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

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

DD...it is the humidity in heat or cold that sucks...we can stand lots of heat or cold...if not for that humidity...agh!

Scott...Pigs work well to eat vegetation AND dig it all up with their rooting tooting snouts...I am just about to go out again to ele net the veg garden that I too thought was pretty barren...hra har...gone to weeds and wheat and oats too...so better get on it. Last time I left the veg garden to grow, those SOW thistle took hold and it was like an Amazon jungle...tall and spread out seeds...so gotta get on it.

Bottom left is the veg garden in 2013 and sheep in thar eating up a storm
Merciful, you can barely see sheep and not the weeds...tee hee
Believe me, it was overgrown...secret garden perhaps?
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'Bout to head into the weekend but thought you'd all enjoy a little tropical photos...

Near darn ninety days of rain now...can't say "straight" like on the WEsT Coast because there it was 90 days of only rain, grey and dismal. This June, July and coming forth for half of August has had rain every day...but combined with sunshine (why I forget and don't realize...it is nigh ninety days!). On the WEsT Coast it was rain rain and more rain...here sometimes like yesterday, it rains and storms but at night when the creatures are tucked away. I can handle that.

Anyway...here we go...

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There be the fish pond and waterfall...and a tiny spot of red...go up close to see it...yup, the much anticipated blooming!

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Perfectly pretty eh? Even with the RAIN drop on it...jest perfectly pretty.

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Reminscent of Gladiolas...zone 4 to 6 and tops for us is zone 3 if we are careful. So this one is pretty and we will have to be diligent about winter in the garage (like all of Rick's water plants) but not out too soon in the spring...we get lots of hard freezes, so warned Rick when we chose to buy it...we will need to work on this one.

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Not the only things here to appreciate flowers

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Can you simply imagine how delicious pink clover flowers must taste...to a sheep...I remember as a kid you'd find one the bees had not harvested yet and eat the nectar yourselves...sweet.

August 5 2016​

So cause I like tormenting y'all...

Here's a set of clicks...the girls visiting the hair sheep on August 5.

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So leave that with you to figure out...look closely, pay attention. I had to see the photos to realize I had captured this in the three photos.

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What behaviour besides curiosity makes a sheep like the dogs...

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Later, eh...

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[BantyChooks]

Following.... Tara, you have a gift for storytelling! I only read the last page but I nearly busted a gut laughing....

 

[Bunnylady]

Tail wagging?

Tara, you might get a chuckle from this:

Last year, I was getting my animals settled in at the fair when one of the Superintendent's assistants sorta sidled up to me. She said, "Bunny, you know a lot about goats, right?" "um, well, I know a few things, yeah," I said, rather puzzled and wondering about what I might be getting myself into. "Can you tell me what kind of goats these are?" She led me across the barn to a pen, explaining on the way that she had been tasked with the responsibility of getting the hoofstock checked in, and had some animals that she couldn't account for, and didn't want to seem totally incompetent, and . . . so what were they?

I looked at the two black-and-white animals looking back at me, and said, "Ummmm . . . aren't those sheep? Y'know, one of the hair breeds?"

She looked puzzled for about half a second, and said, I dunno; what kind of tails do they have?" Then realization dawned, and she exclaimed, "Of course! The Katahdins! Thank you! You have just saved me from looking really stupid!"

(The sheep in question belonged to the Super)

 

[Teila]

As always Tara, a wonderful read and lots of great pics!

I lived on a yacht for two years, sailed up the West Australian Coast .. trust me, while living on the water can have its good times, I am not sure that they outweigh the bad times. After encounters with whales, crocodiles and cyclones, plus the high risk of losing everything you own in one mishap, I am happy to keep my feet firmly on the ground

 

[drumstick diva]

Teila, what a brave soul you were. Hope you got that adventure out of your system and won't do that again! Glad you are back on solid ground.

 

[drumstick diva]

Tara sheep love Lacey because she is a great kisser.

 

[CanuckBock]

Following.... Tara, you have a gift for storytelling! I only read the last page but I nearly busted a gut laughing....

Welcome and the thought of all your laughter ringing in my ears is shear joy...keep smiling and laughing, eh!

Tail wagging?

Tara, you might get a chuckle from this:

Last year, I was getting my animals settled in at the fair when one of the Superintendent's assistants sorta sidled up to me. She said, "Bunny, you know a lot about goats, right?" "um, well, I know a few things, yeah," I said, rather puzzled and wondering about what I might be getting myself into. "Can you tell me what kind of goats these are?" She led me across the barn to a pen, explaining on the way that she had been tasked with the responsibility of getting the hoofstock checked in, and had some animals that she couldn't account for, and didn't want to seem totally incompetent, and . . . so what were they?

I looked at the two black-and-white animals looking back at me, and said, "Ummmm . . . aren't those sheep? Y'know, one of the hair breeds?"

She looked puzzled for about half a second, and said, I dunno; what kind of tails do they have?" Then realization dawned, and she exclaimed, "Of course! The Katahdins! Thank you! You have just saved me from looking really stupid!"

(The sheep in question belonged to the Super)

Tail wagging indeed...silly sheeps and so many silly persons trying to lump goat with sheep and vice versa.

L to R; D'Arcy, Melissa, Duro, Peanut, Decor, Ditto​

D'Arcy (daughter of Melissa) was pronking yesterday...like deer do...the bouncy bouncing on sets of two legs (front and backs together as one pole legs). She was hopping on home with ALL the giddiness that a ewe lamb (older now but playful like the girl pups remain!) can muster. Fun, fun, and more delusional fun.

As always Tara, a wonderful read and lots of great pics!

I lived on a yacht for two years, sailed up the West Australian Coast .. trust me, while living on the water can have its good times, I am not sure that they outweigh the bad times. After encounters with whales, crocodiles and cyclones, plus the high risk of losing everything you own in one mishap, I am happy to keep my feet firmly on the ground

Thank you woman!

Kewl you got to yacht it for two years...very neat experience! I think Rick and I made the best decision to be land locked. I know we would make the best of it anywhere's.

This tree, tho big was rotted on one side...poor thing, but glad it missed the fences, all buildings...sigh. If'n a tree falls in the forest...we did not hear it over the winds but noted it...yes, noticed it in our forest.

Aug 23, 2016 - life cycle in a forest...some live, some die, open up new space for more ​

I do have to laugh tho as over the decades...Rick and I have come to the conclusion there is no place safe from "the high risk of losing everything you own in one mishap!" LMBO

We have remained land bound and been threatened by flood (twice; once in apartment when toilet backed up from floors above--cheap contractor that built building never put in one way valve...and we suffered the damage for that savings-- and 2005 flood of 150 years<--HA time flies...threatened to flood two years later...once in 150 years...happens far too often in our books), fire multiple times (here several times; one May old lathing mill caught fires and we had the flames across the road from us with water bomber helicopters thankfully putting it out, other time fire across the river burned right up to river's edge and moved along down the other side of the river...then once in Kamloops in temporary looking for a place to buy land...again, apartment--with a roofing crew that left for the day and tar mixer was left on and roof caught fire...old persons resided there...old man crying tears of frustration trying desperately to get wife in wheelchair in elevator out of burning roofed heavy smoked up building...we helped as best able...scary as we had rented the unit and kept all the irreplaceable items we did not have in moving storage with us--thinking we were SAFER doing that...HA...made it out, fire crew put out flames...safe and not sorry but bizarre!), then in 2001, tornado touched down in town (ten minutes away) when our son was at work in that town...took out a barn on the outskirts of town but son made a call home to us, "Mom...now don't you start worrying!" --alarm bells start going off in me head--tell me not to worry and I worry... "Mom, don't come get me as by the time you do, the tornado will have already gone by town..." TORNADO...getting shoes on, grabbing keys for truck...MY BABY...rescue my baby now! "Mom, I can hear the keys jingle...I will be fine...stay at home MOM...MOM! Listen to your son!"

So yeh, fire, flood, tornado, no earthquakes (not yet, but they keep fracking, so that should seal that fate so we next have to have those too)...windstorms and hail. Baseball sized hail, done that already several times--greenhouse has metal roof because of that threat...windstorms...had that a few days ago (hate wind...blah) and lost a few trees...trees that were compromised and Rick has already bucked up several for firewood (like he needs more to do on his work bee...agh!)...nothing goes to waste and this time, no trees DOWN on buildings or fences...thankful for that. We all have outside influences in the negative to negotiate and survive, what don't outright kill us, makes us stronger (but hey, smelling awful ain't all it's cracked up to be!).

August 21, 2016 - Emmy inspects trench while I swallow down one of five bottles of water I guzzled on this chore!


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Aug 21 - All my fanful Cheerleaders

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Chippy the Munk is ever present nowadays...glad the girls were occupied
but they were good even when Chipper was noticed by them

Saw a skinny version of Chippit down the pasture, so maybe a whole litter of these rodents have invaded us?
Now wouldn't THAT be fine!

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Emmy, "Bet you wanna bite me belly..."
Lacy, "You betcha!"
Aug 21, 2016


Aug 23, 2016 - That furry tailed rascal love of my life!

Two power outages (well OK>>>one full day and night of off and on again...but whatever) and loved we could flick on the generator. Rick figures the one night we were the only ones in the entire valley enjoying our lives as regular...bitta TV, bitta dinner, lights on, someone home...that bit of regular living.

Aug 23 2016 - After the bigger rains and it has drained off...​

How much rain fell in one day...well we are upgrading the power for the garage this year and putting a separate line out for the bus (which is now home...start up meeting yesterday plus did some training on how to do logs for pro driver, now suiting us up with more safety equip...a reflective vest for wearing outside the bus...jeepers...see me glowing in all my glory??). Well I dug that in three hours; twelve feet long, 16 inches deep and 13 inches wide (half a grave...don't hire moi to dig graves...I only get half of one done in less than half a day... so one grave per day, not too good!), and Rick gave up pumping it out when it filled in like under an hour. Rick figures that one day of rain was the most we have ever seen in a one day span. EVER... yikes, eh. Oh well...whatever.

So many doing the doom and gloom...gotta realize, like what personally can one do about all this wild weather past endure it I guess?

Trench...three carts of first dirt, then clay and dirt, then clay...
got one more day to clear out near the garage, to that today I expect​

Not much we can do but grin and bear all these extremes I guess. Winds, rains, cool summers. Was great for growing oats, got a greenhouse for tomatoes, potatoes are growing (heat would make them bigger but we do what we can do), waste of time this year for a veg garden (sopping wet even now...and small slugs abound...so very happy I never bothered--good call on that), and the green grasses...oh my...in August, suppose to slow down and it won't quit. Rick mowed the front pasture and thinks we can get yet another grazing off it. He may be right...see, eh. The Point pasture is so lush the hair ewes are getting quite filled up and yet, still such a massive amount of grass. There are silver linings in every rain cloud and grass growth be one of the goods.

Go sheeps go...you got lots to keep up with on the GREEN parts...yee haw!

Tara sheep love Lacey because she is a great kisser.

Why yes DD...Lacy is a great kisser.

August 15, 2016 - Lacy kissing Emmy​

And a great LEAPER....LEAPING LIZARDS!

Fav game for Lace...kill the hose with Rick at the helm​

And a great instigator (enabler?) to troubles.

Rick has burned the tree ring, dumped the puppy wuppy water tub, and is in the midst of REfilling it with the hose...same hose used to play water games with...but the dogettes have plans...who needs humans when a hose is left running...unattended! ​

Note who is the minion in these escapades...note who stays way back and directs the proceedings...way way back and out of harm's (or blame's?) way...

Emmy plunges her face into the water and bites hose several times - she manages to "release the water snake's spitter!" ​

Which dog is in the background, egging the other on...tongue stuck out of side of her face laughing quietly to herself...encouraging, cheering...giggling?

"That'll do Emmy--good job! You pulled the hose out filling the dog dipping pond...and we are about to make mud...
lotsa dog mud."​

So the humans in this equation ramp it up and keep a better watchful guard and do manage to fill the rest of the tub, keeping hose mover outta harm's way...but STILL there is a widdle birdy whispering in Em's ear...

Tub is full, hose is off and hung up out of harm's way...but the escapades continue... One doer, one instructor to the doer.

"ATTA GIRL!," quips Lacy--brute it over...move that tub!​

So Emmy is using the whole body move...forepaws, placed strategically on tub edge...there could yet be swimming in the mud...there could!

"Emmy, Emmy...you can do it Girl...Emmy, Emmy, Emmy...," chants Lacy​

Fail on the attempt with the forepaws and full body tug ...so next step...the tug with teeth...after all, ACDs are life support systems for a set of jaws...

"Come on Em! You can do it...YOU CAN EMMY! YES you CAN!"​

Note waves of water spilling over tub lip...waves of H20!

"That failed too...", says the Emmy​

So past a few sloshes of water over the side of the tub...not the mudding event atmosphere hoped for...

Paddle paddle--Row row yer boat?
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Maybe it is as simple as splash some out with a paw...could be Emmy is approaching this task too technically...putting too much thought into it...Emmy the Thinker.

Emmy the Earnest; giving it a go...again...​

Or not...and back to grab with teeth and full throw yer back into it.

"What now? I have tried paws, teeth, and used all my body weight to implement your plan...
What's the next plan of attack?," gripes the Emmest
Lacy...see her smile...see her giggles...see her jolliness...see her smirking??​

Lacy shrugs...no skin off her snoot...and she goes on back to watching Chicken TV... ​

So the project MUD GUPPIES is abandoned...and without a thought from Lacy on all the effort of Emmy to do her bidding...


Since Rick took two weeks OFF work (OK, not most person's idea of holidays...and in the 20 odd years here...he has not taken a holiday in the sense of a booked bit of time off work...takes a day here and thar and if weather does not cooperate he is not AT work...so holidays is a foreign concept for him...told son he was going to take a two week holiday and kid replies, "Who is this? Who am a I speaking with...Hello??")...I do think he took some off time last year to complete the Parking Building, but he remained ON CALL jest in case. This is one of the few times where he is technically "off duty" I suppose. Whatever that may be...

We did jest a ton of loser laps. We even drove INTO all those small town whistle stops and did a circle (them wagons for the invasion?) loser lap in all sorts of venues. Looked at lovely old houses with great big verandas (porches...love them porches...man porches??), admired plantings and gardens and odds and sods. Just tooled about like more normal folk might (tourists?)...when on HOLIDAY, eh. But always back home...barbecued a pork shoulder roast...used the infra red burner and rotissiere and blew our minds on how spoon (not fork, SPOON) tender the roast ended up as. Then did a chicken on rotiss...yes...feasting on the Man Porch with mega veg and finger licking tasties...

Dogs experienced their very first on the fly by pizza. Laughed at Rick when he quipped..."I do wonder...would the dogs like a slice of pizza?" And indeed...the girls DID...

Un platformed girl crates...high class puppers, need elevation!
Not jest in the Winter Sub, but all their rides...UP UP and AWAY! ​

Plans in the making of a second platform for the dog crates...you should seen the mopy looks when the dogs had to ride in just crates, not elevated ones (the platform Rick built is for the white sub truck only--heater in the way). Now plans in the works for another platform for the red Chev and the blue suburban...yeh, dogettes riding in style don't wanna be lowered in status...tee hee.

So many trips to Calgary, Red Deer, and even went and invited a couple Rick knows via work for steak dinner in their town of Drayton Valley at a lovely Italian restaurant they showed us...was a memorable meal with lovely company at a delicious restaurant...memorable! I think one weekend Rick drove three of his trucks...one each day...maybe two on the one day...I forget I guess as the whole pleasant experience has melded itself into one big fun fly by.

Aug 23 2016
Running outta room...hard to believe!

And yes, one trip to Calgary was to finalize the purchase of the new big rig BQQ in the Man Porch! What I fathomed was a big barbecue is now to be replaced by an even HUGER BQQ... Made by Napoleon (nfi) here in Canada...this is a mother of a unit--the PRO825. One whole section with its own lid for a cover is just for the infra red burners...yikes. Oh well...I have learned up some more about "outdoor" cookery and hope to do it justice. Between Rick and I...there should be some fantastic meals continuing to be produced in the Man Porch...on a BQ by Napoleon...

https://www.napoleongrills.com/gril...th-infrared-rear-and-side–burners#description

From a wood chip smoker (had to dig out my wood chips of alder and cherry from way back to 2009 when I smoked a turkey breast for our son's wedding celebration--eep), to the 123,000 BTU's from ten burners (1385 in² total cooking area - burger capacity (4") is fifty two...yeh, you read that right...52 four inch burgers emplifies the space at hand. But we used up the current space on the Mirage with corn, new taters (yes, yes, harvest our FIRST potato of the 2016 season...let me tell you...the wait and effort was WORTH it...hmmm...good tasting potatoes!), rotissiering chicken and a small cast iron pot with mushrooms and zuke mix...throw on a few dogs (for the girl dogs) and that be that...ran outta room. Don't fence us in when we are outdoor cooking, eh.

Aug 23 2016

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Yah, one tater plant and the bounty.

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Cut and served up cooked off the BQ...kewl. I did save four as seed potatoes for next season.

There are days were I feel like the world plays while I work. Where are the dogs, little red hen's dogs at...playing...well best I guess than helping...dig dig digging...

Harvest from one plant loaded up in five gallon pail and ready to head for house and home to wash, cut, oil and wrap for BQ this evening...​

Do I want or need help...better reconsider my presumptions...that help would be help. Girls have good intentions but likely would have uncooked potatoes all chewed...munched up a bit.

So things crossing my mind...gonna hafta ask for a huge deep freezer for my B-day or Christmas...one or the t'other...I am thinking of those spring lambs I will grow out next year and got those three ganders I am gonna process and got seven tom turkeys too to process and freeze for use later...sigh. We use to have two big chest freezers and an upright (mice ate wiring on the new, the newest freezer the upright...so back to the big sit on the floor model and my hopes with the new appliance, it actually stays working for more than a few years...whatever...). As with plans of ratz and woMAN...I gotta get ready for where to stock pile the MEATs...har har.


Oats are huge...tall tall tall...and the first sowing is heading out. I looked up hand harvesting and looks like I can cut the heads off when they begin to brown and the grains are not milky (or are milky...will have to go re-read that again...but not ripened to brown yet, so got a bit of time). Then you take the seed or grain heads and put a clean blankey down and beat them up with something like a chunk of garden hose...I'll have to review this all when the time comes to harvest. As said, one potato plant was tried to see if the taters were growing and they are.

Aug 11 2016​

The bean plants have been flowering...I covered the one purple tall one (above) with an old towel last week because they forecast a heavy frost warning.... in the greenhouse, many green tomatoes coming from the flowers...all green even from the BLACK plums, the yeller cherry ones, even the snow WHITE cherry tomatoes are all at that green stage. I can be a bit impatient as I want to see all these COLOURS forming but as with all things...patience is a virtue and I gotta be that. The worry here is always we get hit by ONE frost and then have like four weeks of a nice hot fall. All plants are dead and if that one day had been skipped...there would be a growing season of more weeks...hope the greenhouse works.

Heard today...and snickered ---summer, yeh, WHAT summer?--- that Edmonton had ONE day at over 30C (86F) and that was in May. Calgary had just ONE day in June (on the sixth of June) of over 30C...out East of us in say Toronto...how many days of over 30C...guess...like thirty four days...so well over a month of over 30C. Now I do thank my stars that was not us. I hate hot weather with a passion...you cannot WORK in hot weather and once you reach a point where you are in an ice bath naked...like what do you do when you are still overheating...peel off the skin you are in? Hate heat but the past summer (laughing at that word!)...pretty much count on rain every single day. Not as bad as on the WEsT Coast mind you, where you too got ninety days of rain...but rain was never like it felt here...offset by sunshine for a great portion of the day. It has been like living in Hawaii...where I hear they too get sunshine...but in summer for them...count on it downpour at say at noon every day too. So sun but rains every day to make things grow lush and green.

Hailed on the 13th...pea sized but lots of it.

Aug 14 2016​

Next day at half past noon, last of it was melting away.

Aug 12 2016 - Ewes beginning on the weeds in Veg area​

Had the hair ewes eat the weeds in my veg garden plot. Saving some wheat growing at the back end and see how they develop...may do wheat next year where I have the oats this year...oh we shall see...

Aug 22 2016 - Boletus edulis
One of those edibles I can actually identify...still not eaten one yet, but could!
Fall is near upon us...mushrooms!
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Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

Edit to add more photos now that this post is saved...no power blip out or server fail...egads, eh!

 

[scottcaddy]

I wondered if you were still having Bandwidth issues this summer.
Good to see that you guys are doing OK!
Scott

 

[Mehitabel]

How nice to join and immediately be directed to a fellow Canuck cluck. I'm just north of Edmonton in Sturgeon County, just a little backyard operation... For now. I'm on my own with nothing to hold me back so I have to be careful. After all chickens ARE the Gateway livestock...

 

[drumstick diva]

Glad to see you here Mehitabel. I love this thread