Saturday – 2/21/15

Up at 8am, fed dogs and then us.  I had gotten 8 sausage links at the grocery store and so I fried them and the eggs – they were OK but not $5 worth!

I really got a lot accomplished yesterday while I was on the internet – got 2 loads of laundry washed and dried, applied to the Muskegon Art Fair and Newaygo Memorial Day for kettle korn and I finally got my nursing license renewed!!!  I had tried for 5 hours at home and it wouldn’t go through so I called the state and she told me to get rid of all my “cookies” so I did and it still didn’t  work – so I called her again and she told me to go to a library to do it!!!!!  There’s are Michigan State tax dollars at work – renewing on line is the only option and she wants me to have to go to the library!  Well it must have been my dial up connection at home that was the problem because it went through the first time yesterday and I am even in a different country!!!!!!

It was training day again so after breakfast we dropped all the dogs and put ½ back in and got them ready to run – oil on their feet, boots on some with sore feet, harnesses, hook them in to the line and then be ready to take off on the 4 wheeler with the tracks again to the road crossing so I can tell Randy if it is safe to cross because he can’t  see from his position.  Cross the road and you guessed it….jump off and turn the leaders the right way!  Several more times of doing that, especially at one corner that they consistently miss and then get so far into the wrong turn that I either have to turn the team back on itself or waller thru the deep snow to get them going in the right direction.  The second ½ of the trail is better with less choices for turns, therefore, less mistakes and less of me jumping off this huge 4 wheeler.  The second team we had Snapper and the new dog, Sterling, in lead – Sterling thought he knew which way to go but Snapper dragged him the wrong way – so jump off again.  Snapper made most of the turns correctly and Sterling made him go really fast the first 5 or 6 miles, until we got to the big hills.  About 3 miles out Randy stopped in the middle of the trail for a tangle and when I started to follow him, I couldn’t go forward – the right rear track was spinning in the snow digging a hole!  So I put it in reverse then tried going forward, then I put it in low, then I put it in 4 wheel drive (they told me at lunch yesterday it is much easier to steer in 2 wheel drive) then I finally went forward.  When I had gone ahead a few yards, I put it back into 2 wheel and high and it wouldn’t go again………….so I don’t know what I did or didn’t do but I finally got up the hill and …………..no Randy.  You have to remember this training trail is 6 big loops in over 120 acres of farm land and at any given time, I am lost!!!!  So I keep going the way I think Randy went and still can’t find him and I see the trail that goes home – thinking I better beat him to the road crossing or he won’t have anyone to look for traffic – so I get to the road and no Randy – so I don’t know if he is behind me or already back at the barn and I can’t see the barn from the road!!!!  I am almost ready to try and race to the barn and see if he is there and here he comes up behind me!  He was in one of those loops and I couldn’t see him – so it ends well all in all…….

After training we are pretty much exhausted, so movie time until time to feed!!!  We had a nice dinner of fried pork chops, baked potato, cranberry sauce and apple sauce!!

Sunday – 2/22

It snowed quite a bit overnite – probably 5 inches so the front end loader was here already just as we were putting the dogs back in from breakfast – they do a good job of keeping the streets clear here!

Up a little earlier that normal so we had them all back in their boxes by 8:15 – just in time to be able to go to the only mass they have here in town at 9am!  I thought we could walk the mile to church but Randy wanted to drive (and it was a good thing because my knee started bothering me more this afternoon), so we drove the whole rig up there and took up all of the post office parking lot.  Mass was all in French and I could recognize only 1 in 20 words, mostly because they either sound like an English or Spanish word!   Like in French church is “eglise” (may not have that spelled right….) and in Spanish “iglesia”.  We enjoyed the service even though we didn’t recognize any of the songs and most of the prayers – and they didn’t do any “sign of peace” to each other which we thought was interesting.  There were maybe 30 people there and it was held in a little chapel at the back of the church – we are imagining that the parish cannot afford to heat the church in the winter, especially with so few coming to Mass.  The church itself is beautiful old French Quebec with tall spires and steeples– Bellerives had the interior restored to its original condition.

In the afternoon Randy wanted to try out some dogs that had been having shoulder problems so we hooked up a leader we got from Claude (Willy) and Kyle, a team dog from Claude, our Spot and Teddy.  I suggested we use the snowmobile instead of the sled in case one of them needed to be carried because they couldn’t keep up……..what a good idea that was!!!!  Randy thought that Willy would single lead……..after 6 attempts and getting balled up numerous times, Randy decided that it wasn’t going to work.  So I held the team out while he walked back the 50 yards to get Dee to help Willy lead – finally we left and things were going OK (still stopping to turn them when they didn’t turn the right way) and then Randy decides to try Teddy in lead – that didn’t work worth a bean!  He stopped and started and wanted to push Willy into the snow bank, so we put Spot up with Willy…………the highlight of the run!!!  He drove really hard and looks like he is feeling good!

The rest of the day was uneventful – I cooked my brussel sprouts for my dinner and Randy had mac and cheese.  Then he went to the barn and helped Claude and Hermel feed their dogs.

It was probably the warmest day we have had since we left Michigan – warm enough for the snow to melt on the pavement.

Monday 2/23

The temperature feels like it dropped 20 degrees and it’s windy again, (Randy says the thermometer inside the dog box on the truck says -10 degrees and that is without the wind chill) though sunny.  Randy said they would not train today (don’t know if that’s because the trail needs to be groomed before they train again what with all the snow we got Saturday nite) – so maybe groom today and train tomorrow?  I know that Wednesday Bellerives are having a get together with 35 of their roofing business clients – they have been doing this same thing for a number of years – they all meet near here and then drive an hour …..on snowmobiles!  They go to a remote lodge where they have ice fishing, skating with hockey and other outdoor activities (Melaniae said she would bring me a trout home!) and then have a big dinner at the end of the day.  Sounds like fun – I will be able to tell you more after Wednesday.

Tonite we are invited to Melanie’s for lasagna –more on that later!!

In our quest today to fill the propane tanks that are in an insulated dog box on the truck with a heater to thaw the buckets of dog food (and thereby making it not necessary to have 2 buckets thawing at the end of our table in front of the furnace smelling up the trailer like spoiled meat….) we first went to the place we always filled up about 5 miles from here.  Well they don’t fill tanks any more….they told us to go to the Esso gas station 5 more miles…………Randy stopped at an Eko gas station and they told us to go to the Canadian Tire store in Shewanigan – another 3 miles and we see the Esso station; the 2 people that fill the tanks are not back for 2 hours – we decide to see whether the Canadian Tire store can do it – they won’t fill it because it’s too cold out!  We go shopping there and do find some new boots for me (good to -58 degrees) and some lined gloves to use on dog work since Randy left his only other pair on a gas pump in NY state-  we decide to go back to the Esso and wait and on the way leaving Shewanigan to a grocery store, we see that Rona, has propane.  So I grocery shop and the Rona guy tells Randy he will fill it and it’s even cheaper than any other price we have gotten.  So with all of our assignments completed, we stop at McDonalds – a bit of lack of communication where I ended up with a hamburg with nothing on it…I mean nothing!!! No catsup, mustard, pickle, nada! And for the mere price of $12.54!!! (Randy had a combo burger, with drink and fries)  Things are a bit pricier up here!!!

I happened to notice on our trip as we passed a cemetery – many of the gravestones were set up back to back – so you would theoretically have people lying “head to head” – space saving measure???!!

Monday –

Yeah!!!!!! Made it to Bellerive’s!!!!!  got up this morning after the nite I described to you and got the dogs fed and hit the road for just south of Laconia to buy us some “fixin’ the house to be warmer stuff” at Lowes.  Got a Eden-Pure-like heater that I negotiated the salesperson down on because it was the only one he had and it had scratches (did I do good Jess???) and a stiff push broom to sweep the snow off the back ramp every time we open it (the half-size kiddy broom with waffly fibers wasn’t getting it),some of the window shrinky dink stuff and of course I didn’t bring a dryer so we needed a heat gun!!!

I forgot how mountainous the north portion of NH and Vermont are – lots of ups and 5% grade downs – we went by the Indian Head which I remember from a previous trip but couldn’t see it for whatever reason – I was thinking we went by the profile of I think president Grant that NH uses in their state insignia but that must have been a different road.  The last time we came by the Indianhead his nose was gone…..maybe all of him fell off the mountain!!!  Stopped for diesel for the truck and gasoline at the last city before the border, Newport VT – that’s where I posted last.  The next big anxiety-provoking hurdle- ta-ta-da-da…………….the dreaded border crossing!!!!!  Young guy asked a few questions and said “have a nice day”  Whew!!!  We have have just enough problems at border crossings to make me very nervous…Randy commented after the fact that you would think that when you are as old as we and and not likely drug runners or smugglers your should get an “automatic pass Go and collect $200” but maybe you have to be 90 years old to get to that point!!

So we are parked outside of the barn where the dogs live and have just plugged in the “Eden Pure-like” heater and it seems to be working good!! Here’s to an uneventful and more sleepful nite!!  Will be able to post at Bellerive’s house’s wifi tomorrow!!

We did indeed have a more restful nite and yes, the heater is working well – it’s 60 degrees in here right now at 4:15pm -   We spent the after noon putting the shrink wrap on the windows –not a small project!! Took about 3 hours – 3 windows and 2 overhead vents.  The newly purchased heat gun worked great and I suppose I could even use it for a hair dryer in a pinch!!  We saw Claude briefly this morning and he talked about seeing us this afternoon but no sign of them yet.  We took loaves of bread in to the dog barn (the area we get to use is more like the same level of niceness of my house) and we broke up about 2  buckets of bread to provide carbs for the dogs in their feedings.  Lots of the bread was really really frozen (because we haul in it the sub-floor of the back of the trailer under the dog coops) and Randy and I ended up with some pretty cold fingers!  We treated some dog feet at the last drop and will probably feed about 15 minutes from now – Randy wants to be free to go in the barn and follow Claude feeding his dogs because he said there might be some Randy would be interested in.

Wednesday (I think….)  Happy birthday Lucas!!!!!!!  

Hard to keep track you know – no tv – I just put the radio on for some outside stimulation.  Cold again today, but as yesterday, no wind – that helps a lot.  Perhaps the temp is warmer out because we just have the heater working most of the time and not the furnace as much.  With just the heater it is 68 degrees in here right now at 1p.  Randy is out with Hermel (Bellerive’s dog man) grooming the trail for training tomorrow.  He has been out there quite a while – long enough for me to finish ½ a movie and wash my hair and have it dried!  After he gets back we are going to the grocery store and hardware (2 of the 3 stores in the town of Charette!!)

Soooo a package of ham for sandwich meat was $5 – the small amounts of snap peas and brussel sprouts went for 11 and 14$ a pound…………..it’s way different price-wise up here!

Blew the wad at the grocery store and had a “reunion” with the owner of the store, Mario – we had not been there for probably 5 years and it was good to see him again – he recognized us immediately and spoke good English – he was one of the Quebecers that told us that it is very important to try to speak some French when we are here so that the residents feel as though we are making a good attempt to communicate.  So I used my entire repertoire of French words……about 5!!!

After unloading groceries we fed dogs and then dropped them 2 hours later so we could go out to dinner with the Bellerives.  We went to the only restaurant in town which is also owned by Claude’s cousin – I had my usual = garlic shrimp!!! Delicious!!! Patrick is still not feeling well with his cerebral pain so he did not join us but Hermel was there to talk dogs and provide additional translation ability!

Thursday – Happy birthday Bec!! 

Another cold day but still not as bad as it was in Laconia!  Some snow – about 2 inches – it was training day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Now I don’t remember ever having to do this before, but not only did I have to do all the getting ready for 2 teams of 10, but I also had to be the one driving the 4 wheeler (which, Lucas, has like bulldozer tracks on it……….making it not so easy to turn corners………..) to be out to the road crossing and make sure there are no vehicles coming in order for Randy to cross with the team, but then also follow him around the whole trail (10 miles…….) and jump off and turn the dogs every time they wouldn’t take the turn he was telling them to!!!  The first team out was lead by Scar and Beika – they acted like they had never heard the words “Gee and Haw” and I had to get off at least 10 times to go up to the front of the team and turn them the way Randy wanted them to go!  The second team lead by Snapper and Doe did a bit better but I still had about 4 times getting off to lead them in the right direction.  The training trail is quite beautiful – once you cross the road (which seems a lot busier than it did the last time we were here!) in the first ¼ mile, then you do loops and loops and loops out in farming, hilly country where there is also a well traveled snow machine trail – which we did see several of today!  Several great big hills – the kind that when you are at the top and about to go down the other side it looks like you are going to drop off the face of the earth!!  Luke, you would have loved the winding downhill trail through the woods!!!  I will have to try and take some pictures next run but today I was just getting a grip on what I was supposed to do – we did try out 2 dogs from Claude named Viper and Sterling and they did very well.

Looks like they will become part of “team DeKuiper”!! 

So now I just sitting in the trailer watching some horror CD’s that our kids have given me and waiting to find out if we are having dinner with just us or with Bellerives.  I am still sore from falling down unloading one of the dogs that we got from Claude named “Willy” (maybe after my Dad????)– he has a sore shoulder but you couldn’t prove it by me!!!  He took me down the back ramp and wham, on the ground with the elbow!!!  Today I felt like a train ran me over!!!   No major injuries, just old people stuff – nothing a little Cabernet can’t help!!!!

Used my stove for the first time tonite – hamburgers in the pan!!!  That’s something I never had in the blue trailer – I used to have a single burner in the old brown dog truck, but no microwave – then I had only the microwave in the blue trailer –now I have both!!!!  I am so spoiled!!

Friday-

Up at 8 and let the dogs out – while they were out a front end loader (3 times the size of out backhoe…..could be its “backhoe Daddy…” came and  plowed all around us and the driveways.  Now that we have figured out what day of the week it is (that took me some time and consultation with Randy about the last week’s events..) we are deciding on whether to train again today or not – guess what my vote is?!!!  It seems a little chillier today and there is some wind.  Randy went out on the snowmobile to check out a turn that he missed and found the training trail quite blown in!  So no training until the groomer goes around again. 

Just as I was loading up to walk over to the house to do some laundry, Claude stopped by to ask us to lunch with Melanie and Hermel (Patrick is still having a lot of pain from his neurological problem – apparently they have consulted with 2 different neurologists and are treating for the trigeminal neuralgia but it doesn’t seem to be helping – they are giving a med they use for epilepsy but Melanie could not remember what it is – so perhaps they will try the other specialist and see if he can help with his different diagnosis – which I don’t know either) at the little restaurant in town where we ate Wednesday.   I had some delicious fish and Randy had one of the specials, pizza with French fries!!!  Some foods that they take for granted as going together are just not what we are used to!!!!

Randy is going out with Hermel later today to groom the trail, everybody else went back to work.  Tomorrow Melanie and Patrick are going to his father’s birthday dinner after training and Claude and Renelle are going to Montreal for the weekend to celebrate Valentine’s Day.  Melanie invited us to lasagna dinner at her house for Monday so we are kind of on our own till then – maybe we will go shopping??!!!  I could really use another pair of winter boots!!

So I am in Bellerive’s home right now and Lise, their housekeeper showed me how to use the new washer and dryer in the completely remodeled laundry room and she showed me the re-do on the downstairs bathroom!!!!  WOW!!!  I thought it was luxurious before!!!!! They took out the bidet………..must be nobody was using it, including me!

As I said, people may be busy all weekend so I may not be able to post again until Monday!  Miss and love you all!!!

Leaving Laconia

Sunday – had a delightful Valentine’s dinner – both of us had prime rib– in case I didn’t mention it last nite –

Today Randy had to make one of the hardest decisions – one that he has never had to make before in 42 years of dogsledding!  He scratched.  After thinking about it all nite he decided that it was unfair to ask the 6 yearlings to go out on such a difficult trail (what with all the people and noise) without solid leaders.  On top of it all it was a terrible weather-wise day – I don’t know the actual temp but the winds must be 40mph at least – I noticed a little bit of frostbite under my eyes that I thought had healed but now is back.  So instead of getting the team ready and Randy having to battle the elements, we helped other teams get out and then went to the part of the trail where many people had trouble with their dogs wanting to jump the trail and take a short cut back to the dog yard (including Randy) because the final loop of the trail goes right by the start line on the opposite side of the road!! so we were trail help and thankfully none of the teams tried to go off the trail today.  It was so windy out there I almost blew over…and I am no lightweight anymore!! We did see some pretty exciting head-on passing and at one point 3 teams were balled up neck and neck on the trail!  Went to the awards ceremony and Melanie Bellerive got 2^nd place and Claude was 7^th because he too had leader problems yesterday and more problems twice that we could see from where we were on the trail today.

Will spend the nite here in the race site – still windy – sounds like a tornado out there!!!  Tomorrow do some shopping before we head north and make our way to Bellerive’s.  No race this next weekend because they postponed the Ile aux Coudres (the island in the middle of the St. Lawrence Seaway that has the 8% grade in ½ mile going down to the car ferry!!) so we will probably just train at Bellerive’s and see if we can’t “cultivate” some stronger leaders!

Well we spent about an hour trying to protect ourselves better from the wind – saran wrap on the vents, rugs and blankets over the windows and door (even though I did make some buffalo plaid flannel curtains for all the windows, the wind is just too strong..)  Finally some time in the middle of the nite the wind died down so we didn’t feel like a tin can waiting to blow down the road and then the generator quit – hadn’t done that since the race weekend at Kalkaska.  So Randy got up and dressed and had to go out and fill the generator with gas again because the add-on siphon tank wasn’t working!!!!  What’s new???!!!

Happy New 2015!!!   We hope this year finds you happy and well!

Haven’t gotten around to blogging yet since the only interesting things that have been happening are training, getting sick with whatever the name flu bugs and colds, training, exposing the young dogs (which comprises over ½ of our racing dogs) to a race scenario at Kalkaska (by the way, it sure wasn’t the same without all the Edges – that means you, Tom, there – hope you are healing fast from your shoulder surgery) where we fared moderate to fair……(including Mark Kukal that ran my 4 dog team when I found out it was supposed to be a treacherous trail and Mark found ½ way down the trail that the experienced leader he had, Al, didn’t want to run lead for him and he had to put a yearling in lead….), training, and oh yeah, Randy dragging down the ice road and me hitting him with the snowmobile runner!  I will tell that story in a minute –

We just got into Laconia, NH and are finding that we may have some trouble fitting into our parking spot for the race tomorrow when they assign us a spot according to starting order – we have a new trailer and still the very big blue GMC 5500 and are 53 feet long!  Even before that we had some trouble finding the race site because it might be about 7 years or so since we have been here!

We left home on Tues promptly at 1:13 pm (Randy wanted to leave at 1:15 – I try to accommodate……) and had to get 10 rabies shots at Doc Gilbert’s in Big Rapids so that was the reason for the late start.  On the “real” road by 3p and got as far as Cabelas in Dundee, MI and thought it looked like a good spot to stop to feed – then we looked in Cabela’s for some new winter boots for me – none……….we ate dinner at a restaurant and thought we were tired enough (having loaded 20 dogs and winterizing the house) to stay the nite – they have a nice big parking lot behind the store plenty big enough for 20 semis.  It worked good.  Up at the crack of 8am and fed breakfast and drove (except for dropping 2 hours later to relieve the breakfast “residuals”) until about 6 and fed a couple hours west of Albany NY at a turnpike rest stop (we decided to take the “southern route” to avoid going thru customs in and out of Ontario – after we got to Buffalo, it was the same route as if we had gone thru Ontario.  So we went from Dundee, around Cleveland, up to Erie PA, then to Buffalo NY and then took the NY thruway (as they call it out here) all the way to Albany (for the mere price of $48.20 – Randy said “what????? We aren’t a semi!” And she said “your have 4 axles don’t you???)  We spent the nite at yet another of the NY thruway rest stops – which are very nice but not worth the $48…).  This morning up a little earlier at 7.  We did have one dismaying incident during the nite at about 12:30 am– we don’t know how cold it actually was outside or it got in here, but Randy woke up because his bald head was cold and the furnace had kicked the circuit breaker out – by the time I got back it bed I had a case of “frozen feet” that took more than a little while to thaw!

On the road this morning about 8:30 and left NY and went thru the smallish, quaintish city of Bennington VT – then the fun started – you know you can never tell by those maps or by our GPS what kind of topography you are “in for” – well let me tell you, Hog Back Mountain is right up there with some of the mountains in AK!  Twice we went down 8% grades and we were glad that Randy had purchased an add-on exhaust brake (like a “jake brake”) – for those of you like me not knowledgeable about such things, it slows your vehicle down by shutting down the turbo, which in turn puts back pressure on the motor , which then slows the vehicle down going down hills= simple, huh??  It makes it a lot less scary going down steep hills/mountains – we wish we had had something like it in AK!!

So once out of the mountains pretty straight on 9 to Concord and then to Laconia where we are about to feed and then drop to be able to go to the 7p drivers meeting and find out which of these small spots we are going to park in!

Soooo this is the story of our last training before we left –as promised.  It was the 2^nd time of training with the sled and me following on the snowmobile – 14 dogs that Randy wanted to run together to prepare for Laconia- it all started in the middle of the nite when I couldn’t sleep and it occurred to me that tomorrow is Saturday and there might be a lot of snowmobiles out on the trails interfering with Randy’s run and causing some problems…..next day we are hooking up and Randy says “be sure and put your extra coat on before we are done hooking the dogs up so you can be close with the snowmobile when I make that first right angle road corner” – that was the second hint……  He starts out good and I am right behind him if he needs me and splat…down he goes flipped over because of a big dirt patch on the corner where the snow plow had just plowed ( I know we should have checked in advance but hadn’t seen any dirt on the roads leading up to that point)– I am now in intense anxiety and pressure mode because he is dragging down the road for about a block trying to get one of the 2 snow hooks into the bare road and it isn’t happening!  I try to ease my way up to the side of the sled so he can set one of the hooks on the snowmobile and I hear a “thud” (kind of like the noise you would expect if you dropped a pumpkin a foot from the ground….) and saw I had hit him with the runner!!!  Oh my God…..now do I have a husband dragging with a concussion????  He managed to get the snow hook or something else to stop the 14 dogs for a second, I jumped off the snowmobile and grabbed a snow hook and hooked it into the seat frame and then say the team pulling the snowmobile and Randy down the road only to then miraculously jump back on the snowmobile and apply the brake!!  Yes there were injuries….. one on the forehead from the bouncing snow hook and one on the top of his head that he has hit 2 more times since then (why is it when we get older we think we are shorter????) and an coat tear and abrasion on his shoulder.  So he gets back underway on the sled and things are going mostly well for about 7 miles except that we notice that a truck had driven down our trail!@!!  and we look ahead and there are 6 Jeep Wranglers stopped in the middle of the trail and there is no way we can pass around them because we are in deep woods and narrow trail– our perfectly groomed almost-like-Alaska-trail – Randy yells until someone looks out the window of the last one and they start moving ahead…very slowly…  At this point we don’t know what’s going to happen and so Randy hooks the snow hook to the runner of the snowmobile (yes, the same one I hit him with..) and we go down the trail slowly following these people until they finally turn right- but they don’t just turn they churn the entire intersection up into ruts!  We get to the left turn we need to make to go home (mind you Randy is still hooked to me) and I can’t get the snowmobile turned sharp enough to make it so the main line is tight against the tree and the wheel dogs are too – Randy tries to pull out so that I can move ahead around the tree but it’s too much pressure from the dogs so he unhooks all the tug lines so they can’t pull so hard and tries to pull out on the main line and me go ahead again – well I went ahead but not without running my left ski up onto a sapling and tipping myself over on the side “narrowly missing my body by inches” (as the news reporters would say…) so we notice gas leaking out of the tank and know we have to right the machine as fast as possible – try once, no go – try twice and up!!  Unbelievably the rest of the run goes pretty good.  One of those days when you ask yourself “why do we do this???”

I will let you know how the race goes tomorrow – we know we are not competitive and are mostly doing it for the fun and to teach the yearlings about racing, so we will see how it goes!!

We went to the driver’s meeting at a pretty nice restaurant named Patrick’s Pub – and who should we see as we walk in the front door ??  the Bellerive contingent from Quebec, our good friends for the last 9 years!!  They were waiting for a table so we had dinner with them.  It was so good to catch up.  Everyone was well with the exception of Patrick, Melanie’s significant other, who has what the doctor diagnosed as trigeminal neuralgia, causing him pain worse than a migraine would.  They had the draw for places, and unbelievably, Randy drew 1^st place!!!!!  It’s too bad we don’t have a crackerjack team to take advantage of the luck!!!

Friday –

Very, very, very,very cold – just as they predicted – sunny but very windy.  They had the usual introductions of the open drivers and singing of both the US and Canadian national anthems- meanwhile I am putting something called “Zeus Juice” on the 14 dog’s feet and on the testicles of the dogs without much hair there…….  Randy gets back from the ceremony and I have a dog out that I shouldn’t have had out and 2 that were not out that should have been (an issue with the magnet board and one of the dog’s name missing) so while we are scrambling around to get the right dogs and get them hooked up the local TV station thinks it’s a good time to video us and try to do an interview – I got so hot even as cold and windy as it was I ended up throwing my hat off – we got up to the line without too much problem (one dog slipped her collar and 2 more backed out of their harnesses) and he was off!!  He had a fair run- Dee in lead stopped to poop twice and pee once and she and Scar stopped dead on one of the hills – so he ended up 13 of 14 teams.  He didn’t have as bad a time as Hermel Bergeron who fell and hit his head on a snow bank, lost a dog and then had trouble getting his snow hook out to finish the race!!

Saturday –

It’s about as cold temperature-wise but no wind – also no sun – we are supposed to get about 8 inches of snow tonite and be below zero for the actual temperature and very strong wind for tomorrow.

Well who would think that we could do worse today than yesterday……………Randy changed leaders because Dee was so bad about stopping on the trail and so he put Doe in lead with her mother Scar – well Doe had only raced once so she wanted to quit before Randy got a mile out….twice – so then he put Dee back in – then he had to stop again and put in a yearling Caleb and she did good until there got to be too many people on the sidelines and she quit and he had to put in a “will lead” dog , Blanche, and she wanted to jump the trail and take a shortcut back to the start because she knew she was close!!!  So all in all we have last place firmly sewn up!

Maybe out to dinner tonite since it is Valentine’s  Day!!!

Did go out for dinner –prime rib!!!!   Sorry we haven’t been able to post sooner!!!!

Happy New 2015!!!   We hope this year finds you happy and well!

Haven’t gotten around to blogging yet since the only interesting things that have been happening are training, getting sick with whatever the name flu bugs and colds, training, exposing the young dogs (which comprises over ½ of our racing dogs) to a race scenario at Kalkaska (by the way, it sure wasn’t the same without all the Edges – that means you, Tom, there – hope you are healing fast from your shoulder surgery) where we fared moderate to fair……(including Mark Kukal that ran my 4 dog team when I found out it was supposed to be a treacherous trail and Mark found ½ way down the trail that the experienced leader he had, Al, didn’t want to run lead for him and he had to put a yearling in lead….), training, and oh yeah, Randy dragging down the ice road and me hitting him with the snowmobile runner!  I will tell that story in a minute –

We just got into Laconia, NH and are finding that we may have some trouble fitting into our parking spot for the race tomorrow when they assign us a spot according to starting order – we have a new trailer and still the very big blue GMC 5500 and are 53 feet long!  Even before that we had some trouble finding the race site because it might be about 7 years or so since we have been here!

We left home on Tues promptly at 1:13 pm (Randy wanted to leave at 1:15 – I try to accommodate……) and had to get 10 rabies shots at Doc Gilbert’s in Big Rapids so that was the reason for the late start.  On the “real” road by 3p and got as far as Cabelas in Dundee, MI and thought it looked like a good spot to stop to feed – then we looked in Cabela’s for some new winter boots for me – none……….we ate dinner at a restaurant and thought we were tired enough (having loaded 20 dogs and winterizing the house) to stay the nite – they have a nice big parking lot behind the store plenty big enough for 20 semis.  It worked good.  Up at the crack of 8am and fed breakfast and drove (except for dropping 2 hours later to relieve the breakfast “residuals”) until about 6 and fed a couple hours west of Albany NY at a turnpike rest stop (we decided to take the “southern route” to avoid going thru customs in and out of Ontario – after we got to Buffalo, it was the same route as if we had gone thru Ontario.  So we went from Dundee, around Cleveland, up to Erie PA, then to Buffalo NY and then took the NY thruway (as they call it out here) all the way to Albany (for the mere price of $48.20 – Randy said “what????? We aren’t a semi!” And she said “your have 4 axles don’t you???)  We spent the nite at yet another of the NY thruway rest stops – which are very nice but not worth the $48…).  This morning up a little earlier at 7.  We did have one dismaying incident during the nite at about 12:30 am– we don’t know how cold it actually was outside or it got in here, but Randy woke up because his bald head was cold and the furnace had kicked the circuit breaker out – by the time I got back it bed I had a case of “frozen feet” that took more than a little while to thaw!

On the road this morning about 8:30 and left NY and went thru the smallish, quaintish city of Bennington VT – then the fun started – you know you can never tell by those maps or by our GPS what kind of topography you are “in for” – well let me tell you, Hog Back Mountain is right up there with some of the mountains in AK!  Twice we went down 8% grades and we were glad that Randy had purchased an add-on exhaust brake (like a “jake brake”) – for those of you like me not knowledgeable about such things, it slows your vehicle down by shutting down the turbo, which in turn puts back pressure on the motor , which then slows the vehicle down going down hills= simple, huh??  It makes it a lot less scary going down steep hills/mountains – we wish we had had something like it in AK!!

So once out of the mountains pretty straight on 9 to Concord and then to Laconia where we are about to feed and then drop to be able to go to the 7p drivers meeting and find out which of these small spots we are going to park in!

Soooo this is the story of our last training before we left –as promised.  It was the 2^nd time of training with the sled and me following on the snowmobile – 14 dogs that Randy wanted to run together to prepare for Laconia- it all started in the middle of the nite when I couldn’t sleep and it occurred to me that tomorrow is Saturday and there might be a lot of snowmobiles out on the trails interfering with Randy’s run and causing some problems…..next day we are hooking up and Randy says “be sure and put your extra coat on before we are done hooking the dogs up so you can be close with the snowmobile when I make that first right angle road corner” – that was the second hint……  He starts out good and I am right behind him if he needs me and splat…down he goes flipped over because of a big dirt patch on the corner where the snow plow had just plowed ( I know we should have checked in advance but hadn’t seen any dirt on the roads leading up to that point)– I am now in intense anxiety and pressure mode because he is dragging down the road for about a block trying to get one of the 2 snow hooks into the bare road and it isn’t happening!  I try to ease my way up to the side of the sled so he can set one of the hooks on the snowmobile and I hear a “thud” (kind of like the noise you would expect if you dropped a pumpkin a foot from the ground….) and saw I had hit him with the runner!!!  Oh my God…..now do I have a husband dragging with a concussion????  He managed to get the snow hook or something else to stop the 14 dogs for a second, I jumped off the snowmobile and grabbed a snow hook and hooked it into the seat frame and then say the team pulling the snowmobile and Randy down the road only to then miraculously jump back on the snowmobile and apply the brake!!  Yes there were injuries….. one on the forehead from the bouncing snow hook and one on the top of his head that he has hit 2 more times since then (why is it when we get older we think we are shorter????) and an coat tear and abrasion on his shoulder.  So he gets back underway on the sled and things are going mostly well for about 7 miles except that we notice that a truck had driven down our trail!@!!  and we look ahead and there are 6 Jeep Wranglers stopped in the middle of the trail and there is no way we can pass around them because we are in deep woods and narrow trail– our perfectly groomed almost-like-Alaska-trail – Randy yells until someone looks out the window of the last one and they start moving ahead…very slowly…  At this point we don’t know what’s going to happen and so Randy hooks the snow hook to the runner of the snowmobile (yes, the same one I hit him with..) and we go down the trail slowly following these people until they finally turn right- but they don’t just turn they churn the entire intersection up into ruts!  We get to the left turn we need to make to go home (mind you Randy is still hooked to me) and I can’t get the snowmobile turned sharp enough to make it so the main line is tight against the tree and the wheel dogs are too – Randy tries to pull out so that I can move ahead around the tree but it’s too much pressure from the dogs so he unhooks all the tug lines so they can’t pull so hard and tries to pull out on the main line and me go ahead again – well I went ahead but not without running my left ski up onto a sapling and tipping myself over on the side “narrowly missing my body by inches” (as the news reporters would say…) so we notice gas leaking out of the tank and know we have to right the machine as fast as possible – try once, no go – try twice and up!!  Unbelievably the rest of the run goes pretty good.  One of those days when you ask yourself “why do we do this???”

I will let you know how the race goes tomorrow – we know we are not competitive and are mostly doing it for the fun and to teach the yearlings about racing, so we will see how it goes!!

We went to the driver’s meeting at a pretty nice restaurant named Patrick’s Pub – and who should we see as we walk in the front door ??  the Bellerive contingent from Quebec, our good friends for the last 9 years!!  They were waiting for a table so we had dinner with them.  It was so good to catch up.  Everyone was well with the exception of Patrick, Melanie’s significant other, who has what the doctor diagnosed as trigeminal neuralgia, causing him pain worse than a migraine would.  They had the draw for places, and unbelievably, Randy drew 1^st place!!!!!  It’s too bad we don’t have a crackerjack team to take advantage of the luck!!!

Friday –

Very, very, very,very cold – just as they predicted – sunny but very windy.  They had the usual introductions of the open drivers and singing of both the US and Canadian national anthems- meanwhile I am putting something called “Zeus Juice” on the 14 dog’s feet and on the testicles of the dogs without much hair there…….  Randy gets back from the ceremony and I have a dog out that I shouldn’t have had out and 2 that were not out that should have been (an issue with the magnet board and one of the dog’s name missing) so while we are scrambling around to get the right dogs and get them hooked up the local TV station thinks it’s a good time to video us and try to do an interview – I got so hot even as cold and windy as it was I ended up throwing my hat off – we got up to the line without too much problem (one dog slipped her collar and 2 more backed out of their harnesses) and he was off!!  He had a fair run- Dee in lead stopped to poop twice and pee once and she and Scar stopped dead on one of the hills – so he ended up 13 of 14 teams.  He didn’t have as bad a time as Hermel Bergeron who fell and hit his head on a snow bank, lost a dog and then had trouble getting his snow hook out to finish the race!!

Saturday –

It’s about as cold temperature-wise but no wind – also no sun – we are supposed to get about 8 inches of snow tonite and be below zero for the actual temperature and very strong wind for tomorrow.

Well who would think that we could do worse today than yesterday……………Randy changed leaders because Dee was so bad about stopping on the trail and so he put Doe in lead with her mother Scar – well Doe had only raced once so she wanted to quit before Randy got a mile out….twice – so then he put Dee back in – then he had to stop again and put in a yearling Caleb and she did good until there got to be too many people on the sidelines and she quit and he had to put in a “will lead” dog , Blanche, and she wanted to jump the trail and take a shortcut back to the start because she knew she was close!!!  So all in all we have last place firmly sewn up!

Maybe out to dinner tonite since it is Valentine’s  Day!!!

Did go out for dinner –prime rib!!!!   Sorry we haven’t been able to post sooner!!!!

Happy New 2015!!!   We hope this year finds you happy and well!

Haven’t gotten around to blogging yet since the only interesting things that have been happening are training, getting sick with whatever the name flu bugs and colds, training, exposing the young dogs (which comprises over ½ of our racing dogs) to a race scenario at Kalkaska (by the way, it sure wasn’t the same without all the Edges – that means you, Tom, there – hope you are healing fast from your shoulder surgery) where we fared moderate to fair……(including Mark Kukal that ran my 4 dog team when I found out it was supposed to be a treacherous trail and Mark found ½ way down the trail that the experienced leader he had, Al, didn’t want to run lead for him and he had to put a yearling in lead….), training, and oh yeah, Randy dragging down the ice road and me hitting him with the snowmobile runner!  I will tell that story in a minute –

We just got into Laconia, NH and are finding that we may have some trouble fitting into our parking spot for the race tomorrow when they assign us a spot according to starting order – we have a new trailer and still the very big blue GMC 5500 and are 53 feet long!  Even before that we had some trouble finding the race site because it might be about 7 years or so since we have been here!

We left home on Tues promptly at 1:13 pm (Randy wanted to leave at 1:15 – I try to accommodate……) and had to get 10 rabies shots at Doc Gilbert’s in Big Rapids so that was the reason for the late start.  On the “real” road by 3p and got as far as Cabelas in Dundee, MI and thought it looked like a good spot to stop to feed – then we looked in Cabela’s for some new winter boots for me – none……….we ate dinner at a restaurant and thought we were tired enough (having loaded 20 dogs and winterizing the house) to stay the nite – they have a nice big parking lot behind the store plenty big enough for 20 semis.  It worked good.  Up at the crack of 8am and fed breakfast and drove (except for dropping 2 hours later to relieve the breakfast “residuals”) until about 6 and fed a couple hours west of Albany NY at a turnpike rest stop (we decided to take the “southern route” to avoid going thru customs in and out of Ontario – after we got to Buffalo, it was the same route as if we had gone thru Ontario.  So we went from Dundee, around Cleveland, up to Erie PA, then to Buffalo NY and then took the NY thruway (as they call it out here) all the way to Albany (for the mere price of $48.20 – Randy said “what????? We aren’t a semi!” And she said “your have 4 axles don’t you???)  We spent the nite at yet another of the NY thruway rest stops – which are very nice but not worth the $48…).  This morning up a little earlier at 7.  We did have one dismaying incident during the nite at about 12:30 am– we don’t know how cold it actually was outside or it got in here, but Randy woke up because his bald head was cold and the furnace had kicked the circuit breaker out – by the time I got back it bed I had a case of “frozen feet” that took more than a little while to thaw!

On the road this morning about 8:30 and left NY and went thru the smallish, quaintish city of Bennington VT – then the fun started – you know you can never tell by those maps or by our GPS what kind of topography you are “in for” – well let me tell you, Hog Back Mountain is right up there with some of the mountains in AK!  Twice we went down 8% grades and we were glad that Randy had purchased an add-on exhaust brake (like a “jake brake”) – for those of you like me not knowledgeable about such things, it slows your vehicle down by shutting down the turbo, which in turn puts back pressure on the motor , which then slows the vehicle down going down hills= simple, huh??  It makes it a lot less scary going down steep hills/mountains – we wish we had had something like it in AK!!

So once out of the mountains pretty straight on 9 to Concord and then to Laconia where we are about to feed and then drop to be able to go to the 7p drivers meeting and find out which of these small spots we are going to park in!

Soooo this is the story of our last training before we left –as promised.  It was the 2^nd time of training with the sled and me following on the snowmobile – 14 dogs that Randy wanted to run together to prepare for Laconia- it all started in the middle of the nite when I couldn’t sleep and it occurred to me that tomorrow is Saturday and there might be a lot of snowmobiles out on the trails interfering with Randy’s run and causing some problems…..next day we are hooking up and Randy says “be sure and put your extra coat on before we are done hooking the dogs up so you can be close with the snowmobile when I make that first right angle road corner” – that was the second hint……  He starts out good and I am right behind him if he needs me and splat…down he goes flipped over because of a big dirt patch on the corner where the snow plow had just plowed ( I know we should have checked in advance but hadn’t seen any dirt on the roads leading up to that point)– I am now in intense anxiety and pressure mode because he is dragging down the road for about a block trying to get one of the 2 snow hooks into the bare road and it isn’t happening!  I try to ease my way up to the side of the sled so he can set one of the hooks on the snowmobile and I hear a “thud” (kind of like the noise you would expect if you dropped a pumpkin a foot from the ground….) and saw I had hit him with the runner!!!  Oh my God…..now do I have a husband dragging with a concussion????  He managed to get the snow hook or something else to stop the 14 dogs for a second, I jumped off the snowmobile and grabbed a snow hook and hooked it into the seat frame and then say the team pulling the snowmobile and Randy down the road only to then miraculously jump back on the snowmobile and apply the brake!!  Yes there were injuries….. one on the forehead from the bouncing snow hook and one on the top of his head that he has hit 2 more times since then (why is it when we get older we think we are shorter????) and an coat tear and abrasion on his shoulder.  So he gets back underway on the sled and things are going mostly well for about 7 miles except that we notice that a truck had driven down our trail!@!!  and we look ahead and there are 6 Jeep Wranglers stopped in the middle of the trail and there is no way we can pass around them because we are in deep woods and narrow trail– our perfectly groomed almost-like-Alaska-trail – Randy yells until someone looks out the window of the last one and they start moving ahead…very slowly…  At this point we don’t know what’s going to happen and so Randy hooks the snow hook to the runner of the snowmobile (yes, the same one I hit him with..) and we go down the trail slowly following these people until they finally turn right- but they don’t just turn they churn the entire intersection up into ruts!  We get to the left turn we need to make to go home (mind you Randy is still hooked to me) and I can’t get the snowmobile turned sharp enough to make it so the main line is tight against the tree and the wheel dogs are too – Randy tries to pull out so that I can move ahead around the tree but it’s too much pressure from the dogs so he unhooks all the tug lines so they can’t pull so hard and tries to pull out on the main line and me go ahead again – well I went ahead but not without running my left ski up onto a sapling and tipping myself over on the side “narrowly missing my body by inches” (as the news reporters would say…) so we notice gas leaking out of the tank and know we have to right the machine as fast as possible – try once, no go – try twice and up!!  Unbelievably the rest of the run goes pretty good.  One of those days when you ask yourself “why do we do this???”

I will let you know how the race goes tomorrow – we know we are not competitive and are mostly doing it for the fun and to teach the yearlings about racing, so we will see how it goes!!

We went to the driver’s meeting at a pretty nice restaurant named Patrick’s Pub – and who should we see as we walk in the front door ??  the Bellerive contingent from Quebec, our good friends for the last 9 years!!  They were waiting for a table so we had dinner with them.  It was so good to catch up.  Everyone was well with the exception of Patrick, Melanie’s significant other, who has what the doctor diagnosed as trigeminal neuralgia, causing him pain worse than a migraine would.  They had the draw for places, and unbelievably, Randy drew 1^st place!!!!!  It’s too bad we don’t have a crackerjack team to take advantage of the luck!!!

Friday –

Very, very, very,very cold – just as they predicted – sunny but very windy.  They had the usual introductions of the open drivers and singing of both the US and Canadian national anthems- meanwhile I am putting something called “Zeus Juice” on the 14 dog’s feet and on the testicles of the dogs without much hair there…….  Randy gets back from the ceremony and I have a dog out that I shouldn’t have had out and 2 that were not out that should have been (an issue with the magnet board and one of the dog’s name missing) so while we are scrambling around to get the right dogs and get them hooked up the local TV station thinks it’s a good time to video us and try to do an interview – I got so hot even as cold and windy as it was I ended up throwing my hat off – we got up to the line without too much problem (one dog slipped her collar and 2 more backed out of their harnesses) and he was off!!  He had a fair run- Dee in lead stopped to poop twice and pee once and she and Scar stopped dead on one of the hills – so he ended up 13 of 14 teams.  He didn’t have as bad a time as Hermel Bergeron who fell and hit his head on a snow bank, lost a dog and then had trouble getting his snow hook out to finish the race!!

Saturday –

It’s about as cold temperature-wise but no wind – also no sun – we are supposed to get about 8 inches of snow tonite and be below zero for the actual temperature and very strong wind for tomorrow.

Well who would think that we could do worse today than yesterday……………Randy changed leaders because Dee was so bad about stopping on the trail and so he put Doe in lead with her mother Scar – well Doe had only raced once so she wanted to quit before Randy got a mile out….twice – so then he put Dee back in – then he had to stop again and put in a yearling Caleb and she did good until there got to be too many people on the sidelines and she quit and he had to put in a “will lead” dog , Blanche, and she wanted to jump the trail and take a shortcut back to the start because she knew she was close!!!  So all in all we have last place firmly sewn up!

Maybe out to dinner tonite since it is Valentine’s  Day!!!

Did go out for dinner –prime rib!!!!   Sorry we haven’t been able to post sooner!!!!