Another very busy week (and a half actually....)

We trained 3 times last week and even shortened the run up a bit to 11 miles to try and get some speed on them.   Terrible cold!!!!  I guess it was pretty much like that every where (below 0 most mornings and some days..) but it sure makes it miserable training dogs!  Randy on one of those training runs, thought he had his face mask covering his nose but did not and then I noticed when we got back the tip of his nose was white!!!!  We went inside right away and there doesn't seem to be any damage- luckily!
We also had a big event in the neighborhood- the Tahquamenon Sled dog race - 60 teams going from 10 miles for the 4 dog to 50 for the 10 dog.  Randy was a chute judge and I just helped people get up to the line - we did go and spend about an hour at one of the corners on the race course - it is part of the trail that we use to train and goes right behind the Magnesson's dog yard - we knew that they had 4 teams in the race and thought they might have trouble getting their dogs to go by - 3 of them did not have trouble but one did.....Laura Bontrager was driving them and sure enough, they tried to go around the snow fence they had put up to block them, right through the deep snow - it was a good thing we were there to help!!!  Along with the actual race day there was a draw meeting at Waltman's Thursday nite, a pasty dinner for the bib ceremony Friday, a pizza party for the volunteers on Saturday and the awards breakfast on Sunday - all those days (especially Sunday) were pretty bad weather days to be driving the 25 miles into Newberry!!  In addition, both Randy and I had a stomach flu bug on Sunday - so I didn't even eat any of the breakfast.....

Monday we trained and the dogs were energetic having been off for 3 days!  It was a beautiful sunny day and much warmer (25 degrees felt like summer!!) - the only bad thing that happened is a chunk of ice fell from the trees as we were passing under and hit me on the head!!!! No lasting injury -just a small headache.

Tuesday was go-to-town day again- getting some mailing things in order and making a tax form copy at the library - then for a farewell dinner at Jan Shaw's with the Waltmans -

Today we are leaving for Quebec - there is a race in Daaquam which is just at the border of Maine - hopefully there will still be a race by the time we get there Friday - it is supposed to rain there Thurs and Friday!
Sad to say goodbye to all the new friends we have made here in the last 3 months - though we could tell them we will see them again in April as we will have left a lot of "stuff" (horse trailer with freezer, jeep, 2 snow machines....) here that we still need to get home!!!!

Wish us a hazard-free trip to Quebec!!!!!