Work, work, work...

Just a quick preview of my latest project for the 'Its a Husky Thing' forum. They needed a banner that would make their site pop so I figured this would do the trick!

Check them out at: http://www.itsahuskything.com/forum.htm

Sunday Run!

All fell into place for us to get out yesterday. We had some ups and downs to start but we quickly shrugged those off and got back to being positive!

Nita's Clyde had trouble loading into her truck that made her delayed coming to the kennel with Miriam but I managed to get all my morning work details out of the way in the extra time they were on the road.

When we hit the trail head with some new dogs Nita's Control was having a hard time on the trail. About half way through the run we figured it was because she was attached to her neck line which wasn't common practice in her old home.

We figured she would be tired since she hadn't been out in a while but her actions were a little more stressed than an out of shape sled dog. It didn't help that Griffin was COMPLETELY in love with her! Even though she has been spayed it didn't stop him from testing her out. Even while she was running he was hot on her heals! Ive never seen him that desperate, I mean she is a cute girl but come on!

Coyote was the other newbie (a foster dog from the Second Chance League) who worked extremely well. We really like this boy and are confident that he will find a perfect forever home whether in a working environment or as a couch pet, he could go either way. You can read more about him here: http://www.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=3993433

Coyote did great and since we had to change the trail route for Control to head back to the truck early we decided to drop both her and him at the truck after about seven miles.

Control runs well loose behind the team so we will keep working on her to see what her issue is though I have a feeling Coyote is going to be our plug in dog and fit in where ever we need him. He is really nice!

After dropping the two dogs at the truck we turned the teams around and headed for the bluff. We haven't done hill training in a while so it was nice to see how they tackled the big beast. I had to pull two dogs from Nita's team on our way up to the top to fill out my line to ten dogs. They handled the extra weight of me and Miriam really well after that. Our decent was also very nice and controlled. The team could have screamed down that hill but they were very conservative and let me help with the drag pad.

Miriam took a few turns to run my team while I had a turn in the basket. I believe it was her first time running ten dogs and will be an experience many of her friends will not be able to relate with. I hope it will remain a fond memory for her since she will be headed back to Switzerland soon. We will miss her but hope Alaska wont leave her soul so she will feel the call to come back very soon. We are already trying to find ways to entice her back, as if the dogs weren't doing a good job of that already! :)

So our total miles for the main team was 16. This was Clyde's first 16 mile trip and he did fantastic for a pup, it was also Bonnie's first as well. We are looking to bump the team up to 20 mile runs very soon but will have to do a few shorter trips to get Control and Coyote up to speed. Both teams are at nine dogs now but we hope to get up to ten very soon. Nita has a few more dogs to try out that she picked up from Eagle this year so we are sure to have a LOT of dog power.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that Hermes and Calypso were running lead again today. They did great and led up the bluff the whole way. I think Hermes liked Calypso's quiet ways compared to Juno's barking commands. The two of them work very well up there and Juno wasn't too bad in swing with Eli. I will have to make more of a point to put our little Calypso up there more often so she can gain more leader experience.

I will try and get more on the trail photos but we are getting mostly kennel shots right now. The sun is fading fast and we only have a few hours of daylight to run without headlamps and in those few hours we are usually holding on tight to the handlebow of our sleds since the dogs are so full of fresh power!!

Sled dog tours Gallery

No rest for the wicked... even though James is taking full advantage of his holiday weekend by sleeping in I don't have that luxury at the moment. My work load continues to be heavy though I do delight in being busy and creative! :)

The work on the tours page of our website continues with a few more things to add in before I can move along to finishing up the dogs pages but I wanted to highlight the new gallery on the tours page at: http://www.alaskaspiritwalk.com/Tours/index.html then click on the gallery button at the left side of the screen.

This is a collection of our clients over the years, our sled dog adventures and the beauty of Alaska. Some of these shots go way back to dogs who have passed on and to those who were with us in the very first days of our teaching this sport to others. Many memories there and so much love at what I have been able to share with every soul who has touched my life.

Enjoy!

Thanksgiving

Had a wonderful nontraditional holiday. We decided to celebrate Alaskan style and have a seafood thanksgiving! It was great and the left overs the next day were even better.

I have to say that taking the extra meat off an Alaskan king crab carcass is much better than taking it off of turkey, and much tastier too! James and I really liked the holiday treat and plan on doing it again!

It was a very fitting way to celebrate our thanks this year. We have so many things to be thankful for and in reflecting this morning we both wholeheartedly agreed that we dont need Christmas presents. We have allowed ourselves to receive so much that we really cant thing of another thing!

A short list of what this year has brought goes as follows... 40 acres of land in Talkeetna (future home of the kennel and the Sled Dog Sanctuary), a new mattress that we tested out just last night (will be great therapy for James' back pain), a new sled that will be coming for my 'birthday' but really is a necessity for our tour clients, new arctic outer wear (nothing too out of the ordinary but needed items after 10 years of wear to the old stuff!) and the new dog truck that will be coming very, very soon.

There is also Nita's new dog trailer to be thankful for that we are currently building and the new dog box that will be built on the new dog truck. The trailer project will be complete in a few weeks but the new dog box will most likely carry over into next year. Just another thing to be thankful for in 2010!! :)

And I would like to point out to everyone reading this post that the more we focus on the positive the more positive comes our way. Same goes with negative thoughts... keep that in mind for what you choose in life, for that is what it truely is... a choice...

It only takes a moment to turn a negative thought around and watch it build on to other positive thoughts throughout the day. You will see your life turn around in the most amazing of ways!

As promised I am posting a sneak peak into the trailer and detailed views of the husky hair overmits. These have been super and so warm!

Now Ive got to get back to work. So many things still to do and the warm weather outside my window (at zero degrees) to taunt me into outdoor fun. Will be hard to say no but tomorrow is another scheduled run for the team and plenty of time for adventure. The dogs have to stay in tip top shape for our ride clients and we are more than spoiled by the extra 'excuse' to play in the snow!

Our mystery rider reveled!

And our mystery rider is... Mary Shields!!

If some of you aren't familiar with this icon of the mushing world you can visit her website at: www.maryshields.com to see her in cyberspace or plan a visit out to her kennel for a personal tour and a wonderful visit in her cozy log home!

Mary is the very first woman to finish the Iditarod Sled Dog Race and has also competed in the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race... two of the most toughest sled dog races in the world!

Since we are opening up our kennel tours and rides this year to the general public and actively pursuing advertising we were delighted to discover that Mary was interested in pointing more clients our way. Its been great to have a point of focus for a wonderful kennel tour at her place and to follow up with a dog sled ride out at our trails. The partnership works out perfectly!

Even though I come with many years of mushing experience Mary wanted to witness the dogs first hand and see their skill (and mine) from the view of the basket just to make sure she was directing folks to a good outfit. It was my pleasure to take her out on an adventure and show off the dogs, who did great as usual.

As Ive said before, and will likely say many times again, the training really paid off. The pups, even Thani, were all on VERY good behavior and even through some the dips and tight turns EVERYONE listened to my 'easy' slow down command and to my 'okay' command to speed back up after the trail smoothed out again. They did so great and it was wonderful to hear Mary's comments on how controlled they were, how safe and how much confidence she felt in me as a musher being my passenger.

Mary and I are cut from the same cloth in many ways... we share a love of the old time freight dogs, the old ways of the sport and the history of the trail when mail was hauled by dog teams alone.

It was such a delight being out there listening to some of her old trail stories, dealing with moose, trail conditions, a few stories about the personalities of her dogs and how she works them into her kennel tours. I am going to make a point to sit in for one of her summer shows next year to see it first hand as she has with our rides. I know the joy I had hearing her just talking about the tours will be even better to see in action.

Miriam came along for this tour as well and rode in Nita's sled. It was our b-teams first time with a passenger and they did really well. We will have to continue carrying weight in both sleds since our client load is starting to stack up and the dogs need to be in tip top shape for the season ahead.

It was a beautiful day today, weather was mild, the sun was out and the snow was dancing all around us. Nita got some great shots of me and Mary heading down the trail with a cloud of white powder behind us. What a great day!!

And as we go into the holidays things will pick up on many fronts... the chores will continue as usual and we hope to get a lot more work done on the new dog trailer this weekend. Photos for that will be coming soon, possibly in the next post, and we just purchased much of the hardware we will need for doors and latches on each dog's box. We are getting so close to having the outfit be operational! Its so exciting!!

No new news on the new dog truck but James assures us it will be coming soon. Cant wait to get started on a new box for that as well! So many new changes this year and as James said, we will have a big Thanksgiving this year for we have soooo very many things to be thankful about!!

Hugs to all and enjoy the holidays!!

First Rider of the Season

The weather continues to hold and was zero this morning! Might be even warmer by this afternoon and we plan to take advantage of the conditions to get our second rider out tomorrow.

We had our first ride client of the season yesterday from North Carolina and the dogs did fantastic with the extra weight. We also had Nita's Clyde in the second team for his second trip of five miles and he did great as well.

Clyde is still just a pup and is stronger than his sister Bonnie but is a bit slower mentally than she is. It actually might work out to his bennifit since he doesnt seem to get as distracted on the trail and focuses more easily on work than she does. There are so many things yet to see with these pups as they grow, these first few training runs do tell us a lot but in many ways barely scratch the surface of who they will become.

And with our 'special' client coming out tomorrow (more details in the next post, I promise) we will be able to bump Clyde up to nine miles and go from there. It wont be long before he is a solid dog in Nita's team! :)

I have to make this post short today... have a big day in town to get holiday errands out of the way so we can be free for the trail tomorrow...

In the meantime enjoy these few photos I was able to get yesterday while waiting for our clients to arrive...

Photos!

Weather has warmed up considerably. It was about -8 this morning with the forecast predicting to be even warmer by this afternoon. I hope it stays this way for a little while longer. I know our usual deep freeze will come and we do need some more cold weather training for both the dogs and humans to test gear and endurance in Alaska's extremes but we have a fun trip planned over the Thanksgiving holiday and if the weather will hold we will have a much better time of it!

If all goes well, in a few days we will be the proud owners of 40 acres right off the Parks Hwy! In celebration we want to make another trip down to see our land, walk around a bit and take a break from all the hard work we've put in these many, many months. Its been a long road, but in a way seems rather short... once we set our plans to motion, and never accepted no for an answer (my life's motto), things flew right along with us all hanging on tight for this wild, wild ride!

And after only a day's worth of work we just about have the walls put into the dog trailer and almost ready to start building up the dog boxes on the inside. I am amazed how quickly things get done when two people are at the same task. Nita is a working machine! And with us having the same mindset on many things, everything comes together extremely well for us!

The dog truck will last for a few more trips to the trail head this year then it will be dethroned of its boxes and our new rig will be on full time duty! We are waiting on motor rebuild updates to the new rig but should have some info very soon. It is very exciting!!

And, as I promised, here are some new photos of the inside dogs hard at work and a few shots of Hermes new dog house while it was being constructed this summer...

Mercury and Gaea on couch patrol in the office

You would think getting up in the morning with so many dogs in the house would be easy but its not! Gaea is a bed hog and traps me under the covers with Mercury holding down the other side after James leaves for work! :)


Hermes' insulated monster house while in construction this summer. Ajax waits out front...
It is all complete now with a chin rest on the front but still needs a bit more finishing. The importance of efficiency was a higher priority than making it pretty.

I have other plans for this style house that will make it more attractive on the outside but for now the size and construction was the most important thing to get right. After building four other insulated houses for the dogs I think this style is the one I like the best.

Chronos models the house from the inside (minus the detachable roof). You can see the actual sleeping space hes in by the temperary plywood divider hes leaning against. Beyond that divider is the arctic entry way (which makes the house look so long) to help keep the heat in and also to allow more stretching room in the summer when the arctic divider is taken out.