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

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

@bdfive

Australian Black Swan Question:
These photos were already posted here on my thread but you PM'd me with the above, so here you go Darlene...

Put water plant pond in New Orchard for water plants in September...if'n you want a larger pond for your Australian Black Swans...skip concrete and go with...

​

450 gallon poly stock tank (you said you have 100 gallon kiddie pool and believe this is not deep enough for your pair to breed in) rule of thumb USE TO BE $1 per gallon but no idea now and besides, yer in a whole different area and country than I...you'll hafta price out the stock tank.

Since you reside in Texas...you may be able to skip the metal culvert (about $300 to $450 for one) as we installed the culvert because we freeze...15 to 25 feet down...and this frost helps work a stock tank out of the ground. Culvert stabilizes the tank sitting in the ground. I am not from Texas, so you can check with others if you need the metal culvert...I think perhaps, not.

​

Anyhoo, metal culvert around plastic stock tank.

Sep 13 2016​

Culvert bolted together and ready to go in.

​

New Orchard...construction well underway.

​

Hole dug by tractor, inspected by dogs.

​

Hole widened by tractor.

​

Fabric cloth inside.

​

Tractor bucket of sand and hosed the sand down to level it ...

​

Tip stock tank INside culvert...

​

Another full inspection by girls...

​

Add water and voila...

​

Second pond is in and filled!

​

​

We shall see how far the landscaping around pond goes, but for now, top sides by culvert up with gravel.

May wrap wood around tank and culvert (to inhibit rock falling between tank and metal) OR
buy fabricated rock blocks and snug up
​

Want a limerock perimeter and debate goes on each day over buying expensive fabricated rock blocks OR do octagon in landscape ties OR ... I personally don't care one over the other...see what we end up doing--maybe this spring. So far, blocks range in price from $1.78 to $3.49 plus five percent Tax...cheap price, thinking about $500 in bricks to do perimeter against tank and then step out three or so feet and another run of bricks with limestone border inside bricks contained...works out to half a grand. Add in the fountain I just bought at $350 (luckily at half price since it is the OFF season for those items--its in storage as I type), another grand on a filter system (to keep the green gook down with a UV light), there's hoses, clamps, this and that...need some blocks to stand fountain on, shims to level it...we'll need to run power out to run the pump/filter system (greenhouse needs fans to open vents if next summer is actually a summer) and yeh...project mighta included tank and culvert bought near ten years ago...but she's not a cheap project...fur us anyway.

As a breeding pond for a pair of Blacks...could be just a stock tank, fabric cloth, sand, something to dig hole with (yeh, I contemplated digging it by hand--near every spring I figured I might jest get to it...dang tractor did it in two days and only because we needed to flip tank and make a smidgen of a bigger opening...so less than a day, eh). Yer getting off easier than we are. Tee hee...

​

Fur now...water plant pond is IN the ground. So me be happy, eh.

​

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[drumstick diva]

I can see how valuable it is to have two, finely trained inspectors of the four legged persuasion. What can people do, if they don't have an Emmest, or Lacy?

 

[scottcaddy]

Thank You Tara,

As normal, just looking at what you do in a day wear's me flat, plumb out.
Scott

 

[drumstick diva]

Scott sounds like time to hit the gym

Sorry, you are probably exhausted from baling water out of everywhere.

 

[Wisher1000]

Hello, all!

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

Quote:

Tut tut...there were three girl dogs thar...Foamers sampled the water and she is in the background of the water plant pond installation.


Dogs kill me...I am clicking pics of the potato testing Rick and I are about to undergo and there's the hoverings...

Oct 12, 2016 - "Peek a boo...I see food!"​

Dogs thinking out loud about me..."Is she tire enough, old enough, she's gonna DUMP a plate of RAW taters...well is she?" Dogs can only hope. Circling the grounds, hoping and wishing...

There's those red ears, slightly flattened...circling, ever hopeful! ​

Clean up, aisle nine!

Rotten dogs...rotten...hoping for la pomme de terres...that be French for POTATO! Apples of the EARTH!

Quote:
Me getting worn out...but so it goes, by the time winter finally hits and stays proper...CELEBRATIONS ensue...all I have then is winter maintenance and snow moving. Thank frig!

Quote:
Gym...and waste precious body energy and all that jazz. I never get any inkling EVER to go to the gym...plum wear ourselves out toting pails, pushing carts, cleaning pens...no gym...EVER!

We're getting moisture...just this time of year, it happens to be more white...and when warm enough to fall as liquid...risk of freezing rain...oh my, ugly on a stick that!

Quote:
Hi back.

Latestarter has his own thread on backyardherders...

http://www.backyardherds.com/threads/latestarters-journey-to-farming.33505/

Not lots of snow, maybe a few inches BUT quickly becomes ice...too warm out, much too warm!​

Well in the ten years I've driven bus...don't think I have seen the highway EVER this bad...ice and snow and slippy...yuck.

Oct 10, 2016​

I do not dislike summer or winter...love each equally but what I do HATE is the inbetween times. When winter is not quite happening (last year, snow of any significance took till like end of October to show up...last year, yesterday was 17C, not -2C) and the moisture is liquid and causes issues.

Turkey soup made the day after T-Day dinner...YUM!​

So I still have potato on the brain...Mrs. Potato Head I suppose...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janine-yorio/where-did-the-potato-spro_b_659766.html:

Potatoes, like apples, are typically harvested only once a year and then are stored in a cold storage facility until a grocer orders a shipment. In order to prevent potatoes from sprouting while they’re in storage, growers spray them with an aerosol agent that regulates cell division. After being sprayed with the chemicals (typically chlorpropham or maleic hydrazide) potatoes arrive at the store looking perfect, unblemished, and without any sprouts for up to a year after harvest.

As you might expect, the chemicals that prevent cell division in potatoes impact human cell division too. The implications on human fertility and fetal organogenesis are just now being discovered. For this reason, Japan and the European Union have already placed strict limitations on the usage of anti-sprouting chemicals.

Non-toxic alternatives exist. In fact, a company in Israel called Pimi Agro Cleantech Inc. has developed a non-toxic, organic anti-sprouting agent that is just as effective as the synthetic alternatives. The catch is that until Pimi scales up production of their sprout suppressant, it costs $5 per ton, compared to $3 per ton for chlorpropham or maleic hydrazide. The difference sounds trivial, but in a nickels-and-dimes business like agriculture, the gap is insurmountable.

It is well-known that the food Americans eat is coated with chemicals whose long-term effects are not well understood. But what you may not know is that entrepreneurs and scientists around the world — just like the people behind Pimi — are developing promising new technologies that enable safer food production without compromising productivity.

...

Yeh...I bought a small package of the Little Potato Company's (nfi) taters two years ago and planted them...jest to see and nope, nothing sprouted...all the same perfect size AND obviously been treated not to sprout.

July 10, 2014 - sprout potentials & nothing happened!​

So our store bought taters, are treated not to sprout and most likely, been pre-maturely KILLED with chemicals too. Just like our grains on factory farms, sprayed to kill them and then harvested...at the convenience of the farmers, eh. Unlike my oats that are natural and left to mature, not chemically killed to harvest. I can only ponder what these chemicals are doing to us all...oh well, every little bit we try to do and skip the risks by...I figure is a good thing for us and the Planet!

Now to compare MY potatoes to another grower's from here in Canada...

Now lookit...these are not potatoes I grew, but I can see...
​

Potato scab on the Russian Blue, on the Pink Fir Apple (want some of these for next year!), so because we grow these HOMEgrown, not perfect for others either...nyah nyah nyah!

Am I having way too much fun...you betcha!

So on to the tater test...like you guys gotta KNOW that was gonna happen next...get yer bibs on...get yer butter ready...tater time...

Nine types of taters
Fingerlings on left, Non-finger ones right ​

Yeh yeh and I had to click a pic too of the two tomatoes from the garage that ripened (snow white cherry and ah dang it all forget what tomato variety it was, here's a click of it from Aug 21....long time to get red eh?).

aug 21, 2016​

Since Oct 4th, the two tomatoes ripened up stored in the garage...so the master EVIL plan is working, eh.

Fingerlings - Linzar Deleketess, Amarosa, & French
​

Red Viking, Nicola, & Russian Blue​

Alta Blush, Red Viking and Yukon Gold​

So where was I, (Who am I?...oh yeh), so I went thru our food taters and selected ONE each of the nine varieties...

Boiled - a plate to taste and compare types by​

I quartered each potato and put 1/4 of nine varieties in a pot by themselves (so two pots on the stove to boil with nine quarters in thar)...that meant that Rick and I would have one pot of potatoes to taste each. Not completely scientific because, well the quarters of each kind could flavour each other during boiling but hey, it was good enough for us to try out. I want to know which we like boiled.

Boiled but turned so you can see the skins
top left - Russian Blue, Alta Blush, Nicola, Purple Caribe
side left - Red Viking, Fingerling Linzar Deleketess, French Fingerling, Ama Rosa and far right, Yukon Gold​

So boiled and buttered...which of the nine did we both happen to enjoy the best...the Purple Caribe! I hear it is wonderful baked too...neat. And for Rick and I to like the same kind...how perfect is that?

Purple Caribe - the consistently largest of the potato varieties for this year​

Is there some correlation to the fact that this Purple Caribe variety grew big for the reason we liked its flavour best...time shall tell. We shall grow them again and if they maybe don't get as big if we have a dry year...we shall see...but so far, this is our fav. Now to bake them as I hear they are a sweet and fluffy baked tater...oh my...such fun!

On the dog show front...got all I need to know now to send off for early CERF (eye exam by onthamologist...for dogs!) registration of the girls. Both excited, intimidated and happy...first eye CERF is always a "what if?' thing...but do it we must to know how well sighted them potato eyeing hound dogs are. Vet visit to update their shots and kennel cough booster, top up deworms, and just have best vet double check their health for next Friday; that was the earliest I could get him booking it a few weeks back...PUPular fella that one. Told breeder girls are going to November show.

Also on dog show front...wanted a folding collapsible wagon/cart...called local store and maybe, just maybe, there will be a nice one on their delivery truck for next week. Boy do I have horse shoes up the butt this time...a seasonal item that often gets sold out or worse packed so cannot be gotten to. Shall see if it arrives...shall see. Me so excited. I can take a foldable crate and put wheels under it and them wheels shall be able to be folded up and take up less room. Kewl.

Gotta get my crap together too as it is time to vac the Hair Sheep in readyment for breeding. No rest, no rest for the wicked that want to be doing things, eh. Winter, not a time to curl up and hibernate, not here, not now...wheee hee hee...off I meander, wandering without purpose and at will! Good gack...thank heavens for herder dogs to keep me civil, eh?

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[drumstick diva]

Tara, please apologize to Foamy for me. I thought she was just having a drink, I didn't realize she was inspecting and testing the water for purity and taste.

You know, now that you have mentioned it, the potatoes I find in the grocery stores do NOT have sprouts. They used to, and I have used them many times to grow a potato house plant just for fun. The grocery potatoes (poor quality) with many slices and cuts in them - probably discards left after the good ones are harvested. The culls with mold and other 'niceties' are saved for stores. The only place I have seen good looking & tasting potatoes has been in restaurants. I loved baked potatoes. At fast food places that serve only fries, you can't tell what their previous condition was.

. Please cover the girls' ears I don't want them to hear this.

 

[Teila]

Ah, potatoes .. now you are talking!

On the menu tonight is whole baked potatoes topped with butter, cheese, bacon and sour cream .. bring it on!

Sadly, with summer coming, it might be a while after tonight that I get to have them again .. salads here we come

 

[drumstick diva]

Teila, very glad you dropped in.

 

[Teila]

Tee hee Diva, I am always lurking

It is coming up for summer here and the girls are getting up at 05:00AM and apparently if they are up, the hired help has to be up also

Ergo .. I have lots of early morning free time