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

The Hoo Doos are just AWESOME !! and I THOUGHT Canada just had sled dogs and Royal Mounties, and Rat ranch - not meant as an insult - I've just never been much of anywhere.
 
I am right there with you, Diva, I had no idea. All I have ever thought about was that Canada is north of our northern border, there are mountains, forests, rivers, and such between us an Alaska. Like the setting for My Side of the Mountain or Hatchet.
 
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Must be summer time...having those summer time issues uploading photos on the Net...not enough service provided for the persons out and about here now...love winter, quieter, better net service...oh bother, oh well...suck it up buttercup, eh!


I posted this thread so people would realize...paradise is not some hot beach with sand, surf and a silly palm tree...Pear-A-Dice is what you make of it and Pear-A-Dice IS where I reside every second of my existence. Happiness is right behind your eyes as Rick says.

I live in Paradise...I love the variety of seasons we have (not bored!) and surely one should not blink...
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Or the WHITE will go GREEN and well, then we are just a tad too tired sucking it all up.
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Kinda kewl those Hoodoos...they run right up to Calgary even...
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Oh yeh...the Mounties always get their man...
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Many ARE women...
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There are a few Canuck comedians that have had great fun at the Yankee's expenses...person on the street doing the interviews with the microphone and camera rolling.


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Show them Canadian Tire money and tell them this is the King of Canada...has us Great White Northerners rolling in the aisles...
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That we all live in igloos and when those melt, we all fly (them be snowbirds) off to Florida to wait for spring break up to finish...hurry on home for that one weekend of summer we get up here.

That our nickels are wooden (see the beaver?) and we eat only back bacon and maple syrup...we're sexy in flannel and warm to snuggle up to.
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Our noses are blue (blue nose from the blue mittens we wipe with when sailing on our only ship) and we say "eh" to warm up our frozen digits (that one be mine, eh).
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Gullible...sure, why not...I am sure you can pull the wool over my own eyes about some of the customs you Yanks have that we don't know about (or at best understand?).


Being Canadian is what makes me proud. The Ft. Mac fires have shown how generous and kind we are when the chips are down and horror is on the go. People where making the rounds when the vehicles were stuck waiting for the highway to open up...with apple sauce and bottled water and even free fuel for those that ran out (gas stations were hit hard with the evac that happened). Kindness of strangers. People are rallying up diapers, toiletries, donation of money to the Red Cross is now in the millions of dollars, to be matched dollar per dollar by our Fed gov't.

Rick once left his wallet on a fast food table...it contained more than $1,000 cash as we had stopped before doing our shopping for several months. When he realized what he did, we went back (about 20 minutes later) and the wallet had been turned in at the front counter...the cash intact.

Complete strangers here hold doors open, say "please" and "thank you" and bloody well mean it. We don't fake much and when you make us angry, we are a force to contend with, but we do take a while to rile up...hard thawing out quickly from a spark to an inferno, eh. We do alot of whining if something is bad before we do something about it. Could be the ten months of winter we endure...how it'll take care of itself and it is far too frigid to don the big boots, coat, toque (you guys have no word for TOQUE...hat perhaps?) before it fixed itself anyway.

I love my country...love the diversity, like the weather because give it ten minutes and it'll fix itself by changing. Morning bus kids regularly get on with the toque, boots and shorts...they are ready for anything thrown their way. You don't have bug spray and suntan lotion...yer a greenhorn idiot round these parts.

Tough on the outside and soft guts and mushy mushy insides...yeh, that be a Canuck. Good to know one of us because we are keepers and we are steadfast loyal...if'n we bother to like you that is.
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I am CANADIAN!


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Best kept secret is Canada...hush up...we don't want an influx of many persons to ruin what we hold so dear.
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That we have pristine wilderness, that I live where I can be completely alone for an entire day...devoid of humans till Rick comes wandering back home.

I can choose to carry a firearm or not...that I don't need one to protect myself (pitchfork for the occasional displaced baby black bear tho).

I can visit the city and not know what city in which country it is...because we have made cities often so identical you could be anywhere for all the good that does you! Look the same to moi...too many people wedged in a small place paying too much to stay thar I figure.
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I like the ability we now have to access information instantaneously...
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Case in point...
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitterroot_Range:
Have today off...actually slept in an hour...
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Tilled yesterday...


This is the allowed to dry out, half of the old strawberry barrel dirt
till it flat and rake it out




Planted some beans...


All my pole, last of my bush beans from years prior and the runner ones. Well, OK to be concise...planted half of the new gotten bean packages and saved the other half for next season.
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Last night it froze...gate is covered in ice because we got that much needed moisture. I never watered the beans so no issues. Talked it over with Rick and we were given a food grade plastic watering tank, small one compared to our large metal one.



Got this one in 1998 and Rick spiffed her up, painted her (needs another coat it seems...dang time flies when yer having fun eh?), and put wooden and metal supported runners on her. She started life as a fuel tank we believe...has baffles in it. We fill this with water in the warm seasons...for fire fighting reserves. Not sure how much liquid it holds but she's a big un.

The small one I got might be under a 100 gallons...what will be nice is the ability to water with warmer water than direct outta the well kind.

Got some pallets leaning against the fence in the Ram Pasture, so will haul it out and fill it sitting up so I can gravity water the beans and whatever else I decide to try out in this new patch of garden accosted space.

Got a warning on the computer that it was heating up, so decided to kill two birds, one stone. Had slipped one of my photo cards into the wrong slot back in August and decide, well may as well clean the CPU fan and get the card out. Laughed...had saved the disk before being fumble fingers and it was for August 28 of last year.

Here are two clicks of the dogs from yesterday and then some of them from back then. Ponder why I struggle with "not a pup" cause its a year old...yeh...sure...


There are TWO, not one, but TWO big containers of free access dog toys...but nope...gotta play with a rock I touched...moved it from where I tilled in the half of strawberry barrel dirt...yeh...a rock.


Just like a kid...get a new toy...don't play with the new toy...play with the dang BOX it came in...
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August 28, 2015 - Rick was in the midst of doing up the Parking Building...


The girls had been here for three weeks...jest 21 days...


Hmmm...stock dogs in the making or already stalking?



Australian meets Australian...see the waggy tail...wanna be my friend fellow countryperson?



The dogs HAVE the herding instincts...see the Emmy driving the Pearl to her home...



Holding the gaggle of geese put

Even the tater and corn patch was photoed...and now twice as big
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And the veg garden last year...nice and green and lush...

And them girl dogs learned about them PEAS that I plant fur the dawgs...
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Peas planted for them girls


That Lacy lives up to her registered name of being a LADY...when it comes to table manners
Grabbing of the HUGS are quite another story...
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And Emmy...well she just worries she won't get her fair share...2/3's is HER half.
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But see how quickly the rambunctious bad dogs don't get peas...NO peas until...


Sitting and being proper ladies is expected...then eating of peas may proceed...
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Weird thing about the old photos on the card...I clicked this of the Ram Pasture...spooky...right were I am messing with now?



Off to the city to purchase pre-grown Portulaca... grew it from seed and it takes so ever long...gonna cheat. My FIL loved this plant the bestest...I plant it each year and think of him every time I tend to it.

Look over some small fish for the whiskey barrel perhaps...and jest do a loser lap with my love a dove...that bad man that torments dogs and me... keeps us on our toes that one.
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Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada
 
Hope Tara and family are safe and far from the fires. 3 days since her last message.
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All fine...we got rain. Not the deluge needed to satisfy all the Canuck goosies looking for potential nesting sites but some to settle the dust.

Fire I hear is headed off north and east. No smoke even down here thanks to the direction of the winds. The Slave Lake fire years back, we had the dark skies and red sun then.



So see anything new here...and DD can't say because I already told her about this particular project...
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Now not sure I am gonna plant in it...because it was -2C here and this is the ice on the cactus bird bath...



See the new raspberry planter!
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Tonight, down to -4C...so I may plug in the raspberries and throw cautions to the winds er not. I need to transplant the yeller ones gone wild in the veg garden and the purple ones I got in.



I laughed because after work, Rick came out and fixed my attempts at a planter...they were fast heading towards that infamous sheep feeder I once wasted good wood on making...whee hee hee...saved by the Rick. The dogs kept jumping in and outta the planter and Rick kept telling them it was a badly made casket they should avoid...oh brother...well I never did profess to being a good builder...
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Rick makes the good stuff and I fill them up or bust them ... it is a TEAM effort most days.



So got the Portulaca I wanted... plus a fancy variety...red one.
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Rick floating the bags the fishies came in...

Got the fish...found two good un's...



One Butterfly Koi (orange) and one Koi (yeller)



Broke down and bought a fish pond ornament...dragon with open jaws...me no resist it.
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Makes me laugh every time I look at the silly thing
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Nutso flowering going on here - thunderchild flowering crabapple


Had all the grazers out...
Lacy trying to entice sheepy wether to play with dog, Emmy grazing on grasses with the ruminants, and Foamo just enjoying the moment not being mauled by the girls.
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Cleaned the girls pens from top to bottom...



Girls inspecting...


Lacy checking the strawberries with Emmy sipping fish water...

And as Rick calls it, Mother's Day WEEKEND...meant we made a trip to the city.

So here's the deal, since I figure any city is a city in any country...what place did we visit...here are some clues...
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Typical city...building, transit, street lights, wall to wall vehicles...yeh...no clue where yet...
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Did we go cross border shopping...for there are USA FLAGS adorning this house...three to one Canuck?
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OK>>>OK...this be a better set of clues...good gack! These stores are everywhere...
Sorta like an infestation of WEEDS!
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Ah yes...we know what country we were in...now for which city...
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Land of the big chook
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OK...we went to Calgary...
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We had a lovely Chinese dinner/lunch at the Dell (swung by the bakery next door and drooled on their cream puffs, bought raison bread for toast the next day) and stopped by for fritters and chicken take out for supper at Chicken on the Way (eh!)...Perfection from Mah's weekend...hee hee...
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Photos loaded up good today...tomorrow, who's to say, eh.





Took these special for DD
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Limestone hoodoos on the outskirts of Calgary...so
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Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada
 
Lots of cattle dog stuff at zazzle.com they have a Canadian site but, prices are high and discounts are much lower than USA. I know ,my sister accidentally got me a gift certificate for Canada and I couldn't use it in USA- plus I had to order a certain amount and all kinds of red tape. Really got a raw deal. How she ended up with the Canadian site - I have no idea.
 

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