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

[CanuckBock]

could it be a Pine Siskin? I know that name from somewhere but, have never seen what they look like.

Too small DD for a pine siskin (Spinus pinus)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_siskin

. In both sexes, total length can range from 11–14 cm (4.3–5.5 in), with a wingspan of 18–22 cm (7.1–8.7 in) and weight of 12–18 g (0.42–0.63 oz).

I did some closer looking and think now this may be the white-winged Crossbill (Loxia leucoptera)

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/White-winged_Crossbill/id:

:
The two-barred crossbill (Loxia leucoptera), known as the white-winged crossbill in North America, is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae. It has two subspecies, white-winged crossbill Loxia leucoptera leucoptera in North America, and two-barred crossbill Loxia leucoptera bifasciata in NE Europe and N Asia.

This bird breeds in the coniferous forests of Alaska, Canada, northernmost USA and across Asia extending into northeast Europe. It nests in conifers, laying 3–5 eggs.

I keep laughing at myself...I keep having issues IDing all these free loaders but also smiling the biggest of grins that we have such an abundance around to be confused by!

Found a wonderful find in the Duece Coop today...

Two of our Chantecler pullets are laying...

The real blooded bantams I have created

MEDIUM - 50.9 grams!​

The standard Chants...

LARGE - 60 grams!​

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

Well I finally got a click near as fun as the click Coop Slave sent me some years ago...

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Not her photo, but entitled "like my hat!" Course I thought it cute...here is the Great White North's version of the above...

Jan 15, 2016​

Tee hee hee...this ones a BLUE ACD with a RED ACD hat...

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[CanuckBock]

Saddened today.

Java is the one on the puppy slide​

Fixins' sister Java was put to sleep yesterday.

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The Java-myster had her own flock of chooks to look after

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Got me all snuffly

Larry took this pic of Java and it would have been pretty soon after they took her to her forever home
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Java had a heart shaped marking where her Bentley is...such a sweetness.

Be at peace Java...say "heel low" to Fixins for us all.​

Tara

 

[Wisher1000]

So sorry, Tara, old age?

 

[CanuckBock]

So sorry, Tara, old age?

Correct, born July 14, 2001 like Fixins so 14.5 years.

Worst reason of all to pass; she got old, parts all worn out & used up.

She had a good life like Fixins did...all we may hope for our dogs.

I am told, "could see in her eyes she was wanting to go, not fun anymore."

 

[drumstick diva]

AW R.I.P. Java - hope you and Fixins remember each other.

 

[CanuckBock]

AW R.I.P. Java - hope you and Fixins remember each other.

Oh yes, them girls know each other.

We did have the pleasure of having Java's family come visit when Java was an adult. We laughed because both red girls were not pleased to see themselves in the flesh. GRRRR!!!!!!!

Was not for too many days, a weekend but it went from "I hate you because you remind me of MOI!" to where I suspect they would likely have become best warrior princess girl-fiends!

I guess I just figure life SUCKS when we get old, use up our parts, and push the expiry date on the envelope to the very end of what is an expected life span.

I WANT MORE TIME!

 

[Wisher1000]

I respectfully disagree. I think for dogs (and hoomuns) there may be some disappointment when old age slows us down and our parts don't work like they used to, but there is a quiet satisfaction that you did wear them out. You lived long enough to have been able to use them up. What a shame to leave before then, when the parts still had work to do, when there was still life to live.

 

[CanuckBock]

I respectfully disagree. I think for dogs (and hoomuns) there may be some disappointment when old age slows us down and our parts don't work like they used to, but there is a quiet satisfaction that you did wear them out. You lived long enough to have been able to use them up. What a shame to leave before then, when the parts still had work to do, when there was still life to live.

I don't think I disagree with you Wisher...

Why does this (thinking Redpoll-genus Acanthis- 'cause Blooie showed me hers!) bird look so marvelous...WHY? It is just a free loading BIRD!

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These ones too...

Pine Grosbeaks (Pinicola enucleator), a pair (even the gal looks purdy!).
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The taste of the three cookies I just ate, the smell of the first cup of coffee I sipped...why do they taste & smell so GOOD?

Coming into the yard to hear the sound of a bazillion birds eating the feed Rick puts out...why does that sound give me goosebumps (and yet if it was honking cars in a city, I'd hate it!).

The feel of the fur dogs that both let me give them big GOOD MORNING <<hugs>> this morn...the feel is so out there --unquenchable I want to go hug them and muss up their furs all over again simply because I can FEEL how GOOD that is.

The simple sight of the sun rising this morn, the colours on the clouds...the joy and happiness I feel every day I awake once more to suck it all in and run silly thru them possies.

Japanese Proverb:

To grow old and get robbed of even one of theses senses, yeh, I get we get to ramp up the other remaining ones to make up for the loss but why as we age do we lose those senses...the ability to walk, to look after ourselves (wanna see determined, watch an oldster hang on to the ability to tie our shoes --Velcro ones if we hafta-- that we start out helpless and often if we live long enough on this Earth...end up the same way), I want to not lose anything as I age except the inexperience of youth, the lack of fear one sees in those that don't know any better (65% of people here don't mind paying with a debit or credit card...they don't realize the right they lose by paying with cash--giving over your right to PRIVACY...they don't even realize their rights are being violated by the supposed convenience of swiping instead of using actual REAL physical currency and many PAY user fees to be violated this way...incredible!!).


Why is it when we get older, softer, weaker...not just thinner skin that finds Rick covered in red when he monkey wrenches on his trucks (he curses his arms...mere flick and he busts blood there now!), but we seem to get milder than our youthful selves. I mean having a softer temperament is good because I don't think getting too excited over things in a bad way is good for anyone any age...but as we get less tough as we age, when we begin to mellow out like a fine wine...why do the things we love so much have to die?

I know there is NO answer but when I was younger and we were building our family with brand new lives all around us...now as I too age and see 12 year old sheep I lambed out and 8 year old poultry that were my first of those breeds begin to get that look in their eyes... I some how wish it was the other way round...that you had to lose your loved ones when you were young and you got to keep the old ones as you too got old because I can't seem to handle it as well I believe. I have less tolerances, less distractions from the true meaning of living I guess. I value life more, killing something to put on my plate has a much deeper cost to me. I get what living is about more because I guess I can reflect on living because I too am getting long in the tooth and fatter around the middle (hmm...tenderized big butt roast anyone?).

I have no answers but I don't disagree with you Wisher...we do need to wear our parts out, screaming a war cry as we hop on the toboggan down that slippery slope to the tunnel where there might be a light or not at the end of the run.

Rick explains it well as he sees with each creature that passes on from old age, his own mortality staring HIM in the face. Selfishly, we pay way more attention because the next grave dug may indeed be our own and I don't think the humans here are quite finished with living...not yet, not now, more time please...

So I will take heart in this quote...and suck it up Buttercup and get on with the livin'...

De Ira Seneca:

Life, if well lived, is long enough.​

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I guess I be greedy...don't let it stop--I'm not ready to drop!

 

[Wisher1000]

See? If you leave this world while still young, you never learn to slow down and appreciate the birds and the smell of fresh coffee. As for becoming helpless, well, I think that is the Lord's way of making us not so sorry to go when it's time, and of making it easier on those who love us to let us go. It is all that way for a reason..... My Dad, now 93, was strong, vibrant, and capable when he was younger. Now, his knees won't hold him long, his eyes show him only blurs and shadows, and his hearing is almost gone. He can't enjoy gardening, reading the paper, or playing golf. His only pleasure is in his family. We are the world to him but sometimes, when I visit, he doesn't recognize me. He's ready to go. I'm ready to let him go. I hate to see him like this and I know he hates it more. I will be sad when he's gone, but the longer he stays, the less happy he will be. That is what will take the sting out of losing him when that time comes.