Jiggety jig all the way home!

Friday and we are up to get ready to leave on our trip – We left after the second drop, shortly before 11 – the first part of the trip is quite mountainous – through the Laurentian Mountains I think – if you look on a map you will see that you can’t hardly get lost – there is only one road going up north!!  By the time we got to La Tuque it was less hilly but we did have some 11% grades going down – that “jake brake” has come in handy on numerous occasions.  You know how when you are the passenger everything seems scarier because you have no control over the driving ? – well I found a way to have a bit of control………….the jake brake!!  When I think we are going downhill too fast I put it on!  It’s positioned on the dash almost in front of me!

We made it up to Lac St. Jean and then headed northwest – about that time I expected to start seeing signs that would tell us which of the turn offs from the highway would take us to Saint Methode –(the gps would only show me the St. Methode way down south and when I spelled it the way it had it on the map it said “no results found” so the gps was no help at all) because I wasn’t for sure which dot on the map was the dot that was Saint Methode- you know how when there are lots of little towns together it’s difficult to tell which dot is which town?! so I started questioning myself , and even more when we had to make a final choice at a Y in the road – I thought it looked like it was off the Y to the right so we went that way – then no more signs saying Saint Methode made me more nervous so I asked Randy to pull over and look at the map to be sure which dot was correct – he looked at the map and didn’t remember for sure which dot is was but thought we should have gone to the left at the Y…………I say this calmly in writing it, but the conversation was not very calm………..  So we turn the rig around in this medium sized town and go back to the Y- then we see a dog truck going the way we had just come from – now we are both not sure which way to go – so we take the left Y and I suggest we stop and ask – so Randy pulls off at some office and I go in and fortunately the man in there spoke quite good English (usually it is show the person the map and say the place you want to go and have them point to it…) and he even drew us a map of where to go – as we are pulling out of the parking lot we see the Bellerives procession go by and try to follow them but couldn’t keep up – we follow the guy’s map and it turns out that both the left and the right legs of the Y make a triangle and so we could have kept going the way we were on the right leg and ended up in the same spot!!!  We finally get to Saint Methode and I see why I couldn’t get the gps to work – lots of towns in Quebec have 2 names – one on the top of the sign and another in parentheses on the bottom- the top name of Saint Methode is St. Felecien!!!!  If I had put that in we wouldn’t have had any trouble but who knew???!!

There were signs directing you to the dog race in the town and we had also gotten directions from Claude – we followed the signs and arrived in a big open field with a spot the size of a football field plowed out and 2 trailers parked – we were the first ones there and there is nothing, I mean nothing here.  We parked where the guy told us and settled in for the nite. 

This morning Melanie went out 4^th and had a good run but said it was very fast and the last 2 miles of the track were ice where the field had melted on the warm days and then frozen (oh yeah I forgot to tell you, it was -32F last nite – the generator only ran out of gas once meaning Randy had to get up and then worried about it the rest of the nite)

Randy is taking out only 10 dogs – it is a lucky coincidence that the track is so icy and we only have 10 healthy, unhurt, motivated dogs on the truck!!  Depending on whether Dee poops before he leaves (she likes to stop the whole team when she has to poop in a race or training) he will have Sterling and Dee or Beika and Sterling in lead. 

Well I know you are dying to find out…………Dee did poop and she did lead!  Randy had a good clean run and averaged 17.23mph to come in 17 out of 20!  He is happy about how they all did – some like T-Bone and Blanche that are older dogs can’t really go any faster than that but the little girls that are 1, Caleb and Trix kept up easy!!  And the powerhouse was the point dog Viper – Randy said that he set the pace better than the leaders did!  Claude is 3^rd (6 seconds separte the first 3 teams!) and Hermel had a tangle passing, couldn’t get his hook out (I know how that feels – that’s why Randy is missing part of a finger –he had to come and help me get my snow hook out and missed his chute time and then went out to train on the trail alone and had the trouble) and is in 16^th – Melanie we think said she was in 2^7th because she held back on the fast trail.  So day one down and one to go!!

Sunday = much warmer – went to a musher’s banquet in town- neighbors in another trailer took us in after he offered us Jack Daniels and gave us some syrup!  We had Lac St. Jean meat pie – it was traditionally made with all wild game but this was with beef and pork and a very thick crust on the top and botton!  Delicious!!!

Used Dee and Sterling in lead again and it went well but they were still too slow – held on to 17^th place, Claude 3^rd and Melanie think 6^th!  Claude left the chute a minute late because one of his leaders wouldn’t go so he had to switch him out and Melanie had problems with a tangle.  Took 4 hours to get home – so by 8:30 we were back at Bellerives.

Monday – Renell and Melanie wanted to have one last meal with us so they took us out to breakfast at the restaurant in town – a very tearful goodbye………it had been long time since we had been able to spend quality time with them and this month made us all remember why our relationships are so good………

Left Charette at 10:30 – one wrong turn going through a very busy Montreal but Dorothy/gps got us back on track without too much problem.  Stopped and fed the east side of Toronto and got to the other side of it in 45 minutes – we were just celebrating how well we were doing when we hit a stopped expressway!!!  After 45 minutes found out it was a overturned semi in the ditch – went a bit farther and found a place in a strip mall to park in Woodstock (all the rest areas were full) – to bed at 11:30 – will let you know how the day goes – hope to be home about 3p

Spent over 1/2 hour at the Blue Water Bridge at customs - they checked the inside of the vehicle in front of us and looked in the back of us and at dog food- looks like it will be 4:30 before we make it home - now in Saginaw!!!

Last race of the season!

Wednesday cont. – had dinner at the Bellerive’s house – chicken caccitore (spelling) I believe – no one could tell me for sure because Lise the housekeeper made the dinner- too much food – I was full and then Claude insisted we have dessert –sugarpie, banana bread and ice cream!  Ooof!!

Thursday we thought about training but the weather changed from spring back to dead of winter !!!  cold enough to think about mittens over the gloves again!  Randy went out to check the trail once and it was very crusty – what we gained by giving them a bit of exercise we might lose by hurting feet.

We were picked up at 6:30 by Renelle and Claude and we joined Melanie and Patrick at the restaurant in town for dinner.  Patrick is feeling better without nearly the pain since he started taking Lyrica but is sleeping a lot – like most of the day and nite. 

Speaking of sleeping- I had a terrible nite Wed nite – it was blowing back in all of the cold air!!  I kept hearing buckets and poop scoops blowing around all nite and it felt like it might blow the whole trailer down the road!!!

We are leaving this morning (Friday) at about 10:30 or so for St. Methode – Randy says we will probably come back here on Monday and spend the nite and then leave Tuesday morning early so we get thru the rush hour at Montreal.  Don’t know if I will have any internet access this weekend so you may not hear from me till Monday!!

Tuesday morning we awoke to an even warmer day.  We decided to train after the second drop and went out with me on the snowmobile with the team that Randy last raced, minus Raisin and Captain – Captain had pulled back so bad at the race that he is not going to use her this weekend at St-Methode and Raisin didn’t work hard so he is not going to race him.  After the training run he decided that Wolf wasn’t working very hard and might not use her!  Other than that the run went fine.  Then we tried taking a group out with Willy (the leader we got from Claude that was sore in the shoulders) and Cloud at lead for a 2 mile run– well we tried 5 or more times to have them leave and every time Willy would stop or turn around –so we don’t know what the deal with him is – whether he needs to know us better, he is testing us or just plain doesn’t want to leave here in lead!  Hermel says he has never done that before and is always charging ahead – so go figure!  We also took Spot (who ended up being in lead with Cloud and did very nice..) General, Jane, Dicksy, and Teddy- it was more for exercise than anything since they are all out of shape to race anyway even if they are not hurting anymore.  We all got back safe and sound with Randy having to get off the snowmobile (they were hooked to it) about 5 times to turn them (Spot and Cloud are not very good at Gee and Haw).

Well it looks like we are going to leave from this weekend’s race to come home (if I have found the right location on Mapquest – it would not make sense to come back to Bellerives since it is south of here and a bit west).  So we could be home as soon as Tuesday nite or Wednesday!  Say, Mark Kukal; if you have to come up and get some dog meat you might drop that snowplow blade down and clear a place for us to back up into…….

Wednesday:  Break out the flip flops and t-shirts!!!!  I spent most of the afternoon outside in a long sleeved t-shirt –you all have probably already had the weather that we are getting now!  I had to turn the furnace down and just use the heater and the it has been plenty warm all day in the trailer – what a change in the weather!!!

Busy day – started at the second drop by cleaning out boxes for the weekend and the trip home .  We had one more bag of soak and one bale of hay and had to totally clean out 7 boxes down to the boards.  Then refilled everybody with more soak and hay.  Then we went shopping – I was looking specifically for a plastic pretend grass mat to put outside the front door what with everything melting and wet boots coming in it can get pretty stinky –also bought an air freshener!!!  First went to Canadian Tire to see about getting some transmission fluid – Randy didn’t think to bring any with us and last weekend Hermel’s truck blew a line and thankfully Claude could find some in his truck – we don’t have the luxury of traveling in pairs……  We looked for a pair of boots like I got there for Randy because they are very light and easy to pull on and off (as opposed to Randy’s Muck boots or his Mickey Mouse boots)- the shelves where they were a couple of weeks ago are now filled with sandals and flip flops!!

Then we went to Walmart – no luck on a rug there either – then we had lunch at the Mcdonalds in Walmart – then to Rona for propane and no luck for a rug there either!

Back at 3 then I cleaned the house and Randy washed the truck and trailer – you can imagine the salt build up over the month!  Things look brand-spankin’-new!!!  So fed dogs and now Randy is waiting to help Claude feed his – then we go up to the house for a chicken dinner after we do our “after dinner drop”-

I was wrong about the weekend race location – apparently it is 5 hours north of here not south (Randy and Claude looked at the map last nite an there must be 2 different St. Methodes) – that means we may or may not stop back here after Sunday – just depends – and then it takes us about a day and ½ to get home.  So I will be able to post tonite and probably even Friday morning before we leave!!!  Who knows if there will be a place in St. Methode – we have never been there, obviously…………

Boy, do I have a story for you!!

Saturday nite was uneventful and we got up even earlier than the morning before to the sounds of dogs being dropped.  At about 10am we heard a lot of activity but thought it was the 4 dogs teams going out - only to learn that it was daylight savings time and Melanie had already gone out in the 6 dog without our help.  She ended up with a very good day and won the 6 dog race!!  It was good we found out Randy had to get ready an hour before we had planned - so we were ready in time and everthing went well.  He used Beika with Sterling in lead and moved other dogs around in the team but went with 14.  Since he was last I watched all of the teams come in and finally Randy- it seemed like he was faster coming in than the 2 minutes between team departures so I hoped he had moved up a place- well that didn't happen!  He had a bit of trouble on the trail----- he fell going around one of those right angle corners (he had mentioned yesterday that they were pretty tricky) dragged for a while, saw trees coming and let go, jumped up and started running after them (the sled was on its side behind the team) , remembered he had seen some snowmobiles a bit ago and started yelling "HELP" - a guy zoomed up to him, he got on the machine sidesaddle, the took off very very fast, winding around corners and curves and when they saw the team the guy was going to try and go past them and stop them and Randy said "No, no,no!!" so he pulled up next to the sled (which was upright miraculously!!) and Randy jumped from the machine onto the runners of the sled and took off!!!  Just like in a Western movie!!!!!!  He never ceases to amaze me!!!!  So the fact that he was able to pull that off was a big win for him even though he still came in last!

We fed the dogs at the race site and left for Bellerives at about 4:30 - it was good weather but oh so slow (20 to 30 mph) for the first 30 miles - we thought about going the way we used to go, but chose to go with a known evil...... tons and tons of frost heaves!!!!  We stopped in a Canadian Tire parking lot and dropped dogs about 1/2 way and arrived at about 8:30.

Slept in till 9 this morning and it was sooo quiet!!  In the house today to do some laundry, washed some rugs in the barn (some smell pretty uriney from coming in the front door!) and got bread out to tear after it's thawed.  It is a beautiful sunny day and the warmest since we left home!!!  Probably need to change out some bedding in about 1/2 the boxes - the stinky ones!  We looked at a trailer that one of the English speaking young dog drivers that we knew from years before (Charles Saucier) and he had built dog boxes in a trailer and had rubber mats on the floor of the boxes and had drainage from each box down into receptacles below!  Now that's a neat design!
More later!!

race results

Randy had a clean run and was only passed by the guy that won it at Laconia = Sterling did a good job at lead, Snapper could never get his tug line tight they were going faster than he can - and Captain and Raisin didn't work most of the trail - resulting in Randy being in last place with an average speed of 17.87 mph - which is what would have won in days gone by or at smaller races - 18 open, over 30 6 dog, and I don't know how many 4 dog and 8 dog!

I was most worried about bringing Randy's team back to the truck after the finish so he mentioned to Max it would be great if the 4 wheelers that brought them up to the start line could also bring them back to the truck - so I was really relieved to find that out...........then when Randy got back he had a 4 wheeler driver that didn't understand "go slow" - it was hard work, Amy - I felt like I was running the 5k with you!!!  took me a full minute to catch my breath!  It's all up hill for 50 yards until you get to the parking lot and then I could keep up - the rest of the time the leaders and point dogs were pulling me up the hill!!  Randy said he made his personal goal which was to not get passed by Claude who started at 16th with Randy at 12th!!

Wine time!!

Saturday at Daaquam

This is so not like it used to be the last time we raced here - when the Saturday race would be over or on Friday nite, we and maybe only one other trailer with people living in it would be here in the parking lot -now it's a whole village!!!  I will have to count but now everybody has a trailer!!!

Along with all those people sleeping here, comes all those dogs getting up earlier in the morning than we had planned to.......so up at 7:15!!!

We had a couple coughing dogs yesterday so we gave them honey in a syringe and today nobody is coughing.

Randy got his number just now and he goes out 12th out of 18.  Hermel got #1 and Claude #16.  Will let you know how it goes!  Randy will be running 13 (or 14 if he decides to take Wolf)
Snapper  Sterling
Viper      Dee
T-Bone   Blanche
Trix        Doe
Caleb      Wolf
Captain   Raisin
Sioux       Beika

Daaquam on Friday

Incredibly we have wifi here at the lodge so I will be able to talk to you again tomorrow.

Left Bellerives at 10am stopped and got a few groceries in Charette then traveled through Quebec city to cross the St. Lawrence - got a bit lost for a minute when I couldn't read the gps as fast as I needed to read the signs and we got off on the wrong exit= I give her credit; Dorothy/gps got us right back on the right track!  We took a slightly different route (recommended by Dorothy....) because we thought we remembered from 5 years ago that the shortest route was extremely hilly (we are in the northern part of the Appalachian mountain) so we thought the gps might have a better route..........not!!!  It was just as hilly if not more and so many frost heaves!!!  every time I would bounce with the bump the seat belt would cut me in the shoulder!  It was fun to see a different part of Quebec, but the road was not better.  So we got here about 4 hours 15 minutes when we thought it should be 3.5 hours - went very slow - like 20mph over the frost heaves - and drove right to the place where we had raced before.  Bellerives left at 11:30 so we thought to see them about an hour after we got here - come 4:15 they finally arrived and the second dog truck break a automatic transmission line and had to find a place to have parts and fluid to fix it!

They are parked right next to us and on the other side is a couple from France who now live in Quebec that we remembered from the last time we raced here.

Bellerives invited us to dinner in the lodge so I had the salmon and carrot soup (I have to try making this - it was excellent!!!)  and Randy had steak- lots of people that we knew from 5 years ago stopped by the table and it was like "old home week"!!!!

Back to the trailer at 9:30 only to find out the generator had quit and so it was 25 degrees in the house!  Randy got it fired up again after we dropped dogs and it's already a balmy 44 in here!!!

A little faster posting this time!!

We did go to Walmart on Tuesday and found all kinds of things to buy!!!  It’s surprising to have it not much different at all than from the
Walmart in Fremont – just a little narrower isles – like ½ the width- and with poles in the middle of the isles and higher prices!  We even got one of the pitchers that Hermel told us about that you just put the plastic bag of milk into, snip the corner and it pours right out!!!  It really, really works!

Tuesday nite we went over to the Bellerives and had call-in from the restaurant – I had fish again –it’s something I don’t get a lot because Randy doesn’t really like fish.  We even brought hors d’ouvres (I can’t even get the correct spelling with spell check!)- “polish roses” which for the culinarily challenged, is green onion wrapped with ham and cream cheese.  The Bellerives had never had them and really liked them!!

Wednesday we decided to train and Randy wanted to try the whole team that he plans to run on Saturday so we hooked up 15 dogs and took off with me on the snowmobile- it was easier to turn but pretty goosey going around the curves – when I waited for Randy at a turn so the dogs could see which way I was going to turn, then they got close and I would have to take off fast to get ahead again and in some of those curves I almost lost it and went off the trail even with the 8 inch birm on the trail!!!  Randy said it was the best run of the year!   The dogs went good and even ran up most of the hills – they are finally getting back into shape.

 They are not always behaving themselves, however.  2 days ago Blanche chewed the wire covers off from the battery wires under the truck and last nite Caleb chewed the air line in half!!!  So that’s the project for today!  It’s crazy because not only have they been a month on the truck and not touched the wires, but as soon as one of them chews on something, every dog we try to put there hoping they won’t chew, somehow knows that a dog before had chewed on it and they do the same!!!

With a visit to the hardware and finding out they didn’t have what we needed to fix the air line, we Randy’s next sure thing- the maintenance garage for Bellerives business!!!! Paydirt!  He had everything Randy needed to patch it and wouldn’t let us pay for it – Randy told him to just bill Claude – joke, joke!

This afternoon we tore up bread for the weekend so we wouldn’t have to do it in the trailer so we thawed it in the barn for a couple of hours and then made 2 dogfood bags full of bread.

We are debating whether to leave right after the first drop tomorrow or wait until the 2^nd one and leave about 10 – I vote for plan B and stopping a few minutes at the grocery store for a couple of things.  It is only 182 miles by the gps so it shouldn’t take more than 3 or so hours – it is near the town of St. Just-de-Bretinere (spellcheck).

Hopefully they will have wifi in the lodge at the race and I can give you updates throughout the weekend!!

I finally got the computer to work!!!!!!! Happy Birthday Aeja!!!!!

Tuesday – 2/24/15

The dogs are waking up with the sun every morning – that means of course, several minutes earlier every day!!!  This morning we got up at 7:10am – an all time “early”!  We have a couple of dogs (especially Captain) that “scream” when they want out of their boxes – and then there’s always the “doggie chorus” – when one starts howling they all join in!!!  It is very cold this morning – the little heater on the floor says it’s 32 degrees.  When we dropped dogs I had to come back in twice- once for another jacket and also for a pair of mittens to put over my insulated leather gloves – that’s a first for this year!  The dogs are crazy to get out and then crazy to get back in again where it’s warm!!

We had a lovely dinner and conversation with Bellerive’s last nite – I thought because Melanie said lasagna at “my house” she meant her real house, but she still refers to her parents house as “my house” and that is where we had dinner!  Followed by a choice of strawberry shortcake cake or, Randy’s favorite, sugar pie!!  It’s like a tradition that when we come here Melanie makes sure that Randy get sugar pie.  It’s kind of like a maple-y surgary pecan-piesh (without the pecans) filling in a pie crust – I can’t imagine the number of calories per slice!!!  Between that and his Oreos……he just says “I’m on vacation”!

Abit of miscommunication – Randy overheard Melanie saying she would be by today at 11:30 to pick me up – she had intended we would both come to her house to get a “tour” since she is mostly done decorating it – but I went and had lunch with just Melanie and Renelle instead – a “girl’s lunch”!  We had subs and wraps and Melanie took about 3 hours from work to do the tour and talk.  It takes 15 minutes just to walk through the house!!!!  It is beautiful – 2 story entrance, with stairs on both side of the entry going upstairs, white marble floors, golf practice area with one wall being the realistic practice range, theater seating 20 with white leather sectionals and her and Patrick’s bedroom has like a living room seating area and their closet is as big as my living room!!!!  She is blessed and she knows it – she has no “airs” about her and her lifestyle!

The rest of the day was just dog chores and a movie.

Wednesday 2/25

Yea – training day (I mean that very very facetiously!)  Things have not been going so well first 3 attempts and I hoped this would be different – not to be so…..

Not so cold as it has been and snowing quite a bit.

For those of you that know the dogs I will just say the first team was the “best” team of the 2 10-dog teams – hoping that it would be easier…… Snapper and Doe in lead – Snapper being our most reliable leader – until he underwent some kink of personality transformation – there was almost nothing he didn’t try to do wrong including stopping and turning almost every turn the wrong direction!!  Then we had to take Doe out because she was shying of Hermel’s team when they passed.  Another disaster – we left a few minutes before Hermel did with a 15 dog team and we head on collided with him 3 times – not just a little bit of tangling, but the full-blown take all the tug lines off and straightening them out kink – and that was with 5 people trying to untangle them!!!!!  2 of them only speaking French!  The main problem was, again, Snapper, the dogs that stays on the left side of the trail and he didn’t budge even with 15 dogs coming at him!!  It could have been avoided had we left after Hermel, but that would have been too easy………..  After we took Doe out of lead, Caleb ended up finishing.

So that was supposed to be the easy team- you can imagine my trepidation!  The next team was lead by Beika (who came from Bellerives) and Sterling (the dog we have only run twice that we just got from Bellerives)  They take the first haw good and then Beika thinks she wants to go back to the barn and not run any more than a mile……3 times I had to drag the whole team over to the trail through the deep snow to get her to go on the right trail – every time I would get them in the trail and let them go she would duck back to go home!!!!  Randy had some pretty choice word of description for her behavior…..  A couple of more times she had to be turned but not as bad as that one!  We did end up having to pass Hermel a couple of times (even though we left much earlier than him this time) but it went well – Sterling did a perfect job and Randy will probably use him lead with Beika for the race this weekend because there will head-on passing.  Is it any wonder I dread training???!!!! 

Today seemed like a beautiful day with it sunny but chillier (we found out when we were going to take a little snowmobile ride (I thought it was for fun but it was really for Randy to have me memorize the trail – so I could lead on the 4 wheeler instead of following…..) but it was so cold on my face I had to cover everything including my eyes (forgot my goggles) so we turned around and came back.  We did get 2 naps in and managed to put more bedding and dry soak in all of the boxes – the majority of the 24 are good about not peeing in their box but about 5 of them, not so much..

Between now and tomorrow morning we need to get directions to where the race is because we will leave tomorrow- the last time we went to a race near here, I followed the map to the town that was in the race’s name – Kamarouska – little did we know that it was also the name of the region and the race was 20 miles from the town!!!

Something very interesting and unexpected (especially in view of the comments he has made to me about doing it…) has happened over the last 2 days………Randy is addicted to computer solitaire!!!   Anybody that knows Randy knows that computers are not his favorite thing!  So know instead of me watching movies and playing solitaire, he’s “hogging” the computer!!!  That leaves me to read the book “Sacajawea” that he just finished – 1342 pages not including the bibliography!

Another thing I could mention is the traffic on the road in front of us – about a hundred yards away – the one we have to cross to train.  I bet you there is double trailer full of logs going by every 5 minutes traveling to the east!!!  We can hear them but not so loud as to bother us.

Friday 2/27/15

Change of plans!!  Last nite Claude came in the trailer to tell us where the race was and that he would get an exact address for us this morning.   He told us that Patrick has been worse the last 3 days and had not even gotten out of bed and they had an appointment with the nuerologist this morning at the hospital in Montreal and that likely he would be admitted for evaluation – so they were not going to the race this weekend so they could support Melanie and Patrick.  The more Randy thought about it, this race was going to have 2 head-on passes every mile and it has been a long time since we have raced here and it wouldn’t be as enjoyable without the Bellerives there –so we are not going ourselves.  Instead we are going to train today as is Hermel.  You can imagine my excitement!!!!!  It will be slightly delayed, however, since Randy just went out to start the truck to move over to our training spot on the other side of the of the barn and the truck wouldn’t start – he thinks because it was so cold last nite and we didn’t start it yesterday that the engine block heater needs to be plugged in to warm up and he put a charger on the battery because it didn’t want to turn over very bad……

2 teams of 9 with Snapper and Sterling out first – actually, it went quite well – it’s sunny but very cold – my throttle thumb froze and I kept almost all of my face covered!  I only had to get off of the 4 wheeler once  and by the time I hit the ground (and of course my elbow….why is it when you have an injury you always seem to bump it more often than normal –one of life’s great myteries…) they had already turned the right way –what a change from Snapper’s previous performance!!  He was as good today as he was bad the other day!!

Next was T-Bone and Sioux in lead – I asked Randy if he really thought Sioux would lead and he said “I hope so” so my next question was what was plan B – he responds with “just keep trying dogs until one will lead” – does that inspire confidence in how well this is going to go???  So we get them all hooked up and it’s my job to jump on the 4 wheeeler and race ahead of the team to look for safe passing over the road – I get to the road and turn around and no team no Randy – I can see that he is still back at the barn and I wait to see if he is going to come soon – I wait and think maybe he’s really having trouble and I should go back and help –so I turn around and race back and he takes off with Cloud instead of Sioux in lead -so I turn around, pass the team and race to the road – from there it went downhill – T-Bone trained with Bellerives here and knew every shortcut to take back home to the barn!!!! I was on and off and on and off and through the deep snow – finally we got to the middle of the trail where there are not as many choices to turn and things went well for awhile until Cloud stopped the team so he could take a “snow bite break”!!!!  Then T-Bone figured he would shave a mile or so off the run again!!! Along the way we met Claude running his team and head-on passed and then met Hermel at a corner and things went blessedly well.

Finally back to the barn and today I hurt only ½ as much as usual from turning the 4 wheeler and jumping on and off – I must be getting into some sort of shape!  Fed dinner and Claude stopped by to say they would pick us up at 6:30 for supper.  We ended up going to Melanie’s house and ordered in from the restaurant.  Randy ordered poutine (might have spelled that wrong) which is French fries with cheese and brown gravy over them and a hamburg – me I had fish.  We ate in the formal dining room and Patrick was able to join us – he was feeling a bit better and did not have to stay at the hospital – they increased his medicine and added a steroid – I think, from the label that I read.

Today up at 8 (the dogs let us sleep in – I have been leaving the radio on for them in the back and I think is seems to calm them…) and for the second drop we were going to move over to the training spot and try to free drop some dogs, but the truck wouldn’t start again – so plug everything back in –

By the time we got the truck started we had already dropped for the 2^nd time – we thought that we would try letting them run around when we dropped them for feeding at 4 pm but it got really windy and colder – when we are in the “training position” we are more out in the open and the wind was really rocking the trailer – the only upside to the wind is that it is bringing warmer temperatures with it!  I am listening to the Quebec talk radio and the give regular weather conditions and predictions.  So we ended up not letting them free run and moved back to our usual parking spot where we are more protected by the barn.  Melanie and Patrick dropped off goggles for me to try because I had mentioned that I was frostbiting my eyebrows – Claude tried to give us some more donuts like the ones that Melanie brought us Friday  (they are maple flavored and unique to Quebec – they also brought us another sugar pie “tarte au sucre” because Patrick said this was the best kind!! Way better than the other kind Melanie bought Randy!) when he stopped by on his way to a funeral of one of the original employees of his roofing company, Cirtech.  The man worked for him for 25 years and was 86 years old.

The rest of the day was spent with eating, napping, movies, reading and Randy doing a little project for me- he put a piece of sled runner at the door between the “house” and the “dog boxes house” so that the carpet on the floor will flip up on the end at the door so that when I come into the “house” I don’t drag hay from the floor with me= that’s actually the messiest part of the whole setup – there is always hay on the floor!!!

March 1st

Training day!!! Much warmer today than yesterday – feels balmy!!! Did get a bit cooler as the day went on.  Randy considered running one team of 16 but with all the trouble we have had with head-on passing on the wrong side of the trail he decided to just do 2 teams of 8 – yes the numbers are dwindling – what with sore dogs and dogs who don’t seem to want to run as hard as they did before.  1^st team was lead by Doe and Cloud (brother and sister out of Gill from Streepers and our Scar) and wonder of wonders……….no problems turning corners!!!!!!!!  Because Cris finally figured out the trail and had them following me!!  The next team with Sterling and Snapper also went well except for a bit of head-on passing with Claude’s team again and Randy went off the trail onto a snowmobile trail for a little while, but all in all, very successful!!  There are 4 really big hills that you go up and down in this training trail and the dogs are getting stronger every training session!

You probably are wondering why I haven’t posted in almost a week – the Bellerives have been preoccupied with Patrick (he is not doing well again and is going to a neurologist in Trois Riviere tomorrow for another opinion) and so we just wait to see if they invite is in and I haven’t wanted to intrude by going over to the house – and then ½ the time we do go to their house I forget to bring the computer!  Tomorrow I will go over to the house and do laundry and get caught up!

After training today I even had enough energy to clean house –not that it’s very big – and even used the little vacuum cleaner my Dad gave me years ago!

The good news is that we found out that yesterday it was so windy they didn’t run the open teams at the race we had planned to go to in Kamarouska – don’t know about today but it was good we didn’t go to the race.

Monday, 3/2

Almost Aeja’s birthday!!!!  Tomorrow the big 11!!!  We are going to try to get through on the phone to do a personal wish!!

Started out warmish this morning but by the 2^nd drop the wind had kicked up and it feels much cooler.  I am in the house and waiting for Lise (the housekeeper) to finish a load of wash she is doing and then I have  2 loads.

This weeks race is at Daquaam.  We have been there at least 4 times – it is at a provincial nature area on a river with a rustic lodge right on the river.  The start is on the frozen river – one year it melted and they had to re-route the start!  Last time we were there Max and his wife Mary Claude ran the place – that is also where they give the dogsled rides with the huge malamutes – I will have to take some pictures – I have 2 cameras with me and haven’t taken picture #1! 

I spent an hour trying to get on the internet and was not able to – even though I was last week.

So today after we dropped dogs we came into Shewanigan to get propane again and to Tim Horton’s to use their wifi.  Maybe even go to Walmart!!!

Sorry it took so long for me to post – you probably thought we dropped off the face of the earth!!