Today we are finally able to officially welcome ASH Donna!  After waiting what seems like months to bring her home, today Geordon and I made the drive to Eganville, to meet Donna's breeders who agreed to drive part way to meet us!  Donna is even more beautiful than we could have imagined!  We were excited before she arrived and now that she is here all our thoughts are to planning the rest of her future not only in breeding but also in showing.  I am very excited knowing that next show season I will be showing this gorgeous doe!  Thank you to Diane and Glen for agreeing to sell your beautiful girl to us!  We will continue to show Donna off for you and I know she will continue to make you both proud!

Yesterday was the CGS East Nationals in Ancaster, ON.  They were held at the Ancaster Fall fair and approximately 350 goats of various breeds were entered in the competition.  The level of quality in animals exhibited by breeders was amazing!  This was our first opportunity to compete against other nigerian dwarf goats at a show and it was a great chance for us to see how our girls compare to those of other breeders.  Our Maisie, Tripping Billies Loo placed first in her class and won Jr. Reserve Champion!  Cassi still struggles in the ring and according to the judge is "thick through her bones", meaning she is fat!  Cassi placed 4th in her class though :)  Carmela who was showing for the first time in the senior classes now that she is in milk placed 1st in her class but she was alone in it.  All in all, it was still a great day.  We learned a great deal about what we need to do for our girls to really shine.  Now we have a few months to get them into shape for the Royal Winter Fair in November!  We are still so proud of our little Maisie!!

Yesterday we spent the day at the local Bracebridge Fall Fair with some of our goats for part of the goat display. As it was for display only and there was no competition, we were able to just sit back and relax and enjoy ourselves watching people enjoying our goats.  The weather was nice and sunny which brought out a lot of people to the fairgrounds.  As we were limited to bringing 6 goats, we decided on bringing Dixie, Mimi, Lucy, Carmela, Maisie and Cassi.  These girls are getting quite used to being at fairs and showing this year so it seemed they knew right away they were in for another long day of boredom.  Lucy insisted on spending most of the day jumping from pen to pen, standing on the thin ledge between pens or just standing up and looking out at the world.  People did seem to enjoy her though and the occasional gasps from people as she leaped from one pen to the next were priceless for us!  The nigerian girls were continually mistaken for baby goats but everyone was dazzled by thier beautiful bright blue eyes!  Next year we will have more nigerians that we will be able to bring which will hopefully show the breed off more.  It was great being able to connect with people in our own area for a change though.

We are so excited to finally announce a secret we have been keeping for awhile here!  Today it finally became official that we are purchasing ASH Donna and will be bringing her home on September 29th!  Donna was 2011 East National Grand Champion Nigerian doe and we are so excited to be able to add her to our herd.  A HUGE thank you to Diane for agreeing to sell Donna to and for the use of your photo!  I can't wait to see how far this beautiful doe can go next year in shows and look forward to seeing what she will bring to our breeding program.

Once again, I have allowed too much time to pass before updating my blog again.  This summer has been one of the busiest I've had in a long time!  We have had a constant stream of activities happening here all summer and it seems like there is no other choice but to hit the ground running to keep up.  Just a few days ago however, we welcomed a new addition to our herd and breeding program.  We have been anxiously waiting for our new girl CC to come home and finally on Thursday past, I had time to make the long trek to London and back to bring CC home!  Thanks to Further Farms for the use of their photos in this entry.  Once I have time I will take some newer ones of CC in her new home here.  CC is also very green from tattoo ink which will need a bit of time to fade before she is back to her gorgeous self!  We are very excited to add her great bloodlines and beautiful colours to our herd.  She is a bit shyer than our other girls but I am completely confident that in a few short weeks she will be just as friendly and outgoing as the rest!