We are very excited to announce an addition to our pack! TickLwood's Super Nova a ASCA/CKC Australian Shepherd from Ontario, Canada and TickLwood Australian Shepherds. She is a beautiful merle girl with an amazing pedigree that includes WTCH HS Dan The Man and is linebred on HOF Vest's Bell Star Gator & HOF PCH WTCH Chuckanut Royal Secret RTDcs PATDcs AFTDs. In spring 2020, I was supposed to get a puppy from the litter Nova was born into but because of COVID closing down the borders, I had to pass on the litter - it was a blessing and a surprise when Teri from TickLwood posted miss Nova as available and we were able to arrange to get her here with Will Alexander's Impresario Logistics to transport her across the border.

We originally started with Australian Shepherds and we are excited to once again have an Aussie bitch as part of our home and life. We are hoping to cross her with Kosmo in the future as well.

What a year 2020 has been! We had such goals and intentions for 2020 in January - starting obedience, rally and getting back into dock diving, herding & the conformation ring. Its funny to think about now, but that being said we did still get in a few competitions in Barn Hunt and Disc; we also got to spend a lot more time at home with our dogs and as a family and that is never a bad thing. We had health testing clinics planned and OFA CERFs and when the pandemic began to cancel appointments, shows and plans....well....that was that and we took a deep breath and granted ourselves some grace that we would check off the boxes when we could and it may not be on the original timeline we had in mind.

Ambrosia is laying down in front of me and today is her due date! Her first litter was born before the pandemic got into full swing and was growing up as businesses & day care & restaurants closed and those four little puppies brought us so much joy each day and spontaneity during the start of the pandemic; here we are once more heading back into shutdowns and cold weather and looking forward to the joy, lightheartedness, and antics that puppies will bring. 

Who knows what 2021 will bring, but we will be starting off the New Years with puppies and having learned the lessons of 2020 to enjoy the moment and what will be will be.

We wanted to give a big round of applause and congratulations to Fiction (Wildhearts Too Good to be True) and Kyle on finishing 2019 as the #1 Miniature American Shepherd in the 12" Preferred division and #11 in All Breed by Power Score reported by Bad Dog Agility! What a phenomenal accomplishment for any team but especially for your first year competing together.

Fiction is from our last Rockie x Payson litter and is Ambrosia's littermate and Dany's younger full sister too. We were in the process of switching over from Wildhearts to Rust Belt at the time, so some of the pups have Wildhearts as their kennel name and others have Rust Belt because we allowed families to make that choice.

Kyle also competes with two other Miniature American Shepherds, Ever & Loyal and has qualified and attended Westminster and Eukanuba in 2019.

We are so good about posting to our Rust Belt Farms Facebook Page and we would like to share these on our website as well - photos, events, successes, struggles and accomplishments on our farm. Especially now that I have figured out how to work my DSLR camera and am no longer relying on my trust cell phone to take photos.

Its January 2020 - new year, new decade and we are looking forward to what 2020 will bring to our farm and family. Some of the goals that we have for this year:

• We will be importing a hedgehog from Europe this spring to be our new stud, one of our young females will be shipping to the Czech Republic to join another breeder's herd. We love the direction our small hedgehog herd is taking, we were able to bring back some of our original lines from when we were Wildhearts Hedgehogs and bring in some new lines with amazing personalities.
  
• Ambrosia will be having her first litter with Painted Lil Willie Be Good "Willie" a lovely Red Merle male with correct & moderate build, friendly and gentle personality, and a classic "Aussie bounce". I have adored Willie since he was puppy when I first met him and have watched him mature and do well in the conformation ring. Ambrosia qualified for Up Dog International Finals, and our goal this year is to get her to compete in the agility crossover games such as Frizgility, Funkey, and Seven-Up; we are also planning to finish Ambrosia's Barn Hunt Open and Senior titles - she loves to go to Barn Hunt; and lastly get her into Dock Diving! Ambrosia is a fantastic swimmer and 2020 we are going to train to get her to jump off the dock.
  
• Dany will be rocking the disc fields like the disc diva she is! We are hoping to qualify in Skyhoundz again and be able to attend the Skyhoundz World Championship this year and qualify for Up Dog International Finals for 2021; this year Dany will be competing in the agility cross over games Frizgility, Funkey, and Seven Up.
  
• Ostara will be training in Barn Hunt & Dock Diving this year and has already begun competing in disc, soon she will be catching in air discs but for now she loves her rollers.
  
• Kosmo is going to Up Dog International Finals - this boy is a blast to play with in disc. He has so much heart and focus. Kosmo will also be training in Barn Hunt and start competing in Novice.
  
• Parker will be entering AKC conformation shows this spring when he turns 6 months old. We are looking forward to seeing what his natural interests and drives are as he matures.
  
• Additional goals we have - earning a CGC-A on all of our dogs and entering in AKC Fast CAT
  

Enough about the dogs and hedgehogs though! My additional goals for 2020 are to continue to learn how to take better photographs (so far the camera is doing all the work, and I am just hitting the aiming & hitting the button!); become a better handler for my dogs in sports & conformation, and I have an idea for a double hedgehog cage that has been in my mind for a few years that would double the space available in the cages that I think I am finally going to try out.

I almost forgot about the goats and the chickens!

I am on the lookout for a few American Bresse chickens to add to my small flock, I have a few Bresse hens but my rooster passed. They are a breed originating from France that is known for the excellent meat quality and are slower growth and tastier than Cornish Rock X, I am excited to try hatching out a few eggs this year from my hens - we have Orphingtons, Bresse, Delaware, French Marans, and Americanas.

We have a small herd of Nigerian Dwarf Goats and in 2019 we had our first Doeling born out of Blotches & JB a sweet little spotted goat with few blond patches and blue eyes. We are hoping to have a few more kids born on the farm and we are looking forward to some goat's milk for soap making and maybe even for feta cheese.