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

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

Hey @Teila ...want yer jillaroos back whilst they came from?

Jest a pair of flyers; boxing it out!

Got the four cart loads to the Veg Garden as wanted.

​

Girls played while I worked...you think?

​

Rained pretty good and certainly makes every thing FRESH...

Luv the gleam on the greenhouse roof ​

Girls ran around tres silly thru the shelterbelts...one of their FAV games for the New Orchard.

​

Put the girls away for a nap because it really got serious aboot (I hear that is how we supposedly say ABOUT but not sure on that one??) raining. Soggy doggy is one thing, COLD & drowned ratz quite another.

After I completed the four loads to the VG, (Rick made sure it was finished) so we went to get the 22 foot trailer and some grocery for the weekend. Stock up so we may eat good.

Well girls? This trailer pass your inspections?​

Changed the seals, repacked the bearings...ensured the brakes are good. Me happy ever so much!

"Hi Dad...were putting paw prints all over the rubber mats..." ACD approved and marked up by DOGS!​

Dogs on the trailer...all dogs wanna be trailer dogs...such an esteemed good title...trailer dog...

Hmmm...this trailer has had to haul heavier loads...yes, more dogs than just this whimper load of two!​

Reminds me of another photo I have...of the TRAILER TRASH....

Now that's a load...plus that tenni of Fixins' might tip the scales and overload her...
Needed the tenni, jest in case a human has the urge to toss a toy, eh​

So once the dogs were satisfied the trailer was good as new and I got the grocery put away from the trip to town AND dinner prepped up so it could be cooked upon our returns...off to the Ram Pasture to run the dogs. Let the rompings happen...who let the dogs out?

Well how marvelous...we came in the back gate so weren't sure they had arrived yet but noted alot of their trucks passed us going into town. Saw about ten or so...

Can even see some scarlet in the distance...​

This is done every year...no surprise and it amuses and pleases us to no end. One year we made the group on duty, coffees because they had set up right at the bend of our road! Very amusing entertainment so close to home--some years we have set up lawn chairs and sipped drinks and let the amusements unfold. When our faces began to hurt from laughing, we'd go back and retire to where we camp ALL YEAR ROUND; here in Pear-A-Dice. You could smell the booze being poured out, see the tow trucks arrive to take away the impounded vehicles, see a cruiser head back to town to fill the jails with another one...quite a bit of law breakers are caught, charged and begin to feel the consequences of their bad choices.

Yeh, stay outta the BUSH on the long weekend in May if wanna be bad...yer gonna get caught.

​

Check stop...flashing blue and red, red and blue...blinky blinks... <---you see me messing with your minds...coloured the word blue, red and the word red, blue...messin' with you

Here's a bonafied fool...​

It kills me though...how many utter fools there are in this world. There is a fire ban (no matter it has rained, it is on and should be...one partial day of rain does not stop the hazard, eh) and there are NO RECREATIONAL OFF ROAD VEHICLES allowed to be used...period now. The spark from either vehicle (the quad in the truck box and the bigger one on the trailer behind<--who's a behind...yeh) such as this could replicate the same kinda BEAST that took Ft. Mac out.

​

This one is one of the worst offenders...got a truck pulling a truck on a trailer. You probably can't see it but this one on the trailer is horrifically beat up...paint is missing, you can see crinkles in the metal on the box...abuse and misused off roading--I guess it is their biz how they treat their property and their lives but truly looks like crap--once a nice vehicle I bet till it got ruined. I get you can do this and have at it, but not out in the wilderness destroying the forest, meadows, reforested grounds, the rivers, the habitat that the ones that reside there ALL YEAR use every single day of their lives. Wildlife...don't want tire ruts, stream gravel wrecked (fish spawning beds), erosion, ruined plants, and annihilation, some even flush out deer with all the hoopla and then give chase, in motorized vehicles...poor creatures... How about YOU go to some gravel pit to be irresponsible and flip your trucks over in thar...but whatever...as said, we are overjoyed to see that law enforcement joins forces and does this check stop every year. Stop the carnage to the area BEFORE it can happen. I get the feeling that people think it is quite OK to go out to the Bush and act BADLY because, well, they just won't get caught...ha ha ha...guess again, eh!

Did I mention we LUV this?

Chewing tenni​

When Rick plays dogs...he makes sure, super sure that each mutt gets equal play time...Emmy gets the ball, Lacy gets the ball...even Steven, eh.

Flag tails, which one has the ball?​

Dogs are soon run & done and like dinner, time for that now too...

Dinner on the BQ as planned.

​

Taters and onion slices, corn, pork steaks were on sale so natch...and an assortment of dogs...hotdogs for the girls of course...

Made up a little side dish of brown mushrooms, onion and red pepper with a splash of BQ sauce
little sampler taste to go with the rest of the meal ​

We ate piece meal...when something was ready, on a plate it went...lotta dinner plates to clean up...but it was fun to do this.

Rick's plate; note the two pieces of EXTRA hotdog stowed on the top side...
already cubed up slivers for his gals to squeak over!
DOG TREATS...like they won't enjoy the one dog already diced in their dinners...

Snowed last night and is snowing in Calgary. Yeh, never any temptation to get too rushed with the plantings, eh...and for good reasons, ice and snow is never that far off the roster fur happening here.


So we go to Calgary on Sunday for Chinese Dinner at the Dell ... again, should be tres fun. The city folk head to the bush to try to tear it up and we country folk head the other way...use their facilities, enjoy the amenities and then head back for the hills. Probably see tumbling tumble weed rolling down the streets...bwa ha ha...

Monday, Rick has made arrangements for us to go get four totes of whole grains since it rained and ruined my plans for the bagged rations. Truck & trailer are ready thanks to the diligence of my Hero, so one way or the t'other, gonna get some feed home so I can "lift that load, tote that pail, heave that bag." Be glad to see Tuesday arrive if only for less business being accomplished.

Off I go, the white dusting of snow has melted off (never lasts too long, not like in March), and the girls are curled up at my feets dozing...coffee time is over and completed...time to get on another project

Have a great weekend guys...see y'all in a bit I am hoping...sooner or later...pending access, eh.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[scottcaddy]

There's idiots like that down here also. now I'm hungry.
Scott
edit to fix brain dead fingers

 

[CanuckBock]

There's idiots like that down here also. now I'm hungry.
Scott
edit to fix brain dead fingers

I think we'd have a tougher time finding out where the ijits DON'T show up at...so far, not had one come into the yard (thru the fence...touch wood now I typed it, it'll happen!)

I always, always wanted to buy a bunch of fireworks (there isn't a corner store along the route to here that doesn't carry booze and fireworks, some like in the nearest town sell guns and ammo too...agh) to set off at midnight, go to the city on say a work week Wednesday evening, use the bathroom in their flower beds, chop up some of their specimen trees to start a really smoky fire, pitch a tent on their lawn, let the dogs run wild chasing THEIR pets (and not our wildlife), dogs barking (because I don't drive a noisy motor bike or quad) & upsetting their house canary, raid their garden (or fridge, depending on the time of year) not because they do that here but I want to be EXTRA NASTY and NOTICED... Then if they get mad just ask them how much they like the treatments they do in the country to us residents on the weekends and holidays.

I know one person here that said this truck pulled up in their yard one weekend. The family got out, stretched a bit, and started walking around like they owned the place. Person was like, "Excuse me but what the heck are these tourists doing?"

I left the gates open once (yeh, once) and a car drove in and asked if they could buy some firewood. Nope, standing there amongst Rick's stash of birch. "Nope, now please leave the way you came..." Not being overly mean but cannot imagine the interruptions that would be created to affect my fun times if word got out there was split dry birch to be had here.

​

Good

If'n yer hungry, get up here quick...I am making mac salad and potato salad for a dang ARMY...Cripers I guess if I wanted to heat up the house, it is for good reasons.

Thank frig we have the two girl dogs (can't change Foamo's diet, she gets sic instantly if I alter even a smidgen of her dinner) or I don't know what we'd do with the excess.

May 19, 2016 - Prancing Puppers!

​

Good thing the girls know how to burn off the excess...I am starting to make up excuses for my spare tire.

Can I say it is a 'bumper pad" for heaving on when I have loaded the cart too full? Yeh, that's a good one and using it too...as of late!

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[perchie.girl]

I ws feeding my horse once..... While I was working I could hear quads coming up the road. Then they headed up my driveway... It ws a parade of four. they were going to drive right past me... which would have brought them righe back because my driveway is a circular....

I waved the first one down.... she stopped and her followers stopped.... to a one they were under fifteen. I smiled.... but the oldest who ws the only boy had a deer in the headlights look... I said "you are on my driveway did you know that...." Headlights said "no mam" good response... at least the mam part. then I pointed to my marker on one end which happens to be a telephone pole... "See that pole?" "Yes mam" "that pole marks where my property starts.... I own the land on both sides of the road" Please dont come up here again... I dont mind you riding on the road because its an easement to the other properties on the other side of me.

then i reminded them that I am one of the nice ones.... some people up here arent.


I dont have fence so i couldnt take it any further but those kids never came back. The boy I recognized as being the son of one of my neighbors.... who happens to be a correctional officer in one of the prisons down by the border.

deb

 

[Teila]

Tee hee Tara .. sorry, no refunds or returns

Love the Trailer Trash pic!

 

[scottcaddy]

Tara, you need to blame you new 'bumper pad' on climate change, as it wasn't cold enough for you to burn off all of the calories that should have been used for body heat.
Just a thought

BTW have a good weekend!
Scott

 

[CanuckBock]

I ws feeding my horse once..... While I was working I could hear quads coming up the road. Then they headed up my driveway... It ws a parade of four. they were going to drive right past me... which would have brought them righe back because my driveway is a circular....

I waved the first one down.... she stopped and her followers stopped.... to a one they were under fifteen. I smiled.... but the oldest who ws the only boy had a deer in the headlights look... I said "you are on my driveway did you know that...." Headlights said "no mam" good response... at least the mam part. then I pointed to my marker on one end which happens to be a telephone pole... "See that pole?" "Yes mam" "that pole marks where my property starts.... I own the land on both sides of the road" Please dont come up here again... I dont mind you riding on the road because its an easement to the other properties on the other side of me.

then i reminded them that I am one of the nice ones.... some people up here arent.


I dont have fence so i couldnt take it any further but those kids never came back. The boy I recognized as being the son of one of my neighbors.... who happens to be a correctional officer in one of the prisons down by the border.

deb

I am ever so glad the problem was that easy to fix but seeing as they were neighbours not touristo's with one kid having a parent that would be teaching respect and rule following well, good show! It could have been WAY worse. Happy fur yah! Way!

We can stand alot of things but not the indignities of invasions to our sanctuaries.

Tee hee Tara .. sorry, no refunds or returns

Love the Trailer Trash pic!

What? No Return to Sender guarantee when they act up? Dang it...

Oh well, like I should have already realized they would mimic sporting event icons...

Double the trouble with a PAIR​

Hard for me to remember what having FIVE was like. THREE is bad enough when the younger kids like to pester the last of the five.

Jest one soggy frollicky doggy - wanna give it a hug?

I can say I don't miss washing the food bowls from five fed twice a day. Got ten stainless and it is luxurious that if I wanted to be BAD and ignore day's worth of bowls, I may...like on weekends, eh.

Tara, you need to blame you new 'bumper pad' on climate change, as it wasn't cold enough for you to burn off all of the calories that should have been used for body heat.
Just a thought

BTW have a good weekend!
Scott

Some climate change...got our usual long weekend in May dump of snow. Cold and slugging thru the deluge now of rain to burn off a few pieces of pie. But won't knock it. We needed the moisture but why does it have to come all at once? Moderation, little over the time, not severe heat and then drowning...mix it out, balance, level it around...yeh sure.

So weekend has been extra good...I did see some relax time...short lived tho but I saw some...sigh...Rick came home and said we had to go off to the kids...so it was let them out only to turn round and put them all away...

May 20, 2016 - Girls got to go along and visit at Son's, then stop for ice cream...yee haw!​

On the Friday what had been my plans got altered... I HAD donned shorts and open toed (yes!) sandals...which means, no heavy duty chores or tasks in order...so much for that flop time and admire the view. Luckily I click some pics...something fond to remember, serene and surreal, eh!

GREEN - May 20, 2016

And let the hordes out...release the beasts!

​

Quite the contrast yesterday morn, eh.

WHITE - May 22, 2016​

Welcome to Alberta...don't like the current weather, give it a day er so...hee hee...pending which season you prefer, you may get yer wish...

Girls loved to revisit winter WHITES tho...

​

Course with all the snow and the rain...it is a toweling time... Emmy now accepts that's a good thing...Lacy always loves any excuse for a huggin'...

​

Yesterday, trip to the city. We had good Chinese food, I got three lengths of soaker hose...two that fabric, never used these so bought one of the old style I have from last year and two new ones to try. Had to upgrade to a four ender for hooking up the four lengths of soaker hose for the potato patch. Rick bought an early Father's Day present for himself...a portable power pack that has a built in compressor amongst other things in it...I can hear the Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor grunting roars of approval. Certainly a manly present and quite appropriate.

Three pond plants to try out & floater plants (like duck weed only larger...kewl!)​

Stopped at the greenhouse that did not have its pond area opened up the last time we made the trek. Rick had fun deciding on three types of pond plants to add to our growing collection (and found reasonably priced baskets, so got three for the 3)...he also suggested some water floating plants and I bought one container of this bigger than duck weed type. Filled a rubber pail with warmed house water and put the three in there in the garage for the time being. Man alive if we tried to put anything outside, it'd freeze up.

​

Good man Rick got a replacement tap for the water container for the beans, not like they are gonna do anything covered in soppy wet cold snow, but some day, they will need to be watered. I gotta go out and turn on the hose and fill this one up...no rush on that tho.

June FIRST...never bedding OUT plants before JUNE FIRST...er you pay the price...har har hee hee...

Water plantings
Settin' safe inside the garage waitin'...patiently waiting!​

So since our weekend here is one more day...that will be that for now...tons to post but not over till ... like the fat lady sings about it...la la la but later, eh.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[scottcaddy]

But My Dear Tara, you are not a fat lady!
Now then just how are you doing?
Thanks for the update.

Scott

 

[drumstick diva]

Here is my new Blue Heeler Cattle dog puppy already working sheep. I'm still searching for a red heeler. Photos brought to you by the kindness of my son.

 

[CanuckBock]

But My Dear Tara, you are not a fat lady!
Now then just how are you doing?
Thanks for the update.

Scott

OK...I stand corrected...not fat. How about more correctly obese...now not morbidly obese...but yeh. Hee hee...

I am HUGE (5'11'' and no slouch but wear size 6 in men's shoes which are widdle shoes for my MOOSE sized self--people kept telling me growing up that I was big boned and that is a plain load of rot). One jest hasta accept some things about your genetics and all those "if'n the lab ratz got fat," the substances tested were approved by our Food and Drug administrations... Our diet is poisoning us and pre-dis-positioning us to be BIG! I've quit white death (beet sugar and switched for unpasterized honey), quit soda pop (switched to bottled water), quit lotsa things that old age makes one choose to do for healthful living styles but some I am not willing to do...like my extra slice of pie when I work my buns off moving heavy loads and such...I take no medications (not even aspirin), no drugs--zilch, no booze (one peach cider would put me under the table now if I even bothered...too much life to live to sedate myself from seeing clearly and experiencing everything REAL--happiness right behind yer eyes), no smokes...clean; clean as the new fallen snows last weekend. My Sis is an opera singer that is a model & actress with a six pack--she travels internationally in white suits and I can't get outta the Man Porch without a paw print marking me as taken by ACDs... looks matter alot to my city mouse sister, but not for the likes of me, the country mouse. For moi, it is all about happiness factors...what do I look like on the inside versus out...do I feel the joy I should to be contented with, do I have a life purpose that I am progressing on the road to feeling good about every single day, and am I loved by the ones that matter for the skin you are in?

Good

- I often smell bad too...no scratch and sniffing MY stains, eh! ​

All of Rick's family are morbidly obese (met his family at a garden party for the first time and there was reinforced lawn furniture for the gathering) and he has had an intestinal bypass & simply put, is half the man he once was. They used the freight scale to weigh him when he went in for the operation. Years later, complications resulted in him and I having to be flown out in a learjet when some tough physical work (worked in a copper mine on the pit dewatering crew because he got bored with running grader--back and forth to dullsville) ended up with me near losing him. They kept poking, prodding, ex-raying to find nada and finally went in on an exploratory. He literally blew up on the operating table (wash tub of fluids--the surgeon said they mopped up) as his intestines twisted on themselves--he near died of poison--fluid goes in, don't come out. There they had to add in some of his intestines (the initial operation, they link your intestines into your system so it keeps on living but empty in case they need to reverse it) back as he had perforated some of his intestines he was using (like he has 8 to ten inches and most of us, what 23 feet?) so he has obviously gotten bigger, no where near his former self but neither of us are a light load. He chose to have that operation because he never saw himself living past 30 at the weight he was...every year, no matter what, gained another fifty pounds and he ate less than anyone he knew, way more physically active, etc. It is not an operation for the meek because you lose the weight literally starving yourself (to death? some commit suicide, many lose their partners...not because THEY can't handle the physical change, their partners leave them because THEY can't handle the change--there are huge mental hurdles, never mind the physical ones). Given a choice of the operation or death from obesity...that levels the commitment but it is not an easy or unmarring decision to make. It changes you forever and I have to be extra careful what I feed Rick as it could literally kill him whereas those with normal "plumbing" would breeze on thru. We have to keep to a regimented schedule for if we get skewed up, it throws his system for a loop and we all suffer those consequences. Behave or pay, eh.

When he near kicked, we laughed because we both smoked at the time (bad bad) and he quit after the operation because he figured, "What the hey, not smoked in days, eh!" and he went to see his doctor (the one that was walking backwards clasping his hands, telling us to get on a lear with morphine prescribed free pour for Rickie), not telling him he had lived...the doctor was elated to see him and told him (imagine this!) to immediately start puffing...that his system had been thru so much he was not to shock it like that. Many persons use the drug nicotine to think...it is easier to quit heroine they say than cigarettes.

Jest sayin' that I don't hafta look up to too many persons and the type 1A ladder is an adequate one for us to have on hand here. Bwa ha ha...

Here is my new Blue Heeler Cattle dog puppy already working sheep. I'm still searching for a red heeler. Photos brought to you by the kindness of my son.

Pretty Sweet DD...and I love that the fido is herding up a storm already...good place to go, a place with stock in place...bwa ha ha...

Good wishes for finding a red speckle...I have four of these ones and the RED version (if such a beast existed) would be ever so good, eh!

​

So this was my tater patch on Saturday eve

​

Fish in the barrel are fine.

​

Even the bird yard was somewhat melted...but we had lots of snow and moisture.

Hillbilly rain gauge says lots!

​

The extra moisture makes it feel more like the Coast...so you are colder than you should feel from the humidity!

Gonna hafta fly again (after parking the bus tonight, off to get whole grains, four ton tote bags since this is the only sunny day we expect over the next week and past one) but still got some pics over the weekend to post...

Like these ones...


Chooks with snow on their backs.

From Cochrane... where we get the best ice cream cones in the WEST



Strawberry Rhubarb pie on top, bubblegum on bottom​

Sunnyside - jest some of the concrete we saw for sale ​

And beauty pricey statues we got to admire

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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