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

[drumstick diva]

Love the trip down memory lane, with the girls being new puppies again. I think at present stage they are acting much more mature and responsible. They have stock to work and lambs to smell and all sorts of other priorities. They have come a long way.

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

Love the trip down memory lane, with the girls being new puppies again. I think at present stage they are acting much more mature and responsible. They have stock to work and lambs to smell and all sorts of other priorities. They have come a long way.

Èden - such a promising ewe lamb!​

Yes, the girls have totally stepped up to their stock dog duties. Right smart dogs...for right smart sheeps!

Sep 20 2017​

Always a bit of time for some fun play along with chores, eh.

Love the dirty knees...
Mucky fall time...which has got me on a mission...later on that!​

We truly have only TWO SEASONS here...winter or summer. Fall and Spring are just a combination of both...so not really seasons at all.

The dogs get along very well with even the lambs!​

We are very proud of how good the girls have turned out.

Sep 20 - Lovely Lacy

Sep 20 - Fun loving Emmy​

We sure have much to celebrate with the girl dogs...and share...

Sep 20 - Dog CORN!​

If'n we have popcorn...well surely the girls have popcorn too (sans the butter)!

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

So after this many decades living in Alberta...you blink and seasons change...

Sep 20, you can see some of the leaves are changing

​

Every plant has given it its all and gotten huge and lush...grow grow GROW!

Sep 20 - Some leaves are still very much green
along with the crabapples get very red​

The next day...well it was for us, the first official day of FALL or Autumn...yeh.

Sep 21 - First day of Autumn...​

Yup, plants flowering still, very summery inside the Man Porch, but not so much if you go OUTSIDE!

Sep 21 - What FUN the girls figure!!

A dusting of Coast Snow...sticks, is wet, balls up (great for snowmen!)

The girls love snow...
​

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

I love snow too, you'd be a utter fool to reside in Alberta and not embrace snow...that or be miserable for most of the year, eh.

What I don't like is how the sheep hay gets muddy...the sheep stomp the feed into the muck and ruin it. Waste not, want not is my antage...so on the hunt to fix the problem. Sep 23, I found what I was searching for...

This feeder is like 18 inches high and ten feet long
​

That is 20 feet of feeding space...the ewe flock can keep on growing with that much extra feeder space available for the eight hair ewes. I am thrilled. I budgeted $1500 to solve this issue and perhaps, if things go along, only around a thousand to do this...two feeders, one twice as long and then...one for them boys too...

Another aspect...the rams are becoming a flock unto themselves too.

five feet long, so ten feed of feeder space​

So here is what I figure will be an adequate ram feeder...for the ram flock when the ram lambs are big enough to join Boss Man.

Now these bunk feeders on their own are no better than feeding on the ground, since they will still drag their stems over the edge and moosh them in the muck (especially since the wet Coast snows now are a regular event, spring & summer).

These are hay feeding topppers
​

I have a call into this feed store asking if two of these feeders can fit the ten foot bunker and the one feeder fit the five footer.

Technically these feed holders will hold one medium square bale, but since I fork out round bales, these will be just fine for loose hay also. I hope they line up with the sets of holes on either end and with the ten footer, the middle has bolt holes and bolts...now to hear back if this will work. That or Rick will alter them to fit. We cannot build the metal contraptions for what this feed store is asking for them.

We are also on the hunt for a bigger containment pond for inside the garage for Rick to over winter his Koi fish. They are doing very well and he needs a bigger pond.

This one is 300 gallons
​

So rigid tub is oval and short enough it will get rolled inside the heated garage. The other smaller tubs will hold the water plants over winter. Price hunting, tubs can go from $3000 (food grade square ones that are used for grapes, processed poultry that is moved about via fork lifts). So this one at a mere $450 for 300 gallons is a blessing!

Rick does not want a larger volume of water than the ponds...he wants the fish to stay a respectable size so they can housed in summer outside, and winter inside in a slightly smaller area.

Rick has to install a new heater in the garage...over the summer the one quit...so off he went and got the replacement heater...only to have the garage one kick back on. Well whatever...at least we got the new heater on stand by. Took like three weeks to come in and at -40C and colder, not waiting that long would be good, eh!

Rick has wired in plugs for my school bus for winter...fabulously close by and luxurious. He's been a busy boy.

Sep 23 - thars Calgary in the distance
​

So after finding a good fish winter tub and the two feeders...off to Calgary for what else but...

ICE CREAM!!​

Raspberry cheesecake topping Rocky Mtn Raspberry
(yes DD...the girls got vanilla before I went back to get mine above!) ​

Always in the city...some of the stuff I see on vehicles makes me bust a gut...

Mom, Dad...two kids and what about the last one? ​

These are annoying on a good day but what did you do...wipe out the youngest female in your clan...she's been erased or?

Sep 24 - Up and gone super early on Sunday...mission in the works​

Rick has a plan...a plan for Sunday dinner.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

So where was I before the BYC posting limits slammed shut ...oh yah...Sunday Dinner!

We have an ongoing laugh...at my expense no less!

Comfort roast...and it better be a GOOD one or else!

So in Calgary on Saturday, see this sign but the place is all boarded up.

We'll have to go here another day, eh! ​

So we get up extra early and head out to Red Deer to get the makings for comfort roast cooking...

Sep 24, 2017 - MY part of the deal--the VEG!​

Root veg, even found parsnips at a decent price. Goes without saying the tater part is coming from us!

So harvested one plant each of the five varieties of potatoes I grew this year. Used up the small ones and the ones I hit with the shovel digging them up as part of the comfort roast's veg mix.

These ones will be for another meal...nice and big sized​

Rest are for seed potatoes. The real reason I planted the potatoes this year was to increase the number of potatoes I can plant next season. Make seed taters...working out well.

Five varieties from this year ​

Put the beef roast on for 13:00 and rotissierred it for six & half hours ... absolutely delish!

Chose a nice big inside round and 1/3rd it!​

Used the fat laced portion of the inside round...it dripped and hissed and basted itself...ever so fine!

Rick raved about the Veg...I raved about the Roast
​

And why yes...got this for dinner tonight!

It being soon Thanksgiving...I have two turkeys...so cooking one up tomorrow and the other one is in the freezer for the real day...October 9th...likely we have it on the Sunday.

Scheduled up another feed run...going on the Friday and hoping the feed store people get back to me...as we may pick up the two feeders and fish tub then also on the way thru.

Ah Autumn,...no worries about heating up the house with cooking good eats, and busy busy--busy until the real snows come and shut down all this foolishness of fall time!

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

Department of Transport (the DOT) was waiting for us bussers this morning at the school. Inspection time...never ever going to be as fun as this inspection I wrote about back in 2008. Today, fair enough to say that my bus and I passed and we got a nifty door sticker as proof...past that part...

​

Here's MY STORY and one I am sticking to.

WARNING: When Feathers and Operating Heavy Machinery Don't Mix
By Tara Lee Higgins - March 20, 2008
Originally posted to Egg Swappers​

DOT Approved Cruel Bus Driver's Hat​

Heel low:

Had my boss killing himself laughing yesterday. It all started because of “Crazy Hair Spirit Day” at the public school, my preference for chicken feathers, and dah provincial gov’t highway authorities.

I’ve known in advance from reading the school newsletter that Friday was a theme day. Many of you know I am a semi-reTIRED accountant (oh, I do not miss April and T1-tax time!) that drives school bus. So in order to make the kids happy & festively interesting, I went off to the dollar store earlier this week and bought two wigs…one was robin’s egg blue with silver tinsel and the other, well of course!!, was a multi-coloured “chicken” feather wig (sorta reminiscent of an “old lady’s” bad hair day cap). Now the feather wig sorta molts, so I decided to wear that one on the a.m. run, the long Smurf blue wig on the p.m. bus run. That way I could clean up the feather leakage between runs.

In the mornings, most of the kids are still pretty much asleepy (especially on Fridays— long week of early mornings for the lil’ bugs), the feather wig liked to creep up and off my skull, so the blue one was a better choice for later in the day. Besides, I had fueled and swept out the bus the morning prior and didn’t expect much more than to drive the bus, get the kids to school and go back straight home.

Friday school days here are usually early as in school lets out one hour earlier, and with the immanent snow forecast (I hear SK is getting a meter of the white wet!!), I had planned to mix poultry feed having hauled in bags and bags (species specific pelleted
rations combined with whole oats—good for plumage, wheat—never more than 1/3 mix as too “hot,” and rolled corn—less dusty than cracked) into the Deuce Coop—great snow day project.

BTW, anyone else watching the correlation between bio-fuels, world hunger (entire countries are selling off their grain crops for big $ while their countrymen starve & riot in the streets) and the pending huge increase in grain prices…scary or what!! They’re telling us prices should drop in 4 or 5 years as the market “adjusts” to the new demands…but how many of us are going to be able to weather out the storm with those kind of bird food price increases, let alone the thought of people not being able to feed themselves…yikes! Me NOT happy, but I digress...

So I don my hat & wig of many coloured feathers with complimentary dangly chicken earrings, guzzle my one “give me life” coffee, scoff down a banana and head out the door with Rick chuckling in the background about my appearance to warm up the bus (no snow yet to sweep off, but she was starting to fall at 6 a.m.—hard to imagine as we were basking in 20 above a week before). After my pre-trip inspection and while the bus continues to warm up, I secure two stuffed toy ducks (one that insanely quacks, the other vibrates like it is having a seizure) and a plushy chicken to compliment the “crazy bird bus lady” ensemble.

The kids LUVed the bus birds & the chicken hat…the first set arrive with a blue tinted Mohawk and pretty blond braids with blue highlights. At each stop, more “crazy haired” students board and by the time I reach my second to last stop, we are full of wild hairdos and happy chatting children (many discussions entail deciding if their hair style is more “stuck finger in light socket” or “fell in a blue tinged mud puddle”).

The snow has increased now to the point where I shut the bus off and go around the back to sweep off the student loading lights which are beginning to become obscured by the snow caking to them. My feather cap is starting to slip down the back of my head, but no matter…the crazier the get up begins to look, the more “thematic” it will be. Besides, I have one last pickup and off to the school…then home again to begin my day of critter chores.

So we arrive, without incident to the school and as I park in the bus lane to unload the students at school, I mentally note three pickups parked just beyond the “bus only” area…the kids all file off with me waving multi-coloured pom poms, a pair of quacking and crazy shaking ducks—“Off to have a fun FRIday…see yah all this afternoon fer the ride home…Early Friday! Yah!!”

Well, the three vehicles turn out to be Department of Transport employees’…it is our turn I suppose, to have the school buses (commercial vehicle inspections) inspected— happens about twice a year when they select three random buses to go over. So much for a non-incidental morning bus run…I sorta felt like Sylvester standing in front of Grandma with Tweety Bird in my mouth stepping out of the bus and into the limelight…”Pettooeee…cough, cough…What bird??”

The bus and I breezed through the inspection with absolute A-one OK, not a single infraction past the point I made their lives very difficult. Now think about this…how hard did I make the DOT’s job to remain professional…here is a bus lady, wearing a creeping off the head chicken feathered bonnet? The one guy is telling me, put on the flashers, apply the brakes, headlights; low/high beam, heaters, etc…all the while having to look me in the eye, past chicken feathers on my head. Course the longer I wear the cap, the more disheveled my appearance becomes…now some of the feathers are floating about in the air…I sure I was quite the vision of bockiness!! LOL

Let’s just say, of all the days to look like a crazed chicken fancier…I have to have the bestest of luck to engage in a vehicle inspection the day I look my craziest (well OK…they do not have the opportunity to view my get ups when it is bird pen clean out days…but whatever). Anyway, for all those wondering what good PR goes on for the poultry fancier…just look out my way for positive incentives to bug your fellow man.

I even asked (VBG—I am SO bad…) the inspector if there was anything he liked to suggest that I do differently. His straight faced reply? Keep doing exactly what I was doing…naire a mention of any attire changes or ?? <wicked laughter>

Bock, bock, <floating purple, yellow, green, red, orange…feathers dancing before yer eyes>…Hey Tyler…not so sure I wanna participate in any more school “Spirit” days…sorta jinxed myself (or not, maybe the D.O.T. let me go as they did not want me embarrassing myself any further in public??).

Anyway, professional drivers pass commercial vehicle inspections every day…but how many have bragging rights to carrying one off dressed in a chicken outfit!??! “Top that one Rubber Duck. Chicken Truck over & out.”

Doggone,

Tara Lee Higgins – Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

So like what did your family and you do last evening for fun?

Likely not what the dogs, Rick and I did.

Sep 26 2017​

Had turkey dinner Tuesday...all the trimmings and very tasty. Looking forward to having it again in a while for Canadian Turkey-Day celebrations!

Plug in for the bus is well on its way to completion,
Good thing, more snow forecast for next week ​

So what did we do last night...

Well first off, I got my new (old) vehicle ready for a trip...got it figured out on how to take the girls along and yet have four by six feet of cargo space too.

Lined her up nice with canvas tarps to protect the inside​

And away the Girls and I went...what fun...

Tada...back home and here is the five foot feeder and hay topper​

Wait on Rick to come home to assemble it all...a mini work bee...

Helper dogs...always helper dogs ready to help out!​

Load up the fully assembled feeder in my cart
and off to the Ewe Barn we go...
grab an extra lawn chair on the way down...
Got some serious observations for two of us humans to do

​

Yes, yes...this smaller feeder is the RAM one, but hey, see how the ewes do with it. Very important as I know of nobody else that has such swanky feeders for their sheeps.

​

So it begs to answer, what did we do yesterday evening then?

Well of course, sat in lawn chairs and watched the ewes eat...they're Dorpers...not going to eat normal like proper sheep...more like a half goat/half sheep with a dash of even more uncertainty for good measure.

​

Ewe approved! Hardly wait to do up the double this one's size
and install it​

Gotta get that one home...ten feet long (nope, not in MY vehicle thanks!) and TWO of the hay dispensers. Little taller too...this one is 14 inches to the bunker lip and the other is 19 inches. With all the money I saved, I bought my first ever pair of Muck Boots (nfi) and will see how I like them. Summer version...I don't want hot boots like my Fireman ones...cool boots for mucking out barns and when it rains or we get those Coast snows like we are in fall and spring time so regular like.

Then it was run the dog dogs' time!

Beauty of an evening...hard to envision cold and snow is on the way but it IS!​

All the leaves are changing and GLOWING so vivid. Everywhere you look it is gorgeous out.

I know winter is on its way...because I keep making comfort foods AND yesterday, I bought an early Christmas presents for the three dogs (colourful chewy bones...ssshhh...don't let on, eh) and one present for Rick too. Start now because before I know it, it will be jolly holly time.

In the crock...today!!! ​

House smells incredible right now...got a turkey soup bone broth on the simmer, got spaghetti and lasagne sauce in the crockpot... Yup...with the weekend planned to get three tons of bagged rations hauled home, the ten footer and hay topper feeder and Rick's Koi's fish pond for the garage, maybe get those 15 bales (down to the last round bale, so it better be soon!...Ol' Mother Hubbard goes to the cupboard and gets angry, eh!)

Fall time...FALL DOWN and go boo hoo time...wah, I am tired just typing about it.

​

Ah but falling down face first into some comfort food...what a way to go!

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[getaclue]

Love the feeder!

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

Love the feeder!

Totally winging it too! Never seen anyone with one of these, so it was a LEAP of faith.

So far, so good.

Love routines...love seasons, love things that you can predict. Like us going to the feed mill in the fall to top up and ensure we got all our bagged rations topped up before the snow flies and makes trips like this, hard on us, the vehicle and trailer and dangerous.

Rick got the truck and trailer hitched up the night prior...ready, set...
GET GONE!
​

Lovely lovely fall day...I had it off and away we went.

Man alive I wish the views of the colours stayed this way...but nada...likely two weeks of this and a brisk wind (and snow coming on, plus rains inbetween just to make us feel humidly COLDER)...and she is gone!

Now you know WHY the traditional RED AND WHITE buildings look so fabulous
out in the country side...it just does! ​

Here they have the human house colour co-ordinated...
for me, I want house for humans a different colour pallet
like blue but this one is sure pretty, too!​

Suck it in, take clicks and it is all gone.

I like taking clicks of this Saskatoon farm during the seasons...

Windy prettiness...oh my, what a drive!

What a perfect view...ever so BLESSED!

As we get closer and closer to civilization...up ramps the traffic...

And the morons...drive you nuts if you pay too much attention to them!​

This "sports car" was parked dangerously at the Saskatoon Farm place, barely pulled off the road (on the road!) and we carefully went around him without incident...then some time later, we watched this guy pass us and weave back and forth, back and forth and forth and back on the wrong side of the road...he is a major hazard and it is bad drivers like this old man that make trips to the city much more dangerous than then need to be...oh well...you can't FIX stupids...sigh.

Not in the least...how about we try and fix all these bad drivers we
run into as we get more and more people using the roads??​

Run outta posting photo file allowance...grrr...new post next...

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

'Kay, where were we? Oh yeh...bagged ration fall tripper...

Cochrane trying to "fix" their busy roads...by making wider ones...this house (pretty cute one, eh!) is ready to be moved...sigh. More roads are not going to fix the road hazards...sigh.

Nice character home...I could see this at our place!
"Stop Rick...dump the trailer here!
Hitch up and forget about the feed for today...
We can take this one home to be our new old home."
​

Ah well, we never stopped and got the place...so onwards we go.

Our order loaded on​

Loaded for bear and off we go again...picked up three bags of really nice lamb milk replacer...still only $44 for 10 kg...not over $70 and lesser brand like near to me. Getting ready for lambing again, eh!

Super busy trip..we also stopped and got the rest of our order...

Winter stock tub for the pond fish...nifty eh!

The ten foot long feeder bunk
(and not pictured, the two V shaped hay feeders too)​

skidding the pallets off the trailer
​

Over the years and years of doing this...Rick has fine tuned this process to a T. We use to have loose OSB sheets on top of the rubber horse stall mats in the trailer...slip slide and painful. As you get older, anything painful hurts more.

My jaws of "life!"​

So last trip, Rick built a 2.5 sheet long sliding rail bed for moving the pallets...we have used this red jaw before...and it hooks to wire sling and allows him to pull the pallets out of the trailer.

And that be why Rick will always be my HERO...he is ingenious at solving troubling issues...right quick and slick too.

We get home from a looong trip to the feed mill and dealing with all the hazard avoidance...you are mentally tired. Last thing you want is to be home unloading and having to do it the stupid way. LOL

Emmy does not like the tractor...so was hard to get a click in of the girls
meandering around...glad we are home and they are out and about
HELPING! ​

These two are for DD...trip down memory lane...

Pretty Princess Warrier Fixins on her (no pea here)
stack of dog beds...

March 29 2015 - puffy butt shedder​

March 2015, tons of totes of oats to put by in the feed room...this time I only have 120 fifty five pound bags to stow away...cake walk...hee hee.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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