Today was a day I had not been looking forward to.  Orion left us and moved to his new home with Kathy and Spencer.  I am quite proud of our little Orion and know he will have a great life at his new home making all kinds of wonderful new babies!  I will miss his sweet cuddles though :(  Good luck sweet Orion!  (I'll come visit you!)
So it is official, apparently I am capable of selling off my wonderful babies!

Yesterday we drove the Campbellford to Bashert Farms where our friends were caring for and housing our new buckling for us during his quarantine.  José was imported from New Mexico and has travelled a long way to get to us.  We are very excited to have him here with us as he is moonspotted and will hopefully pass that gene onto his offspring.  He is still only a few months old and has much growing and filling out to do before he is ready to start breeding.  We look forward to watching him grow!

We started weaning Orion and Cassi last night.  The first night went well actually with minimal crying.  The babies sure were hungry this morning though and quickly enjoyed a very large breakfast with their mom once they were reunited!  With the first night past us, I am sure we can continue to work through this difficult process with them.  Cassi especially needs to seperate
from Bonnie as she is becoming as wild as her Mom which we just can`t have.  We want her to become as friendly and easy to handle as the rest of the herd so while she is being weaned we will continue to work on her handling.  We hope to show her as well in the months ahead!  Orion is being prepared to leave for his new home in the next week or so.  We will miss him here but know he will have a very important job where he is going.

Alright, some of you may be wondering why we are now here and not at Milky Way Meadows, so let me start there.  The Canadian Livestock Records Corporation (CLRC) informed me that there was already a registered goat breeder in Canada - in BC that was registered under the name Milky Way and as such we wouldn't be able to register our herd with our intended theme.  We made the decision to change our name as we were just getting started anyways - no harm done.  We came up with the name Sky River Meadows through another "help name the..."  type contest on facebook.  I am unsure who came up with the idea but to whomever it was - thank you!  We actually like this name a great deal more than Milky Way!  So that is why we are now here.

So, now to get everyone up to speed!  So our new babies out of Bonnie - Cassi and Orion are doing wonderfully!  They are now six weeks old and Orion has been sold and will be going to his new home soon.  I am really happy about how friendly and sociable he has become.  Little Cassi is a bit tough to catch but when you do she is so snuggly!  I think she will continue to settle down as she becomes ready to be weaned.  The rest of our herd is doing great.  Carmela is very pregnant and will be due in July.  Dixie never did catch with her breeding so we will try her again this fall for spring babies next year.  Lucy and Mimi have both grown into lovely little doelings and are thriving.  Bonnie has been a great Mom and is even calming down quite a bit to the point where I can touch her on occasion when she isn't tied!  All of our boys - Billie included are also doing really well.  We have started shearing and the goats that have been done so far are looking much cleaner and happier without all that winter hair.

With baby goats here we have had a fairly steady stream of people coming by to see them.  We love showing them off and it is good for the babies to be well socialized. 
On the family front everyone is doing well.  I am still sick though and have been undergoing additional procedures since my surgery to try to make me well.  Nothing has really worked so far but I remain optimistic!  Daniel has started dating a new girl named Erica, and we all agree that we adore her!  She is great for him and we love her attitude.  They also are just adorable together and she fits in nicely with everyone in the family.  Welcome Erica!
We have purchased a new buckling!  He will be a very important part of our herd here as he was imported from New Mexico and is a moon spotted buck!  Moon spotting is highly sought after and very hard to come by in Canada.  He is currently in quarantine but we hope to bring him home this weekend!  We are naming him Prairie Wood's Noway José, and will call him José for short.  We are very excited to have him join us!
We have decided to sell our larger animals to make more room and free up some of our time as we are so busy it is getting hard to ensure everyone is getting the attention they deserve.  Brady went to his new home in McKeller, ON a few weeks ago and is doing really well there.  Lynn, my beloved mare has gone to a farm in Hearst, ON to become a beginner voltige horse!  I miss her terribly but know she will be wonderful there and she has gone to an excellent home.  We are still hoping to find a new home for Annabelle.  We are content to keep our donkeys of course but if we can find them a good home then we will let them go.

With the nice weather we are constantly outside with the herd now, letting them graze freely in the yard again.  It is so relaxing just enjoying their company and watching them interact with each other, our dogs and guests. 
Goat show season starts up soon for us!  The first CGS sanctioned show is in Schomberg, ON on May 27th and we hope to attend and perhaps show if we can get all the paperwork in order before hand!  We will hopefully be enjoying some great successes in showing this year culminating in the big show at the Royal Winter Fair in November!

Where does the time go? I can't believe we are in April already! So much has been happening around here this year, I should get to updating!
So first of all, we have welcomed our dear Maisie into our herd. Maisie finally came home only to end up living in our house! This is her pictured on the couch with Geordon her first night home. Due to flooding in the goat pens, Maisie had to stay with us as the rest of the herd was already crowded and that would make it too dangerous for her. She now thinks she is a dog! She prefers to spend her time outside with the dogs rather than the rest of the herd. She chases squirrels with them, "barks" at people who stop at the mailbox across the street with them and figures she too must be inside and with us at all times.
She was quite the escape artist when we finally put her out with the goats. I would even come home from town to find her asleep in the sun on the porch with the dogs! We have since fixed that problem! :) We adore Maisie and she is so loveable and huggable, just a tiny wee bug! 

Our next amazing news is
that last night Bonnie finally gave birth to our first Nigerian Dwarf babies! She had a beautiful girl and boy. Both are black and white with blue eyes! The mostly white one is the doeling and the mostly black one is the buckling. We are thinking of naming them Cassiopeia (Cassi for short) and Orion. They are our first official Milky Way Meadows babies and as such need constellation names! The little bucking will be available for sale but we are keeping the little doe. More pictures will follow when they are dry, fluffy and bouncy!

Other new news is that on Saturday we will be going to pick up two new horses that have
been offered to us from a woman in southern Ontario. She is unable to keep them any longer and wants to ensure they go to a good home. They will be very welcome and loved here in the meadows! They are Annabella, a 6 year old Clydesdale cross and Brady, a 22 year old thoroughbred. We are excited to get them home and settled in. Pictures will follow!
We have also begun to negotiate with MTO on the purchase of our home and started looking for a new bigger farm! With all the new additions, the timing could not be better! Hopefully soon we will find the perfect place to relocate to.