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

[getaclue]

Yes, I eat oxtail soup.

 

[getaclue]

Let's put it like this: I'm from the south. In regards to animals, if it's edible, we have a recipe. Very little waste.

 

[Akrnaf2]

We are souther then you, so I think it is also right for us!

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

I like liver. One of my daughters will eat it, but the other two won't touch it. I don't like the smell of it cooking, so I make sure I air the house out when I cook it.

There is a PRE November and April ritual here...baked liver. I use it to train the Heelers in conformation class (which what is left of my fingers too...agh-thanks Lacy!).

There is a certain memorable air to the smell of a house slow baking liver for dogs. LOL

We grill it, I love it very much.
Do you use the head meat? tongue? In beef and lambs that it.
Some here eats the brain , and do some nice dishes of it, but I don't because the concern of CJD.

Canned tongue is huge deal in England I believe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beef_tongue

Beef tongue or neat's tongue is a dish made of the tongue of a cow.

Beef tongue is very high in fat, and 72% of its calories come from fat. Some countries, including Canada and specifically the province of Alberta, export large quantities of beef tongue.

Well bly me... ??Alberta?? and we EXPORT large quantities...I can clearly see why...NO market that I am aware of here--I was quite surprised to find this.

Canned tongue is likely like canned seal flipper in Newfoundland... I have had canned seal flipper, salt cod and a whole host of meals with an East Coast flavour to them thanks to kind Newfies I have been invited to sit with at their dinner tables. Most of it is absolutely delicious.

I eaten lots of wild meats too...cougar, elk, moose (add fat, very lean!), deer of course. What has me bothered though now if I was to eat wild meat...so many pesticides and then there is the possibility say with bear, that the animal has feasted on meals with residues not healthful for you the eater of wild meats. One becomes more aware and less willing as we get older and wiser perhaps to dive into new things?

​

Tara does this mean your son won't be showing Lacey next month

Alexander never showed Lacy in April, I did. He was here but the only reason I had him show Lacy prior was because I cannot show both dogs at once. Need two handlers to show two girl dogs in the same class. Emmy HATES showing, so she has made it very easy for me to show Lacy now...just Lacy and while Emmy comes with us, she is not forced to do something she hates. More Cattle Dog for them not to enjoy showing--right in our Breed Standard is the statement "suspicious of strangers" and nothing could be stranger than a strange judge, eh. Lacy adores the whole routine so that makes me happy that at least one of the two does.

Of my seven Australian Cattle Dogs; purebreds Makins, HyBlade, & Lacy love (or put up with me and my silliness) showing...purebreds Fixins & Emmy HATE showing...Cattle Dog rescues Stoggar (she loved going to the shows with the rest of the pack) and Styra Foam (likely Foamy would not have fun with people in situations like the dog shows...she was found running wild in a city park...she does not trust people too well).

So not too bad...3 pure love shows, 2 pure not, 1 rescue yes, one 1 rescue no. Pretty divided, eh.

My son currently lives back where he was born...on the WEsT Coast on the north end of Vancouver Island. He is back in Lotus Land and Rick and I are ever so happy for him. It is SO much kinder and more civilized on the Coast; people there are well educated, have saviour faire, just many more persons like Rick and I there; hard working but also family oriented where they work to live, not live to work. We raised him that way so he does not fit in very well here and I am glad of that. We don't really fit in here with the humans either--I mean I am trying to explain to farmers why we buy oat straw squares and they are puzzled why we would "care" about the poultry being happy?? Because the birds perch on the bales it brings them a sense of joy, security, a more natural existence...because it makes them happy <<insert the continued puzzled looks>>, I have given up trying to explain & just pay the money, get the product. It is like trying to explain you can live in harmony with predators...you don't have to keep blasting them and having the next one step up which can be a meaner predator than the one you killed--build credible facilities that contain your property from harm. Did y'all know there are certification programs now where you live in balance with Nature?

http://predator-friendly-ranching.blogspot.ca/p/predator-friendly-ranching.html

To me it is point blank obvious what many do is not working if they keep losing animals to predators...

​

We are here for the farmy environment where we CAN get totes of grain, big squares of forage, live in an area where you don't have to re-mortgage the place to put by some feed for the year. LOL

What an absolute PAIN it was to get feed on Van Island...NORTH Vancouver Isle! Expensive, quantities very limited. There were Europeans that came in droves to think they could set up farms on Vancouver Island...places like the salt flats they put up dykes and tried very hard to grow crops...HA--this was no Netherlands for sure! Great place to be called the Northern Rainforest for a reason. The native deer there are puny in size for a reason...so they can sustain themselves on natural vegetation & thrive in the climate. Great place to grow dulse, grow moss...the southern part of the Island had more farm like areas but so filled up and way out of our price range.

I have gone back to my farm roots (my father's family had a huge estate in Northern Europe...the need to be on the land skipped my father and solidly landed in my heart).

​

Beef tongue yes. Brains no. I don't think I've ever tried the head meat.

I've never eaten sweetbreads that I know of. Offal that could be deemed awful...why do we use words to name things with bad contexts to them and then wonder why people are turned off...???

The cheek meat is wonderful!
See this one
http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/slo...red-wine/e582c886-1874-4054-bf31-c76c6269d838

Never had beef cheeks but the best part of a Red Snapper Fish or Halibut is when you harvest the cheek meat. Delicious little morsels that most who catch and clean their own fish are completely unaware that it even exists!

Super simple to harvest, you make a nick in the skin of the head by the cheek and slip a thumb in and pop the morsel out--keep those precious special choice pieces separate. The bigger the fish, the bigger the head, the bigger the meat.

We use to jig for Ling Cod and man alive the heads on them were huge...stories of bringing up a big Ling and having an even larger Ling follow the one we hooked up to the boat and just before we hauled the one we snagged in, the bigger one swallowing the one we hooked and we had TWO for the work of ONE...little wonder we made sure to have super sturdy gaffs so we could lift them into the boat. Some of the cod were so large that Rick could not hold the fish off the ground...all he could manage was to hold up the fearsome face to his chest and the body drags on the ground still. Those were the ones with huge meaty cheek pieces. I could do up fish and chips and only use the cheek pieces for a dinner. Ah the good ol' days...those don't exist any more. sigh...


https://www.thespruce.com/new-england-cornmeal-crusted-cod-cheeks-1300589

Cod cheeks

They are what you think. These little morsels of goodness are from the jaws of cod and haddock, or halibut in the Pacific. They are a fisherman's friend; traditionally fishermen would eat the cheeks and sell the rest of the fish, thinking they would not be appealing to buyers. These tiny pieces of cod or halibut are easy to cook and fun to eat as a sandwich on a crusty bun with greens and sauce of choice or solo, with just a dipping sauce, as an appetizer. Simply breaded or battered, cod cheeks are a must-have when in New England.

It actually looks good. I'll have to see if I can get them around here. Thank you! I had not heard of eating beef cheeks before.

Me either...but maybe that is the whole point...special delicious and if the word got out...ha ha ha...sorta like oxtail soup...sigh...

Like hanger steak...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanger_steak

Hanger Steak




A hanger steak is a cut of beef steak prized for its flavor. Derived from the diaphragm of a steer or heifer, it typically weighs about 450 to 675 grams (1 to 1 1⁄2 pounds). This cut is taken from the plate, which is the lower belly of the animal. In the past it was sometimes known as "butcher's steak", because butchers would often keep it for themselves rather than offer it for sale.

Hanger steak resembles flank steak in texture and flavor. It is a vaguely V-shaped pair of muscles with a long, inedible membrane running down the middle. The hanger steak is usually the most tender cut on an animal, and is best marinated and cooked quickly over high heat (grilled or broiled) and served rare or medium rare to avoid toughness.

So think on that now...for every beef you process as a butcher...you could stow away THE most tender choice piece...one to one & a half pounds....most tender...why would you let your general customer base KNOW about this!

Hanger steaks...we eat great tonight!

And what about beef tail? Aka oxtail ?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxtail
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coda_alla_vaccinara

Ox tail soup...my absolute FAVOURITE soup...and heck no...I cannot AFFORD to buy the beef tail to make it. I look, consistently for years now...when I see ox tail at the grocery...it is always like $15 for enough in a package to make a soup. Maybe one day I will break down and buy a package and make me soup--ox tail soup. I adored it as a kid...the meat was falling off the bones...the broth was to die for. Ah heck Benny...now I really have a yearning...decades and decades and I so vividly remember the wonderful taste...

TARA I was in an Arab authentic market and look what I have found for 3 $.
View attachment 1159969 View attachment 1159970
I now have to buy a heard!

You make me smile...when I went to get the hay feeders and Rick's pond fish stock tank...I went inside to check any deals inside the store...all was on for ten percent off listed prices. Yup, for $17, I too bought me another set of sheep shears...not three dollars (steal of a deal in any currency I believe!) tho. You got those for cheap cheap!

Yes, you need a herd of Angora Goats or a flock of sheep that need shearing. I also have one kevlar glove and one wood carvers glove (metal lined so no lopping off parts of your own)...I tend to do a bit more trimming on myself (never the sheep...steer clear of cutting the SHEEP) these days.

Yes, I eat oxtail soup.

You are by far richer than I...LOL...to be able to afford oxtail for soup!!

Let's put it like this: I'm from the south. In regards to animals, if it's edible, we have a recipe. Very little waste.

We are souther then you, so I think it is also right for us!

I remember Rick telling me how he got thru his youthful slim years taking a pound of burger, mushrooms (if he could afford a can) and white rice and making that up for a week's worth of eating so he could afford to pay the rent, run his vehicle to get to work. Few years back a friend of his lent me a Southern Cookbook to look at and there was a recipe...finally I could call it something past Rick's survival meal...DIRTY RICE!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_rice

Dirty rice is a traditional Cajun and Creole dish made from white rice which gets a "dirty" color from being cooked with small pieces of chicken liver or giblets, green bell pepper, celery, and onion, and spiced with cayenne and black pepper. Parsley and chopped green onions are common garnishes. Dirty rice is most common in the Creole regions of southern Louisiana; however, it can also be found in other areas of the American South.

You never EVER forget being poor growing up. My parents were months behind on the rent...the kindness of persons better off (different life stages, eh?)...meant we never got thrown out on the street like we deserved to be. Rick's parents began married life in a shack that was turned into a chicken coop when they finally could afford to move out to a bigger place.

Times were tough but I also figure that brings out character in a person--you won't respect things given freely to you if you have never had to grub a stake to get by. You appreciate things more when you have scrimped and saved and battled to earn something. Easy come, easy go. No respect...that has to be earned.

I remember being poor...I appreciate everything and am grateful for being ever so blessed. No matter how hard you can work, sometimes the only luck you seemed to have is BAD...I am not sure it benefits me but because I know what poor is, I don't have this overwhelming respect for the concept of money. Money is not the be all to end all...the pursuit of happiness is. Money won't buy happiness but it sure takes the pressure off surviving life.

Easy to go from pauper to prince, but it sure is harder to go the other way.

Having a reliable winch to tug pallets on with
Having safe straps to secure loads
Tools to do what we do
fail safe and reliable
How much is that worth? ​

I think Rick and I hold higher value having actual things more than money in a bank. Investments in monetary things can go * POOF * and seem to be much harder to keep safe. I'd rather have a large cast iron pan to cook chicken dinners up in than the money required to buy that pan. Makes me strange I guess, unless you are of the self-sufficiency mindset. Oh ho...

When inflation in war times made it so you need a basket of money to buy a loaf of bread (I would rather have the land and seed and make my own bread )...I guess I would not seem so off. In his youth, my father collected stamps and I have his collection now...I seem to recall that some of the stamps have face values of five million lire...maybe more during war times to mail a letter??


As a kid, my father would take me to downtown Vancouver where he would buy chicken heads and chicken feet. I have eaten both. I never liked how he prepared them (if there is a better way?)...boiled. I mean boiled chicken of the other parts...I do that to make a bone broth...not to eat rubbery food! He would also cook fish heads and delighted in eating the eyes...my sister had an eye phobia so that went over like a lead balloon for her.

Course my father had a talent I don't like much...he could be terribly cruel at times. If a person he had just met had slightly large ears, he would proudly & loudly call them "Dumbo" thinking what a smart man he was. I blame this behaviour on his mother who use to applaud him being class clown and making jokes at other people's expenses. Things were always funny happening to someone else but he could never handle when the joke was turned on him. I can laugh just as hard at my own blunderous mistakes, give and take. Best laughs are at your own self I find but I am easily amused, yes?

I don't like offal much because of a vivid memory from childhood. My father took my sister and I one time around Easter to show us processed rabbits at the same stores where he found chicken heads/feet--I can still picture VIVIDLY the pink carcass of the rabbit in the front window of the store (we had c@ts too at home and the size was pretty similar to our pets)...needless to say, that tainted my wants to go to these markets and I certainly was not going to be eating any prizes he brought back. He had us both in inconsolable tears after showing us "this is where the Easter Bunny has gone this year." To this day I still don't understand what the point of that was?

My Father also made head cheese from pig heads. I understand that in certain places & times, cash money was hard to get, so it was not uncommon to sell the marketable portions of what you raised and keep back the cuts that would not bring much money but could feed you.

I have asked people here if they eat their own beef and the reply is that they simply cannot justify the cost of the kill, cut and wrap fees from abattoirs (butchers). I am game to butcher my own livestock but doing a whole beef is a large undertaking and I get that many would not be up to the task. I have seen a whole beef liver and it is huge! You would need to be set up to handle a large animal, the kill, the containment and site to process, all that cutting, all that wrapping, the know how to do it, the ability to do it...even the cold hanging aspect would be something I am not sure I could manage. Some process a beef about now during the fall time. Then the freezer space for a whole beef and using it up before it went bad...and before someone says, sell some...you can't sell it legally to others unless processed by a licensed abattoir & once again, round and back you go to the cost to kill, cut and wrap by the butchers--is that where the middle man is?

Rick and I talked about buying a side of beef but so much he won't eat--we can buy our meat and whatever he likes to eat and come out ahead.

When we moved up to Northern Vancouver Island where there were no ethic markets for my father to visit...he had to revert to pork hocks to make head cheese...sometimes he could get his hands on pig's feet.

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/...-pigs-head-offal-headcheese-ramen-recipe.html

A pig's head is an embarrassment of riches. There are the obvious and much-loved pig's cheeks, which are truly the only sections on the pig that manage to be both lean yet moist and flavorful. You'll get a similar type of flesh down in the hocks and trotters, but cheeks eclipse the hocks in terms of moistness and the trotters in terms of size. Though there's a lot of fat and skin surrounding the cheeks, cheek meat itself is just pure flesh that, when stewed, is soft and rich in flavor. Even so, there's a lot more to the head than the cheeks. Large pockets of meat similar in texture to that of cheeks can be found underneath the eye sockets. There's also a hefty section of flesh the size of a baseball, near the brain at the base of the skull. Scattered throughout the head are smaller, equally moist slivers of meat that can be set aside for later use.

My father also loved kosher pickled herring. That's where I first learned what the word kosher meant!

Pretty big and leafy...now am I up to the challenge
of REDDING it? ​

Anyone on here have success with getting a Poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima) to produce red leaves again next season. I was given one by a bus family and over the time I have had it, I seem to have managed to keep it alive (Rick waters it, I top it up when it dries out). Here is some info I have found...strict light control begins about now...I guess?

https://www.lowes.com/projects/deco...ke-a-poinsettia-bloom-year-after-year/project

Tips to Make Your Poinsettia Bloom

Here is the tricky part — getting your poinsettia to bloom again.

•When fall temperatures begin to drop, bring the plant indoors.
•From October 1 to December 1, (or for at least 40 days) a poinsettia will need a strict light / dark regimen to produce color. Provide 13 to 16 hours of complete and uninterrupted darkness daily. At dusk, place the plant in a dark room (or closet) or cover with a box or paper bag. At dawn, move or uncover the plant to allow 8 hours of sunlight.

This is a pretty labor-intensive process, but if you are lucky, you will have a healthy, colorful plant for the holidays.

https://www.thespruce.com/poinsettias-keepers-or-compost-1403587

October
Poinsettias are short-day plants, meaning their bud set is affected by the length of daylight. To re-bloom, poinsettias need about 10 weeks with 12 hours or less of sunlight per day. You will have to artificially create these conditions and it's crucial that you be diligent.

Beginning October 1st, keep your plant in complete darkness from 5 pm to 8 am. Any exposure to light will delay blooming. Use an opaque box or material to block out light. Many people place their plants in a closest, but if light gets in though the cracks or if you open and use the closet, it will affect the bud set.

Move the plant back to the sunny window during the daytime and continue watering and fertilizing.

http://www.freeplants.com/poinsettia-flowering.htm

To make a poinsettia flower for the holidays, the plant must be kept in total darkness for fourteen hours each night during the months of October, November and early December. During that same time the plant should also receive six to eight hours of bright sunlight each day.

This can be accomplished by moving the poinsettia to a dark closet each night between 5 PM and 8 AM, making sure that no light sneaks beneath the door. Or simply cover the plant with a large box overnight. No peeking! Even the smallest amount of stray light will upset the schedule and the poinsettia will not flower.

Strictly follow this schedule of six to eight hours of daylight and fourteen hours of total darkness for eight to ten weeks. Continue to fertilize the plant twice a month until mid December. With a bit of planning and some luck, your carefully-tended poinsettia will flower and reward your efforts with a colorful holiday display.

Anyone done any of these methods successfully?

Put the Orchard fence panel back up
now that the second pond work is completed
for this year
Emmy was extra cute...doggy stretching & yawning this morn!​

Bit by bit...getting ready for winter
Because of the wetness,
dirt sticks to the bottom of the concrete
ornaments ​

Pulled the cinder blocks outta pond 2 to dry

Looking like we need a blanket of white here?

Forecast was two days late
I can start up harvesting seed taters
later today

Tarp on the deck of the large trailer
just means if snow does come,
trailer is still useable

Enough cold in the Man Porch to kill the plants
Gave me a chance to begin winter prep
even here

Pretty close to finishing the
assembly of the 10 footer feeder
Rick has only to drill the
metal plate he's fabricated ​

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[Akrnaf2]

Tara nothing canned , exept Tuna fish or Anchovies, for me!
Ox tail is very common here, I can find at in my Butcher every time.
We now cannot find the entire chicken (with the gut legs and head that is ) Because the low don't allow it, but in the past it was allowed , and I remember my dear grandma, bless here memory, making some wonderful soup with the legs and heads,

 

[CanuckBock]

Tara nothing canned , exept Tuna fish or Anchovies, for me! ,

You would have loved my canned Sockeye salmon...super fresh, clean, not kosher though because I am not an authority on that...sigh! Rick and I fished and as each one was caught, I cleaned it and it went on ice to go home.

Ox tail is very common here, I can find at in my Butcher every time.

You are another blessed person!

We now cannot find the entire chicken (with the gut legs and head that is ) Because the low don't allow it, but in the past it was allowed , and I remember my dear grandma, bless here memory, making some wonderful soup with the legs and heads,

The Bresse chicken (likely not kosher?) has to have head and legs... them BLUE legs--like some of my Booted Bantams have...the queen of poultry, the poultry of kings...poulet de Bresse (heaven forbid, there is also a TURKEY too) LOL

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bresse_chicken

The birds are marketed with the head and characteristic slate-blue legs, traditionally a sign of authenticity. The left leg carries a metal leg-ring with the name of the producer.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[Akrnaf2]

You would have loved my canned Sockeye salmon...super fresh, clean, not kosher though because I am not an authority on that...sigh! Rick and I fished and as each one was caught, I cleaned it and it went on ice to go home.



You are another blessed person!



The Bresse chicken (likely not kosher?) has to have head and legs... them BLUE legs--like some of my Booted Bantams have...the queen of poultry, the poultry of kings...poulet de Bresse (heaven forbid, there is also a TURKEY too) LOL

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bresse_chicken



Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

Tara , I meant COMERSIAL canned! Your salmon is perfect and 100% cosher! I WOULD LOVE TO TASTE IT! we never And I mean NEVER get fresh wild pacific Salmons from any kind! The only fresh salmon here is the Norwegian cultivated ones.
But we have some other grate feash here!
I can see your salmon in some fresh cream souce with mushrooms on a freshly home made Linguine pasta!

 

[Akrnaf2]

Bresse is a chiken and it is cosher, and I know that it has blue shanks, it is the symbol of French poultry! It has the colors of the French Tricolor! Red comb, white body and blue shsnks And it is caponized too. So more tender meat.
You said Bresse and what about the Dong tao breed?

Can you imagine a soup from that?

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

Tara , I meant COMERSIAL canned! Your salmon is perfect and 100% cosher! I WOULD LOVE TO TASTE IT! we never And I mean NEVER get fresh wild pacific Salmons from any kind! The only fresh salmon here is the Norwegian cultivated ones.
But we have some other grate feash here!
I can see your salmon in some fresh cream souce with mushrooms on a freshly home made Linguine pasta!

I guess I don't quite understand kosher yet? may well take a whole life time, eh.

​

Foods that I can make, though not killed (harvesting fish) by a person trained and having the authority to do the procedure...can still be OK for you to eat then? That would be a relief.

Any salmon Rick and I caught and processed and then canned, would have been like 20 to 30 years old now. Sockeye salmon was what we went for mostly. Now there's a delicious salmon for pretty much all cooking methods!

Makes me wonder as Rick and I talked about taking up another life before we settled on this one here in Pear-A-Dice. Another life where we took an older wooden fishing boat, redid it to contain ourselves and two ACDogs. Go around from bay to bay, fishing, harvesting seafood, beach combing to see what the tides washed in. Only needing to refuel and buy supplies every rare so often--kinda like we do now with our go to the city to stock up and then vamoose back to our real lives. Live life on the ocean. Another life indeed.

Only thing I miss on the Coast,
my shrimp and well, we had some last night
so no missing it, eh!​

I think if we ever truly missed the Coast...we could always book a holiday, hire a person to take us out fishing for salmon, jigging for bottom fish...they do fishing tours like that where you are spoilt rotten. Catch fish, some will even can the salmon, put the other fish in sealed plastic so you can take it home without refrigeration.

Back in our old life on the WEsT Coast...we had the same boat we do now and we could literally walk to the marina. Rick and I would go with the boat trailer and truck, put the boat in the Bay. I would stand shoreside and wait while Rick drove the trailer and truck back home...parked it at our corner lot house, walk back down to the Marina (older now...we could buy a scooter and ride that back to the ocean if we were still there!), meet me and the boat and off we would go.

We loved our summers...hoping the winds would not be too stormy...I would even make extra fruit cakes at Christmas, stored in the freezer for our lunches...

OH MAN...fishing for us was about chugging along, fishing and eating lunch...no such thing as second breakfast for us...just a continuous stream of tidbits of food...fresh air, beautiful scenery & chowing down on LUNCH! We'd get to see Killer Whales (they always ruined the fishing but seeing them and their size and majesty...almost...almost made up for the fact they scared all the fish away!) and Bald Eagles scavenging, sea, sun and joys. No phones (no such monster like cel phones back then!), no beepers, no pagers...no interruptions...peace, waves, feasting and fun.

Occasionally our tranquility was interrupted when one of us hooked a fish (oh drat...gotta put the sandwich away--if it felt like a big salmon or even if it was a halibut, it could be SO exciting!)...but past that delightful pastime!

Bresse is a chiken and it is cosher, and I know that it has blue shanks, it is the symbol of French poultry! It has the colors of the French Tricolor! Red comb, white body and blue shsnks And it is caponized too. So more tender meat.
You said Bresse and what about the Dong tao breed?
View attachment 1162346
Can you imagine a soup from that?

This Dong tao reminds me of the Cornish breed--massive structures for skeletons! Probably be a good soup if legs mattered I guess. LOL

Plain old average like chicken works well for soup.

All Red​

Dug 190 feet of potatoes yesterday. Dug till it got too dark to see if they were rocks or? I have about five plants left.

Emmy keeping tabs on me and my progress​

Rick and the Girls came out with me...then Rick went in and left me with the two younger gals.

Ruby Gold - red skin, yellow flesh​

Happy with the numbers of taters!

Dakota Pearl and Ruby Gold...who's feets are those?​

Some sharp toothed varmit horded a bunch of my fav's (Russian blue ones) and ate quite a few. A mole, a mouse, a?? Oh well.

Unmolested Russian blue potatoes
​

The girls keep tabs on me...Lacy makes sure I don't calf over and end up face down in the dirt...have a neighbour drive by and witness old lady planted in potato patch...what would the dogs have to say about that!??

​

Don't embarrass us, eh!​

Fingerling Pink Fir...a late potato variety
Sure glad I only wanted more seed than real size for eating
this year...objective met, make more seed for 2018 ​

Ruby Gold was a good producer in a short time​

Love, love the new ram lambs Eldad & Èder.

After doing taters till dark...staggered down there to put the rams away and the two little boys toute sweeted to the inside of the ram barn...I could hear older ram Boss Man, nickering (those with horses know that sound...soft rumbling) to me to hurry along and make it his turn to be barn bound.

I walked back down to the pasture where Boss Man was...he waited patiently for his turn...so spoil. How spoilt? He was all game to get going but laugh, slows right down when he gets too far for the flash light I am carrying to light his way. Yeh...and to think he use to have to reside with two other rams living in a stand of poplar trees...poor boy...one of the rams (Snicker's sire) was taken out by a cougar. Easy to go up the ladder to a better life!! Be horrible if he ever has to do that again now that he resides in his portion of the ram barn, corral, fresh feed waiting for him to get back to the barn... yeh...love it. I heard rumour there is a huge grizzly back in this part of the area...grizzlies have huge territories and some are losing horses and calves. We do indeed live in the wilds and the wilds are where predators should be doing predatory things and those of us with domestics need to keep our property safe and contained decently.

For supper (after the garlic fried shrimps )...bacon & tomato's with a bowl of cottage cheese, pan fried up two baked potatoes from the night prior...voila, dinner a done deal!

Yesterday the power popped off...now again today...missed my text that Stoggar the Dogger was the first ACD in Alberta to be granted her PEN (Performance Event Number). This PEN allowed her to do go to dog shows with Makins, HyBlade and Fixins...a quad of ACD's! She could compete here in Canada in everything CKC dog showing expect conformation (unregistered dog with no blue blooded recorded pedigree! ). Agility, herding, obedience, etc...wonderful wonderful and of course, she could bum around with the other registered ACD's of ours. A dog on exhibition status, eh. Kinda kewl.

So uh yah...power popped off again today...they are doing upgrades to the power lines...or the horrid winds today have downed something...either case, here is my post without further delays & hopefully no more omissions like yesterday's.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[getaclue]

When I was a kid, my grandparents used to take me fishing with them. Being a kid, after awhile it was boooooooring. I learned to stay up late the night before, then when I got bored, to take a nap. It never failed that when I would get just about asleep, I'd have to get up to catch a stupid fish that got on my line. A lot of times, I was the only one that got fish, or I would catch the most. I swore it was because I wanted to sleep, and they knew it.