the guy that runs at the predators and lays down his very life for his dependents--if something needs protecting, leave it to the Roo a Doo to do and do so well...his harem of girls and the kids are so valuable in his very instinctual makeup, he is the one to guard them with his very well being and life essence.

ONE ROOSTER is a set up for disaster...seen it so often I don't even take a person serious as a breeder when they go into their second generation of birds and have kept one male ONLY back. That is simply nutso and a recipe for disaster fer sure.

Anyone ever heard of the logic behind having at least THREE males for your flock? A breeder male, a second, and a spare to keep the second male company...you can always switch out the three males for diversity's sake and that should be your formula from day one for a healthy sustainable chicken flock you may enjoy for generations to follow. Buying at least three pairs in any breed, let alone variety is a good start...a very sensible and safe GOOD START!!

You would also want the facilities in place for this flock to have an area singled out for say, quaratine for when one of the hens goes setty and wants to raise a batch of chicks and raise them up separately until they are ready to re-join the main flock. An area you may keep two roos in or an area to keep an injured bird or a bird that does not seem to be working out in the pecking order of things and needs a time out to recover if they got beat up recently. So one place for the main flock, a quarantine/injury/broody hen with chicks place too. So basically your very first EVER chicken coop should be one big old place for the main flock, one for the two roos while they wait their turn with the girls, and maybe one for the injured quarantined or settee hen and babes place. Ideally, big place for main flock and three smaller areas if you are able to but at least TWO areas at first. That to me is the absolute minimum containment you should have already set up and in place BEFORE you even start banging on doors looking for animals/birds. I must be some sorta crack pot I guess...because this just seems logical since the least expensive and easiest (and sometimes way too much fun part) is the actual acquisition of the beasties. Getting the chickens is the easiest part...cheapest part too when you figure the facilities/land, ongoing expenses of food, equipment, bedding, etc. Do your homework indeed...which now we will go back and address this cost projection query.

So I "get" the wanting to educate yourself on what variety is possible in what breed (keeping in mind that any breed may be any variety!), usually comes in what variety. I get the part about thinking of pretty feathers on pretty productive egg laying birds...I did that often as a kid when the poultry catalogues I had requested came in...oh the dreams of a child, eh! Brown Leghorns were a vision I thought I needed myself, until I learned about huge single combs/dangly wattles and Canada's noxious weather to those...the flightiness of some breeds, I don't get on well with some of the Mediterranean type breeds, so I go more dual purpose heritage types; big fat squat chicken meaty sized frames, decent eggs too...I love those! That to have production of eggs, the more eggs, the less likely the bird will be worth processing for the other aspect we love about chickens...meat! A give and take kinda situation. I've gotten this and I do know many producers of birds for the Public do have to educate people that you can't have Leghorn egg production and end with a spent hen that is like a Cornish Game Hen for meat at the end of her laying cycle. It just don't jive, eh!

My biggest downfall on queries like this is that when it comes down to it, how long it takes a bird to lay eggs (POL - point of lay) depends on the genetics of the line baring in mind each bird is an individual like we humans are, the methods the breeder uses, and YOUR skilled methods after they become your property...animal husbandry is a skill that is never all done, never complete...you learn, you make mistakes, you fix them one would hope, and you keep at it. How a bird is fed depends on how they grow, produce, even how long they live...add in features like stress that weaken them, where you live, are you bringing home everything and anything from the auctions, visiting other people with chickens and bringing home diseases to infect your flock, how good the facilities are at benefiting them...do your young kids rough up the laying hens, does your dog chase them, have you let them out to free range and predators pick them off or there is no food for them to harvest and produce luscious big eggs too--what do you feed, basically are your birds SAFE, HAPPY, and CONTENT at your place??...

I am not ever going to stake my namesake on something as silly to say, at six months your hens will lay 6 to 7 Jumbo sized eggs a week, for however long." NOT happening, because the moment those POL hens leave my place, they are out of my control. I can give one all sorts of stats for what happens HERE but yer yard ain't my yard and that be that. I also get very suspicious when a dozen birds are wanted with questions about when they lay, how many eggs and you deliver...I am not one of those "rent a hen" places where they rent you everything including the coop and provide the food even. Go to one of those places. Not a market I will ever feed.

Sadly, most often the newness of the fun wears off when they begin to see the reality of how much poop a chicken expels and often the first question one should ask someone wanting chickens fer eggs is how much do you like scooping, pitching poo? Are you able to compost it and use it up or take it some place? Do you have it in you to be there twice a day if the flock is fully contained...to feed/water and collect the eggs...EVERY DAY...winter and summer, spring and fall. How are you at heaving a fifty five pound sack of layer ration into your vehicle, mixing grains in their rations, dealing with rodents, flies, and predators that you have showing up once you have a coop. There are off sides past the glorious tasty healthy eggers in yer fridge.

It is the odd fellow now that wants to responsibility say, "No, I cannot accept that all expense paid vacation on the beach because I don't trust being able to hire someone responsible to take over my duties when I flip my birds, the bird and flock off some place."


When it comes down to the economics of a home flock for eggs...shut the front door, eh. Continue to buy eggs at the grocery...way cheaper (less good but when your main focus is how much $$, that's not about quality of the eggs or the quality of the life the birds will have or even what you have to sacrifice in your own life to do this) or better yet, go and support someone else that sells eggs for consumption that has a heritage flock already established and support their financial investment towards decent eggs you eat. Buy the cream, leave the cow alone please. That vision of a small chook coop on the Prairie is jest that, a Hollywood vision of the idealist where quite frankly, the chickens are doomed to exist maybe as long as it takes to make the movie before they are picked off one by one or all at once, pending what finds out you got free roaming meat on the hoof for the taking.


Sure I am missing out parts but I am sadly a little outta practise as of late but that has been my rant fer the day, eh...

So anyone else getting some "you do the work" and I'll "benefit" from your efforts kinda queries with the expectation of getting a free QUOTE first because it probably costs too much for their budgeted expectations anyway? Back in the day when I was an accountant, I think the going rate for cost projections ran $125 an hour. Glad I'm retired from that...not my problemo no more's.

I got one last load of limerock to top the last place I gravelled up on the Taj Mahal perimeter to do and she will be done like dinner...

Dinner last night;

Mashers, gravy from cream of mush soup with fresh sauted 'shrooms, cauliflower, and pork cutlets...was nummy if it is less than appetizing to look at!​

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[Wisher1000]

"ONE ROOSTER is a set up for disaster...seen it so often I don't even take a person serious as a breeder when they go into their second generation of birds and have kept one male ONLY back. That is simply nutso and a recipe for disaster fer sure.

Anyone ever heard of the logic behind having at least THREE males for your flock? A breeder male, a second, and a spare to keep the second male company...you can always switch out the three males for diversity's sake and that should be your formula from day one for a healthy sustainable chicken flock you may enjoy for generations to follow. Buying at least three pairs in any breed, let alone variety is a good start...a very sensible and safe GOOD START!!"

This made me chuckle. My first Silver Campines were hatchery stock, plucked from a bin of "Mixed Straight Run" chicks. I chose them out of curiosity. I didn't know what they were nor had I ever seen chicks with those markings. I never planned to keep them, no matter what they grew into. I fell in love and it took me several years to locate a pair of breeder quality birds for sale. The breeder happened to be coming to my state from Texas to show her birds and agreed to bring them for me. One pullet was all she was willing to part with, although she had plenty of extra cockerels, don't we all. She drove about 9 hours, and I drove three. I bought the pair that she brought for me and she gave me a cockerel she had entered in the show just so she didn't have to haul him back home. I started with a pair, and a spare. A month later, the hen was taken by a hawk.

Do you know how hard it is to breed two roosters?

 

[drumstick diva]

Aw Wisher - how sad BUT, you're still here and so are your chickens.

 

[scottcaddy]

Have seen several youngsters try it, never found any eggs later.
Scott

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

Yeh, Wisher...two males and no females...might cover it by cloning some male DNA? Bwa ha ha...the hens are a pretty important part of the equation for a successful breeding program and yeh, there have been times where you do have to wonder if you are really meant to have a certain critter...odds sure seem to stack up against you...a hawk eh? Blah! I am glad you are over that hurdle and now have more girls...no luck sometimes or just more of that bad kind...eep!

Busy day yester...and still, my my my learning, it always continues. Never a day you don't learn something new, eh.

Our own greens in the romaine lettuce and green onions​

I picked some romaine for a salad outta the Veg Garden and of course, the birds get the extras...two things followed, things I get to mark in my memories as "By golly, gee!"

First thing. Who do I find ON the NEST incubating the three swan eggs...the male, the cob Piper!

Well I had read that Black Swan pairs share in the incubation process but you know, until you witness it first hand fer yourself, you are forever a skeptic. Off the nest he came and had some of the greens I gave the pair and it was Pearl's turn to go on the nest. Wowsers...shared parental duties at this early stage...how very interesting. Sure hope the eggs are fertilized with all this attention NOW devoted to their benefits...will have to candle them later on and see...fer now, just suck up that they are figuring out the process of making cygnets. Third tim lucky, perhaps--that's alot of stuff they have to be mature enough to know to be doing.

​

Life long dream to have the Blacks but oh my, to be learning fun new things with them too...just too kewl. I wonder what they are gonna teach me about as this whole thing progresses...giddy kewl! What I don't quite get is why I have not read about other Black Swan owners and these observations. This seems to be unreported territory in as far as waterfowl keepers are concerned...I am sure other pairs do this but has anyone seen anyone documenting this with photos and posting it some place public so others out there can witness this? It seems too much fun to just observe and keep it to me and Rick only. The fun is the journey and the sharing of it; the good, bad, and whatevers.

I have also had time to reflect on what I have done in the past with Pearl and her egg laying...two clutches in May and October, I left ONE egg and took the new ones away because they may have frozen because of the colder weather happening at that time of year...that would explain why we got six the last time she laid. She kept adding because there was not a suitable number to set on. This round, I guess three was enough and she quit. Another tidbit I read up on is that the Blacks will lay in the rainy season of the year...so we have had a strange July, more like our Junes are with quite the regular rainy days but still followed by some nice heat too.

I will ponder and debate with myself on this eggy number thing...do I take eggs away the next time to increase her clutch size...or do I leave them well enough alone? Oh the dilemmas we get ourselves thinking about, eh. I may be just kidding myself that I have any sort of control over this but it is interesting to hash it over.


Second thing. Now the other kewl thing was I noted something on the one apple tree in the swan yard...now I knew it flowered but heck, flowering crabapples flower...so when a fruit tree flowers, you enjoy the blossoms but with frost an ever threatening occurrence, never give it much hope that fruit will happen...well indeed! Wow...

​

There are like THIRTY apples (small, but who cares!) on the tree right now! 30 fruits!!!!

Yowsers...fruit!

So I talked with Rick yesterday morning and said, why don't I go harvest some baby potatoes outta the new tater patch...there should be some growing by now and a plate of food with those in it, would be yummy indeed!

Day gets away on me but when Rick comes home, remember, oh yes, taters...grab a shovel and pail, hike out there...

So right off, I slice a tater...yikes...so I move the shovel back a bit on the next, and the next...I harvest eight potatoes and head to go tell Rick his plan for baby potatoes is foiled. Go in and say to him, "Well you are not going to be happy about the BABY potatoes...!" And you can see the disappointment cross his face...

"LOOKIT...they are HUGE!"

​

And while they are a bit scaled (scabbed, due to manure not composted quite as much as we had hoped, two year old bedding tilled in that area, next year should be much nicer), this is the dinner we had last night. Sweet, tasty, wonderful! Now I am like totally scared because usually we only get potatoes this size after the tops have died off and it is the end of the growing season... I planted fifty feet times TWO...a hundred feed of taters! I am balking at that many potatoes and meanwhile, Rick is counting his chooks before the eggs are hatched...he thinks we should expand the new tater patch wider and add in more rows for two hundred feet. Hee hee...he's gonna get himself into trouble because I'll just tell him, you need to build a root cellar for all this production we are doing or thinking of doing. Hee, hee, what a blast eh! Don't even have to leave Pear-A-Dice to cause trouble...ha ha ha.

Here is the resulting dinner we had last night...

NUM!

​

I mentioned to Rick that the three 2x6's, did I nail or screw them together to make the balance beam for the puppies and he just said, "Why not use a solid beam?" Course he got the dull stare of "what beam?" and so yesterday, he tells me when he gets home from work, "You need to go look in the back of the pickup!" And I do and there are two mini beams...what a hoot. I take both out and blighme...how do they do this??...how does Rick see my plywood board I am decorating (thinking he never notices me doing the crafty craft stuff), and how does he come home with the EXACT size of beam for the board...

I am saying, EXACT SIZE! There is just a smidgen of over length on the plywood to ensure the girls don't jamb a sliver in their paws and voila...the exact proper size.

​

I just simply cannot grasp his good luck (or is that crap house luck)...how does he do that? I will never know, but each time he blows my socks off, I just tally it up to his title of HERO! LMBO

​

So like I said, had one more cart of limerock to do the top of the last part of the Taj Mahal perimeter--that would complete it. There was some limerock in the last area but also a mix of gravely bigger pebbles...I could have left it but I would know it was not done right. Those things nag me and I need to do it up right.

​

There, now it is completed properly, a dusting of grey limerock all round and pretty nicely done if I don't say so myself.

​

The Taj Mahal perimeter is finished and I can mark that one off as a job completed and get on to the next one...and the next until the snows start to threaten to stay, eh.

​

With it being overcast and raining every three or four days, it has been a great summer for things like potatoes (obviously) and tree fruits (yeh - 30, one tree!) AND hauling cart loads of gravel. I also dusted up the top of the pathway behind the Lil' Duece Coop and off to the Turkey Barn and Doggone Dog Kennel. So another tidy it up and get the heavy shovelling and carting parts completed. I could bring more back there but for now, it is dusted and dusted is a step in the right direction.

I do hope that we may get old here where although we might not able to shovel and tote those loads about like we use to...most of those jobs will not need doing by then. Called forward planning I guess? Inevitable we are gonna gimp up as we age, just trying to set it up so that part will be A-OK as most of the ugly can't do that no more's is not nagging us.


So yeh, this weekend Rick says we can go to Calgary to hunt down that elusive bag of puppy kibs for the girls. Need to get a rubber backed carpet (flip it over) for the second containment area for the pups, 16 foot rubber runner for from the back door to the dog door out of the Man Porch... Should be good for the fourth of August then.

Pinch me...tiz very close, very close...is dat puppy breath on the winds I smell...well is it!

I need to bank up on the snooze up's real good and make sure I am ready for the mop up after the puppies ordeals...I am betting whatever potty training the breeder has already instilled into them, well heck, the whole newness of getting here should strip that training completely from their dog brains. I'll be following pupper trails all about, running after to mop up the drippy drips, ploppers, and them forever beauty waggy tails...

Hee hee...Carol Burnett outfits, here I come! Whee....

"Do I look fat in this outfit, well now do I??"

​

Luv the bump in her butt and the length of her chin...the booty boots with baggy sockettes work so well for me too...oh my!


Gotta go see if that second water lily flower has changed colour yet...pink to white? The blossom has not opened up since it showed us its pinkness as it has been too cold out...I got way too many silly things to catch my attentions. Way too many to be sensible and not too overly giddy. Ah summer--needs to be short here so we can recover from the shear magnitude of the happy factors, eh.

Can we have too much fun, well can we??

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[scottcaddy]

Ah summer--needs to be short here so we can recover from the shear magnitude of the happy factors, eh.

Can we have too much fun, well can we??

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins


I wonder about the new puppers bringing you guys too much fun?
Scott

 

[drumstick diva]

I'm hoping for a lot of vicarious fun from Tara's puppies trying hard not to stare at the calendar.

 

[CanuckBock]

I wonder about the new puppers bringing you guys too much fun?
Scott

NEWSFLASH: Old couple are found, face down in what appears to have been a puppy playground. Neighbours in the area heard dual howling about 6 p.m. and came over to investigate. They immediately called "911" but the paramedics also had to call Animal Control in because the pair of puppies would not let anyone near the bodies. The son of the deceased couple is having a large estate sale to be held this weekend; lots of trucks and ducks to be dispersed. The pups are NOT for sale and will assist him in keeping the newly inherited "ranch" a going concern after the downsizing sales event.

We shall try to be smarter and arm ourselves with as many save face / work smarter methods as possible (older but wiser? Ha...the wiser ones would not be getting two PUPPIES!!) but I already know, I'm going to be more tired this end of summer than I have ever been in my entire life. The build up has been gradual and I already know I am as gullible as a farm kid at a strip club! I am tired but giddy now...should be a horrific combination.

On our way to town yesterday afternoon, I told Rick, past going out to buy things for puppies and groceries to stock our bellies up with, I've had NO actual real human to human contact period! Computer land kind fer sure, but been holed up getting ready for the girls' arrival has made me a recluse extraordinaire. I am either mentally a very unstable cabin fevered sicko, or a very contented expectant mother to be of immanent twin trouble-makers and too engulfed in nest making to notice the weeks have flown by. Kinda sad...but in some aspects, not so much? I could be leading a worse life, eh.

I'm hoping for a lot of vicarious fun from Tara's puppies trying hard not to stare at the calendar.

You betcha Woman--gonna be FUN!...the fella that did the money transfer in town to pay for the pups came over yesterday with a big smile on his face..."Did the two pups arrive yet?," he queried. I've never done a money transfer so it was really nice to have someone like him that does them every day show a vested interest in making sure this went off without a hitch.

Eight panels, add in two more panels to make ten; three across, two wide to fit the room divided in half - worked very well in the past​

Steal of a real good deal! I have expens but only one panel that has a door in it. Needed two doors (two dogs!), one panel with a door for each of the containment areas. I saw these two at the local pet store back in June but wanted to check prices over at other places. Not bought xpens for years now, so needed to educate myself. Prices ranged from $170 to $220 for the same items, that's a price for one only. These two were priced at $130 each but I offered $210 for both and well, golly, they agreed! Yee Haw...nice black, shiny (I know, silly me!), new and perfect! At $105 a piece...I'm beaming and doing a dastardly if you had to witness it, happy dance!

You will see that we have been trying to keep everything from toys to the accommodations identical for the girls. Not all the dog toys are two of each but those ones I sorted out and will be in a grab bag situation where they both have equal access to making choices...if I find one toy is a fav and needs another identical because it sets off vicious fights, I'll remove it until we can have two so both can play with one each. Might be silly but I don't want to have any differences between them. Like having human kids; no favourites, no differences, equals. Treating them like twins though both are from different litters, four days difference in ages. The hilarious part is that the pups will probably not care one iota but I want to keep things on the level so both are equals...how well that goes once they arrive and start staking claims of ownership over stuff, dunno, but the plan is to be equals...so far at least! We all know how plans of mice and (wo)men go but at least we can tally up we tried to start properly on equal ground all round. Har har...


May not be able to go to Calgary to get puppy kibs this weekend as the forecast is for some more severe ugly weather. My son said last weekend, golf ball sized hail demolished some places in the city where he lives...ghastly. The car lots have alot of insurance claims to complete. The big hail never got him so I was relieved for him but these storms are not casual events...yuck! Alberta...never really that moderate weather wise...one extreme to the other...oh well.

I personally am EVER so glad it is not August the fourth as we still have that rubber carpet to get, got some more work to complete the puppy playground items (I need Rick's advice on whether to nail or screw the pieces together and then he's gotta oversee the building to ensure they are STRONG and properly assembled--no puppy crushing, eh--eep!) and then gotta bring home these special pupper kibbles.

I am HAPPY to have more time on my hands...ever, ever SO happy!

I do know when the girl pups arrive, I will blink and it'll be time for me to get driving the cruel bus again...sheesh. And I'll be asking where did the time go? LMBO...expecting fun...yeh, lots of fun, have to get the cameras all charged up and clear the memory cards...1,000's of pictures...two years back when the two swan girls arrived and were quarantined here for two months (summer time, started July 4th, 2013 when we made the trip to Cargo to pick them up), the very first day after arrival (July 5) I shot over a thousand pictures...I know, ridiculous but I got photos of Fixins greeting them, trying to have a sniff and them puddle paddling...oh my...was way too much FUN! Hee hee...got it captured to enjoy now even years later, eh.

Fixins smelling the crate the girl swans were shipped in...she knows the smell but knows these are NEW ones than the two males we had already!​

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July 5, another big sniff by Fix and the definite, "You back off or else!" stance...


"Sheesh, awful crabby and cranky for girls eh?" "Yeh, come over here again and yer getting billed!"

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"I'm gonna go over here and be with Tara...she don't hiss at me & flip me the BIRD!" Poor Fixins, jest wants to get to know them better so she can watch over them!​

Coupla days later, July 10th, things just fell into a nice dull roar and all got along well enough...ignoring each other, eh!

Yeh, clicker crazy indeed..."And here the puppies breathed...and here they played...and here they had a piddle <<stop to clean that up>>, and here the other one had a piddle <<stop & mop again>> and this one ate a bug, and this is where she spit it out, another piddle (or no, a poop) <<stop and scoop>>...

Oh yeh, be more fun that a lint picker at a blue serge factory...more fun for some than watching paint dry...hee hee. Oh well!

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[scottcaddy]

Just as long as you guys keep on taking things easy, have a bit of fun!!

Scott