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

[CanuckBock]

I'm old and my mind is gone so I couldn't enter BUT, I do know your dogs are Foamy, Emmy and Lacey. Ta dah!!!!

DD is one of the dawgs biggest fans! Pretty kewl DD...

Even thru their good versus bad sides, eh. You still love them BAD/GOOD dogs...

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So have to ramp up the bottom of the wire crates we use fur truck travellings. Bought a bigger crate for Emmy than this one pictured...Rick will make a ramp to lift them up so the girls can see out better and lift the crates up so wider ones can both go inside the back of the three trucks we use for when the dogs go travelling.

Lacy ate, yes, ate the bottom out of the wire crate...took her one trip to decide this needs altering and ripped it to literal pieces. Sigh. So now to buy a small chunk of horse matting and cut it to fit her crate. As said, Emmy needs a bigger crate...so bought a new one on sale for $20 less than normal price. Trials and tribulations with the ACD...always keep you on your toes and ready to try something to fix an issue. Whatever that may be.

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Lilac in pond is flowering...gorgeous.

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Weather has been consistent daily...get sun and cloud and then a deluge of rains...

July 26, 2016​

Makes for pretty skies and lots of grass growing.

July 24, 2016​

Tomatoes in greenhouse are ramping up and ready to start flowering.

Main tater plot - July 25, 2016 ​

Potatoes are amazing...gonna be some tons of them!

Rex the Jacob wether​

The old wether I "thought" lost a tooth...nope, he's got separation in his gums, so what I thought was a missing tooth is just receding gum line...all my old sheep are fully toothed...a tad long in the tooth so to speak!

July 24, 2016
"Come on MOM...Dad is already pond side and there's a new flower blooming...Come ON!"​

Girls looking rather fine.

July 24, 2016​

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Soon to be one year anniversary since they flew in to enlighten our worlds...

Time flies when having FUN, eh!

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Lotsa fun times...

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Rompings on the front yard.

"Betcha wanna bite me!"​

Near one year, eh...

Good golly Miss molly!

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[scottcaddy]

Heel low:

So here are me answers to me questions...

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What project (and the name of it) am I doing with the Chantecler breed of chicken? HIGGINS' WHITE DOVE BANTAM CHANTECLER PROJECT

- Scott knew they were bantams...bravo!

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Thank you muchly!
That was fun and that, my Dear's is the whole point of this thread...all about having some well earned FUN.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

Not to be too picky, but I also knew that they were White, I just forgot that 'Dove' word

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Still embarrassed about forgetting Rick's red Birthday truck.
I'm surprised that I remembered as much as I did, I guess Ice Cream don't cause much memory problems late at night.
Thanks Tara!!

Scott

 

[drumstick diva]

Tara do the girls still roughhouse a lot, or are they outgrowing it? I think having such adult activities with the livestock has put a cap on it.

 

[CanuckBock]

Not to be too picky, but I also knew that they were White, I just forgot that 'Dove' word

.
Still embarrassed about forgetting Rick's red Birthday truck.
I'm surprised that I remembered as much as I did, I guess Ice Cream don't cause much memory problems late at night.
Thanks Tara!!

Scott

You may be as picky as you like...I just get overwhelmed at this time of year...so many things rattling their sabers for my attentions.

Forgetting Rick's Red is no real biggie...I think of all the parts for refurbishing the 1928's and 1936's we have purchased over the years and know there are heaps we got stored and ready. Things like the tires...duallies just on the Leafs require one more set of tires than the just 4x4's do. So other than the oldsters...Rick does not own any "girl's" trucks...girls can afford to not have 4x4's because the gentler gender can always call out for help--men need to get themselves UNstuck outta whatever hole they sunk themselves in by themselves...nobodies coming out to rescue THEM.

We have to stop to acknowledge...these projects mean when Rick starts dismantling them and putting them all back together (with new old stocks or refurbished and made good as new), we are going to have to refresh all the things we already learned once...but forget because there are only so many things you can carry around in your immediate memories. Banked lots of good info or you could not function as a human, eh.


Ice cream is safer eaten during the daylight hours...with a minimum of two dogs in cahoots...at least in my own personal experiences. LOL

Don't feed us after midnight, eh...you jest never know what we may turn into!

April 2015​

I apologize for myself not acknowledging correctly, all the correct answers but heck, I even forgot to post the photo on the project that I was gonna post in my answers...of the latest female and her egg on that WHITE BANTAM project...sigh. You did ace the question well with the bantam and the colour variety...for the white part is important since Bro W created the standard sized Chantecler and chose white as the best variety for a whole host of good reasons...practical and sensible like a monk would be right to his core.


Yes, I do agree that the "dove" part is forgettable pretty much unless I mention why it is WHITE DOVE...

On the wings of a snow, white dove song is inspiration to my silly cause. I like to hum it when I drive as I find it a very nice tune with words that have meaning to moi. I love the version done by Marty Robbins (I believe this fella was Rick's father's fav singer...he also drove NASCAR too...yodelled and whistled...I think if I can remember right...Streets of Laredo is a pretty kewl cut too and I think that was my FIL's fav song).

Emmy on supreme Guard​

Glad for our dogs...Emmy had a literal fit over those two goons on the quad...Lacy joined in but it was that thinker Emmy that went ballistic ... at her gates and beside herself...I clicked a pic of her with a stem of grass (being a cow dog grazing close by her sheep). Funny, she musta known this was MORE not right than usual proceedings better than us humans ever can. I hate quads...personally there might be five percent that use these vehicles correctly...for farm chores a place to store and go with tools to do work, and maybe one percent drive slow, tool about having a quiet fun ride, but the majority use these devices to rip and tear, freak out wildlife and wreck the country side they might otherwise never have access to ruin. I get that some are good with them, but the majority that are not make me despise them. I sure Emmest feeds off of my not liking these things.

My dogs that protect...thank our stars for them ACDs.

Add in the fact that we are here the majority of the time and unless they ramp up and start doing home invasions when people are HOME...so far, good I guess...still unnerving--to deny it does not bother me, that would be a lie.

I do believe tho, to talk about it is like releasing some of the burden...therapeutic and we will deal with this as it comes. To live in fear is stupid, for fear is something you have a reaction to because you don't understand it. I don't get how people can swing to the dark side and harm others for their own personal gain, simply because they were not diligent enough to keep their own house in order or they get their jollies out of harming others (power trip?), but I do understand you can't stop this. Nothing I could have done different and nothing I want to start doing. It is what it is and one day, some day, it could happen to us personally and after all, it is only stuff...so long as no death comes or injury, it is simply someone taking what is not theirs and that, sadly is way common in society these days.

I am so often not proud to be human...when I see what we choose to do to each other.

Quote:

Now I have been trying to take more action shots of the girls in play but not had much success...photo after photo is fuzzy wuzzy (maybe because as older ACDs, they are even faster than when they were pups)...even with my camera set to Time Value (TV on my dial setting) as my pro photographer SIL helped me with. I asked her how to unfuzz the fast action of them girls and that was how I got the click in Feb of Emmy rearing up and poking Lacy in the face and of course, the Lacy pouncing UP later on. Still no success on the pouncy dare I still call them PUPS...LOL I sent a barrage of photos to their breeder and even she mentioned they are ONLY about 14 months old...well now near 15 months old with August 4 and 10 looming along. BTW the breeder is quite enjoying the interactions of the sheep and the girls...she commented about them getting along well and finds it interesting. A wether kissing ACDs and entrancing Lacy to "go to sleep...counting one sheep." Yeh, I figure we all think it is interesting these interactions, eh!

As I get one in like a 100 that is in focus and good...you know DD I am gonna post it here for the enjoyment it brings...just tougher to get them shots. Faster than a blink of the eye, eh!

Girls at the gate viewing their Hair sheep ewes mowing​

The interactions with the livestock has been from day one here...girls were "dog working" the swan pairs...careful because they are pups and instinct has them wary of getting too close, but as they get older, confidence and practise in their abilities make them more noticeably able to work stock properly. Nothing beats biting yer best girlfriend...and we need to have that dog to dog play time every day for them to be healthy mentally and physically. Same category as breathing air for an ACD...or at least these to ruckus muckers.


Shout out to Teila... @Teila

Woman of the Down Under...Woman of the Great White North asking...(please and thank you as you are able given you are busy with winter and I with summer)

Here in NA, we sadly lack lamb and truly time tested GOOD recipes are what I crave. I do have a TimeLife (nfi) book cooking dedicated to Lamb (shows some lovely lamb like Crown Roast, Guard of Honour, and how if I butcher my own, this would be my preference to cut it like this...no need to plead with a butcher to do this dirty work...kewl! Even a recipe on stewed tomatoes pureed for coated lamb chops...I can do this, look like pork parmesan...awesome!) and all, but are there any recipes (time allowing) you can share in the use of down home country cooking of lamb. With my expectations of breeding the Hair Sheep for next spring deliveries...gonna have some lamb to make meals from that don't cost US (not the sheep) an arm and a leg to purchase! Good, talking proper decent lamb is expensive here...so I don't experiment much with it but them girl dogs and I will be relishing eating lamb next year in the late fall (see, lots of time but if I shout out now, might get some answers over time!). I do need some learning on what is a good home cooked meal from your neck of the woods were lamb would be say like we eat pork here...exquisitely common!

I am also on the hunt as to what to do with all the upcoming (counting chooks before eggs hatch perhaps?) varieties of tomatoes the greenhouse promises to supply...all sorts.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1090656/ask-a-chef/990#post_17342856

I posted here and a shepherds pie...I done that mixed and layered but with beef burger not lamb. So any kewl recipes with tomatoes and/or lamb that taste fab would be much appreciated...

By the by...Rick will be having something like beef liver as he is not nor ever will be a fan of lamb. OK by me...no like liver...which he gets when I cook something up HE don't prefer...all happy happy, eh!


Which reminds moi...

herb garden harvested some leaves...​

Added to this...

Greek salad type dish​

As always, made too much...so you all get yer butts over here for a nice fresh cool salad of sorts...served with homegrown fresh HERBS!

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[Teila]

Hey there Tara …. I am probably the last person to come to for recipe advice

I work 8am-4pm, 5 days a week; I clean house; I do washing; I mow lawns; I tend garden; I put out the bins; I wash the car, do the level checks once a week, air pressure etc and organise services; I grocery shop; I feed and tend the much loved critter component of our family; I pay the bills and manage the budget .. I pretty much do everything around here! So, I do not cook!

Hubby does the cooking and if he did not do that, he would definitely be living the resort life

We are smack bang in the middle of suburbia with a supermarket 5 mins in one direction and a wonderful butcher 5mins in the other direction … due to being time poor; any meat cooked here requires very little preparation and comes from the butcher pretty much ready to go.

Our butcher sells an easy carve lamb roast that is to die for! One Saturday I went to buy one and he did not have any prepared so he prepared one while I watched and waited. I watched him carve our piece of lamb off the hanging slab of meat and was quite surprised that it took 10-15mins to prepare. He cut, trimmed, rolled and tied .. it tasted delicious but I could not tell you what he actually did.

The easy carve lamb roast is usually served with roast potatoes and broccoli cheese [the potatoes and broccoli being purchased at a supermarket] and a splash of mint sauce on the lamb and gravy on the potatoes.

We use the outside BBQ way more than we do the inside oven; even in winter. It is Winter now and as I type at 08:35AM on Saturday it is 53.6F [12C] which is chilly for us

and the expected maximum is 73.5F [23C] which is average for our Winter.

All of the above is one of the reasons I thoroughly enjoy reading your thread .. our lifestyles are polar opposites … 5 very much adored bantam chickens in the backyard is the closest thing we have to rural or farming. Because they are bantams and not the best layers, I buy eggs from the supermarket to scramble and feed to the chickens! I get excited if I get 3 or 4 bell peppers in a season off the plants in pots outside the kitchen window and the 5 mini eggplants I currently have developing are cause for celebration.

My vegie garden: See that fence? Neighbours right there!



The only thing even remotely rural is the chicken coop

I do enjoy spending time in the garden with the gals and I am pretty proud of the results. The girls have a pretty good view and lots of places to scratch around in when supervised free ranging [Yep, supervised because of neighbourhood dogs and cats wandering in] ... see that fence? Neighbours right there!








This is us, deeply buried in suburbia [the green cigar is my attempt at hiding the address

]:



Edited to add .. one of your sheep pens or Rick's garage he built is probably bigger than our block

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

Thank you Teila!

I had hoped to get back here sooner and write a nice long reply and yeh...but yeh...processed a gander yesterday, had hoped to do 'nother today but way too windy...yeh...dog ate my homework...tis all a pathetic thing...well 'cause, I am well...cause...I am...I am jest....jest...

Trippin', Tripping down memory lane...busy as no tomarrah but trippin'

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Yeh...so like not much has changed...just got way bigger...same bad...same good...same but OLDER!

Not near Rick and I older but older...

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'Member a year ago exactly TODAY...eh??

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Have they gotten worse or better?

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I'd say, "More of the same and that be a GOOD thang!"

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Cause they won't change their ways ...not in one mere year...still tugging on toys, still taking each other's toys...still being all they can be!

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Still not looking AT the camera when I want them to..."quick, look away...quick!"

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Still making me laugh, sticking their tongues out

and being just them...

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Still just dogs...still just (hu)man's best friends, eh! And yet, rarely STILL...

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[drumstick diva]

aw weren't they just the cutest little puppers. How did they get so big?

 

[CanuckBock]

aw weren't they just the cutest little puppers. How did they get so big?

Gotta be the air up here--or the water, eh!

Teila...I really appreciate your help with the lamb ... I am going to be attempting to grow and cook more of it now that I am working towards breeding Dorpers for next spring lambing.

I am curious about all sorts of things like if you leave the ram lambs intact but not wait too long because while the intact ones grow faster, I am not going to like a muttony lamb...hee hee.

I drug out my TimeLife (nfi) cook book on lamb and oogled the cuts and recipes in there. I am very much looking forward to more lamb in my and the girl dog's diets, but Rick is not a fan of lamb so like when I use to buy some lambs, I would cook him beef liver or something he likes so we both enjoyed our dinners, eh!

I am curious about what cut your butcher makes the "easy boneless roast" from...as I do believe you can get a boneless leg of lamb, shoulder (would require special cooking as I would expect you could ruin this cut and it could be tough instead of tender).

I don't think you should worry too much as you do have chickens (get to enjoy the best part of the hobby) on whatever size of land you have. When you have more, it takes more to keep it up...more distractions than just to focus on the rather fun parts of bird ownership...so you get to enjoy chooks and that part is what really matters, eh!

I have four types of mint I am growing in containers in the herb garden (I don't want it to become a weed!). Chocolate, English, Orange and Pepper (which is more a candy flavour mint I think!). I look forward to seasoning my lamb with homegrown herbs...I also have rosemary, tarragon and a whole host of Poultry type seasonings I am playing with this year.

I admire you use your BQ alot to cook in...we do too obviously because the one on the Man Porch...we are looking at replacing and hoping against hope this next one is our res of our lives one. Oh man, Rick is looking at one in the thousands but oh my, what a beast of a BQ it is. We keep going back to it and going...all good but the dang it all price. Oh well. I can say like last night...I hated the old worn out one...took forever to cook Rick's steak (well done, mine is the blue rare one...hilarious). So we keep tossing it around and even Rick has to admit...the BQ is such an integral part of our love the summer time out on the Man Porch with the dogs and us, cooking so we don't heat up the house...yeh... We'll see and yes, I'll post what we buy...

Your winter is our summer...at least this year...holy cow. What a cool year. We get about 20C and 10C at night...so minutely lower than your winter now. Laugh, eh. Usual summer is more like 35C and 25C at night. Wow, no heat and I can SEE the difference. Lilacs did not bloom, there will be maybe ten crabapples on the Dolgo for those two girls to eat...when we had 100's last year. Roses are doing great, some of the waterplants are fine but NO waterlilies much past a few pathetic leaves...sigh.

But the grass...oh my the grass we are growing for the sheep to clip. By now, August we can usually see a major slow down but this year, not happening. Sheep love it and getting so rolly polly...fat...I am worried about the one ewe who is major pig (reminds me of a commercial meat cross chook...don't know when its full)...she may be have to be locked up in the corral to thin her up or she won't conceive at all...being too fat is not always a good thing as it complicates sheep motherhood...oh well.

I never did plant any peppers (my bad) and eggplant is a foreign thing to me. Sure are pretty things tho, eh!

I do have mega tomatoes flowering and the cukes and even watermelon are in the greenhouse...I would be more concerned with all the growth we are going to have too tomatoes to use, but I am starting to wonder if the lack of heat (which I do enjoy...can still work) will make production nada of much. Oh well...will see.

We are not to count our chooks before they hatch, aren't we!

I have lived in one bedroom apartments with veg and flowers growing on the balcony. I appreciate one can function in that but hey, I wanted space and dirt and to be so busy I don't know if I am coming or going...both worlds of living have bonuses and negatives. Rick and I had alot more time to figure out what to do with it in the one bedroom, but now we are just a going concern. I like it both ways and go with the flow.

At one time, Rick and I discussed living on a retrofitted fishing boat and tooling from harbour to harbour fishing and enjoying that kind of floating gypsy life...course I would still grow herbs and have at least two ACDs to keep us amused and on our toes, but yes, a lifestyle like that would be a whole other life of adventures too. We chose to sink our toes in dirt and we have no regrets...gotta make choices and decide which path to go, eh. At one time we thought we would never fill up five acres but surprising what decades of working yer butt off can do to a place.

We had some people visit the sheep in the ditch the other evening when I came to put them away and I kinda looked at them thinking...you have no clue how this was all a piece of pasture with half it in scrub forest...from the fence falling over to all the rocks I have picked...does not even touch what 18 years equals. I think the one fella that mows their place was thinking how nice the ditch was looking with the sheep working it and the fact that the one girl likes a goat or two...no harm in liking something I just think a casual observer has no concept what goes on here...that's a good thing I suppose. To not know...is to be able to dream big I guess...

So now on to the going concerns I guess before more days tick off and I forget what has happened here...LMBO

Yesterday, Aug 9...another of many grey dazes​

Rain, yes it would be easier to mention days that had no rain...but still getting flowers.

Aug 1​

Still seeing seasonal things like raspberries and red currants...never harvested the currants before because bugs would infest them...but this year, no bugs for them...weird!

Aug 7 - raspberries to eat fresh...dogs too!


red currants


Picked these yesterday and think, may be make a currant sauce? ​

Aug 1 - Iris in pond flowering...see some of the new plants we got are ready to burst fort too
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Aug 2 - Think this wild flower is a Aster?
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Aug 9 - Lookit the mimicking of the branch...hiding and well!​

Weird year indeed...first I mean first ever chipmunk -- neato...obviously Rick is providing all the amenities to the wilds with Snowshoe hares, grouse and now this rodent coming round.

Very cute...I hope it avoids the dogs getting it...

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Rick's projects...oh my word....

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He has put a nice landing for a bunch of his tools in the Parking Building...

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Came home and started painting it up yesterday...looks great!

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Now Lacy the wonder hound has decided to not only EAT her crate bottom, she has started up on the rug in the winter sub...what a gal. She better be thankful we love her, eh.

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So, as mentioned...we bought a small stall mat and have cut that to fit her travelling crate.

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I will not suggest she can't EAT this but harder to. Never say never with ACDogs...

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So next project Rick completed was a platform so the girls could see out better...

He used a torch to give it a nice grain affect​

Plus too is we can use a bigger crate for Emmy...

Storage below the platform ​

Way up higher...eight inches higher. I figure he did a great job and very practical and the dogs highly approved it!

Lacy loves to stare out during travelling!
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At Tim's getting java for Rick​

So with all the rains come lots of op for mowing...

Veg Garden coop​

Mowing...everywhere's!

By Veg Garden​

Front Ditch ​

Got all the crew working now...good thing for all that green growth.

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Ewe lamb D'Arcy is shedding out...pretty kewl

Grabbed me a Dorper puffy! ​

All this mowing and sometimes...you just gotta sit down and chew on it a bit.

Taking a much needed break...what a buncha sheeps​

Some of these lambs are just embarrassingly BIG

Duro jest getting BIGGER!
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Aug 4 - dogs running at run run time​

Thread would be missing something without food posted...

Aug 4 - chicken and fixins



Aug 5 - Burger and fries​

Aug 7 - Home grown gander in the stew - was delish!


Used jest a ton of veg in the stew and that made a world of difference in it!​

All the more incentive to wanna grow another veg garden in 2017...pending it is not as wet as this year, eh.

Bin a beauty of a year for the roses...

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Recall those beans that Rick told me to just leave after four days of severe frost...them survivors may yet produce some beaners...

Aug 7 2016​

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We'll see...

And dem oats...oh my...

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I was wondering when they would start heading out and the first planting has begun.

Second planting coming along nicely too​

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Tater patches are good too​

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Well that be that fur now...off we go at it again...

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[scottcaddy]

My Dear Tara,
You and Rick are still wearing me out, i only have two acres and some of it needs a bushhog to get it back in shape.

I'm not sure when all of that plant growth happened, (maybe it's like rabbits, turn your head for one minute and what happened?)but it's here now and I have to deal with it

Thanks for the update and take care!
Scott

 

[drumstick diva]

Scott, you obviously need sheep or maybe just one will do the trick. I could use them myself - only 1/3 acre but the man that does my lawn said he isn't doing ANY IN 90 DEGREE weather. We are in for a long spell of it - I HATE HEAT & HUMIDITY.