Thanksgiving dinner was great!!

About 15 people at the Brown's house on Lake Muskellonge ( sp?) and funny thing Randy sat at one end of the table and me at the other!!  I sat where I can eat left handed and he ended up with no place close!  They had 2 turkeys and lots of left overs - my green bean casserolettes (green beans in a pie crust in a muffin pan filled with green bean casserole) turned out fabulous and we gone once around the table!  Regina Caldwell brought something called pumpkin fluff that you were supposed to eat with a graham cracker (Randy put it on his pumpkin pie....) that I need the recipe for!
We were there over 4 hours so you know there was lots of visiting going on - what nice and warm people up here - treat us like we have been here for years!!
The really funniest thing that happened is that at about 3 p I thought maybe I should look back at the message inviting us to dinner and make sure what time dinner is planned - wasn't in the message so I called the Brown's house and she said, "we told people to be here at 4 but we probably won't eat right away" - I had been planning my green bean stuff and me getting ready and Randy feeding dogs for a dinner time of 6:30!!!!!!!!!!  In 1/2 hour I cooked the beans in the oven and got me and Randy ready to go - we were only 5 minutes late and yes, they didn't eat dinner for at le

 Friday not much going on because we trained on Thanksgiving - I worked more on my Grandma Santa gifts for all the grandkids (13 special Christmas ornaments that I made once 40 years ago and am now re-creating- boy that makes me feel old to be able to say that........)
Today we trained 2 teams and went 2 miles farther up to 13 and some now!  Unfortunately when we tried Andy in lead in the first team he and Greg got into an argument.....no injuries but very unpleasant.....    Most of the snow is gone again but it keeps snowing/hailing on and off - it's 22 degrees right now.  Church tomorrow!!!!  Have a great rest of the weekend!!

the most exciting thing that happened to me this week.....

That would be on Monday nite while cooking a turkey breast in our cute little oven in an aluminium pan that was very sturdy while cold but not so much while hot..........took the pan out of the oven and it folded up and poured hot grease/water on my stockinged and moccasined foot!!!!!  Could have been much worse - only have a 1 x 2 inch blister - and thanks to our wonderful daughter, Cindy, we have Silvadene!!  Went into Newberry on Tuesday to get the prescription and some more dressings.
I looked kind of funny wearing Randy's boot on my left foot and mine on my right but it worked to go shopping for food and to McDonald's for lunch!   Because I burned my foot we didn't train yesterday and today Ashley helped us do most of the dog-moving around so I don't burst the blister - hopefully with tomorrow off from training I will be good to go on Friday!

We are going to the neighbors for dinner tomorrow evening and I am bringing green bean casserole - both the normal casserole and one with a twist making it in pie crust in a muffin tin!  Will let you know how it turns out!

And in the same culinary vein of discussion, we had our first pasties (a UP staple) for dinner tonite!!  Randy was sure he would not like them because he thought they had rutabagas in them (it was just potatoes) and he hates any kind of pot pie!  We bought the pasties from a church group that our friends Cathy and Richard Robinson (owners of the Rainbow Lodge) sold.  A few weeks ago we also bought huge cinnamon rolls from another group - seems like home made food raises money up here!!!

So about 3 inches of snow this morning - Randy dragged the trail before he ran dogs and it was mostly snow covered but some bare spots - we had to leave off 3 dogs from training today because yesterday the snow in the dog yard was crusty and those 3 developed some bloody toenail edges.
Not much else to report till tomorrow!
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone and remember to count the many many Blessings that you have in your life!!!!

Great day training...and we didn't get shot!!

4 inches of snow overnite - Randy dragged the trail and it was good for the dogs - we expected them to act crazy after not training for 4 days but they were really pretty good!  actually even better than the last time!  Went 12 miles and didn't see any hunters or hear any shots.
Tomorrow no training and taking Jan Shaw in to her doctor appointment and then maybe some grocery shopping for what I am planning to take to the Browns for Thanksgiving dinner - plus I already bought a turkey breast and thing I will cook it tomorrow

overdue update!

 very fun yard ornament in the town of newberry - maybe I need one of these gnome houses!

 the thanksgiving decorations at the Dekuiper trailer/homestead

newly made Christmas decoration - amazing what you can do with a white dog food bucket!!!

The week has flown by and it seems we have been very busy = from memory I will give you the highlights:

Friday – delicious dinner at the Elks – Randy had a free steak dinner for vetern’s day and I had white fish – you can’t beat the amount of fresh/local whitefish and perch we are able to get around here!!!

Saturday – pretty much hanging out and going to church in the evening

Sunday – training – now using another section of trail and are going 12 miles (I think) with the 2 12 dog teams – Noah the 2 year old is doing an excellent job leading!!!! He is working himself into being a $10,000 dog!!!!  All 5 leaders are doing very good at gee and hawing – we presume that all the different trails with many choices and intersections is making them listen more closely to Randy – at home we just did the same trail mostly so there were not many decision points – this complicated trail system is keeping them on their toes!!!  By the time we harness, hook up, run and undo the harnesses and put them back for teams it is over 3 hours.

Monday – thought about running 2 or 3 days in a row because we have to take off later in the week for deer season, but the weather wasn’t great so we didn’t .  Found out our neighbor, Jan Shaw, had been admitted to the hospital with blood clots in her lungs on top of the pneumonia she has had the last week- how awful for her!!

Tuesday: ran the dogs again on the longer trail – they are coming back not looking tired (except for 2 of the 3 yearlings ) and all but 3 of the 24 are drinking this K9 super fuel stuff in water – it is expensive but it replenishes their glycogen after exertion – we have never been able to get them to drink glycocharge after a run or a race, but they love this and drink it down to the last drop!

Wednesday : knew we wouldn’t train because of opening day of deer season so we had arranged with our dog food provider, Greg Janders in Bark River, to have us pick up another 2000 pounds of special mixed dog food – it is chicken, beef and liver and eggs and several vitamins and minerals – it costs $ .60 a pound but the dogs are doing well on it and it is really our only choice since we aren’t picking up venison butchering scraps and grinding it ourselves.  So we h...ooked the blue truck up to the horse trailer that has the walk-in freezer in it and headed for Escanaba and Bark River (about 2.5 hours one way on good roads)   It was raining like a Banshee so we didn’t make very good time – we did stop at Walmart (big city shopping up here) and did visit with Greg and his wife (they are mink farmers – way more to it than I have ever thought!!!   With the breeding and the biting when you move them………..

On the way there we got pulled over by a state trooper ---------- for going to slow!!!!!!!  We were on a bad stretch of road before you get to Escanaba and we were going about 40 mph in a 55 – he pulled us over thinking maybe something was wrong but Randy told him it was because the road is too damn rough!!!  We had also neglected to put the proof of insurance and registration back in the truck so it was back in the trailer, but luckily for us he didn’t pay any attention to that!!!

Got back home about 7:30 and very dark by the time we stopped to fill propane tanks in Newberry.

Thursday :  another non-training day but it was OK cause the big trip yesterday got us tired!

Friday:  decided to open up a trail that had been blocked by the loggers doing a clear cut – we took the blue truck into the woods and had to go about a mile through some pretty iffy trails with lots of beach sand in 1 foot deep ruts!!!!  Made us feel like we were at the Silver Lake sand dunes!!!  Got to the blockade without getting stuck and spent a good 2 hours pulling stumps out of the way with the truck and a chain and sawing with the chainsaw – they had it blocked realllllly good!

In the evening we went to Wolf Inn for dinner with Carol and Jon Waltman and Cathy and Richard Robinson – we had a leisurely 3 hour dinner!

Today, Saturday, we were thinking we would train about 12 pm but just as it got to be about then I started hearing lots and lots of gunshots!!!!!  So Randy took a nap and I am catching up!!!  Tonite we go out to dinner with the Caldwells , the neighbors across the street that are dog drivers from New York state – they have lived here now for 5 months.  We made a special request to have dinner with them so we could talk dogs.

Also we heard from a guy that has dogs and lives in Minnesota – when he was here for the seminar in October Randy admired his bearclaw necklace and said he would like to have one – so guess who is going to have a bearclaw necklace????!!!

The really big news is that we got messages and today a facetime call from Ocean, our 11 year old grandson that shot his first deer yesterday, all by himself, at about 100 yards at least, exactly in the right spot, and…..a 6 point!!!!!!  We are very proud of his great accomplishment!!!  Congratulations Ocean DeKuiper!!!!

got 4 inches of snow and have dragged the trail twice!!!

Woke up to a very wintery day with lots of snow and very cold (15 degrees) I think it is time to get the sleeping bag/comforter out!!!  At one point the gas ran out so just the little infrared heater kept it a balmy 54 in here! 

this morning we went with Frank and Regina Caldwell, Margaret Harvey and 3 guys from Tasha and Ed Stielstra's kennel out on the trail for the Taquamenon race which is January 4th, I  think - and we cleared a couple of big blown over pines off the trail - it took only an hour with that many people!

Trained the dogs on snow for the first time this year this afternoon.  They seemed very excited about the new snow - Randy had dragged the trail last nite and then again before we trained and it was very good and packed - even though we only had to pack 4 inches!

Tonite we go into town to the Elks for a dinner that is free for veterns with several of the people in the "neghborhood" - who knows what tomorrow will be !!!

we are in a blizzard!!!!!

just as we would expect being only 3 miles away from Lake Superior - I have spent the last 2 days making things ready for "winter" - we tried to put the awning up today but it was already frozen.  I put everything inside that I had outside under the awning and it was a good thing because the snow blew all over the place and the outside carpet and table were all covered with snow!!  There were pretdictions of large amounts of snow last nite but when Randy went to the meeting for planning the 2018 Taquamenon race last nite the DNR officer said the predictions were highly overrated - instead we have gotten the storm today - started out abit this morning and by mid-day was wild and wooly - we went over to Margaret Harvey's to help her put the snow blower on her tractor and then went down to Lake Superior and it was crazy windy and blowing snow!!!! we walked down the to the beach so we were Tlose and personal with the water - wow! As of now we probably have 3 inches of snow on the ground and it's still windy - Randy went out to drag the trail so we can train tomorrow adn came back looking like a snowman!!!
Some of my free time for the last 3 days has been checking in on Jan Shaw - she was diagnosed with pneumonia Monday and needed a little extra  TLC - a chance for me to get to know her and Carol Walkman her close friend, much better (also a retired nurse).  Felt good doing some in-home nurse-type care!
The rest of my sit-in-the trailer time is making crafty things for Christmas presents - so it looks like a craft store in here too often!!!

Will take some pictures of training tomorrow so you can see how wintery we are!!

we are settled...

into pretty much a routine,,,,,,,,without much variation - the only variant this week was going to church today - otherwise we trained everyother day - all of them - and most of them are doing good!!
Going to have dinner with the neighbors on Perch Lake tonite- more tomorrow~