The Old Folks Home

[kingfrodo]

On another note, is it just me or has anyone else noticed it's almost impossible to participate on other threads??

seems like the bickering and fighting and being overly sensitive to others beliefs is out of control.

I subscribe to the belief of if I don't agree or believe in what you do I keep scrolling....Sure wish others subscribed to that as well....

 

[Arielle]

You mean we are not entitled to speak our mind and spew . . . or only a few get to do that . . . . lol Usually it is the same few people . . . . so if I see them I avoid that thread.

 

[kingfrodo]

I'm learning real quick...



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[ronott1]

On another note, is it just me or has anyone else noticed it's almost impossible to participate on other threads??

seems like the bickering and fighting and being overly sensitive to others beliefs is out of control.

I subscribe to the belief of if I don't agree or believe in what you do I keep scrolling....Sure wish others subscribed to that as well....

That's why we sit back and enjoy the peace and quiet of the Old Folks Home....

 

[kingfrodo]

I do enjoy being here more than anywhere else, but I'm still fairly new to this chicken thing and I'm trying to learn. So, I'll subscribe to an interesting thread and WHAM! Here they go fighting.......

so, how do I UN subscribe to a thread??

 

[tnspursfan09]

Our new grandson Evan James and his proud Paw Paw

I am so far behind!

 

[tnspursfan09]

Here it is.

Still catching up, but had to stop for a hug.

 

[Bunnylady]

I do enjoy being here more than anywhere else, but I'm still fairly new to this chicken thing and I'm trying to learn. So, I'll subscribe to an interesting thread and WHAM! Here they go fighting.......

so, how do I UN subscribe to a thread??

Go to your profile, and where it shows you latest activity, hover your mouse over the thread in question. Under the title, "subscriptions (and the title of the thread)" will appear, along with a red x. Click on the x, and a window appears asking if you want to unsubscribe. Click OK.

I suspect a lot of the bickering is not just because of strongly held opinions, but because some people forget that, while you may have a "target audience" in mind when it's just you and your computer screen, this isn't just "you talkin' wit' yer homies," you know? While I've been guilty more than once of saying things that I knew another would probably find provoking, I try to keep in mind that this is an international forum with people of all ages and experience levels, and avoid being insulting or deliberately argumentative.

 

[CanuckBock]

That's what I was thinking. I have a bunch of pictures of my garden like that. I don't have the bucket truck any more and I think the pictures are stuck on a faulty computer. If I get the time I'm going to have to repair it or pull the hard drive and put it in another as a slave. I'm missing a lot of pictures that I need.

Very good guess...the basket would be the same but it is not a picker truck.

Never EVER fell a tree here...very concerned to let trees live, planted a TON when we moved here in 1998. White spruce, bushes like lilac, caragana, dogwood...wanted more greenery. Getting on because I look at the wisps of bushes I planted and they are taller than I am now. Laughed at Rick...bugger...the push was on to get as many plants planted in the first year here...so did this in June...a traditional rainy month here. Rick tells the kid, I am out there planting up a storm and it is RAINING and THUNDERING like it does every June...hands the kid a tinfoil HAT and says...

"Go give this to your mother!"

Never EVER shoulda taken out LIFE insurance on the place...but oh well...now that the mortgage is near paid...no more worries about my early demise equating any WINDFALL...no longer worth more dead than alive!

I can say though there was an omen when we moved here...very first day, unloading boxes into the house...and the TV antenna gets hit by lightening. Like I said, omen...good, bad, indifferent...I think good...but carry on with story for the laugh part.

So I am holding a box, going into house and BOOM, lightening with the thunder...so a FLASH and BOOM right together, course no break cause it hit right above us. Kid is in the house, Rick in moving truck, me outside. I hit the porch flat...I hear Rick in the trailer curse...loud. Look, nope, he is OK...so I ask, him, "Did that scare you?" and he says in his best impish voice, "NO! But it did disappoint me!" I am such a sucker, easy mark...for setups..."Disappointed? What do you mean?" "Well," he says, if the bolt had hit YOU, the place woulda been paid for!" Pa dump dump...GONG!

BTW, did wipe out the TV and the VCR. We had plugged it in for the kid to watch a movie on, but bought from Sears (nfi) and even with an "act of God" like a lightening strike, they covered it and we paid a bit extra and upgraded to what a 28 inch...had that same TV for 13 more years until we came outta the dark ages and upgraded to a big screen...took some getting use to, did not know where on the screen to look...bwa ha ha...

Rick and I like being idiots...nothing wrong with being happy with what you got and paid for...not overly spoilt until you upgrade your technology! LOL Then you might realize what you were missing out on.

Easy to go rags to riches, harder fall the other way round, eh?

So back to the keeping of trees on the Prairie. Half the place is forest (spruce, pine, poplar) and the other half is nice pasture.

Rick has even gone so far as to build around existing trees...this is the turkey barn with a spruce tree in the run. I water it with water to make sure it gets lotsa drinks.

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Trees in the de Coop fur Sure run too...a poplar...which I also water. I like trees...can get nasty if one decided to wipe out a building but you can't have your cake and eat it too...nice trees about and can be a tad dangerous.

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Back side of the Dog Kennel, snugged up one of the roof trusses, an extra one there and ready should the spruce tree ever die and we extend the roof fully...not likely to happen in our life time but...still it is there and in reserve.

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Even out in the ram pasture, animals lounging around standing trees can pee/poo the tree into an early saturated awful death...so we fenced off certain trees, so their root area is safe from contamination. So they could LIVE another day!

I think I take issue with what many in the area have done; sell off the timber for a quick influx of cash and then there they are, bald field...great for growing crops but we have grey wooded soils, not much real farmy land...good for oats, pasture, that kinda thing but way nicer to have forest growing on. Bald fields also mean more blowing winds, colder climate, just a compounding thing for ugly bugly. No, not a tree hugger but a tree admirer. If we can manage it, trees are good things to keep going, planting more too is a good thing since I know we harvest more than we ever replant.

I know, it is a sorta stupid concept, not wanting to kill things on your land and to let things prosper. I mean there are rewards to working with Nature...two years in a row now, pair of robins built a nest in the roof of the wishing well Rick made me, out in the new orchard. I made sure and cleared out the old nest, Robins build new ones each time!

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I am sorry, but as daft as it may sound....I loved taking a photo a day of the baby robins growing up...I mean...how cute are these yeller gob smackers??? They were NOT cute as hatchlings...pink ugly things but at this stage...lookit those beakies...baby BUG beakies!

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Sure glad human kids don't nag parents like these do...just look at the pressure to produce...FOOD...where's the grub...DELIVER the FOOD! Ack...fill those beakies...NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So when Rick wanted a parking building, the only spot we had that was open to a point was where the old wood shed stood. Terrible wood shed that was here when we bought the place--stained it, put a hanging door on it, metal roof...several years we would try loading it up with wood but never dried too well...too congested and enclosed inside, no air movement...the walls of wood design work better, so when a spot was wanted, the demolish of the old woodshed made the most sense. for us



A tree had blown down and taken out the one corner there on the wood shed.

We removed the boards and piled them up to be used on another project, but last spring, down the shed that was here originally, down she came. Make room for bigger and better things.

Unfortunately, because of the dimensions of the new building...gasp...ten trees had to come down too...sigh!

So we rented a man lift...



And yes, that is what we used to take photos of the place with...way way way up there.



These were the trees to be taken down. Rick and I sat and discussed this till we could not discuss it no more...both of us concluded this was to be and we had not cut a single tree till then...so the deed would be done.

I was nervous about the process, worried about Rick and the trees, bad enough to kill trees but he could get hurt or killed in the process too.

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Rick was careful and I stood watch (not like I was much help but I could dial 911?). Rick limbed the tree on the way up, went up high as he could safely go and then topped it...then cut off the stem on the way down. All went well. Whole process leaves a bad taste in my mouth and I feel haunted by the trees taken down, but what was done, is done and NO regrets.

After the trees got downed, Rick said to me, "Want to take some pictures from the basket?" He was right, the view was spectacular...so that evening, we did some shots of the bird yard and house yard. I'll post a few but first...the view looking down...way way down...I am not a very easily terrified person, but neither am I a dare devil...not a fan of roller coasters, can manage but not a thrill seeker...getting up each morn with a heart beating...that's thrilling enough!

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A little unnerving and the man lift on a windy day (which it was not...we chose a weekend of calm weather, enough can go wrong topping big trees without stacking the odds against success!) would be horrible, but it was OK for me.

The next day, took the lift down to fall some dead standing in the fence line and took some more pics.

Now what I find interesting...I became OK with going up, never completely comfy with being high up (born with three fears, humans are afraid from day one of: bright lights, loud noises, and FALLING!) but how Fixins took it...oh my! That dog was not a happy camper...no siree...

People with Australian Cattle Dogs, know how very attached we are to our dogs, how attached the dogs are to their humans...not called Siamese Twin, Velcro and Shadow dogs for nothing. Happiest place for a Heeler is right beside the humans...your budster in all things criminal...ha ha ha...if it's intense, count on them to be in the middle of it, barking encouragement all the way!

So when does a scientific study EVER have to be done to tell us humans we cannot SEE emotions in our dogs' faces...you tell me the process here of what Fixins is feeling...



Trees might be falling all around her...but old dog Fixins is calm, happy, let the sleeping dog lie...content and comfy dog at rest, in the thick of trouble but relaxed, eh? I am calm, so she is calm. She is with her fam and she is content to be part of the action or inaction.

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Rick and Tara, the center of Fixins' universe, going UP UP UP in that thing...that blue weird thing..."Will they come down in time for supper??" Mild panic sets in for dog... "Will there ever be another catered dinner for the precious dog? I am starting to get CONCERNED!"

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Absolute terror...absolute horror...and absolute RELIEF in the face of Fixins..."They made it, they are ALIVE...my dinner providers are safe...back down to mother Earth...so thankful!"

Put it this way, the next morning, Fixins stayed IN the house when we went man lifting and photo taking. What she don't witness first hand, she don't stress and suffer over. She never minded being in the house. Good morning nap and putting her thru another up, up and away with the humans in the blue basket, not going to do that to OLD dog...NOPE!




View of the garage, yard and bird yard taken that evening.

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View of the point, next day. We compost our used bedding and poops into our pastures...farthest point has been composted and a natural grass crop come up. Middle of picture beside the blue bird house, loads of used bedding, these will be tilled in and seeded to pasture mix this spring. Pallets to right are for round bales.

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This load of bales was placed on the pallets and hay tarped. On the pallets, round alfalfa hay keep better than on the ground directly to soak up moisture. Not the prettiest picture, but working farm is working farm...hay tarped row of bales, is what it is.

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Some of the ruminant buildings...this one in the foreground is for the Jacob ewes.

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Foreground is Nine Oh's run. She was a geriatric chicken of ours...got very old and Rick built her a run with a snuggy insulated house...keep her safe and secure. Behind that is my duck barn. First bird building Rick built us.

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View of the fish pond and waterfall like I have never seen it...very neat! I am kinda proud of those two silly mountain ash trees on ether side, ordered them up, arrived in the mail, tiny things...not so widdle now and feed the Robins too...Squeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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View of the new orchard...greenhouse Rick made me in 2007. Flag pole in the driveway, can't see the red and white flag, not a windy day and grateful for that! Pine yoke and cedar burl at the front gates. The large green stock tank (in front of greenhouse leaning against fence) and silver halves of culvert (right corner) will be dug in for a water plant garden in the orchard...maybe not this year, but maybe the next--see how progress goes on the parking building. Every single plant in there except the large poplar tree was planted by me. Lilac rows to the left, saskatoons, caragana on the right, strawberries in the round containers...herb garden, apples, crabapples, pears, cherries, and plums...all zoned for 1A exposure. Note the wishing well where the Robins took over on the bottom left. Rick never even mowed the orchard until the coast was clear and the robins were fully fledged. Did not want them to be bothered raising up that brood and have them abandoned.

Ton more photos but enough I say. That man lift did give us a bird's eye view of the property. So other peoples here, if you ever have access to a lift, be it a man lift or bucket truck...go for it. Lots of cool views you simply cannot capture day to day.

We do have one set of areal photos of the place when we first bought it...fairly expensive, three photo negatives for $300 15 years back. Cheaper to rent a man lift and take bazillions of what YOU want to see recorded. Then post them to bother observant persons...ha ha ha...how did they manage that...???

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[IttyBiddyRedHen]

On another note, is it just me or has anyone else noticed it's almost impossible to participate on other threads??

seems like the bickering and fighting and being overly sensitive to others beliefs is out of control.

I subscribe to the belief of if I don't agree or believe in what you do I keep scrolling....Sure wish others subscribed to that as well....

Whaaa??...there are OTHER threads?!! Unbelievable!!

Somebody mentioned biscotti.........

Is this recipe................I dare say...fattening?

<<<wanders off after something shiny..........................................