I was born and raised in Hardisty, Alberta, on a cattle ranch built up by my folks, Ed and Lori Goodrich. I’m the 5th generation of Goodrich’s ranching in this area, and one day, with a little work and proper planning, our kids will become the 6th. My wife Candace was raised in Tofield, Alberta, a twice-the-size-of-Hardisty small town, just 40 minutes east of Edmonton. We both have led some different lives, and lived some great adventures. But as John Wayne once said, “All the gold in the National Treasury, or all the harp music in Heaven, can’t compare to what happens between a man and a woman.” And nothing can compare to what’s happened in our lives since we met, February 3rd, 2001. We were married May 18th, 2002, at the Merna church, some 15 miles “out in the sticks”, in the spring of what was to become the driest year in history. So we started right out dealing with adversity, and we’ve continued to grow from there.

Now keep in mind, I grew up on a working cow ranch, Candace grew up in town. But to see her work around the animals, you’d never guess that she was anything but a born-and-raised farm girl. Her transition to the relaxed pace of country life was smooth and seamless. She got a job, book-keeping for a hydro-vac oilfield company, Recon Utility Search, in Hardisty, and I worked in environmental reclamation and oilfield construction, all the while expanding our cowherd as funds allowed, and let’s not forget, starting a family.