Abby has my vote!

If any of you are into "The Biggest Loser" this year and have seen any of the contestants or watched them on their journey to self discovery, you will have seen this lady.

Her name is Abby and like all the contestants on the show, she is overweight. What makes her different that all the other contestants on the show is that she has suffered the most unimaginable tradegy in her life.
2 years ago she lost her entire family. Her husband, her beautiful red headed 5 year old daughter and a gorgeous infant son. They all died in a car crash caused by get hit by another driver who was driving too fast.
Her story came up last night on the show and it was absolutely gut wrenching watching this poor woman relive what had to be the most horrible day in her life.
I just wanted to post about this remarkable woman who not only survived that but came on the show with determination to reclaim her life.
In last nights episode, her team members were called to vote one of their own off. This amazing woman sacrificed her chance to win the prize and asked them to send her home.
2nd prize is the biggest loser who can do it at home and my vote is for this amazing selfless woman.
I couldn't even imagine what it would be like to have your entire family wiped out in an instant, my hat is off to this woman who has managed to come back from that and is now an inspirational speaker to young kids and teachers.

Olivia @ 1 week old!

Hard to believe the week just flew by!!!
We(I) had a hard time deciding on a name for this show hopeful girl! I wanted something unique but pretty like her mama!!
I was undecided between my top 2 choices of Olivia and Lara....I love them both but in the end I could only go with 1 name and choose Olivia...

As she is a singleton she has no actual litter mates so we improvised with stuffed toys. That way she has something to snuggle up with!

Once she decided to nurse on her own there was no looking back, she had doubled her birth weight by 6 days old and at 1 week she was 285 grams!

So far so good! I love her domey head and the rest will be a wait and see! The big fat tummy is a great site!

They've Arrived!!!

They've arrived!!! On Saturday we met a truck that had arrived from the west carrying our goats!
Yes, I can't ever imagining being excited about goats but I was plenty excited to get these guys home! These guys are super rare in Canada and the fact that I was able to acquire a herd of mature myotonic goats is just amazing!
I am really stoked about being part of something that will preserve this breed and as I love exploring bloodlines and who goes where ....this is right up my alley!
So these guys were loaded up in Saskatchewan on Thursday afternoon and after spending 48 hrs + on the truck we picked them up in Cookstown!
Meet our new goats!

This is Ember...

Blaze
Cassidy

Daisy

Monica

Fancy

Continued next post...

More Goats!

These are our new boys!

This is Hershey

The Messenger (Messy)

And more of the girls...This girl met the truck in Manitoba, she is just a doeling (born this spring), this is Cracker..

This is Splash..

I am super excited to get everyone together as right now they are in quarantine pens until I make sure that no one is sick. I will start early December pairing some of the girls up with boys in the hopes of having May babies. My waiting list has already started with requests. This is all very exciting for us. Just to give you an idea of how few breeders there are in Canada, the main registries for these guys list only 12 breeders in all of Canada..(myself now included)...

Stay tuned for news on arrivals of these guys!!

Autumn's princess

Yes my Autumn is a mama!!! My princess has her own princess!!! This "single" bundle of joy was born Sunday evening at app 8:30 pm via c/section. Autumn started labour about 2 am Sunday morning, and by 6 pm sunday evening her contractions were no closer together and it seemed that they were not strong enough to get things going. I had already done an xray the previous Thursday and knew that there was only 1 puppy and it looked pretty large on the scan and also it was breech......
So not wanting to take any chances with this single puppy I called the vet and by 8 o'clock we were on route to the vet. We arrived and they prepped Autumn and started IV, got her cleaned and reshaved and by 830 pm we had a baby! The vet and her tech were speed demons for sure, I don't think I have ever had a section go that quickly! Hoping that because I hadn't waited too long the puppy would not be compromised I expected baby to fare just as well as mom....
Coming out with a super strong heartbeat, for whatever reason the little princess crashed and her heartrate became dangerously slow. With lots and lots of stimulation, some atripine and epinephrine to jump start her heart again, her heart rate was coming up. It was really tense for a bit.
However, long story short we got her going and by 1030 or so we were home. That night the little princess found her voice and wow...did she use it. She was cranky and irritable and Autumn was not sure what this tiny thing was?
I was up and down most of the night, getting baby to nurse and getting her to pee/poo as Autumn was still not sure what to do with her. By 4 am Autumn figured it out and man did little princess get a bath!
These pics are mom and baby post 15 hrs after surgery...

This is mom and baby at 3 days old. Baby has gained 25 grams in this short time and is doing extremely well. She finally started to look for and latch on the nipple yesterday afternoon, before that I was putting her every chance I could!
It is totally a labour of love, which I do love. Seeing them flourish and thrive before your eyes is an unimaginable feeling and worth all the lack of sleep!

Little princess is unnamed at this point....I am looking for suggestions?? Something pretty and unique?? The vet and the tech wanted to name her Turtle after her sluggish start but I just don't think that is a very elegant name for a show prospect puppy!!!!
So far all I can come up with is Lara or Alia .....
Any help would be great!!!

They're BACK!!!!

Well the mighty moose hunters are back! Britt and I had a quiet week with 3 members of our family way WAY up north moose hunting.

I had to chuckle when they arrived home and the washing machine was going non stop cleaning up all those hunter orange clothes.

They did bring home some moose this year. Not a total fan of wild meat but a moose steak every now and then is a great change!

Bringin U up to speed

It certainly has been busy around here. Currently Brittany and I are the only girls of the house as the rest of our crew has made their way up to Thunder Bay for the annual moose hunt. Not my cup of tea but different strokes/different folks I guess.
Our Thanksgiving weekend was a scattered one with those 3 away, Brittany babysitting and myself working so there was not a time that we were all home together to have a meal. I thinks I might plan something for when they get back and I am off!
I am on puppy watch this week....can't believe that 9 weeks has just flown by. Autumn is due on Friday. She has the tiniest of belly and I am fearing that she only has 1. Fearing because it generally makes for a larger puppy thus harder for mom to whelp. Fingers crossed.....I have an xray booked for her on Thursday to confirm exactly how many and what position(s) it or they are presenting. Adding to my stress...I am booked to work Fri,Sat,Sun so there is a huge possibility that she could go into labour any one of those days. Best case scenario, she goes into labour next Monday!!! Will keep you posted there!
We have secured a herd of myotonic goats! I am especially thrilled about this...(who knew..thrilled about goats)! Anyhow yes we have more of these delightful creatures coming to our farm! The biggest downside...they are in Saskatchewan..yep mid west... As these guys are pretty rare and almost impossible to find, the fact that I was able to find so many and adults to boot is pretty cool!
So I am trying to find a hauler that is coming back from the west to bring these babies home. The best part of this is that these guys coming are mature goats and we will be able to have our own babies born here next spring! This venture has taken off faster than we had anticipated but we are excited just the same!
I will post when they arrive and how the whole process goes!

Bestest Friends...

Just a photo to share.....

I would have never dreamed that these two would become the best of friends. But..they are...
They run and chase and play tirelessly.
Also a big surprise to me is how much I have come to love Ty in the house. He is a silly, quirky boy who is full of action but in the next second will sit with me and loves to get kisses. He will even press his check against mine for more kisses....
I was never a big fan of the JRT but this little guy has definitely changed my opinion! Of course Bella is the biggest baby you could ever want...no question there!

What a visit!!!

I havn't been around these parts much in the past couple of weeks. I have been spending time with my sis who came to visit! Cleared my work schedule and blogging was put on hold to spend extra quality time!!!
We had a packed visit....did lots of travelling and visiting other family members and friends.
The fall colours are just beautiful right now, which made the driving very enjoyable!
These were taken on our drive from Ottawa.

We spent some time with our Aunt Tina...gosh I love that woman! She was a big part of our childhood growing up. Every Easter my parents would get together with them....I used to look forward to going to Ottawa....my aunt always remembered and gave me an Easter egg!

She is such a special lady...

While in Ottawa, we visited our cousins. This is a rare occasion and to get a picture even...priceless!!!

I had booked Bella's spay and a dental for Sienna which landed smack in the midst of my sis' stay but it worked out excellent as we got to visit with my super friend Esther too! While the dogs were at the clinic we did some shopping in the states. Had a fabulous visit, great company and super good food! Thanks Esther!

This too is a rare shot....been buddies for about 10 years and this may be the only pic we have of the 2 of us!!!

Brittany was trying to prove to Aunt Nance that she was taller than her!!! I think she was on her tippy toes!!!

Love this one!!! Love my sis too!! Do you think we look alike????

We did some walks along our road and there is this gorgeous maple who is brimming with crimson red leaves right now....

Fall is so pretty!!

Bella loved the walks and loved the papillons who also came to visit! She was especially fond of Copper...they played and played!

Me and Bella...(pre spay)...

She is doing good and little sore yet but definitely so relieved that the surgery is over and done! No Bernese heats...I can't even imagine what that would be like...yikes....

This is little Cara...one of my sis' travelling buddies...what a cute little doll! We did nickname her fussy and my Autumn was fussier as they are both spoiled rotten and think that plain ol' dog food is just not good enough for them!

This is Copper, the german import that my sister brought in. He is so full of himself and considered himself an honourary yorkie within the house. Full of beans and loved playing with Cruiser!

In short, had a fabulous visit! As always it is heartbreaking to say good bye ( did that this morning). I treasure these visits and love the time that we spend together. It is worth more than anything in the world! Love you Nance and can't wait to see you again!!!!!