Welcome to the Warm Hearted Homestead blog! My name is Alex. I am a wife, mother of four, homemaker, hunter, farmer and an addict to the “homesteader” lifestyle.
My Family
My family and I currently reside on 5acres, in Alberta, Canada.
Ryan and I naturally bonded over our love of hunting, fishing, and everything surrounding those lifestyles. We spent the majority of our time dating exploring the rocky mountains looking for the next best fishing hole.
Besides hunting and fishing, we bonded over our passion for good food. We found ourselves fine tuning our culinary skills, albeit not very well. But regardless of how poorly our meals turned out, we kept trying and learning.
One evening after years of dating, I found myself elbow deep mixing together a new recipe for Venison sausage. Ryan came through the door and within minutes, got down on one knee and proposed. I should have known then, I would forever be elbow deep mixing sausage once we got married.
What We Do
Fast forward a few years, 4 kids and a steady increase of animals. Here we are. The things that used to feel new and daunting are now annual events that we plan for. Ordering meat birds, butchering pigs, hauling goats to auction, making salsa, canning potatoes, making venison sausage. All of these things that seemed foreign have become who we are.
Education
I have always been fascinated with this way of living. As a child, I would dream of being a cowgirl, rancher farmer, veterinarian, or a dolphin trainer (I didn’t think about Alberta not being abundant in sea life). After high school, I went on to get my diploma in Animal Health Technology at Lakeland College. I absolutely loved my experience and would recommend it to anyone else considering it. After receiving my diploma and went on to be a Registered Veterinary Technologist, I continued to further my education in Mixed Animal Emergency Medicine through the University of Guelph. I absolutely loved my career in that stage of my life.
My Career
Once I became a mother, I found it harder to commit the time and energy for my career. With each child, I found myself struggling to find comfort in a clinic setting. After our third child, Ryan and I took the plunge into farming commercial meat goats. Shortly after that, we brought home our first breeding trio of registered Kunekune pigs. All the skills I gained as a Veterinary Technician became invaluable assets at home.
Raising my kids on our little farm, eating homegrown food and scouting for whitetail deer is my career right now. And it is incredibly fulfilling.
After being a Veterinary Professional and now being a client at the vet clinic, I have come to realize none of us know all of the answers. Every animal. every property, every situation is so different. There are gold standards of care and there are realistic standards of care. I want to help you navigate successfully raising livestock
As you are reading through some of my blog posts, I want you to know that I am open to learning. I want to continue learning and I am excited about the knowledge I gain. My goal is to share what I am learning or have learned without. I want to research your questions/ concerns and help you work through them
Thank you again for reading my thoughts as I type them on here. I appreciate you more than you know!
-Alex