DeKuiper Racing: MOnday update

Sunday was a much better chance to see how the dogs would do without interference…meaning having to pass someone that wouldn’t let you get away from them (when you had already beat them by the 2 minute interval that you started with, by the time you made contact with the slower team). So we didn’t think he would have to pass anybody because the team in front of him didn’t race (we don’t know why…) so there was 4 minutes between Randy and the team running ahead of him------AND TA DA DA DAAAAAA!!! He caught that team!!!! He also saw Claude on the trail (Randy going out and Claude coming home on the trail) untangling dogs… If we look at the times from Saturday and Sunday and imagine what place he could have been in had he not had the trouble passing it looks like he could have done as well as 4^th or 5^th!!! So he was ectastic!!!! Most all of the 14 dogs he took ran well – Soldier and Noah worked so hard in the beginning of the 13 miles that they were pretty whipped by the end and the 2 girls in the team (Swix and Trix – couldn’t make that one up if I tried………..) didn’t look like they were pulling very hard but all the rest looked good all the way – Randy believes it has a lot to do with training in the UP for those 3 months and getting about 800 miles on them before we came to Quebec –so they have some “bottom” in them and are still in good shape. We are also pleased with how good their feet are – only 3 dogs with very small fissures (little separation cuts in the webbing of there feet where they spread out – especially in soft snow) – we believe that is because we use the Zeus Juice (a special blend of oils) on their feet when they run on less than hard trails and, having been in the UP, where their circles were on essentially beach sand for 3 months. Jim Oehlschlaeger told us that his dog’s feet were toughened up because of the sand in the circles when we were up there and we are believing it’s true. So next week the race is at Mt. Gosford and is called “Woburn”. Randy doesn’t ususally like the trail there because it is so hilly but I think he is pretty “amped up” and eager to race!!!!

Today we went shopping – hadn’t been in 2 weeks! In fact last week we didn’t go anywhere!!!

So first we went to Canadian Tire (in Shawinigan, about 12 miles from here) and bought more dog biscuits – I have gone through a box of 400 in 2 weeks – and that is breaking them in half!!! The $15 is worth it though because it makes it a lot easier on my body to have them excited to get back in their house! Then to Walmart and spent $180 on pretty expensive food because it’s in Canadian dollars – then to the SAQ which is like Quebec’s liquor control commission to get some wine (for my back of course……). It’s twice as expensive here as it is in Michigan! Then to Rona to get more LP tanks filled up and then to the place we bought the generator from – because twice over the last week it had quit producing electricity even though the engine was still running – so we had to use our little Honda generator as our back up – the reason we bought the exact one we did up here was because it is an electric start so Randy doesn’t have to further hurt his old shoulder injury. They were very good about it after we explained why it couldn’t be us trying to use more watts than the generator could “generate”. We even talked to the main office of the manufacturer and finally they decided that the rotor and stator?? Got demagnetized and they would give us a new generator!!!!

Tomorrow maybe training since Hermel (Claude’s kennel hand) went out with the groomer tonite. We need to be training all the dogs that didn’t race this weekend so they don’t get out of shape. It’s done snowing (got about 5 inches last nite and awakened by the sound of Claude’s business’ loader starting to plow the drive around us.) and getting much colder so bundle up for the drop tonite!!!