Finally getting around to posting about the two new dogs we picked up about a week and a half ago. One of them is about seven and a half months old. We've named her Lara. She has nice lines from Seavey and back to Mackey and further back to Gatt. The other dog is about five and a half months. We've named her Salt. Her lines are Wang, back to Swingley, and further back to Saunderson, Wright, and Attla. These names are easily recognizable to fellow mushers, but to those of you that are not familier with them, trust us, they are great lines. They had never been run in harness yet and we've had Lara out on two hookups so far and are very impressed with her performance and energy. Both of these dogs are VERY HIGH ENERGY! We were only going to do about three and a half miles for Lara's first run, but she looked really good yet, so we went five and a half miles, and she was still raring to go and very hyper when we got done. You couldn't even tell she had done anything!
Lara before her second hookup.
Getting excited...
Luckily, no harness chewing, or line chewing...
Standing and waiting. Her partner is Sweet, who lives up to his name and is a good, non-intimidating, easy going mutt for puppy training made easy.
In action.
Salt. She should be ready for harness breaking soon. We like to start at about six months or so, if they seem ready. No pressure. If they're not ready yet, it waits.
I also wanted to give a puppy update. They are now just over four months old and getting big! No more loose running in the yard, because they have come to an age that they want to wander a bit and, true to the husky nature, they don't listen all that well when they are called back.
Cloud
Breeze
Rain
Storm
Autumn and Rain.
Enjoying the grub.
They should be about ready to run with the big dogs by the end of December/early January, again, if they are ready...
Fall training is progressing nicely-got about 22 hookups and 137 miles total on most of the dogs. Not too bad considering the time lost to bad weather (meaning too damn warm) in early October. We are just REALLY looking forward to snow rather than dirt/mud!
Last weekend we loaded up 16 dogs, the golf cart and all the other necessities to spend two days training dogs with other mid distance mushers in Newberry, Michigan, which turned out to be about a six hour drive one way. Totally worth it! We had a blast, despite the lack of sleep due to many, many high energy dogs all in one smallish area. There were maybe 15 teams there, including ours, and two kennels worth of resident dogs, which might have totaled around 200 dogs or so, give or take a few. We had to sleep the two nights we were there in a tent, and that many dogs equals lots of noise!
The purpose of this session, among other things, is mainly for passing experience for the teams outside of the pressure of racing. It also is for the social aspect for the mushers. A lot of mushers, us included, are fairly isolated from others in the sport for most of our training, so its nice to get together once in awhile just to be around kindred spirits, and it sure does revive the spirit to be around other people that have the "disease", as we affectionately refer to it. Most of the people in our lives, at least, think we are crazy and really do not understand the commitment and sometimes sacrifice involved in this chosen lifestyle, so it sure is nice to spend some time with people who get it.
Our dogs, in fact, had never actually been around any other teams at all, until Wednesday, when we took them up to train with our vet, so we were nervous and excited to get them around all these other teams in the camping area as well as the trails. As it turned out, we really had nothing to be nervous about, as they performed easily up to and above our expectations and hopes. It seems as though all of our hard work and time spent training and working with our dogs has paid off well. We had no problems hooking up and running out of the camp even with all the other dogs and people. Our leaders held the line out with no tethers and they ran out to the trail with no troubles. On the trail, they handled head on passing and side by side passing like they'd been doing it on every training run. In fact, it looked as though Thunder was enjoying leading the team past these "obstacles" and was always looking for the next challenge. Needless to say, we are thrilled with our dogs and can't wait for the next chance to train with other teams!
Our camp-tent's behind the trailer. Getting ready to hook up for the first run.
Another team getting ready. They were in front of us, so we had to wait for them. You can see our cart waiting in the background.
Other teams around us preparing.
Cruising down the trail. They have a great trail system right out of their yard. We are jealous. We have to load up to go to any trails.
Had to stop once or twice for tangles and corrections, but none were mess ups during passing, which was awesome!
Giant puddle! Two teams up ahead.
Passing a team. Another team up ahead.
Here's a video to give an idea of what it was like. The sound is no good, and its a bit shaky, and the end looks like it was about to be a mess, the team coming up on us was on the wrong side of the trail for what our leaders expected, but we ended up getting by okay with no tangles or anything.
All in all it was a great weekend and we'd like to thank Bob and Jan Shaw for hosting this wonderful event and we hope to attend it annually from now on.
Dropping dogs to stretch and pee on the way home.
Also thanks to the kids for staying home and caring for the dogs that were left behind so that we could go and enjoy the weekend with no worries!
Soon to come...updates on our puppies and the new young dogs that we just got last week. One has been on one hookup, forgot the camera, but pics up soon...
Our vet and fellow dog sledding enthusiast, Matt, invited us up to Bruce Crossing, Michigan, about an hour drive from home, to train with him and his dogs. Of course we accepted the invitation whole heartedly, as we don't get many opportunities to expose our dogs to other teams and the excellent training that results. Passing and being passed by other teams is something that is nice to get the chance to do in preparation for racing in the future. Our dogs have never gotten the chance to do this, in fact, apart from when we take two teams out in the winter, but then they are only experiencing it with other dogs they already know and are around in the yard all the time.
Right before releasing. We took off right through his dogyard. Our leaders, Thunder and Cherry, really impressed us with their ability to hold the team out and take off on the right path with no tethering.
We started out following his team.
We had to get up at 4:30 in the morning to be up there at daybreak. The crazy things we do for the love of the sport! The pictures are kinda dark as a result of the sun only just starting to appear.
Another shot of his team in front.
Was hard to see passing him because the sun was against us.
We got in front of him...
An osprey? we think...observed us and 28 dogs total, go by...
It was a change of scenery for our dogs, we went down all dirt roads,through all open fields, instead of two tracks and snowmobile/four wheeler trails that our dogs are used to. We saw lots of deer, but the dogs were pros and didn't try to chase anything.
Him passing us...
All in all, our dogs performed pretty well, the first couple passes were nice and clean, but after a few times, Thunder decided it was getting boring just passing and being passed over and over, so he tried to go visit once or twice, but no problems arose, as with encouragement he continued on and we had no fights or tangles. For the first time ever doing this, we were impressed with their overall performance. Afterward, we were invited to eat breakfast with Matt and his wife, so we had a nice chat about dogs and trails near us, always interesting being able to talk with fellow mushers. We had a really great time and hope to do it again in the near future.
On the way home we were treated with the sight of this nice rainbow to top off a great morning.
In other news, we went on Tuesday to Tomahawk, Wisconsin, to a kennel that is selling out and picked up two new young dogs, ages seven months and five months. They have excellent bloodlines and we're very excited to add them to our kennel. Will post pics and more info later.
We are also going this weekend to Newberry, Michigan, about a five hour drive, with 16 dogs loaded up, to a training and fun run where we can practice more passing with many more teams. Leaving on Friday and coming back Sunday. We're really looking forward to our mini dog vacation. Will be sure to update on that later as well.
We are trying to get our garage emptied of all the useless crap in it so we can turn it into a dog barn of sorts. When we moved into our house seven, yes seven, years ago, we put all the stuff we eventually wanted to get rid of into the garage, with future plans of having a yard sale. Well, naturally, out of sight is as much as out of mind, right? We put it off and put it off, but now we would really like it gone. We have decided that the dogs would rest better between runs during the winter if we could set them up "stalls" in the garage, sort of like dog box compartments, for them to rest in after and between runs, especially when we get to longer runs. They would be able to share body heat and there would be no wind or snow to bother them, and hopefully they would be better rested and more ready for the next run. Right now, future racing plans are for mid distance and stage type races, so we think that resting them this way shouldn't make them unprepared for those races, and we hope to be able to have the barn set up with areas for examinations and for feed storage and prep.
But first, we have to get all the crap that's been sitting in there for the last seven years out of the way. We had a yard sale starting last Sunday, and a few days this week. Unfortunately, the weather has been iffy, and with wind and rain, it makes it a lot harder, but we have managed to get rid of some stuff, the rest will probably go to charity or the transfer station, just get it gone!
The stuff. Garage in the background. Not pretty, but it'll do.
Autumn trying to make things more presentable.
Found the old bike helmet!
A bit too small!
With lots of time on our hands, the cat enjoyed her treats...she really loves BBQ chips.
And , toward the end of the day, we were going to cover stuff with plastic. Jeremy brought a GIANT plastic bag home from work, and of course, Elliot decide it was a pretty fun toy...
So, as previously mentioned, we train on dryland (no snow) using a golf cart with no motor. Said golf cart is kind of a bulky, heavy, slightly awkward pain n the butt to have to load up, unload, reload and unload again, which is what we have to do every day that we train, in that sequence, with the running of dogs in between the unload, reload parts. So we got the great (theoretically) idea to just leave the cart at our training site, which is kinda out in the woods, chaining it to a tree with a heavy log chain and a heavy padlock. We put our kennel name, address, and phone number on it in permanent marker thinking that if anyone had a problem or question about it being there, they could contact us. It worked out fine for about a week. The next week, we moved its location a bit, as we move around our parking spot according to which trails we want to use and how far we want to go. Mistake.
Here's where the "Good Samaritans" come into play. On Sunday afternoon, a friendly police officer stopped by to ask us if we have a golf cart and if we knew that its out on Powers Rd. I of course told him we did, and he told me that he had gotten a call about it because someone thought it might have been stolen and dumped out in the woods. Really. Chained and padlocked with our name written on it? Okay. So I told him why it was there and asked him if it was alright that it was there. He said he saw no problem with it as long as he didn't keep getting calls about it.
Unfortunately, by Monday afternoon, we had gotten several calls on our machine while we were out of the house, and then a police officer called us to let us know that we "needed to pick up the cart as soon as we get the time" because he had gotten so many calls. Who would've thought so many people could get so concerned about a beat up old golf cart with no motor in it, chained and padlocked to a tree with contact info plainly visible? Guess we didn't think it out well enough. We should have put a sign on it saying what it was for and that it was, indeed, not stolen?
So now we are back to having to load, unload, reload, and unload again every day that we want to train.
Thank goodness for "Good Samaritans" Seriously, we're glad they're out there, but this time, it might have been better if they weren't out by Powers Rd. so much! :)
We decided to go on an overnight camping trip up to the Porkies last weekend. One reason was to see the fall colors. The colors are always beautiful up there and we try to make it up every year. The other reason was because we had originally been going to a wedding in southern Wisconsin on Sat. and we were going to camp overnight down there and come home on Sun. Unfortunately, due mainly to financial issues (gas prices in a full size truck), we came to the conclusion that it just wasn't going to work out. Elliot really was disappointed because he wanted to go camping, which we don't find time to do much, so we decided to go on Fri. night to a campground that's about 40 minutes drive away, and just stay overnight. This way, we didn't need anyone to care for the outside dogs and other animals, and we just took the four house dogs with us.
We just hooked them on the truck with drop chains from the sled dogs.
Mine and Jeremy's too small tent. Luckily, we don't use it often, the last time was probably 8 yrs. ago!
Jeremy starting the campfire.
Elliot enjoying the fire. It was pretty chilly Fri. night. Was probably 40 degrees or so.
Us enjoying our favorite beverages by the fire.
The kids by their tents Sat. morning. Got down to 33 degrees on Fri. night. BRRRRR!
Melted bottle from the campfire. This is after several other failed attempts. Its not that easy to melt them rather than break them. We were happy with it.
On Sat., we went to see the colors. First we went to Summit Peak. This is the tower.
And these are the views from the tower:
Autumn in her hoodie on Summit Peak.
Under the Summit Peak sign.
And on the way back down from the tower:
Elliot and Boris.
Autumn and Spike.
Autumn and Spike again.
Elliot and Boris.
Elliot had to climb the tree.
Then we went to Lake of the Clouds. There was lots of people up there. You can see some in the upper left corner.
Thats about the time I ran outta room on the camera, but I guess we got plenty of pics anyhow.
