Cold Bites...

The cold has come again... this time I'm sort of welcoming it. We usually only have two bad cold spells a year, rarely three. This will be our second one and since its -35 now I would count it as an 'official' cold spell. The dogs are loaded but I hope for them to be on their houses tomorrow. Its supposed to warm up again very soon... then it will be back on the trail for us all and more exploration! I cant wait!!

Our next trip is going to have the team breaking more trail and hopefully connecting two old training loops. I will have to teach Remi and Nyx to slow down and not to get ahead of the team while I walk ahead. The last time I broke trail for them Remi and Nyx were so excited to follow that they bunched up the whole team. Before those guys started running with us I could count on everyone to stay in line even if I wasn't on the runners to apply the breaks. Those were the days... in time we will be there again.

The pups are getting used to warming up in the box. They still dont like it but really enjoy eating dinner in there. That helps encourage them to load but they are still clumsy babies and need me to lift them into the top boxes. Its very tough, like lifting an adult dog who has no coordination!

But the rest of the adults are doing very well. Reba and Ichabod who were slow learners on how to load themselves into the bed of the truck are becoming much more reliable. I like to limit the number of times I have to jump in and out of the truck to save my energy and my knees so after those two finally got it its been much easier.

Sat out for a bit tonight flat on my back out in the dog yard underneath Iris' old spruce tree. The silence in the cold is something else, sound travels easily for miles but with limited activity of animals and human kind hunkered down to conserve warmth it gets very still.

Its moments like those that offer time for reflection... the cold cuts through anything superficial and sharpens the mind to more important things. What those things are I cant be certain, as usual there were many things on my mind, mostly wondering if the dogs were comfortable but also delighting in the recent success and pleasure I am enjoying from my latest commission piece.

I still wish I had more time for more personal projects but this one is more personal than most, all my work is in a way but I do still long for a time where I can complete one piece that Im nearly finished on... just need a few more hours but that time is so hard to find...