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

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

Gonna post a post about the Higgins White Dove bantam Chantecler project.

So will edit this spot over the next bitta time.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

Little wonder I make the rounds tossing and topping water for them critters. Yeh, so much for 28C yesterday...HA--maybe inside the house which was 24C...

39.4C is 103F

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Whatever...figure we are four to six weeks ahead of season now.

Din was great...make no mistake!​

So been worrying about the Bluebirds we WANT nesting in the boxes Rick has made...so many crow type (magpies, ravens) birds on the influx here. More like vermin and not at all nice to other nesting birds...invasive and mean...

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But no fear...they be here and looks like staying to put up a fight too!

Female Bluebird​

Male Bluebird​

Took a quick walk about...here's a quick tour in the morn here...girl dogs were inside sleeping off breakfast...donna wanna disturb their beauty rest.

Pond and waterfall in front yard



Taj Mahal
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Little wonder it takes a brisk three hour walk to get about here on a tour...a place of timeless harmony, eh.

Ram Pasture
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Paradise...an Iranian word modified by the Greeks for "enclosed park." Yeh, park yer butt a while...

Greenhouse in New Orchard​

I guess this year is the work on New Orchard revamp seeing as the strawberries are in, greenhouse has lotsa plants ready to fill her on up...yeh...making it a sanctuary of sorts fur sure.

The Inukshuk needs a dog fiend...gotta get me a nice big triangle rock for a dog...jest gotta...​

Rick's wood pile for splitting is on the major grow...gotta swing by and place these nice and tidy like...so we can get MORE in the same space. And more and more!

Wall of wood materials in the makings

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So as expected...two ferns planted yesterday...

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The two blackberry canes planted...

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That leaves asparagus and raspberries in the tenders past them potatoes...I see a few straggler yellow raspberries are beside my Veg Garden rhubarb...so mighten dig those free from the fence line and add them to these purple ones I have...kinda a neat mix of colours I suspect. Love me colours, eh!

Yeller raspberries on the right side thar​

Speaking of colours, the back ordered seeds from Hope Seeds came...carrots...a mix of rainbow ones and a red variety...colours indeed!

How happy are the strawberries...lookin' HAPPY JOY JOY!​

Flowers...good golly the promise of floral VAVOOM!

Dolgo espalier ready to BUST out!​

Honeyberries with buzzy bees visiting



Mayday...some years these trees wait to bloom in JUNE...not this year!



Saskatoons are getting ready to make their presence known



Water plants by Inukshuk are peaking out​

Even the lilacs we planted in 1999 are reaching for the skies to bloom up ​

Laugh as the pending perfumed airs are gonna be something to enjoy...as Rick says, "Lilacs...smells like a bus load of old ladies!" So I guess it be OLD LADY time...soon, very soon.

We mighten have a long cold winter as normal up here in the Great White North, but when the weather is fine and it is the right time...look out already...

Don't blink or you'll miss out on something, eh.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[Wisher1000]

Do I understand you to say that the outside temperature where you live, in Canada, is 103F?!!? Is that common?

ETAsk - What is the purpose of the animal crate on the corner of the ram pasture?

 

[drumstick diva]

 

[scottcaddy]

Tara, I Hope that you and yours are not in the danger zone.

Scott

 

[CanuckBock]

Do I understand you to say that the outside temperature where you live, in Canada, is 103F?!!? Is that common?

ETAsk - What is the purpose of the animal crate on the corner of the ram pasture?

What do you mean by common? If at least once a year we see the mercury go thar...I guess it is common enough happening here.

July 7, 2012
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I don't often take photos of the temperatures outside...but these are two years for the sake of posting silly clicks of the temps here... 2012 & 2014...

July 15, 2014​

Now stop and look close...there is a minus in front of that number at the top for outside...that be winter time, eh!

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Canada is very diverse and we have everything from tundra to deserts...with all things in between. Drumheller has prickly pear cactus...that be the place where Rick was born...grew a fab garden but they flooded the patch all night long. A friend of ours lives in Bassano (good potatoes grown there!) and in 1931 it hit 43.3 °C (110 °F)...We moved from Kamloops to Alberta and it was 104 °F...I can say sure was glad Rick rented a Ryder truck that had air conditioning IN the cargo space...we set up lawn chairs and took many breaks...still can feel that HEAT...yuck!

Hate the heat...HATE it...anything above room temperature sucks. Can't do a decent day's work in heat...so me luv the cold...cold is good, can always put layers on...when you are down to bare skin and soaking in ice in a tub...what goes next...yer skin that you are in...hate heat...love cold!

January 11, 1911 in Fort Vermilion, Alberta it went down to −60.6 °C (-77°F). In 1972, High Level went to -50°C (-58°F) ... and when we moved here, one of the first winters we saw here at Pear-A-Dice went down to -53°C...that was NOT a record breaker because back in 1929 it had already done that for Rocky Mountain House (−53.3 °C / -63.9°F)! These are official records and can be found on Wikipedia fur anyone wanting to validate it (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_extreme_temperatures_in_Canada).


Crate...ha ha ha...you donna be knowing us here eh...ever since we flooded in 2003 and had to evacuate the ruminants and pray ALL the birds did not drown, I've made it my duty to have enough crates to evacuate ALL the creatures. Bought rabbit cages, crates, etc. and we now have the two trailers and trucks to haul the trailers with (no big fancy diamond ring on my finger...I always said, when to be wed--gimme a stock trailer, no stoopid useless jewlery...TRAILER to haul me creatures in!) ...oh yeh, and I braided up a rope halter and lead for every single dang four legged ruminant...so all have leads. Every one of them is halter trained and trained to stand quietly tied high. Yup...jest in case cause you never know.

The "extra" crate sits outside the Ram Pasture for practise when we were training Lacy and Emmy for the dog show in April. I knew there might be a time where I might have a dog that needed to be crated and set that crate up outside the area I was pretending to run silly around the ring in. The dogs were taught to walk in and get a piece of biscuit. Then we worked on me running one and the other waiting in the crate just outside our imaginary show ring. Does that make it make sense why it is sitting there...I guess I should have hauled it back to the Hay and Straw barn eh--should make that a more "to do" thing I guess, as I suspect the heat and sunlight will make it not last as long as it should)...that was one of four I bought when the provincial government here gave a rebate to each and every citizen for something about a gas royalty...forget but do remember we got $400, so natch, I bought four matching crates at back then, that was the number of ACDs we had.

Great ice cream weather my Dear DD...jest ask the girl dogs...that and hose chasing which Rick (bad bad man) did with them yesterday evening.

Tara, I Hope that you and yours are not in the danger zone.

Scott

Not here but could well be if'n we don't see some much needed rain...suppose to rain today, Monday and Tuesday...a deluge would be nice...a regular June would be good too.

The Ft. Mack horror, that is north of us but we have had multiple fires here threaten us and our loved ones...had one fire just across the river that threatened to come our way, few years back--long ago now they actually harvested the burnt timber and processed it.

Then there is always the cig out the window in the ditch blazes (why I have the elenet and graze the ruminants in our ditches PLUS Rick mows it and keeps the tinder dry tall stuff down).

See the three dots in the sky...​

In May of 2013...we saw an old abandoned lathing saw mill catch fire in the quarter next to us. Thought when I went off to drive bus I might not come home to a house still standing. See the three helibombers?

Only one dot (helicopter) but still had the girls all l00king at the noisy machine​

Upset the Chanteclers, that buzzing like on M*A*S*H!!

 

[Wisher1000]

I hear ya' on the summer highs, but this is barely MAY!

 

[perchie.girl]

Sheesh 104 thist time of year is extreme even for my place up in the Desert.... we dont get those temps till July - August.

For what its worth not all deserts are hot. Desert is defined by rainfall. Mine is a mild desert.

deb

 

[CanuckBock]

I hear ya' on the summer highs, but this is barely MAY!

Please note...I am saying we are FOUR to SIX WEEKS ahead for the season. It is not May we are experiencing...technically it MUST BE the middle of June and maybe a tad later.

I watch the plants & wild birds to tell me what TIME it is...the May Days bloom in JUNE here...and they are blooming...the Bluebirds are nesting...the bees are a buzzing.

The Dolgo crabapple blooms in the middle of JUNE and it is getting ready to bloom. I will be taking photos when it does and noting what date it is...soon!

June 14, 2009 --blooming Dolgo and FIVE ACDs
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Note how this tree has come back from the DEAD...it was hacked on by the previous owner's kid (who was given a hatchet and let loose to do carnage here!--along with the three topped Christmas trees they harvested from their own yard and tossed over the back fence--tinsel and all...yeh, whatever). Rick and baby it as it was plum near DEAD...I pruned it over the years (not to shock the poor thing that was hanging for its dear life) to become a respectable BALL of glory and Rick gives it (and everything else) a regular drink...care for it greatly and this is how the plants show their appreciation...by putting on one heck of a good SHOW!

June 14, 2014 --blooming Dolgo and two ACDs


Lookit the dingly crabapples... 2013​

I have photos of Rick washing down ice in the fish pond and waterfall and he had the fish in long, long time ago. EARLY...way early.

April 30, 2015 - See the ICE last year?? It snowed on May 6, 2015 too...​

Well over the past five years, can honestly say four of the Mays have been the driest and HOTTEST they can possibly be.

The one in 2013 was hot and dry and then the fire cross the road just topped it in our books. This year, I get to drive bus in like 104F weather...and the MD grader jest hasta do road work and the dust is this grey powder...yeh, makes it miserable to be not only HOT but dirty DUSTY too...oh well. Hoping for a regular WET June to top up our water table and make things grow.

I can rest assured at least today is nice...we did get rain as said and hoping to see more on Monday and Tuesday (suppose to be a wet week...now that would be delish!).


So as we are suppose to be enduring climate changes...out on the WEsT Coast it was terribly dry (should rain like 90 days straight) and over here, more rain than normal after that year of snowmagedon...nothing changed on the moisture front of 2014...in that every three days, moisture of some sort came down. More snow than even I who adore it could fathom. So I guess it will be normal (fur now) to see hot and dry Mays...hoping we do see wet Junes which is more the norm for here.

Was great in 1999 when June was a deluge because that was the year I planted the shelterbelts. Laughed as Rick told the kid..."Here's a tinfoil hat for your Mother...go give it to her to wear..." Rain = lightning and well back in 1999, the mortgage was life insured...now we are durn near close to making our last payments...so I may be not worth so much DEAD any more...that BAD man, eh! BONUS...wifey is gone and the place is paid for...that man...bad, bad, bad to the bone!

June 29 2013 - Hail, enough to look like snow and fill up the ditches
Never ever figure you won't experience frozen water here!​

I can honestly say the new normal for weather is basically extremes. 2005 Father's Day saw a wet spring and five to six inches for a week straight hit us with the supposed flood of the century...yeh right--flood of the century my BUTT... It did the same thing a few years later and we never flooded (in 2005 the water, it perked right up outta the ground...three feet of bubbling water UP from the ground) but Calgary did...oh boo hoo...they just happen to build right up to the water's edge and their buildings are mega money suckers...so their losses were more than our losses in the sense of tight confines and cost to build there. So we expect driest and wettest and I'll smack or box the ears of the next person that tries the line "something of the CENTURY" because I must then be a bazillion years young by now!

So on to the regular happenings going around here...

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Waz up with them two dogs...??? Antz in their pants?

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Some savage nuisance that needs attacking??​

Twas Lacy's B-Day yesterday...so rather fitting Rick played hose the dogettes...Lacy so LUVs that game and screams like a wee school girl with her barkies...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LACY!!!!!

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Lacy's absolute FAV GAME...kill the water stream...KILL IT!

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Is it dead yet...well is it?

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And course Emmy is more the thinker...so she has to be enticed into the shenanigans...tweak her curiosity and she's ever so sunk...cause she thunk...

What is Emmy up to?



Lacy comes to help out... ​

Rick is SO busted...

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The water comes on...the water goes off...the water goes on...off...on...yeh...easily amused indeed! How BAD is that man...way too bad...BAD!!!!!!!!!!!

So what did Emmy give Lacy for her big B-Day??

Emmy let Lacy chow down and bite her...no fight, jest lay there...



Can you see it on her face, Emmy is so letting Lacy have her dog day, eh ​

Then it was run runs time...run the fizzle outta the soggy doggies...run them racers...RUN!

The dynamic duo
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Nothing up to but TROUBLE​

So got some things done like always...

Got the firewood stacked tidy...

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Got the corrals wired up...

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Got the t-posts placed...

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Got the bean supports wired up...

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Now to till it up with my tiller and get seeding it.

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Got the dog gate in place...

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Taught the dogs how to go thru and come back...

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Both know what the slider is for...

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So now there should not be any accidents roaring thru their passage way.

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Dinner was great...

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Goes without saying the dogs were extra cute yesterday...

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Gonna be extra hard for me to remember...to quit calling them puppers...Lacy is one years old and soon enough, Emmy will too.

Barking Emmest​

Good gack...

Patiently awaiting on moi!​

How to remember these are now gonna hafta be DOGS...hee hee...

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Oh well...I guess you will have to be kind to me when I make the occasional slip up...

OH PUPPERS!

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Skies were overcast yesterday...and lots of nice long drizzles today! I am so happy to see the rain come...we so need it...everywhere's up here.

Wishing we could share the wealth of cooler weather AND the much needed RAINS with Ft. Mac and surrounding areas. The wicked wildfires have displaced 90,000 (Fort McMurray is completely evacuated and now they are working on the towns and reserves around it to be vacated...can't stop the burnings)...that many persons exited out and yesterday, I heard that they lost 1,600 buildings...that being people's homes, people's Pear-A-Dices...people's blood, sweat and now gone to tears as it is all gone...men were being filmed breaking into tears and having to turn away from the cameras ...cannot bear to see what they worked for go up in seconds...some left with nothing more than the clothes on their backs. Sunday was when the fires approached and the videos I have seen have been just like a wall of flames descended on them. Ran with their lives...two had a car crash and died, one baby born, a sprained ankle, fire fighters exhausted but getting help from all over, and that be that...90,000 moved out...pretty astonishing they managed that.

Best thoughts and wishes sent their way...may the fires fizzle out, the winds die off, and the incredible heat stop making it unmanageable. What horror!

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[CanuckBock]

Sheesh 104 thist time of year is extreme even for my place up in the Desert.... we dont get those temps till July - August.

For what its worth not all deserts are hot. Desert is defined by rainfall. Mine is a mild desert.

deb

Rick was born in Drumheller, in the Badlands as it is called...when his family moved out, they turned his home into a chicken coop. His father worked in the coal mines as the man with the sledge hammering in the supports for the mine shafts...not an easy job physically. Thankfully his father changed occupations, moved to Bowness (Calgary now) and taught at SAIT...brawny and brainy, he had tickets of all sorts (from working full time but going to night school to get ahead); welding, steam/boiler engineer, etc. Rick says to stop him from going nuts on road trip holidays with all the kids...he would add up license plate numbers to keep himself occupied...bwa ha ha...

These are the hoodoos in Drum ​

Tons of fossils found in Drumheller...place too of the world's largest dinosaur...I bin up in it...very neat.

:
Bitterroot has historically been an important food plant among the Interior Salish peoples of the Columbia Plateau, including the Spokane. The roots were gathered in April or May, "just before the plants were in full bloom" (Turner, Bouchard, & Kennedy, 1980, p. 114). They were subsequently dried in the sun and preserved for winter use. Bitterroots were also an important trade item, and were so central to local culture that the Spokane, along with several neighboring tribes, named the month of April in honor of this plant. "Merriwether Lewis first collected it in 1806 in Montana. When his pressed, dried specimen was examined months later, it still showed signs of life and when planted, it promptly grew; so it was called rediviva meaning 'restored to life'" (Parish, Coupé, & Lloyd, 1996, p. 257).

When the dessert blooms, it is gorgeous...