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

[drumstick diva]

Scott -please don't use such big words,(diffident) I don't know what that means. Hope you aren't turning into a Sour Jr. - the walking dictionary. I spend too much time looking up words on google as it is.

 

[CanuckBock]

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

Scott

Hmmm, not sure I'd ever be accused of being shy (hardly--more like I intimidate and scare persons! <BOO>) or having any "lack of self-confidence" in any purpose I choose to pursue...or that my focus is off...hee hee... so I am not sure I am following you very well this morn Scott.

Quote:
I am pretty tunnel vision and boisterous (to the point of annoying many!)...or so I get told.

Onwards and upwards...that or get run down

​

Unless of course I have misunderstood what you have written which is likely?

Guess I am confused this morn...need more coffee...and enlightenment I guess!

What is my purpose and for what might I be lacking confidence and focus? FUN has always been the target here...happy joy and lots of fun... so I guess if I am tired, over doing it and doing spits and splatters...if the end result is to be happy about it, that would be the esteemed success I am hoping for.

I know I bit off more than I can chew by agreeing to run the greenhouse this year when I know that is the time I usually fire up Buster the Bator...but if I don't hatch any birds like I did last year...I got nobody to apologize to because I know I can't do it all and some things planned have to be tossed of the list for this year. I love being busy, not bored and overwhelmed that things can be seen to.

I just compared my veg garden to a lady I work with and discovered, her garden is five times smaller than mine and it took five persons a day to plant hers...doing THAT math...that means I as one person with the size of garden I have...same results will take twenty-five days...bwa ha ha...if'n I work at their pace that is. Thankfully I work at my own pace which is tres different than others.

Whatever happens here, stays here...or at least the worry about accomplishments do.

Later eh as I got happiness to pursue, capture, hogtie and choke hold...

Tara

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

Kids on the bus are still counting the sheeps for me. As you recall, told them I can only count to four...retired accountant that has plumb forgot all my learnin', mind gone to utter mush.

So the kids are in shock...they tell me there are more than four and I need to be able to count ALL of them. So to help their minds think outside the box, I tell them a kinda riddle...see if'n you can figure it out before you read all I am writing...

So if'n I can only count to four and I know that I have seven sheeps but four are lambs and three are adults (see where I am going with this?), then I can still count them, but one has to lessen the size of the GROUP I am needing to count. I can count the FOUR lambs...I can count the THREE ewes...and there we have it...simple but not...use what you got or what you are capable of to make your life easier.

So with all these extra helping hands (mouths) here now, time to put them to work out yesterday...hay! Hey, Hey, Hey NOW!

​

Put the new flock out in the soon to be planted tater patch...may as well get them trimming it before I put seeds in because I can't be sure they won't pull the taters out plus they can and will compact all that fluffy soil I floof floofed!

​

They bin doing a fine job in lots of places, but time to put them on one spot...see how they do...do they become helpers to the main causes or hinders?

D'Arcy getting herself a drink​

Add a bucket of cool water and see...and see how they do...

AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!​

Could not have done a finer job with a pair of hand shears! Good girls!

Then I discovered one unexpected bonus...

Some thistle has blown in off the place across the road...nasty thistle and...

Melissa found some thistle​

And she ate it right on UP!​

My Jacobs rarely ate thistle and it was a job left up to the goats to do...WOW,.,.,.

Great to know the Dorpers will snack on this and get it mowed down to the ground...wonderful to learn! One less "job" for moi to do!

And there is that rumour that the grasses is always greener on the other side...case in point...

INSIDE the tater patch ​

Yeh...don't matter what side of the fence you give them access to...always the OTHER SIDE is worth poking yer heads thru for!

OUTSIDE the tater patch ​

Better get you some sheep intros...managed up a few decent clicks so here we go....

Youngest first.

Dito - Latin for enrich​

D'Arcy - name of a kid use to be on my bus​

Duro - Latin for endure


Decor - Latin for beauty and grace ​

Melissa - already named



Spice - already named



Slurpee - already named (by the kids no less!)​

So huge big greeting welcome home to the new place sheep flock. Welcome.


So nobody ever believes me on this...that ACDs give out kisses...but it is ever so TRUE!

Sweetness...

​

Lacy pokes nose thru wire to give a kiss to D'Arcy...​

And that the sheep give kisses back...yeh...whatever...you can't make them behave like this...they have to want to do this on their own accord.

the kindness is returned by D'Arcy to Lacy



When the lion lays down with the lambs eh...only in Pear-A-Dice, eh​

The dogs putting faces inside the fence is a given, even a mean at heart dog would stick its head inside the wire (to give a bite), but to get a sheep to stick its face thru the wire...yeh, mutual happiness, love, joy and camaraderie. We are ever so blessed to have creatures like these to embellish our worlds. Lucky indeed...

Does Lacy run up to these new sheep and BITE them...heck no...she does however try to TASTE them...

Thank frig they are not WOOL sheep...quit FELTING them Lacy! I said, "QUIT IT!"

So got the owl planter my son gave me planted...this year, a pink dahlia, not a white one like last year. Set some more shade plants outside to acclimatize, it IS now after June FIRST!

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Managed to roust up some plastic to cover the barrel pond for containment of that leaping Koi...

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This top I fitted is kinda thick and obstructive...Rick says he'll look for some fruit netting he has, much thinner netting that will do the trick...fur now, this will do us.

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Rick ripped around the Bird Yard on the ride 'em and trimmed up the grass yesterday eve...makes me laugh, the chooks hate long grasses, they love a golf course green to cruise about upon...hee hee...silly birds, spoilt, never! Not here, eh!

After mowing, I brought Foamo out...she does not like the noise of the mower, scares her, so she came out for her pets...there was this rush to accost Rickie...poor man with only TWO hands...

Rick don't have enough hands because Emmy had to wait her turn...he was full up with dog pettings.

​

"Hey, I like PETS too!"​

Lovey Lacy and one of her fav toys...​

Said I would click a pic of them sheeps at the gate...

Now how do I get the cart fulla buckets of water into that pasture...????
Access blocked by bodies!​

​

So since the forage is so RICH...I have made sure the sheep have access to a nice hay so they have choices...kinda give them an option to have some rich stuff but some more mild too. No upset tummies or runny poops, thanks. The transition to Rick's megga forage takes time and I don't need ill new sheeps.

BEFORE​

So checked on their hay supply in the one side of the barn and see they have been munching and near used it all up...time to top it up in thar.

One cart fulla hay will do them



AFTER​

Tuck it in along the sides of the one half of the barn and they should not foul it up too quickly...all can access and limits any pushing or shoving should it suddenly become the must have commodity...agh!

So who likes the hay the bestest?

Ah HA,.,., the youngest ones got their mouths fulla hay



BUSTED...I caught you young whippersnappers!

So how little is the littlest lamb Dito...little enough the waterers are a challenge for her.

​

But she's one smart gaffer,,,

OH NO! My legs are too long...my head and neck won't reach!

Kneeling = Success! ​

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So that be that for now...off to do some more things a ding dong...away...but not without jest one more (or two more) sweetness clicks...

​

Ah yes, relaxing, rewarding, time sucking...oh the distractions that the sheep are causing...no traffic jambs, not quite yet but yeh...

Sheep T.V.!​

Now I'll never get any work outta them two girl dogs...none, on strike, sit down watching... "Hello? Girls...Hello?"

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[Bunnylady]

Can't count past 4? Don't reckon any of your kiddos have read Watership Down, have they? The rabbits couldn't count past 4 either, so they had a word, hrair, which meant any number more than 4.

So you not only have hair sheep, you have hrair sheep!

 

[drumstick diva]

Bunny Lady REALLY KNOWS bunnies!! She should be addressed as Bunnyologist of the Highest Degree.

 

[Bunnylady]

Or maybe I should just be called "hare brained."

 

[scottcaddy]

Scott -please don't use such big words,(diffident) I don't know what that means. Hope you aren't turning into a Sour Jr. - the walking dictionary. I spend too much time looking up words on google as it is.

Quote:
I am pretty tunnel vision and boisterous (to the point of annoying many!)...or so I get told.

Onwards and upwards...that or get run down

​

Unless of course I have misunderstood what you have written which is likely?

Guess I am confused this morn...need more coffee...and enlightenment I guess!

What is my purpose and for what might I be lacking confidence and focus? FUN has always been the target here...happy joy and lots of fun... so I guess if I am tired, over doing it and doing spits and splatters...if the end result is to be happy about it, that would be the esteemed success I am hoping for.

I know I bit off more than I can chew by agreeing to run the greenhouse this year when I know that is the time I usually fire up Buster the Bator...but if I don't hatch any birds like I did last year...I got nobody to apologize to because I know I can't do it all and some things planned have to be tossed of the list for this year. I love being busy, not bored and overwhelmed that things can be seen to.

I just compared my veg garden to a lady I work with and discovered, her garden is five times smaller than mine and it took five persons a day to plant hers...doing THAT math...that means I as one person with the size of garden I have...same results will take twenty-five days...bwa ha ha...if'n I work at their pace that is. Thankfully I work at my own pace which is tres different than others.

Whatever happens here, stays here...or at least the worry about accomplishments do.

Later eh as I got happiness to pursue, capture, hogtie and choke hold...

Tara

Sorry about that mix-up. I misspelled 'definite' and the spell checker didn't change out the word that I picked. I didn't look at it again after I clicked on what I thought was the right word

My Dear Tara, I have never thought of you as the shy type.

I did fix that post.
Scott

 

[CanuckBock]

Can't count past 4? Don't reckon any of your kiddos have read Watership Down, have they? The rabbits couldn't count past 4 either, so they had a word, hrair, which meant any number more than 4.

So you not only have hair sheep, you have hrair sheep!

Now that is some play on words...sheer genius. Gonna hafta ask them kids and they are on reading programs (CS Lewis seems to be a thing right now!). I never read the book, think I watched a movie on it tho.

He calls the rabbit language LAPINE (Latin for wabbit). Wish I could remember if they spoke the word in the movie? Thinking you'd pronounce it "ha rare?" but what would "I" know.

​

This one goes to FIVE...

Down for the count?

"How many Emmy?"​

They say the average human can retain only like SEVEN bits of information at once for processing in your working memory...unless you are like Raymond in "Rain Man"...

Guess I should be overjoyed I chose seven new hair sheeps, and not like eleven...har har...some animals just need to look at a group and they know the number of individuals it represents...knowing full well if someone is added or missing. Like a vase of flowers, whereas most humans would need to take the flowers out to count them, some look AT the vase and know the number it contains.

Quote:

Bunny Lady REALLY KNOWS bunnies!! She should be addressed as Bunnyologist of the Highest Degree.

Course she is...hee hee...bun buns are ever so kewl.

Or maybe I should just be called "hare brained."

Better than being called "bird brain," "dog lady," or "gone to the dawgs" like ME ...

I think my focus past the plantings going on here...I am torn between dogs and the sheeps right now...

​

Some kewl sheep and wolf combos...fur those of us that run with the flock OR go it on our own as the lone wolf...

​

And of course, this one hast to make me laugh...

​

Emmy barked when someone stopped to get their mail at the boxes on the road...the new flock moved towards her. I found this interesting since they did have two livestock guardians where they use to live at. The livestock guardians would bark and then circle to herd up the flock and drive them back to the barn if danger was perceived to be in the area.


I find this one totally true and funny...because I stop to check our mailbox and I call out to the new flock and they do KNOW my voice and baa back...

​

I often find the sheep have a better recall than my dogs...sheesh, eh!

Sorry about that mix-up. I misspelled 'definite' and the spell checker didn't change out the word that I picked. I didn't look at it again after I clicked on what I thought was the right word

My Dear Tara, I have never thought of you as the shy type.

I did fix that post.
Scott

I think I did not have enough coffee (slow) and you perhaps had too much (fast)?

Having a coffee and a slice of boo berry pie...I earned it already today...in fact earned it pretty good yesterday too..

Let's see, where to start...

Asparagus bed in the New Orchard yesterday​

I pulled out all but the asparagus in this bed and refluffed all the dirt. Added some peat to help it retain more moisture for longer...I need to have Rick (or me if he takes too long) drill some holes to sink my tacky metal bopping birds in the landscape ties. The holes you see are where the purple asparagus roots or crowns are...you slowly, over time fill in them in to where they are finally flush at the end of the season.

So got that nagging task done...

I potted up all the bedding out plants in their pots except the frog ones and the portulaca and four extra geraniums.

​

Spent some time this morning cleaning up dusty tables in the Man Porch...tis a start.

One new strawberry in the New Orchard looks to be blooming! ​

Shade bed in front of the dog kennel​

Hauled two 16 foot wire panels closer to the veg garden.

​

Gotta get some nice looking t-posts (got ugly ones, want nice ones) and secure this for the extra peas I am planting this year...lotsa peas I am expecting...you know how them girls love their greens, eh!

I put this wire around a poor set of beat to almost smitherines evergreens out at the Point...good gack!

​

I am down to one doe goat and yeh, I don't prefer goats...too hard on the plants...way. Sheep never do this to the trees.

Poor things are trying to live despite the goat's best attentions! ​

An observation I am not alone in seeing...here's a funny regarding how many perceive goats...

​

Another hard on the land beast are them llamas...

Path worn and trodden down
​

Yesterday, I was about an hour slow to fetch the flock out at the Point and the one llama decided he was gonna pace...and pace, and pace some more. I do have to remind myself that they have the brain size of a small goat on the body of a 300 pound beast...so six times bigger in size compared to brain capacity. Can't blame the beast for being dumb I guess. Sigh...

​

I can now say with experience that if one wants a beast that is not hard on the land and will do up the kind of mowing that saves a landowner "yard duties," sheeps are the best way to go. You still need to fence off the plants they delight in eating but things like small spruce trees and gateways will survive under the care and non-attentions of sheep, wool or hair kinds.


Supper last night...use up some leftovers...rice, chicken, ham...always got lots of EGGs on hand too.

​

Made up chicken fried rice, added some ham and dinner was a done deal!

​

Now a few weeks back when we made a trip to Calgary, I don't believe I ever posted those photos on here yet...better do that as we have already made another trip thru Calgary...got some walking onions and stopped for dinner with the dogs and whatnots...better post the last last tip, eh.

​

That was a snow day, May 22, last one we have kinda had of any substance.

Unhappy geese flock out on a field scavenging up grains ​

strawberry rhubarb pie and bubble gum​

Snow never stopped us for having ice cream...we're Albertans, a little snow won't change our plans, eh!

Stopped at a garden center we had tried to go to a few weeks prior but the side we wanted to go to, the water plant side, was not opened up...this time it was...

​

Rick herded me right over to this table...jest fulla dragons...he wanted me to buy the one in the egg (peaking eyes out) but I looked at the price tags and sputtered out, "NO WAY!"

So one thinks you get better prices IN the city...more competition should make the market more competitive...hardly!

Here is what we found...

Hostas at $32...yes THIRTY TWO DOLLARS each!!​

These should be round about eight dollar plants...EIGHT dollars, not four times the price...sheesh! Really, how stunned and stoopid ARE city dwellers...a captive audience that will pay whatever they pay...good gack I hope NOT! Burns my butt to see price gouging like this...four times what they should be...


A city Robin...it was snowing and melting but the bird still needed to have a bath...

​

Hilarious how the Robin blended with the concrete birds.

​

So there were many concrete statues...I love these, way better than plastic ones and concrete if stored away dry in winter...last...yeh, prices in the city...horrendous!

See the green cactus...we have these!
​

Out in the New Orchard, Rick chose them back in 2008 and we have the larger one, the smaller one and even a bird bath in the shape of a sombrero and cactus...love them.

​

Price we paid was $15...yes, FIFTEEN dollars...not SIXTY for this cactus!

One Foo Dog statue is middle right​

Foo dogs (lions), I have five of these in three different colours.

Set of bronze painted Foo dogs guard the door, one black one is beside Lacy​

My Foo Dog collection around the Taj Mahal...

Pair of grey Foo Dogs at other entrance door​

​

The one Foo Dog at the garden center in the city...

​

We paid $35 each, THIRTY FIVE DOLLARS each...their price? HUNDRED AND TWENTY ...holey moley! That means our collection of five = $600!!!!!!!!!! Icrumba! OUCH!

​

I forget what we paid for my fire dragon but it was not this...

Fire Dragon - $230!!!!!!!!!!!!​

So not all the best deals are to be found where there is a larger market...not the city in many cases, at least not at this nursery for plants or concrete. So like who knew...I guess we do now!


Rick told me I need to get some of the duck weed we stored thru the winter in the house here out to the fish barrel in the New Orchard...tis going nutso in here...so thinking I may wander off now, do that and then till up some furrows for tater planting...I do have sore feet and could whine but there ain't no lil' gremlins gonna step up and do any of this for me.

​

The seed in the Man Porch is certainly chitted up nicely...

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[scottcaddy]

Tara, of course you don't have lil' gremlins gonna step up, you wouldn't buy them.
Scott

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

Quote:

I thought the fella DID buy the foundations for making gremlins...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gremlins:
Yeh, bought with the precautions on how NOT to make them. Bwa ha ha...

Well the not so Gremlins have been tres busy here in Pear-A-Dice...

Let's (try to<--har har) be quick and slick...this is what is...

COMPLETED

​

Yesterday after morning bus run, tilled up part of the Ram Pasture (for taters and seeding to oats).

​

As said, I planted the porch plants and then on the Friday, I moved them into their respective places...Rick told me he had TWO coffees on the porch this morning...ah, how sweet it is!

​

Rick lets the new hair sheeps out each morning...I get up and check the security cameras to see if he had time and sure enough...he is finding the TIME to enjoy the BETTER things in LIFE...awesomeness indeed!

This below is the walking onion Rick and I went all the way past Calgary to get...took the dogs along and had a GREAT loser lap time the weekend prior...had Chinese at the Dell and stopped at the bakery...was alot of fun. Even go the walking onions for a steal of a deal...lady at the cash register said, "We have LOTS of these this year...how about eight bucks!" Such a deal...yee haw...me ever so happy. I had these years ago, Egyptian Onions where they get baby onions on their tops that you can plant...I let them die off and this time, gonna see if I can behave and keep them on the go. Neat plants...

​

Over this past weekend got lots more done...lots of plantings despite the fact I feel at least twice to maybe even three times my age right now...

How can I hurt this much...I thought as you got older you lost stuff you had when you were younger...so why do things hurt now that I don't figure I even have no mores?? Well???

Sat - those boo fish watering cans, are ten bucks a piece...I never paid that much and I got orange ones and blues because I found them so cheap (cheep cheap)!

On Saturday afternoon, we visited a nursery to get water plant bags (helps the soil and sand mix STAY IN the container for the plants)...got sterilized dirt at another place for ten bucks a huge bale...so that meant I could do water pond plantings...YAH! Water plants for Rickie's pond and waterfall...yee haw indeed!

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Water plants, some repotted to bags and water plant pots, the three new ones planted in bags and pots. I potted and Rick hung them in the pond...what a team!

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Herb garden...

Rick brought the drill out and buzzed me three holes for my tacky metal teeter totter birds

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I put up some metal fence pieces...so the dogs can quit hopping IN the planter...dogs have to learn where they may go and where they make my hair all fall out...they will know with them little barrier fences up for now. Makins was allowed INSIDE my veg garden, because Makins knew how to stay to pathways...takes the dogs time to chill out with age but they do learn...or I lose alot of hair fretting over them pawing up the plantings...

.


Pretty much past sticking in some more (er not) herbs...this herb planter and asparagus place is done up like dinner time...got two kinds of mint in the corners in pots so they don't take over the entire bed...sages, rosemary, thyme...might add more, may not, we shall see, eh...we shall see...

Maybe a peppermint and a spearmint if'n I can find some...er not...oh well, always NEXT season to add on to it. Joyous to have it revamped and up and running so pretty like.

​

Got my frogs planted and hung...

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Got the Portulaca in...

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Planted the wishing well in the New Orchard...gotta hang the one pot but gotta try to remember to bring out some wire with me...har har.

​

Rick mowed up the New Orchard over the weekend...lookin very fine!

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The Saturday morning...Rick insisted we not leave to get dirt and water planting bags until I got that tater patch planted...

Hmm...those smell like we need to TASTE them...make sure they are GOOD to make more from...​

I had helpers...lots of helpers...I got myself herded down the field to the tater spot...sheeps & dawgs in tow...

​

So I had sat that morning in the Man Porch and cut the seed potatoes into plantable pieces...

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Surprised even myself as I had the Yukon Gold left over and half the dark red ones...oh well...that explains what I was doing yesterday tilling in MORE ground for taters...

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Part of the potato crew... them DIRT DOGS...their help earned them ICE CREAM later on that day, eh. Ice cream for them helpful dogettes!

Thirsty work this tater planting...

Course if the girls spent a little less time BARKING at people getting their mail, might not be SO thirsty, eh?
​

TADA...
Seed in and now to cover it all...



VOILA...
Tater plot is done up...now to head fur town for those planting bags...and potting up dirt ​

Now to install the soaker hoses...that be for another time tho...Rick, the dogs and I have a loser lap to go on...away we go...varrooom...

Tater patch yesterday evening...​

Done up this morning...so we can have a cool supper (yesterday did up chicken legs with BQ sauce in the crock...to avoid heating up the house) once again like yesterday.

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Mac salad....even had to have some just now for lunch because all I made would not fit in the dang fridge (note to self; get bigger fridge...or quit cooking for twelve!)




ADDED TO ROSTER OF "TO DO's"...

Sow oats, plant last of taters, get Buster the Bator on the go (last 1st hatch of the year I did for July 14th, so not off schedule to year's prior), plant veg garden, etc. etc. etc. ....

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Gotta pot up some of these shade plants...sitting atop their containers, just a matter of finding a moment to plunk them in...


Gotta redo this thyme bed...way way overgrown...

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Got it situated in an nice shaded spot...just a matter of time and energy

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Sow this to oats...

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Put furrow in so I may seed this to taters...all them leftover taters I have here on the go.


No picture yet but Rick treated our mailbox for ants...dang things...so hoping I remember to bring camera to take a before & after click...gotta get her cleaned up and put in our Nasturtium seeds. Looking neglected and purdy ratty.



Breeder of Emmy and Lacy says that Lacy's Momma might be expecting pups in a month er so...maybe, perhaps, not sure yet. She was bred to a different sire than Lacy's. Tis fast approaching winter time in Australia...what fun to have puppers to happen for her...litter of more baby Lacy's...

Girls last night...bird yard was fulla activity...and Rick watered the girls with the hose which helps them get activated, despite the heat!​

So WHY do you call an itch different things...

On a goose, it is preening...on a dog, it is scratching...looks the same to me?

Ah summerish things are going along fine like...

Bottoms UP...​

Bin hot, gonna maybe get some rain and a reprieve to the HEAT (35C/95F is getting on up to miserable in MY books! makes physical working limited and I HATE that...abhor the heat)...

Dogs finding comfort in the shaded areas of the yard...when not getting HOSED up by Rick
Lacy still screams like a lil' school girl...her FAV game by far...kill the water hose, kill it! ​

In the meanwhile...the show must continue despite the heat...lots of things STILL needing doing.

New sheeps are getting EVER so use to what is expected of them...

​

Only three out when I came to tuck them in yesterday...and even those ones were up close to their HOME BASE, eh.

Home Hair-SHEEP Home

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It is hard to keep track of the days as they meld one into the t'other; one happy moment to the next and onwards. Day after day after day...

Sunset in Pear-A-Dice on the fourth​

Beginning of day or end of day, lots of fun and play on the go here.

Lacy helping me put creatures in the bird yard away on the fifth... ​

Now off I go again, fur that fun in the sun, eh.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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