NICE SHOES FUNDRAISER FOR HONS MAR 30th

Join in the celebration of Nice Shoes' one-year anniversary and help raise money for Hearts on Noses Mini Pig Sanctuary.

There will be snacks, raffle prizes, plus baked goodies for purchase. 10% of all store sales will be donated as well.

All proceeds from the ticket sales (beyond the cost of food) will be donated to Hearts on Noses.
Choose from these food options from Loving Hut Express:
• Crispy Chik'un Burger
• Rueben Sandwich
• Mushroom Cheese Burger

Friday, March 30 • Admission: $20
Choose from two times:
6:30 - 8 pm
or
7:30 - 9 pm
Nice Shoes, 3568 Fraser Street, Vancouver

Nice Shoes is an all vegan shoes and accessories shop located in Vancouver. Shop online at www.niceshoes.ca

Purchase tickets online here: http://niceshoes1year-efbevent.eventbrite.ca/

Tickets purchased at the door will not receive a food selection.
Orders placed after March 26 are not guaranteed to have your food choice.
All food and raffle prizes are vegan.

SAINTS Pub Night

Baby Steps

Pam from Sorrento who took care of us all here for a week is on the Greyhound Bus heading home. Pam had the dishes done, meals cooked and the kitty litter boxes kept clean on top of feeding and medicating the animals 24/7. Racing around here from one project to the next to stay on top of stuff i am sure she will be glad to get home and fall back into her own routine never mind seeing her family and all the animal kids. Thank you so very very much!!

Tuskers one of seniors here as been fighting a snotty nose and no matter what meds we gave him we can't seem to get it kicked for him. He eats well and is enjoying all the attention on top of the goodies but yesterday i called the vet out. Thought i better do that with Pam still here and also being pig savvy to be able to assist Brent from Ag West if needed. With Tuskers age at well over 17 seasons he thinks he is just not able to kick it like someone younger might be able too so we are doubling his meds in hopes he will bounce back.

Our Volunteers who are family and friends will cover again where Pam leaves off with the exception of me feeding breakfast now . This is my first morning since off, i just have to remember to take baby steps. Next week i will sit down here and start doing data entry as long as i am able to every day and get those receipts out.

I leave you with a picture from Karena who adopted Charlie , clearly he is one VERY happy pig!!!

From The Couch

The first two weeks from coming home from the hospital has turned me into a couch potato. I get up walk around for five minutes and back to the couch. I am sick of tv and all the shows i have been watching and watching life outside carry on from the front room window.

Theresa has been here every morning to do meds and feed breakfast to the animals. I am getting around now and able to bend down and pick up the dogs dish without worry and a cough does not make me feel like i am being split wide open anymore.

Nancy , Roxane, Amber and Brady did dinners/meds for the kids and every one is doing awesome.

Pam arrived from Sorrento on Friday so everyone no doubt is enjoying there break from being up here during the week. She will stay as long as she can as she has left behind a husband and there son to fend for them selves as well and everyone back home is stepping up to care for each other as well as the dog and pig kids while she is here looking after all of us.

I have a ton of office work to do here with year end and donation receipts needing to be mailed out after i do all the data entry, printing and envelope stuffing. Since i have been home i can only stand to sit here for an hour and that time has been divided between blogging updates , a few minutes on face book and replying to families needing a little piggy support from diet to hoof care and two pigs may be needing new homes. And i better do a bank deposit along with paying the bills as life goes on here even if i am not running at full speed.

Saturday volunteer join up turned into a crazy day when Nick went downstairs to grab some tools and came right back up to inform me that the sump pump had quit and once again my basement was under water. Thankfully Tony started his hours so both guys were paling the basement out with me freaking out about the furnace. A few hours later after getting that under control the well shut down again and it an only happen here that on the same day we can both be flooded and without water! Life in the country being on well one cannot be running the hose out front to fill waters and someone else out back running another hose to rinse off boots or grab a drink of water. I must remember to add that fact and what that other hose is for coming up from the basement with new freinds who arrive here to help the animals. The plumber tells me the sump pump was off kilter and yes i can see it looks like someone reefed on the hose, thankfully he never charged me. I know all the temperaments of this old house and while i was in the hospital the furnace quit as did the well and unable to explain the "how too" i have two more bills sitting here to be paid. ughhhhh

Of course i am still off work as i am not allowed to lift anything but every day i am feeling less week and able to keep upright longer.

Tarps and Tumours Oh My.

The morning of my last blog post had me get up from the chair here as i could feel some discomfort in my side. I had hoped i was not headed for emergency again, in a repeat attack of what had happened a few weeks ago. I don't really remember if i made it outside that morning or not but i do remember calling Carol at work and giving her a heads up of what might be before me, and her for the start of my work week there. I remember laying on the couch with my legs drawn up trying to wait out and fight down the pain. My thoughts were of the animals first, there needs to be taken care of first and hopefully i could either last that long or the pain would stop.

My mid afternoon i was on the floor, writhing in pain and this time Roxane was my ambulance to emergency. I was on the floor there for another 2 hours, waiting to get past what i will always think of as some war like check point and trying to gain access to the other side. Guarded by jaded hospital staff i am finally admitted, banded and handed the hospital garb. Wheeled to the other side i know i am safe, and they come to my rescue and kill my pain.

That was Saturday and i was kept heavily drugged until Monday nights surgery to remove not a kidney stone but a tumor attached to my ovaries the size of a baseball.

I came home from 24 hour care at the Maple Ridge Hospital on Thursday. Every hour someone checked on me , how was my pain level now they would ask. Would i like ice in my water , here is another cookie and lets check your vitals again. Exceptional care this side of the check point. ;o) The nurses rocked as did the students and of course my skilled surgeon and Doctor who removed that fist of fire from my belly. Really my only complaint was the food. Please replace this veggie chili with a nice bowl of fruit or i will surely die here lol. I then started to push away the morphine drip as the food was making me feel nauseous in fact so was the smell of my soap the hand lotion and will someone open a window and let in some fresh air? I had to get out of there!!! Maybe because of all the life saving drugs or painkillers inside me or was it because of my life style and being so much a part of the out doors . And the only time i could ever cry was when thinking about my animals and how i missed them so very much.

I would like to stress a point here , that I have a total new respect for "tumour" and have included Mouses picture in this post because she too had one removed that weighed 42 lbs. Knowing how stoic pigs are , in fact many animals can be so i question "how much did she suffer before we got her help?" and had it removed?? My gawd the pain was unbearable for me... please spay your charges when at all medically possible.

Second i would like to extend my extreme gratitude to my boss, Carol who is keeping my job open for when i am ready to return, and for being a friend and visiting me at the hospital and bringing me home. To my Mom who is 89 and has been waiting on me here as i recover as well as taking care of all the house animal children's. To my sister Nancy, Roxane and Theresa who have all arrived for the morning shift to feed and do meds here or for the night feed all doing so before or after there full time jobs.

In the short time of them being here Nancy has removed Scotch from being hung up in a wire fence. And today was removing a blue tarp so entangled in Truffles young teeth. How many times had we all enjoyed watching our pigs grab a blue tarp and shake it in fun?? The tarp was hung up on both of his lower young tusks and he had no doubt tried in vain to set himself free as it was twisted over and around again. Little Olive nose to her mates checking and never once leaving his side and now watching us help her freind. I took a pair of scissors and clipped off the bulk stating we would have to sit this pig down to get it off of him and thankfully our portable shoot was close. The girls set it down over him and Theresa stepped in and flipped him. I few gentle up tugs set him free. I could do nothing but give direction as normally a flip would of been done by me but alas i am cut threw like a magic act gone wrong and can't risk further injury. They did it and another learning experience gained with a good ending. Side note , the team had only been in the house for about 30 minutes to take a bite to eat and hear a few pig stories.

Amber and Brady , thank you so much for dinner last night and Tracey for our much needed carrots. And many more pigs can give there thanks to you the next time you visit as the sneak grapes into Jack was a fiasco as everybody had to get fed again. A pig can hear a grape being chewed by another from one block away, i am sure of it ..

And thanks to Krista from SAINTS, who is a friend and a co worker came and took on six piggy paddocks to help us this morning!!!


I better get off of here now and go back and lay down.. 4-6 weeks is the average recovery time. WEE shall see about that...

Edith, My First Goat I would Love

I met her about two months ago. I saw her out in the pasture sporting a little pink coat with a red bandage on her hoof. I was told in her earlier days she gave every one a run for there money, she was feisty and cheeky. I knew her as frail, weathered by time and now needing to be protected .

She didn't like her head to be touched and would shake her head in disgust if you touched her horns. She did tolerate her neck to be stroked and us getting that pink coat on her every morning on those cold and wet winter days.

On one of my days off she was found down in the pasture and the vet rushed out , this was the day she also became our "shop goat" at work. And she bounced back as much as she was able and i took her out to her old stomping grounds early in the morning before the others were out. On sunny days i would put a little leash on her and lead her to the garden. She would on good days follow me back to the shop without a lead . A little goat in a pink coat looking up at me with wide eyed wonder.

In the short time we would have together she would be served fresh hay ,cookies and my lunch sandwiches. In fact the table in front of her little yard in the shop had a smorgasbord of crackers, fancy salads , peanuts and cheerio's. Oatmeal cookies were her favorite for many many days. The table also had syringes and various strengthes of pain killers. Every morning before i left for work i would look in my cupboards and then scour my feed shed outside for things Edith might eat today as we struggled to keep her eating and to save the little weight she did have on her.

I did have a talk with Edith and told her that she needed to try and eat or we would think she was ready to go. That if she didn't want to be here any more to know that she would be helped to leave this world so she didn't suffer. That when she opened her eyes on the other side she would rise in green pasture's . She would have no pain , it would be like a warm rush and she would fly.

Yesterday she could fight no longer ... no matter how hard we tried we could not give her back the years gone by before i knew her.

I am sorry Edith we didn't get to spend more time together. I miss you and I want to thank you for being the very first goat in my life that i would love. .

Mild Night

I just got in from feeding everyone. First out to the horses with a little bucket of grain and apples , then i go into our new hay shed and get there hay for the night. Dior and lacy were both in the barn , warm and dry on nice fresh shavings. The horses have a huge walk in barn that allows them to come and go when they please. I have to come believe this is a healthier way of life giving them the ability to move around at will 24/7. This also causes a ton more work as they use it as an out house as well. Hopefully next summer we can raise the funds to put a nice shelter up and off of our new shed for them to stand out of the rain . It will save us both shavings and the extra labour to keep it clean . Lacy was a snuggle bunny today when i was in cleaning . She stood waiting for me to scratch on her and stroke her soft neck. She reached her head down to mine and held her face into my cheek , she is a lovely horse.

We had a great show of help today with Roxane , Alicia and Theresa arriving. Alicia tackled the waters and we opted to hand pail then drag the hose out, we all chipped in when we got to the big pigs waters. The pigs had peanuts in a shell for breakfast and i have noticed they are all now starting to spit out the shells where as before they all ate them. A tad spoiled me thinks... thanks for feeding the kids Roxane and Theresa and filling up the pails for tonight.

Nick was here, getting his hours done so us girls had a few things we needed him to tackle. All the gates on the paddocks i had built here are braced wrong. One by one they are starting to fail , the first one that needed reinforcing was Roscoe's. Yesterday when i went into move snow and free up ice water I couldn't get the gate to swing open so i had to climb over the fence to get out. So to my disappointment we have already had to micky mouse something on this expensive build when i moved here only two years ago. Eventually every one of the gates will have to come down and be rebuilt correctly.

Everything is still under snow and there is some deep icy patches so i chose to not let the farm pigs out today as they are so rambunctious and i sure don't need any of them falling down on ice here, especially our Rose. While sitting watching my senior herd eat tonight i could see in the snow pile a perfect water tub icicle 5 inches thick, hard to beleive it is so mild out now. And there is going to be a ton more work next week-end as the snow melts as we could only pick up what we could out there today.

Well i better go get Mouse out as she hasn't been out of here all day and then feed my inside crew, oh and then me.

Will leave you with a picture of a gate built incorrectly. The long brace should be coming from the lower hinge up. You can see the long brace is done opposite so those two pieces going from the lower hinge up may look pretty but structurally they do nothing. I have added a picture of a gate built correctly..

Winter Has Arrived

Awake at 6:30 i could already see the winter robins feeding on the seed and the multiple suet cakes i have out.

The wind is up and the snow continues to beat down on us. My sister is still here helping relieve the load as i am scared to death of another painful attack . I still have all my pain meds given to me by the emergency doctor so if it does happen i will have them to get me threw .

I went out to my horses and got out there winter coats and both mares took off , silly girls its to keep you warm. Once back in there walk in barn i got them on and i am sure they are both grateful now.

Amber and Brady just left as it is Brady's birthday and he wanted to see his pigs who are being boarded here threw winter. They helped both Nancy and I clear paths , smash out ice and fill up the waters. The water is freezing over in less then two hours of putting it out there so I quickly came up behind and started feeding.

There two kids came racing for the big house and melted into the blankets so how could i put them back out there again..so i have a barricade up and wish Mouse would stop charging it. Truffles, Olive and Mouse please lay down and go to sleep for a while now.

I leave you with a picture i only took a few weeks ago...

Getting Stoned

Friday at work i had to leave at noon as the pain in my side had be doubled over. Never in my life have i ever had that kind of pain and can pretty well push threw anything but i couldn't stand more then 20 minutes. I got home and took to the couch .. i could relieve the pain by drawing my legs up while resting on the couch.

Saturday Roxane and Nick arrived and pushed threw the 1 1/2 ft of snow here to clear paths , de-ice water tubs and top up waters and then feed the pigs. I stayed on the couch and started writing out a log book on how to feed every one here. Then Roxane took me into town as i was unable to get into my doctors we went to a walk in clinic. The doctor there thought it was a kidney or bladder stone and while he was telling me the pain is comparable to child birth i was thinking i knew all about stones as i did extensive research for Willy for years when he was crippled by this same ailment when he was here.

Sunday i had a decent rest and felt good so i was up as Roxane had returned and i did some menial stuff while Roxane tackled the waters again. She fed and medicated all the animals before she went home.

Yesterday i got up and took an hour here , looked on Craig List for a snow removal guy and then went out to feed the horses. The pain returned and normally i would sit down and it would leave but not this time so i came in the house.

An hour of brutal pain that i could not push down i called Carol who told me she was going to come and get me. I hung up the phone not able to wait and called 911 for an ambulance. Carol got here before they did so off too emergency we went . I can't begin to tell you the incredible unbearable pain i was in. It took me to my knees and i was throwing up as my body reacted to the pain.

I spent all day in emergency being given rounds of morphine..thank God i drifted off to sleep and away from the pain.

The Doctor there too thought it was a stone but the xray didn't show that but did show some sort of cyst on something as i was still out of it when he told me .. i can't/don't want to believe that what i wet threw yesterday could hit me again so am waiting for the specialist to return my call this morning.

My sister stayed over night and is out there in now 2 ft of snow doing what i should be doing for the kids here .

Thank God for good friends and family under brutal weather conditions coming to my rescue as well to the animals here .

Happy New Year

Well we have started off with a bang as supporters from all over the world have really rescued us right back. WEE were in a ton of trouble with me not being able to find work but WEE are back on track. I borrowed a ton of cash to get us threw and thanks to my Mom as well for writing those cheques month after month for the mortgage. So many wonderful donations came in for Christmas and add up big time , big donations in memory of two great dogs and another amazing one from two awesome freinds in Ontario who have supported us since 2001.

With our Pub Night being a huge success , WEE have half filled the new hay shed with hay and won't have to worry about that for a few months here. Its still incomplete and a ton more finishing touches but is working out great so far. I need to get some more pallets but in the mean time we still need a working space inside to provide a covered area for the balance of the work needing to be done. I still need Sherman's paddock fixed and stepping up from the horses side to get hay is a tad hard to muster the strength after working hard all day. I need to figure out stairs there or get that fence removed so i can get to it easier from the other side now.

Amber and Brady's two pigs are still being boarded here as winter is no time to be moving and so this goes for the rest of the world too and finding accommodations is limited at best , especially when you have two pigs. I sure don't mind the surprise dinners as they are really a nice young couple. Last night Amber was here with a vegan sushi and i got home late and fed the kids even later but a really nice evening.

In our third winter here now as we moved here in Dec of 2009 and with the support we have received, the fundraisers , the B.C. Corrections work crew, the grant we received from The Vancouver Foundation and of course our rocking volunteers we have really accomplished so much.

Yet the thing is when your a caregiver and doing rescue work it is an on going quest to do better , help more and find a way to accomplish it all. I try really hard too be happy with how much we all have done here so far as the set up is so great but i always fall back on how it could be better for them if i just could this done or that added and like any women we all want it done now.

For this morning though all i ask is for it to hold off raining until we can get our work done and so the pigs can enjoy there time out when i am home.

I leave you with a picture of Lenny that Karena sent me . Lenny is one of our and one of two pigs that Karena adopted , clearly this pig is very happy and cozy!

Thank you all for helping is make it so.