Pups First Vet Visit

Thunder and Cherry's puppies went to the vet for the first time yesterday, when they were a whole three days old.  We took them in to get their front dewclaws removed.  It might sound strange, but in the dogsled world, its not.  The front dewclaws are removed (and back ones, if they have them) in order to be able to comfortably and easily wear booties for paw protection.  When they have the dewclaws, the booties can get caught on them when you're putting them on, and they can rub and get painful after a while of wearing them.  Booties are usually worn when the trail conditions are harsh, like ice, or gravelly, and when they are running longer distances, just to keep the pads from wearing too much.  It's done when the puppies are newborn because its not invasive then and they heal quickly.  Two quick snips on each claw and a little kwik stop powder and its over.  The pups barely even cry.  The vet that we use is about an hour or so away, in Bruce Crossing, MI.  We like this vet because he runs sleddogs too, so he understands and appreciates these athletic dogs and their sometimes unique needs.  Not every vet does.  We make the most of the trip and take any other dogs that need anything, too.  This time, we took three other dogs that needed rabies boosters, and of course, Cherry was examined, too.

After showing us for the first 3 pups, the vet allowed Jeremy to do
the last, so we can do it ourselves next time.

Autumn came with and acted as a "handler" for the pups.

Cherry stayed outside for her exam and so she couldn't hear the
pups cry during the procedure.

Their first ride in the dogbox.

The Oldies

We decided today to start making Mondays "Old Fart Day".  We have four older dogs, ranging in age from around 11 years to 15 years.  They can't always keep up so well with the younger dogs, so we thought they'd like it more if we took just the four of them out for shorter, slower runs with the bikes.  All of them are in pretty good shape for their ages, with a bit of arthritis in a couple and some hearing and vision loss, but nothing to keep them from enjoying a good romp in the woods.  Its amazing what good diets and lots of exercise will do for the health of senior sleddogs.  Our dogs are fed high protien, high fat kibble, with fresh meat added in the fall and winter months. 

This is Nehi-the oldest at 15 years.  Blurry because she's
movin right along.  She's fully retired.

Foreground to background:Nehi, Stimpy, Truk, and Tama.

Truk-he's about 13 years. In great shape-ran in harness
last winter,might retire this year.  We'll see.

Tama-he's Truk's brother.  Retired last fall, he has arthritis
in his hips, but does well loose running.

Stimpy's the white dog-hard to get a good pic of him.  He's about
11 years at our best guess.  We got him from another kennel 8 or so years
ago-not sure of his age, but he was still running lead alot last season.
Very focused dog, was the best we had for a long time.



A happy old lady at the end of a run.

Puppies!

We've been anxiously awaiting our recent new arrivals.  Thunder is the best dog we've ever had yet, and we are hoping to carry on some of his awesome traits.  This March, we actually went and bought a new female lead dog from another kennel, in part because one of our better leaders, who also happened to be Thunders mother, died unexpectedly this winter.  Another reason we wanted a female is so we'd have a mom for Thunders pups.  We went with another trained leader in hopes to end up with smart, future awesome leaders, fingers crossed.  These should be the best pups we've ever had and hopefully an integral part of Jeremy's future race team.

Cherry, the mom, and her pups.  There are four.
Born on June 24-25.

The boy is on top, the rest are girls.  One day old.

The proud papa.

Loose Running Dogs with Bicycles

We've been running the dogs in groups of 11 to 12 with our bikes lately.  We've never really done this before.  It's going very well.  We keep their pace faster and we can go further.  It will hopefully give us a bit of a headstart come fall training.  On Friday, we took the drive up to Marenisco, MI, to some of the trails/roads we were using this last winter.  Its a really nice place to go with the dogs, no traffic in the summer, very little snowmobile traffic in the winter.  Great trails in great condition all the time, with some longer distances if you know the area and take the right loops.  The drawback is that its like a 60 mile or more round trip with the truck, so it costs in gas and time.  We wish we had some property up there to stay at when we have time to train.  Maybe we will someday move over that way.

  We did almost 8 miles on the bikes, with the dogs obviously doing a few more than that.  On the way back, they stayed right with us most of the way because they were getting a bit tired in the heat, but its nice because we can observe them running and trotting from any angle and see their strengths and weaknesses better.  When they are pulling, we only see them from behind.  We can also get a glimpse at whats to come, who may be the super stars this season and who might be keeping to just short, fun runs, and who may be getting put on the retired list soon.  Right now we have 2 dogs that are completely retired and at least 2 more who will be soon.  Thats one of the hardest things about having sled dogs.  They love what they do, and don't want to be benched.

Towards the start, they are usually way ahead of us.

And they like to stop and sniff everything

There's lots of places to stop and cool off and get a drink.

Jeremy had a hitchehiker for a couple miles.

Scooby Doo trotting right along.

Porcupine Mountains

Its been doing nothing but being rainy and chilly here all week, and our nephew, Ryan has been here visiting.  We decided to say screw the weather and try to make the best of it, so we went up to the Porcupine Mountains State Park, about a 45 minute drive from home.  We love it up there-lots of waterfalls and hiking. 

and lots of steps...

There's a suspension bridge that takes you on an "island".  Its only technically sometimes that its an island, only when the water is really high.

This is the view from the bridge.  Luckily the rain held off a bit while we were hiking on the island.

                  Elliot and Ryan on a big rock on the island, and Boris is there too.

Autumn and Spike by the rock.

                                          The boys skipping rocks in Lake Superior.

Autumn on the shore.  The waves were rolling in.

From front to back: Ryan, Autumn, Jeremy, and Elliot climbing up what is a waterfall when the water is high

Tadpoles in one of the puddles.

                                             Some of the waterfalls.

Ryan and Elliot by some falls.

Then we went up to Lake of the Clouds.  It was very windy, cool, and wet.

Ryan, Elliot, and Autumn.  Boris and Spike, too.

Elliot decided he didn't want to wear his wet t-shirt.  Pretty sure the other people bundled up in jackets thought we were all crazy.  Him for taking his shirt off and his folks for letting him.

The crazy adults who drug the kids out in the crappy weather.  Think everyone had a pretty good time, though.  Better than sitting home all the time.

Motorhome

  We weren't in the market for a motorhome, but there it was, only 200 bucks!  Drove past it a few times, it was on one of our commonly used routes.  It's ugly.  We weren't even going to bother, you could tell it doesn't run.  One day, Jeremy was on his way home from running an errand, and had to stop because of an accident, so he decided to take a look.  Not too bad on the inside, he thought.  He came home and eventually talked me(Rhonda) into taking a look.  Not too bad on the inside.  We decided that even if it never runs again, at least it could be fun for the kids. 

Yes, ugly on the outside.  It was a hunting camp.  They tarred the hell outta the roof.  He said it was a hot, windy day when they did it, thats why its all over the place.  I think they just did a really sloppy, half assed job with it.  Tar was not the way to go.
Its a 1970 Chevy Open Road.  Doesn't run.  Guy said he thinks it might just be the fuel pump.  We'll see...

This is what really sold me.  A sliding door, with screen in tact, on the back.  Never seen this before on a camper like this.  Love. It. 
By the way,  you can see that its plugged in.  So far most of the lights work.  Its only been here since Monday, so we haven't tried too much out yet...

Its got a nice little kitchen.  Like I said, we haven't tried out too much, but it looks like the propane hookup might be okay...and its got a big water holding tank, but we don't know anything about a pump or anything.  Thats Boris there gazing out the sliding door.

Elliot in the foreground and his cousin, Ryan, on the other side of the table.  They worked their butts off vaccuuming everything and wiping stuff down.  They slept the first night in it. 

There's a bed in the back, across from the kitchen.

The table turns into a bed, sorry, no pics of that.  There's another bed above the cab, of course.

The refrigerator, don't know if it works, and a closet next to it.  And Elliot's hand...

The cute little bathroom, complete with sink.  There's a mirror above it.  And a shower head above the toilet with a drain in the floor.  Nice...

Another view of the bed above the cab.

                       Cello, Spike, and Boris looking out the screen door in the back.