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

[scottcaddy]

Looking Good My Dear Tara! Looking real Good.
Scott

 

[CanuckBock]

Looking Good My Dear Tara! Looking real Good.
Scott

Thanks Scott...

I am gonna steal my own post (on the Old Folks thread) and post it here...tend to lose these things since that thread is busier one than mine...


HOW TO MAKE YER HAPPY MEATS TENDER....

Heel low:

***WARNING***
​

Anyone queasy about killing best scroll on past...NO be reading dis or yer gonna go blick and be sick...you bin warned, eh.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

I use to howl when people literally did the "She'll be coming round the mountain" rendition of rooster preparation...like you kill the old red rooster (

) and eat him right up that night...

Rubber chicken...

old red roo = <<boink boink>>

<<boink boink>>
​

Tougher than nails...simmered an old red roo for broth or at worst, chicken & dumplings simmered slow all day long...maybe palatable er not so much...

What made me laugh, your grocery store mush meat is "in transport" for how long before it gets to the plate...when you can twist the bones outta their very sockets with the greatest of ease...that be a looooong commute from even just the kill floor to the grocery store, never mind your fridge and then your famished mouths. Let us hope the "in-transit" of fresh meat is in a cooled environment, so logically, your poultry, beef, pork, fish, lamb, bun buns, bison, elk...all takes time to arrive and in that chill out time, it is breaking down, tenderizing, getting out of rigour and then the breakdown of striated muscles, skeletal fibers, and connective tissues...even a frozen stewing hen would have taken time to prepare and would have been treated to a good time RESTing...so meat is made tender resting...breaking down, etc. Never mind that the factory farm products are physically and chemically treated too for tenderizing.

There are also other trade secrets to tenderizing meat...past just resting the carcass...

​

When dealing with rigour, there is also how you "hang" the beast to consider.

Them Jacob ewes, just hanging around, eh ​

With sheeps...we have from the Tenderstretch method.

​

I have this historical drawing of my ancient primitive breed of sheep, the Jacob...it is almost like they KNEW this method already...

​

In a summary, your objective to tenderize MEAT is to lengthen the striated muscles...disrupt the skeletal muscles....breakdown the connective tissue...makin' the meat mushy...

There are tons of methods used to do this...


So as stated already, we are gonna focus on three areas....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

1) Make the sarcomere (basic functional unit of striated muscle) longer, not shorten them (tighter = less tender).

- To prevent cold shortening: various methods like 16C for 16 hours after slaughter....minimum depth of carcass fat since fat is insulation (duh!) and would inhibit temperature alternatives (both heat and cold), noting that chilling the carcass incorrectly may lead to sarcomere shortening, plus correct electrical stimulation of the carcass will drop the muscle pH and speed up rigor mortis setting in (you want it to happen so it can UNhappen!).


- To make the Sarcomeres stretch: Three methods are mentioned...the Tenderstretch, the Stouffer's Stretching Devices (Tenderstretch only more so with stretching rods & clamps), and the TenderCut (connective tissues and bones are cut allowing the muscles to be stretched).



2) Disrupt or breakdown the myofibrils (contractile fibril of skeletal muscle), you want to increase the activity of endogenous enzymes that breakdown the fibers.

This may be done by:

- Aging in coolers...one to six weeks at minus 3C.

- Two suggestions of higher temperature storage, the first one already mentioned is PRE rigour (16C for 16 hours) and another one of 20C (room temperature) for 24 hours is done POST rigour. I have done this one myself when I harvested a heritage turkey and my week had gotten away with other must do's before I realized, hot dang...holiday feast and the center of the table was not put by--AGH! I usually harvest a holiday Turk on the Monday and do the warm temp for 16 hours (give or take--think of the time you spend after the kill, blood letting, plucking and degutting, eh...how slow do YOU go?) and then in the fridge for the rest of the week until the holiday celebration of cooking them Sunday morn....this round I was harvesting my 25 processed weight Tom on the Friday and kept him at room temperature for Saturday and cooked him Sunday morn as norm. Delicious, tender, never noted period I had processed and done this method over my usual week er so affair. So can attest, the hurry up and leave at room temperature method does work but I prefer the 16 hour rest, the fridge rest for the few days and the big Turk din on the Sunday.

- Electrical stimulation so pH declines quickly and causes chemical reactions that simply put, breakdown the myofibrils.

- Injection of Calcium chloride into the muscle so that it increases the chemical reactions that breakdown the myofibrils.


Another method used to breakdown the myofibrils is to:

- Use Exogenous enzymes (think of it like barley malt that is used to take cereals and make them into beer and we are not talking roots either!). Plant enzymes are used by sprinkling or injection (live animals) so they are heat activated (and I never EVER ponder why homegrown and happy meat processed by YOU is so much better for all concerned!).


Then you can also SEVERE the myofibrils...fourth methods on that...

a) Violent electrical stimulation which causes the myofibrils to tear - so one "electric chairs" yer meat...good golly, you got that?

b) Needle or bladed machines are used to physically tenderized the meat. Issues have surfaced on how these machines are cleaned and the fact that one bad piece of meat may contaminate the whole lot.
c) Physical slicing and dicing...chopping, cubing and grinding...as in like hamburger? Bwa ha ha...
d) Process called "Hydrodyne" where they put meat in a sealed water chamber and set off explosions...yeh, truly bizarre in my books...you blew the steak up did yah?

3) Disrupt the connective tissues.

- Even if'n you fudge up your tenderization regarding rigour...you can use schemes like marinating (salt, vinegar & water), or tropical plant enzymes (pineapple, fig, kiwi, or papaya) or even fungal enzymes (Rhozyme) to save the day, eh.

- Stromal proteins are severed with methods mentioned above like needle/blade tenderizations or mechanical severance methods. One needs to study the mechanisms and methods that make meat tough and those that make it tender...you can beat the meat with a mallet...rump roast or brisket...hee hee...thumper becomes flatter and tastier if'n you screw up and after all this learning, you have not been able to make it tender.

- Moist heat cooking changes the collagen to gelatin... so long time of stewing, simmering or braising can tenderize what was not so tender to begin with.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

Anyhoo, probably WAY more than you EVER wanted to read but DO always keep in mind...the dark meat and the tough meat are a result of the extra GOOD animal husbandry skills we exercise...yer birds or beasts had REAL LIVES, ran about and squished mud between their toes...and that in itself makes happy meat. That had a happy life and we all know that happy meat tastes GOOD! The fact that we don't contaminate our homegrown meat with tainted meats and we don't need to blow it up, electrify it, soak it with chemicals (so who knew?), other than putting JUST the MEAT on our plates...yeh, there is a large bout of science on the subject of tenderizing meat...some good, some not so good.

Food processed AT HOME is by far and large kinder and better in my books...less stress for all parties because you know their history from birth to death...when one day, you walk up, one is whisked away and TADA...done in, cleaned & rested, and then served up cooked as in DE-licious. Jest sayin'...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

I also added this comment too...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

And I personally never thought about the time that I was draining blood, taking feet off, de-feathering, and gutting the carcass as probably part of THAT sixteen hours at 16C (60F) pre rigour setting in! I always choose an non-blustery day (make a big feathery mess) when Rick will be away (he don't make a good killer, er witnesses to carnage, eh!) to do the dastardly deeds. Now I don't want it so cold your fingees won't work...but not a hot stifling time either. Funny how what I do naturally by processing a "carcass" would fit that 16 hours at 16C...I don't do the dunk in ice water where you are attempting to chill it quickly. I run a bird under cold water after plucking to clean it up, but that is no ice bath.

I also DRY pluck which many don't...nothing more disgusting to moi than that "WET DOG" smell of a scalded/blanched carcass to handle or trying to avoid burning my fingers ... yetch! NO thanks. If you time your putting by to when the birds are easy to pluck dry, it is no more work as I have tried both and chose dry over wetted. If you time during a moult where pinfeathers are forming, what a nightmare that can be, especially with waterfowl.

Never used an automated plucker, maybe that is where you hafta do the wet scalding...dunno.

Never tried wax either and heard that is nice as you can roll all the feathers off, you heat the wax up again, strain out the extras and may use it again to save costs.


I was a tom boy so read Big Red by Jim Kjelgaard...anyone else a fan?

Remember the movie, probably done by Disney...I forget the details...but please leave me to my delusions thanks.

For some reason I remember something about maybe the main character's (thought he was an orphan...makes no sense now!) sister dating a duck hunter...sure was a daffy duck hunter...he was so proud to bag a duck and then he hung the duck by the webbers in a cool porch and said the duck was ready when it rotted off its legs (didn't he plan to have dinner with this gal and his Mama too?)...course Big Red (I think) harvests the dead duck, runs off with the dinner...at least in my old mind I think this is how it went. Not sure because in my mind, letting a bird dog consume the quarry, wouldn't that be a no-no? Oh well...

I cannot imagine hanging the duck till it rots off its feets...blah.

Mighta come from another book in the series, like Outlaw Red or Irish Red. Were fun books to read.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There, now I mighten find info I wrote on the topic of tenderizing happy meat...bwa ha ha...

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[perchie.girl]

Thats STILL a good write up Tara....

 

[angry rooster]

I need to follow this thread and I don't know how to without writing a something
Very interesting

 

[drumstick diva]

Tara I was a big fan of Jim Kjelgaard - Big Red, Irish Red, Outlaw Red. Red, Sean, Mike. I remember Big Majesty the bear etc. I think I still have 3 of the books in my closet from the '50s.

Loved the Black Stallion books, and Lad A Dog, Call of the Wild.

I was a mini tomgirl - my sister and I never liked dolls, no matter how many times my mother bought them for us. We just didn't 'get' the appeal.

 

[CanuckBock]

Thats STILL a good write up Tara....

Thanks Deb...

I need to follow this thread and I don't know how to without writing a something
Very interesting

And neither do I know how else to subscribe and follow a thread ...welcome...

Hopefully the "very interesting" is a good thing

<<said in the best mocked up voice over of Arthur Stanton Eric "Arte" Johnson!>> ​

Tara I was a big fan of Jim Kjelgaard - Big Red, Irish Red, Outlaw Red. Red, Sean, Mike. I remember Big Majesty the bear etc. I think I still have 3 of the books in my closet from the '50s.

Loved the Black Stallion books, and Lad A Dog, Call of the Wild.

I was a mini tomgirl - my sister and I never liked dolls, no matter how many times my mother bought them for us. We just didn't 'get' the appeal.

Loved all these books...you watch out...those books in yer closet might be worth money too...hee hee...saved the dust jacket, eh?

Dolls...oh please...I had a large collection of plastic FARM animals...I quickly came to the conclusion that our Golden Lab Rex was not much as farm dog material...when I found he had absconded my herd (cows) and I found bits and pieces of them with huge DOG CANINE marks in them...

No worries about predators when the home pets were causing havoc like this! Eeep.

Yard Roo...last of my bantam Wyandottes used to begin the real blooded bantam Higgins' White Dove Chantecler project...

reTIREed to the lawns...​

Now thar's a GREAT farm dog...Lacy the wonder mutt!​

So here's the deal...in a quick and slick (having FAR too much fun) post pic, quick explanation and then on to the next and the next and...

Girls are being the bestest herdy dogs ever...always finding them helping me with the chores...

Love their focus, their control, their HELPING!​

Even with the turkeys...the girls make me laugh...

GRAZING with two of the turkey hens...
​

LoREDa...our oldest Lilac hen...hatched June 2008...she looks rather fine for an old gal​

Some clicks of the dawgs...

Foamy​

Lacy​

Emmy...barking​

Here's a cute view from my Man Porch chair...

Little nippy out...add another dog and I am toasty warm...
Covered in living furred up tapestries!

​

Pineapple plant doing well.

​

Beans are finally up, jest in time to begin up the summer's heat...28C for Friday!

​

Got the last of my turkey composted bedding on the Veg Garden

​

Had huge rains, so the race was on to get her tilled under and let what happens, happen.

​

Dogs were frolicking a tad too much in the asparagus and lacy knocked this spear off.



Rick's bin busy as always...

He hauled these home from the city and set them up in one of his c-cans for storage...then got about filling them up with THE good stuff.

Bin...get the pun...​

Moved his outdoor metal working table...

Makes me grin...his father had this top, chunk of metal, in the back of his pickup...
fur weight is the explanation
FIL is gone now and the metal became a skoocum working table top ​

Firewood...all the loads Rick hauled home and I stacked...got split.

My part to helping...rake up bits to keep it tidy and stack wood by splitter to save Rick some steps​

​

There will be more wood...and more work to stack the splits on the walls of wood, but bit by bit, gets done...always gonna be firewood work to do.

​

Cold frame is near finished...it is a project that some work gets done and then something else draws attention...oh well, eventually it will be completed.

I do believe someone left the Ram Pasture gates open and...and...and...
L00kit what wandered on in!

​

Now on to the newest of the NEWS here...yeh...there has been an invasion this weekend...of the hairy kind (not woolly)...

OH MY! The HORROR of it all...Lacy is like "WT...?"​

Five Dorpers and two Katahdin/Dorper crossed GIRLS...

An invasion...terrible, terrible ​

They have invaded and taken over...over the DOG playground???

Ovine mouths CHEWING on dog wood! ​

Taken over the birch bark stash...chewing, nibbling right on the bark...without permission, without asking, without consent...

Good Show Emmy...you better get chewing and quick like...before there is no more BARK!​

Momma and her baby​

So yuppers, we hauled home the new hair sheeps...

We have a tally of SEVEN new ones...three adult ewes, one ewe lamb to one of the ewes (shown above)...in the adult ewes, we have a matriarch that loves to sit with the younger sheeps...so that is heavenly having her earn her keep keeping babies calm. One ewe lamb, three proven ewes, two black based ewes (Katahdin x Dorper...one I chose with white blanket, one Rick chose with more black and white spots...we are weak because a white sheep with a black head is just not gonna fly here...we needed to be weaned off the Jacob dotty dot coloured on white background type look)... so now that I have completely confused you...here is a list of what we brought home.

Proven ewe and her ewe lamb from this year's breeding
Two proven ewes, one being from 2012 and babysitter to the younger sheeps
Two cross ewe lambs (Katahdin / Dorper) to add colour to our pasture--black with light markings
One ewe lamb

Five Dorpers and two Katahdin/Dorper crosses.


I am quite certain many photos of these seven hair sheep shall grace the pages of this thread...go figure, eh.

Rick even watches them on the security cameras...giving me a play by play even when I am walking past his window outside doing other chores...hilarious!

He let them out this morning...they hang around the gate, visit with the dogs when I potty the girls...yeh, friendly and personable, wonderful mowers...happy, happy, joy and all that jazzer, eh! WOOT!

​

Oh yeh, and before I move on and forget...there are imported AUSTALIAN genetics in the background of some of these Dorpers...who knew how often we get that plus of the Aussie influence here in our critters...from birds (Oz Black Swans, even had a Rosy Burke years ago), to dogs (ACDs) to now the Sheeps....very

Also on the home front...a robin pair has decided to build their nest just outside one of the doors to the porch...

​

With all the coming and going, I suppose it is a pretty predator proof location...I suppose

So I gotta fly...still got clicks not posted on here but oh well...got things on the go.

Let's end with a little television...bird and sheep TV...

Emmy and Lacy watching CHOOK TV​

View of the seven...can yah hear the hummmm of lips smacking, forage trimming...Rick threatened to mow this grass...so thick and lush the dawgs were loosing TOYS in it...so purdy soon, them sheeps will have done her up good and trimmed it to a more respectable length...the lawn mowing crew extraordinaire.

​

Gone...gotta get gone...

is over...gone... whee hee hee...

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

The girl dogs and I just came back in from letting the Dorpers and Kat/Dorp crosses out. I can still hear the mowing going on...gonna have a hard time keeping up with Rick's improvements to the pastures here (all that bounty of good greens)...but I know they will give it a good old go.

May 31 2016 That is some DEEP green ​

Little background on the seven new sheeps we have...they are from the Heartland (CBC show) flock out of British Columbia (province next to us)--the whole flock was purchased by the persons I got my seven from.

So they are already FAMOUS sheep,.,., television stars, eh!

May 31 2016 - Se how all the young sheeps gather around the old gal

I do believe the matriarch we brought in was even IN the T.V. show tho I have never seen an episode of the program...so I guess she's an old hand at grinning for the cameras, eh.

​

http://www.cbc.ca/heartland/blog/the-thursday-may-16-blog-some-news-for...ewe:


There is a video clip of the Dorpers first intro to the horses on the television set. I don't do video's online so someone will have to tell me if it is any good, eh.

​

http://heartlandtv.wikia.com/wiki/Dorper

Quote:
http://www.cbc.ca/heartland/episodes/season-7/the-penny-drops

​

I am sure glad I take lotsa photographs...since this flock is use to that already..."say CHEESE!"

Keep them in the conditions they are accustomed to...hee hee, har har...satin pillow fur yer heads...special foods and drinks n yer dressing rooms, have to address you THRU your managers, do I?

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[scottcaddy]

Are your 2 girls awed by the TV Stars that are sharing their home now?
Scott

 

[CanuckBock]

Are your 2 girls awed by the TV Stars that are sharing their home now?
Scott

Awed indeed...now when I let the girls out to potty, Emmy don't potty, she heads straight to the sheep party(?)... I said, "POTTY" not "PARTY," you animals! POTTY animals!

Yup, the gate access to the Ram Pasture (now a SEVEN ewe pasture...oh poop, gotta quit calling it that I guess...er not since Rick says we can get a ram and have a few lambs off the older girls before it is too late to do that with them...I get complacent quite often...ah we got time until like a dozen years fly by and I realize, them girls are too OLD...sorta like moi) is just a hop skip and holding it jaunt from the house. The flock hangs out there (gotta get a click of it) and rubs off the hair on the fence wire on the gate...a grand scratching post to rub down the full length of the gate. I need to go un-attach that sheep scratching bar I have inside where three of the six '36 Maple Leafs are parked. I put that up before we moved the trucks there...oh well, another job on the roster...

So yeh, like what a gong show it tis in the morning, eh. I open the door on the Man Porch and off flies one of the soon to be Robin parents off their nest by the one door...and off runs Emmy and Lacy shouting out to have a quick nose to nose visit with the lambies...good gack! Instead of potty time...

Sep 8 2012 - Fixins a.k.a. Conan​

Is there ever anything but FUN on the go here...fun fun fun...until like Rick says, someone ends up having to wear a cone!

​

Blah...

Sweet Rick...he calls me to say he'll be home yesterday at noon, so I tell him, "Great, we can have ham and toast and eggs...a LATE breakie." Round about by 2, 2:30, I get another call...it is Rick asking, "What you doing?" and between mouthfuls I say, "eating cereal!" So he says, be home just around the time you are leaving... and I reply, "'kay..." as I gulp down some sustenance.

So as said, he comes in about the time I am leaving to go drive... He bought a BQ rotisserie chook, fresh corn, strawberries, whip cream, bananas (luv how that man shops)...and a booberry pie. Why a pie, because he figures I am not big enough already...I mumble something about "others may disagree..." and he replies, "Yeh, even I myself, might disagree with that choice!" Yeh, more and more of me to love...enough already, eh.

So having a slice of booberry pie and a cuppa with y'all...

Haven't actually EARNED a slice of pie to warrant it, but gonna make up and work it off after I say good bye here...

I got the chicken I planned to do for dinner yesterday cut up and in the crock with some homemade BQ sauce...we'll have that on the barbecue crisped up with the last of the corn and add a potato in tinfoil with onion slices. A feast for having in the Man Porch.

May 31, 2016​

I came home after work and Rick had hauled out all the bedding out plants from the garage under the grow lights. He wants to get summer on the go, no doubt. Made extra work since I had to cover them up with blankets before bed time, going down to 2C...but after this last night, on the up and up for 28C (86F)...so bring on the heat. I gotta get another bale of potting soil to do the job justice but planning on potting up all these plants and making the Man Porch switch to summer mode, in the next week er so...hoping. Not sure on all this stuff as I thought maybe I needed a few hours of sleep during each 24 hour period but hey, why not live on the edge of being sleep deprived crabby...eh??

June 17, 2014​

I can't blame Rick for wanting summer to come on...if'n we gotta endure heat, then we should at least have the eye candy that the hot weather allows us to enjoy.

May 31, 2016​

While I drove p.m. bus, Rick did a quick mow (first one for 2016) with the ride 'em and I see he brought the push mower out...and did a bit of weed eating too...yeh, he's not at ALL excited about summer...nah...not...

While I sliced and diced up the strawberries with the girls playing quietly in the Man Porch, Rick and I got to see the first humming bird visit his two feeders...delightful! Every year we hope against hope that putting the feeders out will help some poor tired long travelled and HUNGRY bird...and boy did that hummer have a loooong drink. Wonderbar!


So this is the lamb gal the Rick chose...

She's one of the two Katahdin/Dorper crosses and she is ever so sweet...cutester too.

​

How sweet is she...well here...

How precious is this "Hi, Hello" face? "Gotta love me, I'm a baby sheep!" ​

It is obvious that I'll get more photos as time goes along...that is my cross choice there above on the left...she's got a white speckled "blanket" on her otherwise black body.

April 8 2016​

She's a triple and VERY independent...even tho she is the smallest of the group we have here. She was even the smallest in her litter too. My problem is that I can SEE her from a mile off in a flock of hundreds of sheeps...my eyes gravitate to HER...hilarious really. Star struck SUCKER plastered and lettered across my forehead, fur sure!

April 8 2016 - Her ewe lamb sister on the left, her and her brother on the right
They look Dorper, she sure don't!

She works that smallness for all she is worth. I catch her with her head stuck out the wire eating where others cannot access...she's a real doer that one. "Nothing but the best fresh grasses for moi! 'Cause I got lots of growing up to do yet."

Last choice is on left in the middle
​

The last sheep I chose is the one I am most intrigued with. She is the same age as the one Rick chose...her tag number correlates right next to Rick's ewe lamb.

Balding up nicely​

What this ewe lamb has on the go is lots of bone, she has more bone than some of the older ewes do and she was born in December...bone develops in the Dorper over time...sorta kinda like the ACDs in that they grow to the height they are gonna be quite quickly (long, lean and lanky) but develop bone and muscle mass over the next few years. I remember with Makins, snapping pictures of her as a two year old thinking, yes, she is done growing and filling out...NOT! Four years there abouts and putting on bone and muscle mass...giving one that look of substance I so do admire.

So this ewe lamb I chose last has bone and size (quick growth) and then there is that shedding I want to see in the hair sheeps. She is shedding out her hair (in sheep breeds like Soay that are a primitive wool sheep, you may pluck their fiber out and it is called rooing) and wool down to almost bare skin. Yee haw...how marvelous...so happy with my last choice for a female and delighted to watch her grow, fill out, shed off and just become all she can become.

When we went to run dogs...the sheep were all chewing their cud IN their corral to their barn! Right on!

The flock is getting to know where home is and what is expected of them for the routine here...awesome...smart sheepies to make my chores that much more smoother...thank you sheeps!

Here's how I chose what sheep we chose...

Rick chose his mix like I did, for the colour and for their conformation...they remind us of the dark and white Jacobs and we do like colour in our animals...sweetness sheeps, with lots of eye appeal.

So that was fine, two crosses for colour.

Then the fact that the sellers of the sheep...I drive some of their kids...three of them, use to be four but one owner moved to another job away from this area.

Melissa and D'Arcy, her ewe lamb...precious moments, eh ​

So the kids ADORE Melissa, this momma sheep... so I told the kids, what sheep do you want me to take...Melissa...and I asked them, she has a baby and is it a girl...YES...OK, so Melissa and her ewe lamb D'Arcy were two Dorpers on the must have list.

Then I asked the caretakers of the flock, what sheep they liked best and wanted me to take...that was the matriarch I took and great choice because like I mentioned in last post, she is a television star...so there was another on my list to own.

Second to last I chose off studying their pedigrees, I chose Spice who is the same age as Melissa (2014, and a proven mom herself), since she has a good mix of genetics, is a triplet and I like her form.

So the long and short of it, that be that on how we ended up with the seven we have. These girls will live out their days here...dying of old age when the grim reaper decides it is their time.

Bestest part...the kids on my bus...they may be moving to the city in the fall (which explains why the rest of flock is being sold to the knackers--THAT is a fact of life for a farm with meat sheep--that is why they are produced, for meat)...nobody there to look after the flock and well uh...yeh...I took what I took AND every day, twice during the week...these kids get to see Melissa and D'Arcy...their favourite sheep...because I drive past MY house to the school on my route. Pretty kewl and so far, the kids all chatter it up about seeing the sheep as we drive up (told them I can only count to four and I needed their help so I know if the coyotes have left any there from the night prior...I tease them relentelssly, you betcha!) and all are looking out the window at the flock, counting sheep (but not falling asleep...dang--kids are virtual angels when asleep, oh well) as quickly as they are able before we are gone past...the kids that use to own Melissa and D'Arcy are elated to see their sheep and myself, I am elated to have been able to do that... How long this continues to amuse them, who knows but I have sheep that actually mean something important to the younger kids on the bus and makes the trips on the bus that much entertaining...for myself and for them!

​

​

So, after the doggy run runs yesterday eve, I take the two mutts to the new orchard to feed the two fish in the barrel by the greenhouse...sitting there watching the girls attempt to kill each other (this is AFTER Rick run the snot outta them) and notice..."What the hey?"

​

Dang bigger fish is attempting to do the hari kari (seppuku)...

​

Attempting to leap out and well, kill themselves...good gack...no rest for the wicked me eh...

See the splish splash marks...frantic that it is going to LEAP OUT!​

So I put a chunk of the chicken wire (intended yet to put THAT over the raspberries to keep the feral c@tz outta the planter as they use it as a toilet) over the barrel and legislate that as another "must hafta do" in all that extra time I have on my hands...not like garden planting, greenhouse repotting, porch planting, never mind corn out on the other side of the new bean patch...or the fact I want to fire up Buster the Bator and sort thru my stock pile of eggs for hatching (the girl birds here are producing like sixty or so eggs a day...time to get on it and put some in for replication, eh!). Yeh...so it is June FIRST...and all heck breaks loose. No need for sleep, no need for a sit down and catch yer breath because well darn it...it is a complete BLUR and here I am talking about it instead of doing all that is to be done up already...

Ugly but a good temporary fix...if'n I go back and find it still has TWO fish in thar...then it is was good...​

"Did someone say sushi is being served up in the New Orchard and its FRESH?"​

Java time with you guys is done...gone, finished...off I run, like a chook without its head on (straight?).

Too much fun...not enough helpers to partake...never enough energy, time or whatnots for all that can be accomplished... Do I lack purpose...hardly! Har har...

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[scottcaddy]

It seems to me that you have a very definite purpose.
I do have to wonder about your focus though.

Scott
edit to fix spellchecker and my oooooooppppps