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

[scottcaddy]

Thanks Tara!

Scott

 

[drumstick diva]

Hi Scott, I miss you

 

[drumstick diva]

oh no, did I say that out loud? I thought I just mouthed the words

 

[scottcaddy]

lovesyamuchly!
Scott

 

[CanuckBock]

Thanks Tara!

Scott

Yer most welcome, eh!

Jon Stewart:

Be afraid...very afraid of the abominable snow persons...BOO...hee hee...

So not much freezing at least for the rest of this week...I bin so waiting on that forecast...so waiting...to leave my taters out on the Man Porch, to get the raspberries & asparagus IN the ground...to transplant my Peonies (did that yesterday)...

See if'n I can even LOAD up on photo...OK, here it is then... ​

Yeh, holy Toledo...cripers the service provider we have has dropped the ball...oh well. I cannot reply to my e-mails, I can barely get text up here or emoticons (the computer coffee one took THREE TRIES before it'd load and when it did, an "x" showed up with another same one below...good GACK--not gotta peruse to make sure stuff is not lingering some place in my posted where it should NOT be!), let alone photos...oh well, welcome to summer time, and people living under my tower stealing my tiny bitta space to send and receive data. No surprise...every year it gets worse and worse and I get older and lose my patience more and more.

Oh well, I so want to be out and about and I have no time to spare...

After I have an nice visit with you guys, am going off to till my veg garden plot, there is rain scheduled soon and I would figure the best plan of attack is to till dirt, then when it rains, I can plant seed. Should be good.

I can also haul out pen cleanings too. Do think I will add some chicken and straw used bedding to the tater patch...jest thinking I should.


On the weekend, got more fence rails down, replaced them with some we had.

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And Rick tried, TRIED to haul the load we made up to the dump.

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Warms up the BOO truck, hooks on to the widdle trailer, goes to dump and gets told that they are full. So have the bins emptied more often...whatever...there goes another service provider we PAY for and no service...oh well, trailer is back, dog inspected and parked and unhooked.

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Yeh, like Rick needs to make more work that is useless...hee hee.

Before and then the after...us two old folks still got it...
somewhat if you ignore we sat in the shade of the cruel bus and rested UP to get the jobs done.
"Shut up already, eh!"

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Looking good!

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We gotta go get longer rails one day, some day, in the meantime, no shortage of work bees we can address...hee hee...fur success.



So now what I do while a photo loads up, I open up notepad and type...type up text to cut and past to this thread when the one pic finally bounces on...if my posts sorta seem disjointed, yeh, train of thought process is loads, type, loads, do more type...kinda how I while the extra time away...without really losing my nut nut...maybe??

Summer dinner last night...colourful, eh!​

I am planning meals for summerish time...I make something like this noodle based dish and add some pork chops...then I can be outside working and merely hafta do the meat part as the noodle part will feed us for several days, dogs having some too...good veg and they love it.


Soggy doggies...happy wet dogs ripping about the yard...Rick looked at me sitting pond side and says, "Maybe I should not have watered them?" As dog bods zip on by...

"BARROOF!," says the Em to the smiling Lace!
Ring around the lawn decor!​

"Wouldn't you jest love to bite this body?" "OK..."​

Yesterday eve was play with dogs and hose(R) night...was hot and the dogs luved the Hosers kill the spray. (<---Yeh, that IS a Doug and Bob McKenzie quote...Hosehead! Great White North...Coo loo coo coo, coo coo coo coo....sing it with me all you Hinterland Who's Who fans! Ya'll DO know that the SCTV Take Off duo was aired in Canada ONLY at first because OUR allotment for commercials is two whole minutes shorter than American commercial breaks....yup...we are not tortured as much as you Yanks are...our "hour" has twenty two minutes, eh! So get drinking yer real beers (Canadian brands only) and cookin' up that back bacon--Canadian content runs wild.)

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

So I got the Peonies repotted up and thought, better find out the right conditions for them. Grabbed a book that my Gran gifted me...long time ago...was like sitting down with my beloved Gran and having a one on one visit with her...She'd be SO proud of our labours here...PROUD!

Cripers...see, I loaded this photo TWICE now because I forgot it was the first one I did load...

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Inscribed in the Reader's Digest "Complete book of the Garden" in ancient and shaky handwriting is the inscription ...

To Tara -

I'm glad that you love gardening --

Love from Grandma

And I ever so much do...

I inherited her love of planting and antiques...she use to take us to junk places and teach us what good stuff was...how to look for the diamonds in the dumpster stuff.

Man, I miss that lady...oh well, pay homage to her every time I get dirt under my nails or admire some piece of anitquey junk!

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Rick topped up his supplies of black oil seed for the arrival of the flocks of wild bird seed gobblers...

Girls went with us on the Saturday for a joy ride and enjoyed the ice cream treats we all had...fun times, indeedy!

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Drug a strand of chicken wire out to the New Orchard for when I plant the raspberry patch, the new one will never know about cat toilet happenings...yeh, I need to let this go, gently wild beast...let it go...do the work and let it ride, eh.

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Got my garage hanging frogs filled with potting soil and filled the bird nest with dirt for the Portulaca when it is ready to be put out (June 1st...never before!).

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Got some decent true leaves on the tomatoes in the garage growing. That will ramp up the need to pot them up on the to do list.

Can't say I am not excited about the season...bouncing all over the place from one must do to the next...whee hee hee...

Rick's project last weekend on the Saturday (before we took the white Sub out with the two girl dogs in the back) was to do some maintenance to the BOO truck...drained oil, fuel filters, oil one, yada yada yada...says should be good to go now for quite some time...we don't use the Blue one too much as she is our true work truck to tug big loads to and fro.

That be Rick draining the engine oil thar!
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Ready to rock and roll....​

Rick has done alot of elbow greasing work bees on the trucks...always doing something...you don't get to ride for free without bloodying up your knuckles and making yer old bones hurt from all the labours...but for love...love, joy, pride in ownership...that kinda stuff.

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This is the work bee he did to the interior of the blue truck November 2014...even with the trailers, he's monkey wrenching, doing up elec work...getting them up to Rick's idea of standards. Sunny day, eh, get on it...even with snow and ice on the ground.

March 11 2014​

Part of Rick's stable of horse powered rides...

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Work done, maintained and therefore, ready and waiting...so Rick LENO...which one you taking out for a trot today, eh?

On the Sunday, we visited with son number one (and only!) and loaded up with some grocery to get us thru the summer time busy times. Good visit and then home to put the provisions away and get ready for our work weeks.


So past wrapping the raspberry patch, I never got back yet...not to complete it right and put up the dark background...

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The damage to the canes was pretty severe...so I watered them while I was refilling waterfowl kiddy pools. I know they will get growing and recover but yeh...

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All the swans are now at their summer digs...girls getting use to the route of chores expanding and contracting, given the location of the beasts we care for. Both are shedding up a storm and Emmy is more bald than Lacy is...but soon both will be in summer coats, since it is getting to be that time of year.

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I apologize again...disjointed all over the place post this one will be...keep waiting for photo to load...go back and check which ones yet to go, miss one photo now and again, have to go back to spot where I posted something similar and load photo.


So yeh...off I go...got tilly to do and relieved ever so much to go do something mundane like get plodding around behind a noisy machine.

Not sure when or if I will be back very frequently. So much fun to be had and with struggling with this computer service blip blip BEEP stuff, not sure as the years keep coming I am getting more tolerant of it...down right might quit because it is such a hassle...anyway, we're good, more and more of the same of the post I just did (dinners, playing, planting, dogs romping, creatures romping, ongoing work in progress, more to do, some done, some not so done). Yeh, jest not sure I can share it much with all the stunned frustrations of the posting. Will be more reliable once more in oh, probably October...that be the reality of this. So no fretting, we're all good and tres busy...like the bees a buzzing abouts.

Jest so you know...

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[scottcaddy]

Tara, You did good with your copy and pasting and playing catchup/what'sup

Scott

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

Well like I said I would, got the first till of veg garden in yesterday...

Ready for garnishing topping of composted used bedding...
then more tills, tilly tilly away to AWESOME dirt
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Oh my the girls had fun...romping, rolling, playing in the shade whilst I tilled...I'd look up and they would have done something like steal one of the wooden markers I had tossed over the garden fence...or toppled over the top of the sump culvert...just general hooligans.

Inspection...the two inspectors have been allowed IN to do what they do​

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Tired the girls up and they went for a much needed nap and I went off to drive afternoon bus.

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Was such a mild winter this one, there is even some onions coming up...bizarre er what. I tilled around them, will spade them out and replant I guess...reward the survivors, eh.

Quote:

Well isn't that good then that it took me three times as long as it would normally and it was not as disjointed as I felt. So basically it was over the top painful, not enjoyable like I usually have posting. What I want now, yes I said I WANT...hee hee...is for it to take a quarter as long as normal to post here...not three times plus painful.

What's up is being busy this time of year, I need to be cut some slack, that my thread time has to be 25% less not 300% more. I guess that is what I am saying.

And laugh... us old buggers, we get accused of flipping technology the bird but here's a perfect example of why technology is a sweet and unassuming temptress...

Technology sucks dog droppings...in case anyone cares to know.

I have allowed it to weaken me...yup, relied on it and it has let me down...big time. I feel like that dog crap I mentioned for letting me be swindled into believing it will be there when I need it and dang it all, I needed it yesterday and it dropped the ball...

Here is why.

I use to have books, reference books, that I could open up and rely upon...to have the info I need to make educated decisions. Yes, educated! Like my Gran's present to me all those decades ago, there is no such thing as "no service" from a book...even with blurry eyes from dusty conditions, you can still go to the book, look up what you like and harvest that info...so you can make the best decision possible given your learning.

So yesterday, just about to go tilling and I find this huge and scary bug. I like bugs, not bugs that sting my babies or attack me unprovoked, but I do like bugs...and spiders and all those creeper crawlers. I guess I be a bit weird but bugs mean things are in good state for them to be thriving and going about doing what they do.

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So I go to Veg Garden and here on this grey chair I find a flying BIG bug. I am thinking QUEEN WASP but my internet won't let me look up any images. And yesterday, didn't I have the luck of the morbid...I took photos and couldn't even post those...good gack! Could not ask for help on here even. The BYC let me type some text with no emoticons, no photos and then went to that default (never seen that one yet but have now!) where the "sky is falling" and they were down for maintenance or some such thing. I could not even ask for help because it would not allow me to post...oh well, serves me right. When you want help, none is to be found...

Huge Wasp like BUG...​

I don't normally kill something like this but heck...I just didn't know what it is and well, at this size and the fact that the girls and I play there at the garden gate so often...

Garden Gate area after 1st till of the season​

Had me concerned...OK...how about bloody scared is more the reality...and first to admit, that "fear of the unknown" is what scares me most. So probably a very bad person but I drowned it...quickly, yes... I am upset because now that I now know that it was an OK bug...a Great Golden Digger Wasp...I am sorry I did that but I jumped to the conclusion that it could be dangerous and all...it is a stinging bug and how lethargic it was to catch...the girls...always fearful of the protection of them silly sweet girls! My concern is the girls would stumble upon it and get zinged because if I can catch a big bug like that, those gals surely would and would play with it too ...yeh. I do laugh as Emmy hates bugs...they came that way from Oz...and I am bettin' this bug I got is scary on any continent...

I guess it just boils down to that I am more disappointed in myself, my weakness than in the technology itself. I know better than to rely on the unreliable. I kilt a bug (yeh, I can see the masses roaring with laughter at that confession, but to that bug, it was a really bad day for them and not like they even probably know such a thing as internet exists...).

So when the internet did work last night...I found out that yes, I did fine by removing the monster big wasp (and wasp it was!) but I did not have to fear the relocation of it ... shirking my problem off to someone else and causing harm was I what I thought might happen if I released it away from the garden. All I needed to have done is moved that said bug to a new location away from my garden...dang I hate that! Jest had to move it away...

http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/771/:

Coulda just moved it. Now I was not going to keep it alive in a container for hours upon hours...that to me is way too cruel...so without having access to a good reference book, I did the only option I could...

The bug is a rather neat one and is the only wasp we know of that is robbed of its food...it will catch grasshoppers and bug eating birds will actually harass it in flight and steal its catch...that's one big bug able to prey on pretty big quarry. It only hunts grasshoppers and drinks nectar and a plus is that they are good pollinators too. I am not a happy person... I fudged up on this one.

That is why I tend to hate relying on technology...in fact so many of these items that us humans devise are flawed...take power windows...all good unless you are a vintage vehicle fan and the vehicle you want to restore has this option, in fact even with NEW vehicles, I don't want the power package period. What is wrong with winder down windows? They work, they last longer than motors, they let you roll the window down & up when you want to...not fail you and have to be replaced with painful can you find it motors, time and energies, so you can what, roll the window down...yeh. I got zinged and that be that.

Raspberries - new purples up front, already here yeller ones behind ​

Anyway, on with the day, planted the raspberries...

Cart fulla hoses...on the way out to the Ram Pasture -
Caravans away...​

Ran hose out to the tater patch and the bean patch.

See the green hose behind the hoser-dogs?​

Not like they can do much, them beans, without water. I held off watering because of the below freezing temps...that is on the roster of tasks fur today...take girls out, water bean bed to incite them growing since it is now safer for them to start up.

\
Purdy Lacy barking​

I think I mentioned on here that the asparagus that was here already, it came up and it got whacked down (drooped right over) by the frosts we have been having...aggravating and I hope the established asparagus takes the hit OK.

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Since I was planting the raspberries (the purple ones I ordered in and the yellow ones that went wild in the veg garden...I did leave two yeller canes in there in case disaster visits...got stock safe and growing there) so I ran the water out in the New Orchard. The girls had yet more fun, romping around.

View from inside the greenhouse looking out​

Since I had the hose running, topped up the water tub inside the greenhouse, did a partial water change on the fish barrel, the pollen off the trees was washed down last rains, so best to change water for the sake of the fishies, who by the way are doing well.

One of the strawberry barrels
Dogs frisking in the background - if'n we could harness that energy, eh?​

Hauled more greenhouse stored ornaments out...getting those table shelves empty and ready for the plants I am going to be growing in there.

Lounging Lacy, very regal lion-like​

There was a ton of fun times for the girls...busy day for them and I.

So this is the official Dolgo and Dog photo of 2016. Looks pretty easy eh...

I decided since the Dolgo was kinda flowering (one side has flowered and there is the rub...the petals will begin to drop on the side flowering, so that is not good...), I got the three dogs to pose for my annual under the Dolgo flowering photo. Bin better years of the tree, but no matter, click now, if it goes better on later, I can click again (er not?).

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Usual time for any flowers to appear is middle of June (two years June 14th)...it is an early year. So taking a click of a stationery tree, easy, eh...taking a photo of tree and three dogs...not so much.

Foamy is getting ready to leave, Lacy and Emmy are rolling about goofing off...

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Har har har...ever take photos of live beasts...getting the three to pose to be acceptable is one thing...this year, laughed at myself...even the hair of the dawg was out to get moi.

Recall I said the dogs were shedding...so I finally think I got the clicks I wanted of them three dogs posing under the flowering Dolgo...go to look at them to review and huh?

Ah, there is Lacy looking at camera, Emmy is kissing Foamy and what is that streak of misery?
Hair, dog hair to haunt me...just gotta laugh...laugh loud.
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Yup, when going over to pose dogs and step back...got Lacy hair on the lens...whoop whoop...dog hair...the haunting of dog hairs!

So got some seeds now to plant, the ones that need to be planted out in the guaranteed frost free days which will be happening in a coupla weeks er so.


Big long weekend coming up, so let the frollickings begin...get ready, set and go have fun....whee hee hee... Oh man, gonna be tired...tired and giddy...SWEET!

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

Off now and keep thinking it is Saturday...only Thursday...

Explains why I have internet service, but not for much longer.

Anyhoo...

No bagged feed pickup as we planned for today, rain...that is a nightmare, to haul bagged rations IN wet conditions, so its gonna hafta wait. Might do up grains though, whole grains can be done on like a Saturday or Sunday...the bagged rations come from a feed mill, so they are only Monday to Friday. I don't get any more week days off till school lets out for the silly summer kill yerself insanity time. I so beg to go back to work..."Please, please, please, make me stop!" Out till all hours, playing, rolling in the dirt, getting Sasquatch like ... unkept, unpresentable, worse than a dirt dog....

Thank frig Rick takes us out on loser laps so then I must get cleaned up and be more presentable looking...sorta.

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Getting ready to pot up the bedding out plants, the ones for the Man Porch. So got the pots filled with potting soil in preparation for plantings...Porch plantings.

Man Porch - May 19 2016, bare bones awaiting the GREEN!​

The Man Porch is not going to look just like this for much longer...gonna get more growing than chitting potatoes, eh!

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Planted up two trays and one lone peat pot of seeds...let's see, 36 x 2 + 1 = 73 peat pots planted. Getting so chomping at bit for June FIRST! Frost free days will runneth over after that (perhaps beside the odd zinger cold day, eh).

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Mix of cukes, melons, oh heck at this point, not enough coffees in me to remember but yeh...

OK, me grabbed my notes, there...pumpkin, squash, zucchinis, gourd, marrow, luffa, melons, cucumbers, watermelons...that's better...memory like a sieve so write it down for later, next year's veg garden planning, when not so much woMANual labour is involved! Trudge trudge, me no thinky...hee hee...staggering stunned and stupid...where's a dog, I need inspections and guidance..."GUIDE DOGS PLEASE & THANKS!"

^~~^ & ^~~^



ACD's to the rescue!!​

Got two large packages of cucumber seeds from last year (plus the mixed gourds...planted only four seeds in two peat pots, probably do justice with more, eh)...thinking maybe these seeds would do well where the beans are. I can say last year, pathetic growth on the cucumbers (sad...so very sad!)...we just never got the heat and maybe the cukes will thrive there...dunno, can try I guess.

Redneck rain gauge...cart, wheelbarrow, something that holds wet stuff so you can l00k at it and decide if'n the skies opened up or not ...

Got a nice bit of moisture overnight...which would explain my race to get the sugar pea site ready and able to be planted.

"You OK? You look peaked? Don't fall on me, eh! Move that pail ah onions and have a set down already..."​

I got me two interested parties...well OK...not that interested...but attentive...sorta, kinda...

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So last evening, I loaded up four carts of turkey composted bedding and dumped it at the pea site in the Veg Garden.

Over Wintering Onions - a rarity indeed fur here!

Dug up those winter survivor onions so I could till that spot up too.

Four carts tucked where the peas shall go - them are excited dogs already looking for progress! ​

So plans are to keep clearing out pens, the second turkey barn pen lost its donation of four carts last night and with it being cooler with the overcast and rains...might see more than that done by the end of today...hoping er not...depends what Rick has on his roster and how much energy I drained up yesterday being tres silly.

Composted bedding, that goes into the Veg Garden, if'n I didn't till it up too much that I cannot get in there to dump the carts. Find out on the first load if I slug in and stall out.

Tilled up nice, was out till 10 pm and the rains did their magic too!​

Rick and the girl dogs got fed, and I fled, outside to till my brains out. Used up another tank of fuel in the tiller...my my my getting pricey eh? Bit over a coupla hours of machine time and timing was perfect. Got enough rain it would be gucky and mucky till if I tried it now, even if I was foolish enough to give it a whiril. So good going, I figure at least!

"Maybe you can go inside and fix Dad & us some viddles, then you can go BACK out on with your fun good times...perhaps...just a suggestion...
You're on a mission and likely not gonna quit till it gets dark...jest sayin'."

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I even tired the girls out BEFORE I tilled...trips back and forth with the cart...dogs in tow...here they are saying..."OK, we bin faithful mutts, can we go rest now?" Huffin' girls.

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Checked on the old raspberry patch...looks like the ones that made it thru are thriving...need watering but I knew we'd be getting rain...so that took care of that need of theirs.


No way to predict my internet service but suspect from all the year's past, as this holiday weekend approaches, I won't be able to check even my e-mails...but that be fine, we're gonna be busy. Catch up here as able...when able...

Later,

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[scottcaddy]

I just can't believe that your using nice good looking coffee cups to put plants in

Say Hi to Rick and the girls for me

Scott

 

[CanuckBock]

I just can't believe that your using nice good looking coffee cups to put plants in

Say Hi to Rick and the girls for me

Scott

Obviously one must be careful about accepting a "cuppa" coffee off you guys down in North Carolina, eh!

Be rude not to consume the entire bit of hospitality given...

The Boo cups are big for java juice...the Man Porch planter ones...are MASSIVE!
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I lay no claim to the coffee cups. Rick came home with these three for "his" porch and who am I to argue. Tis his porch and his to decorate how he wants to.

Now granted been alot of years and I guess the only mistake made was that we never took these "cups" and stored them inside in the winter time. I do empty them and make sure no moisture is left behind but they are literally crumbling...sadly because now Rick is on a hunt for replacements and the only ones even slightly similar have been TEA cups...well, I guess MEN do drink tea (and Rick is guilty of that too--he has a camomile tea if he has issues falling asleep some nights) but men just don't want their porch plants in TEA CUPS...

May 2014 - coffee cup in background, 1 of the 3​

I have to be careful about the temptation of planting the porch too soon...

May 18, 2014​

Porch gets cold (see Fixins with her blankey and her water bowl close at hand...strategic snoozing on the Porch, eh)...

If'n I plant TOO soon, I gotta do this...

June 7, 2014 - the BEDDING out PLANTS are bedded down fur the night! ​

When Rick returns home from his escapades, I'll say Hello to him for you. Last time he went to town this long, he came home bald (summer hair cut, eh!). He did call about two hours ago to see what I was up to and mentioned he was meeting a fella he works with for coffee (I told him you better have BREAKFAST with that coffee...getting on and he's been up for hours).

The Girls and I have already been to the New Orchard check on the raspberries (purple ones look good and in the yeller ones, three look a bit frazzled but four are just perfectly great) and do a bit of weeding in the strawberries (some of the dirt has grain seeds in it from the used bedding, oats are sprouting), got the majority of the chores completed (time the girls had a beauty nap...Em's getting crabby) and now gonna head out and pitch some poop and finish chores the girls can't make the rounds with me on...the ones inside buildings.

Yeh, you still got me laughing on the one cup limit...sheesh!

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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