I hope you are all having a happy Saturday! Last week I promised a blog post with a surprise announcement, and here I am!

Twenty-twenty has been quite the year- to say the very least, but I hope this post finds you all doing well. It was a whirlwind of a summer around here, equal parts fun, frustrating, and exhausting. I’m sure many of you have felt much of the same. Since we didn’t have any litters this summer, I decided it would be a good opportunity to take a break from blogging and just soak up the summer with my family.

I felt like we practically lived out of our camper, as we did a lot of camping trips with family and friends. We have several campgrounds in the state that we like to visit that are dog friendly, and we usually take one or two of the dogs with us. Mia does so well traveling, so she almost always came along, and we occasionally had a new face tagging along, too.

And that brings me to the secret we’ve been keeping!

I’d like you all to meet Nova- the newest member of our crew!

Nova is an Irish Setter from Iron Fire Setters in Colorado. We put a deposit down for a puppy from Iron Fire at the very beginning of the year, before Covid swept through. When the litter was born in February, we were so excited! Then March and April came, and we weren’t sure how we were going to get a puppy all the way from Colorado with everything shut down. However, the details worked out; and in mid-April, this sweet little face showed up in our home!

So we have been working on training this little pistol all summer and getting her adjusted to life in the Martin household. She’s a little firecracker! She keeps the other girls on their toes, and they sometimes get tired of her wild antics. But she has found a dear friend in Timber, my wild old man, who is just tickled pink to have an eager buddy who will race him around the yard all day long.

Nova recently graduated AKC Star Puppy classes, but she certainly has a lot more training to do. She’s such a beautiful girl, though, and I am very excited to add her bloodlines into our puppies. She’s exceptionally good-natured and affectionate and always on the hunt for butterflies to chase. We love our new little setter, and we are enjoying experiencing the puppy stage again- most days anyway. 🙂

Some days when she is overly boisterous, I have to remind myself that it will get easier! The puppy stage is full of ups and downs and new challenges, but it’s always worth it once you have a mature, well-adjusted adult. I look at Duchess, who at five years old, is a well-mannered girl, and I remember how she was a wild and cantankerous young thing, too. When we take her to the cabin with us, she usually roams off leash all weekend and lounges by the campfire with us. She wasn’t nearly that trustworthy when she was only a year old. Then I look at Nova, who can barely keep all four feet on the ground at the same time, and I remind myself that puppies will be puppies!

And in other news, for the first time ever, we are expecting two litters at the same time! We are hoping for a litter from both Mia and Duchess in October, due about a week apart. Neither pregnancy is confirmed yet, but we hope to know within the next few weeks.

I hope you all enjoyed your summer, although I’m sure there were some things that were different. And I hope to have some adorable puppy pictures in another month or two to brighten up your fall!