The Old Folks Home

[ChickenCanoe]

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I can just hear me calling Glenn Drowns of Sand Hill and asking of his 100's of tomato varieties, "Hey Glenn...got any BROWN tomatoes shaped like chicken eggs?" Wink, wink, nudge, nudge!

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Thank you for the way up, up, up photo of your raised beds (How was the air up thar, eh?)...have to see about digging out some of my photos on the raised garden beds I use to have too...have to scan them to post...see if I can do this before the Fall hits...bwa ha ha... I make my raised beds outta dirt...like it so much when I bought my tiller, I bought what they call the "furorow" attachment...big v shaped implement you drag behind that hills the earth up. I like to rotate crops and the pathways...dogs are allowed in the garden, but they must be decent about following along the pathways. Dogs are just part of gardening...to steal carrots, harvest the peas I plant on the outside fence...dog peas...very important to make allowances for garden dogs too. LMBO


YES, heard of the "Bridge Over the River Kwai" and even watched the movie...and what a great movie it was...worth watching again too sometime, eh?

So like who goes on holiday and helps out misfortunate elephants...yer family so ROCKS!

Be glad the wife likes puppies...that maternal instinct...and not "let's have another BABY and see how old we can feel then"...bwa ha ha...puppies are good...puppies are good--thinking puppies are GOOD! LMBO


And....now I know where your daughter gets her beautiful looks and fun/sunny outlook on life. Look at the sunglasses, how the hair is tied up...yeh...now we know, eh?


Yer the Dad of the house... and while that saying goes, "If Momma's happy--everyone's happy..." It takes an awesome Dad to make sure that Momma can provide the setting so Momma CAN be happy. Looks good on you CC.

So well done DAD & keep those home fires burning, eh?

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Yes, the all growed up family of flaked out dogs is my fav photo too!

It's a DOG's life, we should be so lucky to be able to sleep 18 hours a day!

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Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

How does Glenn handle all that with a small staff?

The air was scary up there when it was windy. No outriggers on that old truck.

~~ "Bridge Over the River Kwai" was on TV about 2 weeks ago.

About a year after my son was born, my wife was holding a baby. She said, "maybe we should have one more". I said, "why don't we wait a couple years and think about it". She said, "If we don't do it now, we're not going to do it". I said, "I guess we're not going to do it".

She gets them from me of course. You would know that if I posted the Cardinal opening day picture of my son and I. I chose not to because of all the craters in this old timers face.
And mamma's not always happy. I tend to do things (including chickens) she isn't fond of.

If the toothless elephants were in the wild, they'd be dead now. But they worked most of their lives so they deserve a nice retirement of rice and squash smoothies.

My wife asks what her dog does all day. I said he sleeps. She doesn't understand because he sleeps all night too.

For the young and stupid thing, a doctor once told me that "there are old mushroom hunters and bold mushroom hunters, but there are no old, bold mushroom hunters".
That was after 24 hours of uncontrollable nausea, diarrhea and a stint in a coma when my heart rate was 180 and my blood pressure was zero over zero. They told my family and friends. He could die tonight, he could die tomorrow, but he's gonna die. A few hours later, I woke up and felt fine. Tough as nails. Young and stupid.

Thank you! I'm enjoying them so much! Great! I honestly mentioned here about putting them on the porch so yall could tell the newbie that it was too soon, if it was

I thought it would be ok, they will still be in the brooder, with a lamp, and I'm going to put them so they can get afternoon sun, and shade off half of it so they can escape if they want to.

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I like to follow nature. Give them a warm spot and lots of cool space. A settin' hen doesn't warm all the ambient air. She has a 100+ F spot under her where they spend the night and occasionally warm up there but otherwise, they're running around all day in ambient air regardless of age or temperature.
They aren't as fragile as most people think. The best rule of thumb is to watch their activity. If they huddle under the heat during the day, they're too cold. If they run all around, they're either just right or possibly too hot.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

@CanuckBock Our worlds are very different, but the beauty of this planet never ceases to amaze me.

For newcomers, Mrs Oz an I are balancing on either side of the Big 5-0. We have been married for 19 years 208 days and remain best friends. Since April 2010 we have been living apart to adopt our kids. We see each other for for about 60 days a year for periods of between 48 hrs and 10 days. Between us we have racked up more than half a million flight miles since the adoptions began.

She is from a rather privileged background but does what it takes - including wrestling pigs to give vaccinations. She has two BS degrees in Political Science and Economics, a Masters in Nursing as a Nurse Practicioner and is completing her dissertation for her PhD in Psychology.

She has more than 400 SCUBA dives logged. We have dove The Red Sea, Bahamas, Hawaii, Cancun, West Palm Beach, Cozumel, Florida Keys, The Great Barrier Reef, Southern California and many locations in The Philippines.

She has ridden African and Indian Elephants, been inches from giant Manta Rays, and feet Bull and Tiger Sharks in cageless dives, She bungee jumped off The Zambeze River bridge at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe and used a 4WD camper to traverse Mozambique to dip our toes in The Indian Ocean

During her undergrad years she lived with the NPA Communust rebels to understand their plight, She chased jungle fowl with the Ifagao aborigines, and lived in the slums of Manila for the same reasons.

On our first date, before we got our first drink she informed me that if I was looking for a subservient Asian bride, I asked the wrong woman out. She said she does not cook nor clean bathrooms. That if this relationship progressed then I should make more money than her and should we get married she expects a 2 karat diamond engagement ring. Fortunately I love to cook, I outsourced the cleaning and worked my but off to meet salary and engagement ring needs.

Mrs Oz spent her birthday without me. With the sudden change in staff at CocoBeach Farm, she spent the first part of her birthday locking down 200 eggs in a hatcher, giving instructions on construction to workers and still found time to relay about 70 photos to give me a picture report of the farm's progress.

She lurks in BYC because she enjoys following along. She loves that I am passionate about CocoBeach. I doubt she will ever drop in though. Despite her generally adventurous spirit, she remains shy

Amazing story Oz. It's good to meet your wife.
Everyone is different. I'd rather be adventurous though.
I once met some old people on Cat Island in the Bahamas (50 miles long X 4 miles wide) that not only hadn't been off the island, they had never been to either end of it.
What?

 

[CanuckBock]

@CanuckBock Our worlds are very different, but the beauty of this planet never ceases to amaze me.

For newcomers, Mrs Oz

Thank you for this Oz...we love Mrs. Oz even if she never makes an appearance...I can say the same for my hero Rick. I transcribe for him and I post photos of his work and speak of his hilarious wisdom one liners. He has no real use for the virtual world past he likes to look at the Vintage Vehicle sites on the sale ads...says it helps put him to sleep. Wicked man!

How does Glenn handle all that with a small staff?

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For the young and stupid thing, a doctor once told me that "there are old mushroom hunters and bold mushroom hunters, but there are no old, bold mushroom hunters".
That was after 24 hours of uncontrollable nausea, diarrhea and a stint in a coma when my heart rate was 180 and my blood pressure was zero over zero. They told my family and friends. He could die tonight, he could die tomorrow, but he's gonna die. A few hours later, I woke up and felt fine. Tough as nails. Young and stupid.

Glenn not only raises all those birds, does the seed and sweet potato slips...he teaches--if my memory serves me correctly, Biology degree I think. He is a super down to Earth fellow and hates when prices on feed rise...he never wants to raise the prices of the birds. He remembers (as do I) being dirt poor and scraping up enough money to purchase birds for eggs and meat; healthy food to add to their diets. When he asked me to submit a profile on our farm for his edition of Storey's Guide to Poultry...he mentioned he rises at 5 a.m. I have no idea when he goes to sleep...or if he sleeps at all! They are near impossible to nail down so we had to make several attempts to contact each other via telephone before we linked up. E-mail works but he is exhausted during the warm seasons and I fully understand why.

None of us want to admit we can't do what we use to...but eventually, we have to lessen our workloads or we end up not being able to get anything done period.


My father is a mushroom picker/hunter. As a kid, they would use those classic red with white dotted mushrooms sprinkled with sugar to kill flies. Very poisonous those...funny they are so pretty but I guess like frogs that are coloured really pretty...a warning NOT to EAT them!

I paid a bit of attention to the collection but while you will find both white and brown mushrooms (along with green onions) pretty much always in my fridge...I never warmed up to wild 'shrooms.

Very wet year last year...got these showing in June...usually these show up in the fall...not June!​

My father tells a story of one of his mushroom hunts, he had bagged a bunch of nice big, nonbugged Boletus and was coming out of the bush into a grassy field. He runs into a bunch of kids looking for the kind of 'shrooms that take you on a trip where you never quite leave your house. They see the size of the mushrooms my Father is packing and thinking he is hunting the same, "Hey Mister...where did you find THOSE!"

I think for both Mrs. Oz and her lovely bite to life (that's for the insight Mr. Oz...what a lady to keep up with, eh?--I think you have met more than just your soul mate, but your MATCH made in the Heavens!)...and your remark CC on "all the craters in this old timers face," I will close with a quote from MacArthur.

Quote: - Douglas MacArthur (Jan 26, 1880 – April 5, 1964)

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[Pozees]

"Years wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul."

I love this.

 

[IttyBiddyRedHen]

Even if Mrs Oz never shows herself in here....we still get to know her and experience her wonderful slice of paradise.....through your words and pictures...Oz

And...we thank you for that!

 

[ozexpat]

I would love you all to meet her in person - come on over

 

[ozexpat]

jump to 2 mins 40 sec

 

[drumstick diva]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MRS.OZ - you are fearless.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I'm pretty sure I don't have the guts to do that.

Terra firma.

 

[ozexpat]

I'm pretty sure I don't have the guts to do that.

Terra firma.

I did some research and booked all our activities while in Southern Africa before we left.

Prior to pulling the trigger on the order, I took her to a 35 storey building and made her look to the top. I then said that she would be travelling that far downwards with rubber bands on her ankles.

She said bring it on.

We had an amazing 3 weeks in Africa.

We went to Kruger National Park and hired a photographer I found online to be our guide for three days. He was fantastic and positioning the vehicle at just the right angles to make the shots.We did not go to private game reserves which although have more chances of seeing the "big five", with patience and perserverance we got them all. In addition we saw so much more.

Here is a photoflood of the trip. Dont quote the whole thing or Wisher is going to get really mad.