Off to the race in the rain!!

It's noon - did some work on my new case and now we are off to L' Epiphanie for a race this weekend (if the rain doesn't spoil the trail!) It's about 1.5 hours from here - don't know about computer access so it may be Sunday nite before I write again! Have a great weekend everybody!!!

Some pictures of the local scenery!

Hello out there!! The top 2 pictures are of the Bellerive property- the left is standing in the street looking at the barn with my back to the house and on the right the reverse- the "fairytale looking" spiraled part of the house is a little library and the barn to the right of the first barn is actually much bigger and is where all the dogs live in a heated barn with individual water on demand!

The 3rd picture is the table I set for all of us for dinner on Tues nite - I had invited them last week because they are always feeding us and I thought "why didn't I think of this before????" It turned out to be delightful and we had such fun and conversation (binlingual of course) They liked my chili well enough that they want the recipe - the problem is I never make anything the same way twice (that can happen when you don't use a recipe) and the can of chili I used for a "starter" I don't even know if you can buy in Quebec! The "piece de resistance" was dessert - homemade hot fudge sauce (from my Mom and sister Bec's recipe) and a sundae bar with even "good and plentys"! In the pix below you can see I even had an "appropriate" centerpiece - a little girl with her dog and sled candle holder that my sister Kay gave me!!

We trained dogs yesterday so today was just "Fun Drop Day" = we had a thought from Terry Streeper saying that often to teach young dogs to stay around the truck he chains them to another one that does - so today we hooked Bell (the girl we spend 20 minutes trying to catch each time) to my leader Fratz, who never wants to leave my side - so she got "reined in" and he got more exercise than normal which is good for him!!

I am tickled to say I got another Morningstar Health case to manage today, so the afternoon has been that and laundry and writing to you!! Back up to the sugar shack to feed the "crew" as Randy calls them and then back down here for supper which I see Lise (the Bellerives longtime friend, cook, housekeeper, message center, you get the picture) cooking in the kitchen as we speak - fish!

Lazy Days!

Not a lot happening the last few days- mostly training on the Bellerive’s trail (since we decided not to go to a race in Maine) cause they had just started putting the trail in on Monday (and those of you who know about trails, know that usually doesn’t mean a very packed trail). So Lou is off to visit his wife and family in Ottawa and Bellerives had things they needed to do with a free weekend without a race, so Randy and I spent some lazy days with good books and movies (borrowed from Lou) plus I have been feeling kind of “flu-y” since last Friday, so the break was good for me. Almost back to my “normal self” today. We have had one dog with diarrhea for the same period of time and got him some Imodium from Melanie yesterday – so maybe I have had a “dog flu”!!!
We were supposed to have the Bellerive family up here to the sugar shack for dinner tonite but as I explained I wasn’t feeling too chipper yesterday, they immediately told me to postpone – so I have all the fixin’s for chili, garlic bread, hot fudge sundaes (with homemade sauce) but it maybe won’t be until Tuesday.
I have also been a bit busy with “real work”- got assigned a case from the job with Morningstar Health and know that it can be done easily with the phone and computer set-up I have.
Funny thing happened yesterday when we were at the drug store in town trying to find some Immodium- a French speaking couple stopped me in the parking lot and asked me if I could tell them how to get to Trois Rivieres – so here you have the American telling 2 Quebec people directions!!!!! I even think they understood me!!
We also have had a real problem with too many females in heat!!!! We have 5 of them tied up at the back of the truck together but it still raises havoc with all the males that want to break their chains and get back there!! While we were free-dropping the dogs the last time, the female most in-season, was up in her box on the second level, and my leader, Spiff, did everything except crawl up the side of the truck trying to get to her!! It was kind of like a “doggy Romeo and Juliet” except he was very loud about his wishes and frustration!!! I wanted to come in and get the camera but the last time I did that while they were loose, 3 dogs sneaked into the house and made a mess tipping over buckets of dog food!!!

Happy Birthday Luke and Bec!!! WE love you!!!

Tuesday was a pretty uneventful day (which was good after yesterday's events!!) Free dropped the dogs at the sugar shack and you can just tell they are very happy to be "out and about"!! 30 wagging tails and only some minor quibbling. Too soon to train again so we read some, watched a movie that Lou Serre loaned us and joined the Bellerives, Lou other friends Marcel and his wife GiGi for dinner at the Villageaous in Charrette. I had my new favorite "crevette i alail" or something like that (which is garlic shrimp). I try very hard to order and speak in French as much as I can but it's not very good and most often not understandable!!!!!! That reminds me of a funny story that happened on the island last weekend (don't think I told it already - don't read it if I have) We met the woman that was called "Noelange" which is Christmas angel (If I were still having babies I might name a girl that!) who was also the sister of a woman we became friends with the last 2 years we went to the Lil aux Coudres island race = I don't remember her real name because everybody calls her "BaDa" (as in the Flintstones, Fred's "yaba-daba doo"!) So on Sunday Noelange comes to the truck to tell us that our friend Francine (whom we stayed with for 2 years at her home overlooking the St. Laurence Seaway) will be stopping by that afternoon. Well, not only does Randy call her the wrong name (her name is Noelange he calls her BaDa) but he pronounces it totally incorrectly as "bidette" (like "biday"), which we all know is something very different, and the funniest thing is that Randy had no idea until later I explained to him he had called her "an upside down shower for private parts"!!!!!!!!

Today, Wednesday, we trained 2 teams on a very hard packed trail and things went pretty well except for at the road crossing (Claude's training trail goes across a very busy hiway and someone has to get up onto the road to see if traffic is clear before the dog team can cross) and so we are coming back from the other side of the road with a team of 12, Lou Serre is following us (also using a snowmobile to train) and we see up ahead Claude with a team of at least 12 on the other side of the road and Marcel with a team of 8 in the trail still hooked to the tuck but head-on on our side of the road!!! It was like a dogsled-traffic jam!!!! So Claude came across the road head-on to us and I was holding our leaders, and kabam! Claude's leaders and first 6 dogs bunched up into a terrible mess of dogs and lines!!! Everybody turned out OK but it took Hermel (the dog trainer and friend) and me to untangle them - looked like "dog spaghetti"!!

This afternoon I am just catching up on some laundry and communication at the "big house".
Have great birthday today Lucas and tomorrow Bec!!!!

The DeKuiper Curse and Blessings!!!

The pictures above are from the Bellerive's "sugar shack" so that you know what a delightful cabin we are staying in with our friends! the top 2 show the actual "syrup manufacturing" area and the bottom 2 are of the living quarters of the cavin with some of our "stuff' around.

Up this morning at the “crack of 8”, the lone soldiers in the dog parking area of the race- thought we better hustle so we could still feed dogs breakfast and get to the ferry for the next run at 9 am . Travel down to the ferry, and as we remembered……stuck waiting on the down hill with a 10% grade down to nowhere but water (the St. Laurence Seaway with iceburgs floating in a very fast current) for the ferry to unload and the cars ahead of us to load…at least the road was pretty dry so we didn’t end up sliding like we did 2 years ago and had to turn the wheels into the snow bank to stop!! Uneventful until the “DeKuiper truck curse” struck again!!!!! Going up one of the very steep hills back on the engine just up and quits…and Randy pull over to get out of traffic and try and get the motor running again so we don’t roll all the way back down the hill! So I hear Randy say “I didn’t mean to pull over that far” as the truck slides into the snowbank on a deceivingly sloping shoulder and sure as the lilacs bloom in the spring, we are stuck…..really stuck….stuck so tight on the driver’s side you cant’ get the only door open (like in a motor home) He got the engine running (for those of you who don’t know the engine is in the inside of the truck under the “doghouse” and we have to move everything we have handy in the front while going down the road – like coffee, snacks, maps, etc. every time we have an engine problem) by pouring gas in the carburetor but it kept quitting, so he changed the gas filter, and switched the gas tanks (of which we have many- but none of them register on the gas gauge). So we have the engine running but are very stuck and so Randy rolls down the driver’s side window so he can crawl out and assess the situation….. well he shovels and shovels and then tells me I have to try to move the truck….this is way beyond my expertise…..I hate driving this truck!!! I try moving it despite my reservations, and no go! We keep sliding farther into the bank! So a very nice guy in a pick-up truck that also happens to speak English stops and asks if we need help and thinks there is no way he can pull us out…..just as I am getting really frustrated and Randy yells at me to get the tow strap out (and I throw it out the window to/at him) a wonderful snow plow driver comes along and “the DeKuiper Blessing” is in full effect!~! the guy hooks us to the snowplow (you have never seen such huge snowplows as they have in Quebec!) and ….zippppppp… we’re out!!
Nothing earthshattering happens the rest of the drive back to Charrette…..until we get to the hill going up to the “Bellerive’s sugar shack”- our “home away from home” In our absence over the weekend I notice that everybody’s driveways and parking lots look like ice skating rinks and I say to Randy “maybe you should start up the hill as far back as you can so you can make it up the hill” – “naw, we can make it no problem” is the reply I get. Once again, up to the crest of the very icy, slippery hill and have to back down, sliding/backing and re-start from farther back. Again up to the crest of the hill a little closer…..and for the second very nervewracking time of the day….stuck!!!! This time on ice and the wheels spinning. I say “is there something we can put under the tires to get out” and Randy thinks to use the garage floor soak we put in the dog boxes (for those girls with small bladders) and it did the trick!!! Needless to say folks, it was time for a glass of wine!!!
Had dinner at the Bellerive’s home (soup, salad, chicken with gravy and peas on bread and dessert – we think they are trying to fatten us up so we will go slower dog racing!! Ha!ha!) with Lou Serre also and we found out that the race scheduled for this weekend north of Montreal has been cancelled due to warm weather (and the race is on a lake- not a good plan) so a lot of the evening was placing calls to see where else we could all race.
Upper body muscles are a little sore today after wrestling with the dog sled yesterday…..like every time I move after being still for awhile! At least I won the wrestling match!

Sat nite in Lile aux Coudres and Sunday's race

It was a musher's supper Sat nite at the only restaurant on the island- Italian cuisine- and pretty good! We sat with Bellerive's and Ludovic Couloux (from France and now lives and races very competitively in the 6 dog class in Quebec) and Hege Ingibristen and Per from Norway who can't find very many people to speak English!! (none that speak Norwegian!!!!!!) and had a delightful dinner! they had an auction of hockey stick and jerseys from the Montreal hockey team that went for thousands of dollars to benefit the Cystic Fibrosis campaign (apparently from having a "closed community" on the island, cystic fibrosis has become more prevalent than in the general population and is of great concern to the residents) We went to the dance after that where they had a band that played mostly American music (except for one song in French that sounded kind of like a polka) and my wonderful husband danced with me even with sore knees from last week's extravaganza race!!

Sunday - started out warmer, but got cooler and the course was faster. I went out feeling good about the trail, and I'll be darned, if at the very-short portion of the trail that was head-on passing (in the woods where the trail is narrower and the birm in higher) a team almost slammed into me on my right side of the trail and pulled me up onto the birm.....and down onto the ground!! Now if you remember,,,,, I lost my team last week........there was no way in "he- double toothpicks" that I was going to lose them again.....they stopped for moment but started up too fast for me to stand up and so I dragged (it seems like the "DeKuiper thing to do") first from the driving bow, then lost my grip and dragged from the brake......and just as I lost all strength and had to let go.......PEOPLE TO HELP ME!!!! No, my friends, I did not have the same measure of exposure that Randy had last week, but my snow pants did inhibit me from pumping after the fall!!! (hanging about 10 inches lower than normal!!) I feel more accomplished having had the trouble that I did and hanging on like I did, than if I finished where I could have (finished in 14th but probably without trouble could have been 11th or so) the really good thing is that I am strong enough to drag that far- we are guessing 1/4 of mile, could have been more or less, hard to tell while your face is in the snow, gathering in your jacket, your hands wanting to let go.........

Randy started out in 7th place from yesterday -he had dropped 3 dogs from the team and left with 13- everybody (including Sarah "Palin" in lead instead of Molly -who sometimes stops to poop ) and ended up 6 seconds out of 7th and 0.77 seconds out of 9th - lots of sore feet and shoulders.

At present, we are parked in the starting parking lot for the race.....all alone (everyone has left for the ferry back to the mainland) and we are about to have frozen chicken dinosaurs for dinner (didn't want to leave and have to drive the very steep hills in the dark and we are not in any hurry!!!)

The people here were fast to thank us for coming back to their race and we even had a chance to see our friend Francine Tremblay (we stayed at her house 2 years ago) and found out she has been very busy with a new job (used to teach English and interpret for bost cruises out to see the whales in the St. Laurence Seaway) as a manager at a "natural-made from cotton-paper company" the only one of a kind in Canada! so she was so busy we couldn't even spend dinner time with her! Dogs are fed, Randy is reading a book he doesn't really like and time for me to cook!!

Love you all and love each other!
God Bless you!

PS I so wanted to have pictures and you are probably wondering why - at the moment I have temporarily lost the location of my camera - as soon as it is recovered, more pictures!!

!!

We are sitting her in our truck in the dog parking lot on the island of Lil aux Coudres (which for you that don’t speak French, means “island of hazel nuts) and the wind is blowing so hard we are knowing the meaning of “rock and roll” – you can see hanging items swing back and forth 2 inches! And we are sitting in an area protected by a snowbank taller than our truck!!!!
This morning decided for sure to go to Lil aux coudres for the race- packed up and on the road at 10:30 after feeding and dropping dogs and took us until 3p to get to the ferry taking us to the island (the Bellerive entourage passed us twice cause grade in 2 kilometers!!!!!!! I tried not to, but I closed my eyes for about a minute!!!! Before they changed the road and rails a couple of years ago, a tour bus lost control coming down the hill and drove into the St. Laurence Seaway!!!! so it is safer now they go much faster than our “old girl” truck – as Randy like to call her)– but the most exciting part of the journey was the “getting here”!!! even though it has been 2 years since we were here, I was still very nervous going up and down the many hills it takes to get here!!!!! Disappointedly, I am not able to show you pictures of the trip and the scary hills cause I am not able to put my fingers on my camera (in other words, even though I am living on the road, I should be able to remember where the camera is and somehow in the last week it has found a “hidey hole” and I don’t know where that is!!!!!!!!!!!!!”).. Still the scariest is the downhill to the ferry coming to the island- 18% grade for 2 kilometers!! Got onto the island, fed the dogs supper and decided to see if our friend from 2 years ago, Francine Tremblay, was home – drove around to the other side of the island and the house was dark, so we decided to do something we have never done before….drive all the way around the island – 14 miles from end to end- and it was just sunset so you could still see that the tide was out in the river = leaving lots of little ice burgs stranded in the mud – and dark enough that I could see in the windows of many beautiful homes that sit on the shore of the island with a view the St. Laurence. The driver’s meeting is in the municipal building which they have all decorated for St. Valentine’s Day – at 8p so as I sign off for tonite, we will drop the dogs, get our race place/numbers and do a final drop for the dogs in the vicious wind and rock to sleep in the dog truck!! (perhaps with some ear plugs!!)
Everyone be safe and happy!!!
Randy and Cris
(Happy Valentine’s Day Aeja, Ocean, Oak, Caitlin and Baby Chavis and of course, all of you big kids!!!!! We love you all!!)


The rest is Sat and Sun combined - too darn busy to type!!

Sat morn did bring lots of snow blown into the trail - I went out 10th and had a good run (being pretty conservative not remembering the trail from 2 years ago- did have some pretty good sized hills - heavy on the drag going down) and ended up 11th place - which I was very happy with considering the competition level present! Randy had a good run with 16 dogs but his leader Molly had sore feet and didn't pull - will cut 3 dogs for tomorrow and ended up 7th!!! pretty good out of 16 very good competitors

Update from Charrette - "RainyTown"

Thursday morning we awoke to the pitter patter of rain on the roof! Not usually a good thing to have during dog racing season – we had heard from the weather forecast (and from our Michigan forecaster, Mitz!) that we could get rain, but it gave us enough concern to want to call Jim Lyman at Laconia, NH to see for sure if the rain was still there and if there was enough snow to have a race tomorrow (we should be leaving or have left by now to make it there comfortably by tonite). He told us they have 4 city trucks hauling snow to make trails. Randy is still walking around like “the mummy” stiff legged and my vote is that he really shouldn’t race this weekend – he could surely delay healing by rubbing his knees raw again – although they are still raw! So I am in the big house writing to you, and Randy is going to call Jason Rodenhouse I think to see if he is planning to go to Laconia- Lou Serrre talked to us when we dropped dogs out in the barn yard and he is wondering if there will be a race anywhere (I think he had decided to go to the island race – the one Randy had bad experiences with and doesn’t really want to race again). With this rain it could certainly ruin the trail on the island – it’s pretty much pouring now and the snow is melting quickly – it has also caused the drive up to the sugar shack to get very slippery and we slid down the last portion and frankly, don’t know if we can get back up!! So much up in the air!!!

Owwwwwwwwwwwwww!

45 minutes this morning trying to “unstick” the dressings from Randy’s 3 abrasions!!! 2 of the dressings were telfa and came off easy but I ran out of them and the 3rd was an eye patch/dressing that I thought was non=adherent but turned out to be quite “adherent”! He had a very restless nite and said that they hurt more today than ever – I have resorted to using the ointment for the dog’s feet on his legs cause it spreads easier without hurting him (I am using a butter knife – whatever works in a pinch!) Went to the Charrette Pharmacy today and managed to relay to the French only speaking clerk that I needed dressings and bought the only box they had! Then had to talk to the English speaking pharmacist to ask if they would order more cause I’m thinking we will use this one in 2 days.
Last nite dinner with Lou Serre (Lou is staying in his trailer down at the barn until he decides which race he will go to this weekend depending on the weather – Bellerives already decided they will not go to Laconia, NH and instead Melanie will drive a 12 dog team at the island race – that would be the island you get to by going down an 18 degree/very steep, short hill and then to the ferry and the same up the hill at the island – Randy does not like the trail on Lil aux Coudres so even though I love the people there and also hate the hill, we probably won’t go there, unless Laconia does not have snow for a race- whew that was a long sentence – good thing I am not being graded on this!!!) and the Bellerives at the house was very enjoyable! Pork and veal roast and my favorite salad again! Lots of fun stories about dog racing and childhood memories from all with the conversations around the table alternating from English to French to English then back to French….etc.! Lou is very well traveled having been to Alaska and all over Europe buying/selling/breeding dogs for racing and has the great stories to go with the travels.
This morning we dropped dogs and then headed up to Claude’s business garage to have them tighten the ball on the trailer hitch (which Randy noticed was very loose yesterday when he was pounding on a “poop scoop” to straighten it out, on top of the ball. They had been forewarned we would be there by Claude and it was done in 2 minutes!
Stopped at the restaurant across the street and had coffee with Melanie, Claude and Lou and then bought a couple of groceries for me to make “hot taco dip” (by request from Melanie cause I made it last year and they enjoyed it) and on the way to the grocery we saw billowing black smoke off from the highway 1 block and then sure enough, there was a house on fire!!! We didn’t see/hear any fire trucks come until we were done shopping so it may be the trucks had to come from quite far away – Charrette is much smaller that even Montague or Hesperia – probably only 40 homes tops!
This afternoon while we were reading Lou walked up to visit for a while and then we dropped the kids to play in the yard – yesterday’s altercation between Spiff, my leader and Runzl, my point dog, had resulted in an ear laceration that starts bleeding every time he shakes his head, so we have devised a plan to take a piece of gauze, soak it with super glue and glue it to the tip of his ear – you’ll hear how it worked later!!

Race results from St. Luc

You know how they say “a picture is worth a thousand words……”? well we don’t have the picture so you are going to get the thousand words!
Before I go into the details of the weekend race at St. Luc de Vincennes, just know that Randy DeKuiper gets “the award for the most creative effort in contributing to a blog posting”!!!!
I last left you all at the race site where we had finally gotten there after forgetting the sleds and mentioned the many sharp turns in the trail………First of all, I give myself a “bravery credit” but as I imagined the trail was difficult and thinking “no guts, no glory” got me no finish! I think I had made it around at least 7 (seemed like 20) curves, and thru the one I thought most difficult (a sharp S-curve) and was just thinking I was going to make it to the also difficult turn-around loop, and I can’t really even tell you what happened……one minute I was going the fasted I’ve ever gone down a trail and the next thing you know, I am walking on the trail watching my team run away even faster!!! No stopping, no collect $200, just going…… Every curve to that point I had slid around sideways and hit the outer bank and bobbled/almost lost my balance, so why I fell I do not know….it was a soft landing in very deep snow, just “poof”! So I try running for a ways cause I know I am not far (actually it was probably ½ mile0from the road crossing and there would be people there that would catch my team and I could finish the race – well they caught my team………and let some guy get on the sled and drive them back to the finish line. This I didn’t find out until I got back to the truck and Randy tells me – they hadn’t even radioed back the I was all right. So because I didn’t finish with the team and somebody else did, I was disqualifie (that’s French for disqualified in case you didn’t guess!) So that started the weekend off poorly!
Then Randy goes out nervous because of all the bad turns, only he has 18 dogs to whip him around the curves! The whole race Maria (the dog that had a pad missing from her foot, but had run well in training, and who is a leader but was running at point) never pulled, in fact the leaders and the other point dog ended up dragging (figuratively speaking) her around the trail for 13 miles. Randy had said all along he was using this race to decide who to run in Laconia NH next weekend so he was disappointed to come in at 16th, but thought he might have some dogs that would not do well, but didn’t expect Maria to be one of them.
An uneventful evening in the dog truck, chicken alfredo and green beans prepared by Chef Cris on her one-burner gourmet range!
Sunday racing is the “picture” you have been waiting to hear about! Only 16 dogs today- left smoothly from the chute- Randy was catching the guy that had left 4 minutes before him and thought they werent’ going fast (averaging 15 to 19 miles per hour) he was moving right along on a very bad trail (the rain the nite before and a multitude of other things contributed to a very punchy/soft trail with lots of holes in it) and he got to the turnaround loop and was trying to maneuver the sled so nobody got on the wrong side of the line, and fell (like a DeKuiper tradition???) Thankfully, there was a guy there that held grabbed the sled as Randy dragged by and Randy was able to get back on and moving.
Now comes the “good” part………………………………… 1.5 miles from the finish (actually quite near to where I had my little problem) Tahoe (a dog I may have mentioned before because she did the same thing at Daaquam) decided she didn’t want to run anymore and laid down, stopping the team. Now I want to believe what happens next is just one dog telling another the her work ethic stinks, but the other dog, Colleen, starts a fight with her and in breaking up the fight, loads Tahoe in the bag, the snow hooks get buried so deep in the soft trail that he can’t pull them out with only one hand and needs two, and wraps one arm around the driving bow and when he yanks the hook out the team jerks the sled and his arm comes off the sled and they’re off……….with Randy dragging again holding only the snow hook…….and dragging until all 3 layers of his clothing are down around his ankles…….bare skin on the icy crystally snow………dragging for who knows how far…….no one around (thankfully for modesty’s sake, but not for safety’s sake) and running really good and fast cause they were chasing a team that had passed him while he was stopped!! His snow pants are full of snow, he tries to apply pressure to the brake cause the snow hook isn’t catching, and finally they slow down enough for him to drag himself back up onto the sled, and pulls just his wind pants up (everything else is still down around his knees). Stops one more time cause another dog is looking tired and finally makes it back…………..tells me when we are taking dogs off the lines “I need a change of clothes” I say “you mean like a dry t-shirt, can it wait till we are done with the dogs?” he says “no, do I have to spell it out?” sooooooo I’m thinkin’ that it’s the old “should have gone to the bathroom before I left” story and I go in and get out the wipes, TP and new underwear- when he comes in and takes off his clothes, I see raw hide on both knees, abrasions on his thighs and you-know-where-else!!!! Of course doesn’t want me to put dressings on them so he just puts polar tec pants over and we finish with the dogs!
Randy ends up still in 16th, which is seeming like a minor miracle in view of the days events, and we go to the awards ceremony (Melanie got 3rd in the 6 dog and Claude had trouble too and even though normally he wins his race, he was 8th) and Randy starts telling his story and creates quite the guffaws heard around the room as it’s being translated into French!


Back home to our “sugar shack” with running water and heat! But first Randy stops to tell Melanie and Claude his story with lots of gasps of surprise from Melanie!
I search the truck looking for supplies to do major first aid dressings and actually came up with quite an array of onintments and stuff – Randy chooses the medicine we got for the dog’s feet and he’s all wrapped up from his knees to you know where!
Today (based on Randy’s pain level and the fact that most of the dogs don’t need to be trained today) is a slow “let the kids play around the house” day with dinner tonite with Bellerives!!
How many other blogs can provide this level of entertainment???!!!

So I'm delinquent.......missed a day of posting!!

Wednesday nite dinner with the priest was delightful - he spent 3 years in Pennsylvania to learn to speak English and is a good conversationalis! We even had Randy's favorite, sugar pie, for dessert!

Thursday they dragged the training trail at Bellerives and they did train but when Randy went out on the snowmobile to check it himself, his feet sunk in the trail and he decided not to train, thinking he might hurt some dog shoulders going through soft snow. So we let the kids out again in the yard and had again only minor altercations. Went with Claude and Melanie Bellerive to the Charette restaurant (the only one - La Villagous) and met their friends, Marce and Giselle (Marcell has been putting in the racing trail all this week) and he told us that today he was putting in the 6 dog trail turn-around. We had pizza and laughs and I tried to get Marcel and GiGi to speak more English with me by making them comfortable talking to me (they worry so much they are making mistakes when the Quebecers speak English!)

Up this morning to feed, temperature moderate (I think we are just getting acclimated to cold - it doesn't really feel cold any more) and partly sunny - knew we didn't want to train the day before a race so we let the kids out to play again - they are really getting in to this "playtime" being free - so much that tonite when we fed at the race site, they seem wistful, wanting to be loose around the truck!! (I am sure you are asking yourself how I can imagine a dog is "wistful" - you have to be here to know) Started out packing up to go about 12, left at 1:30, got 1/2 way here to St. Luc to the race site and I looked up at the sled rack in the front of the truck and said, "Randy, did you bring the sleds?" XX00!!!!! No!!! So we turned around and finally ended up here at 3:30, fed dogs and went out on the snowmobile to look at the trail (Cold enough my cheeks were thinking "frostbite")

Oh my......there are lots and lots of 180 degree, hairpin turns!!!! Especially for Randy with 18 dogs!!! So I should have some good strories tomorrow nite. Tonite the driver's meeting and draw for the place we go out!!!

Ps: my connection cut out in the middle of my post so here it is Sat morn up at 8, feed dogs, did the "supportive" thing and went in and for the mere price of $7.50 got breakfast of egg "souffle??", beans, sausage, toast and coffee - the dogs are getting part of it!! I am pretty nervous about racing at 11a but trying not to let my stomach know!!!! Talk to you tonite or tomorrow!!!

Supposed to train today.....

But the trail had blown in over nite (as Randy found out when he went out to drag the trail and couldn't get thru) so today was another let the dogs loose day!! - as you can see from the picture!
Tonite dinner with Bellerives and their priest- very nice!!!

Talk to you all tomorrow!!!

As you saw from my last post, we are in Charrette, Quebec with our good friends the Bellerives (Melanie, and her parents Renelle and Claude) and arrived on Friday early evening. We called to let them know we were close and they came up to the “sugar shack “ to turn up the heat and turn on the lights for us before we got here. Saturday we trained on their trails all the dogs, and then went in to the “big house” and had coffee – they were apologetic that they couldn’t have dinner with us Sat nite because they had arranged to have dinner with their architect and his wife so we just settled in from a long day of having problems on the road and shopping at Walmart!

Sunday we got some fence from the barn at Bellerives, and because the snow is so deep, we were able to block off the drive down to the barn with a 6 ft. section of fence and drop the dogs in groups of 4-6 (depending on who gets along with who) they had great fun running around the cabin (not as much as I thought they would go around, but then I’m not a dog!) Every day they have a giant front-end loader (one I know you would like to drive Lucas!) come up and scrape the very-uphill drive here to the sugar shack. So we have huge snow banks and waist high snow to make a perfect “yard” for the dogs to play/exercise in on the days we don’t train.

Sunday nite we walked down to the big house and rode with them up to the only restaurant in town that Claude’s brother now owns (Claude used to own it) and had dinner with Melanie, Renelle and Claude and Marce and GiGi, good friends of the Bellerives. Delightful conversation and good food – pretty funny every time I try to guess what to order from the French menu!! (funnier yet, I got French onion soup for an appetizer) Lots of talk about the Daaquam race and the trail for this weekend at St. Luc with all of the snow they have had and are getting pressed for time to make a good trail to race on.
Today (Monday) up at 8, fed dogs breakfast, then Randy oatmeal, read books and rested and noted that we have an additional guest in the sugar shack that I had heard last nite – a mouse only as big as a fur Ball!! Scratching around in the box the dog meat is thawing in near the kitchen!! Now mice are generally very scary to me……but since I had one come into our Michigan house while I was on the toilet in the bathroom and I yelled at the mouse to get out, I have developed and new sense of power over the little creatures and they seem not to bother me as much (here’s hoping I can do the same thing with snakes!) So today when we were training down at the barn Randy got some “sticky mouse traps” and we will see what we catch!
Training was good (trained all 34 dogs) and most everybody looked happy and healthy. The video I took was not great and you will have to look with a magnifying glass to see the team out in the distance down the hill – I couldn’t see well enough in the digital camera to tell what I was capturing.Sorry about the quality of the video- I know what I am looking for and can hardly see it, so I am imagining you all are going to have a really hard time!

Fed dogs and waiting to drop them again and then walk down the hill to the “big house” for a family dinner. Hadn't heard the voices of our grandkids (Ocean and Aeja) in too long and loved having a little chat with them.
Had to give a big thank you to Claude, last year when we came here they had plowed the hill, but it was so narrow that the sides of the dog truck scraped the snow banks and Randy had to cut down a tree that we kept hitting with the side of the truck. This year the drive is plenty wide and he has already cleaned it down to the ice 3 times since we have been here!! So we are having no problems driving up and down the hill.

Dinner was lovely as usual (with my favorite salad - some special seasoning and oil) and the Bellerives are perfect hosts!

Today is Tuesday and it was a "drop the dogs around the truck for fun" day - and they were much better this time, especially since we knew today which ones don't really "play well together"! Not only did we catch one "critter" (I say critter cause it doesn't look like a regular mouse, tinier and like I said before, round like a fur ball) that Randy thinks is a shrew - whatever! he was stuck and dead! also another critter found its way into the dog food bucket and couldn't get out which Randy found while we were serving breakfast to our 34 kids!

Now I am up at the house hooked in to the internet in the formal living room (nicest room I've ever been in) and doing laundry and writing to you!! Know that we are having a wonderful time and are still safe!!! Will give you an update tomorrow after training! (by the way, someone out there reading, post a comment for me to let me know if you can go back farther into the posting history than the number I limited it to pop-up when you open the blog - I want to make sure you can access all of the older blogs somehow - especially my Mom!)