We hope you had as nice a Christmas Eve and day as we did......

trained dogs on Christmas Eve day and then went to Monica and Bruce Magnusson's house across the road for "pierogis" a tradition with Monica's family!  We were joined by their friend Al and by Frank and Regina Caldwell who also live across the road!  Delicious and good company!!

Christmas Day we went to Mass at 10 and then to Jan Shaw's for dinner at 6 - Frank and Regina were also there and we had a beautiful ham dinner!

Too many calories but it's only once a year!!!  Finally we watched the movie "Christmas Story" and laughed a lot!!!!

Today was training and it was a good day - we are down to only training 18 dogs because we gave 2 away and one is hurt - Bruce and Monica are kindly providing Vinnie with some laser treatments to his ankle and shoulder - once a day for 5 days - what will they think of next???!!!!

We are patiently awaiting more snow or else it's a possibility that
 the Tahquamenon race will be cancelled - we lost a lot of snow a week ago and have not yet recovered it - so there a icy spots on the race trail - we have been training on our side of the road on the shorter trail because we have less traffic here on this side and it didn't get as "chewed up"!

That's about it for now!

Not too much happening here........

Not enough snow............we took off 2 days because of rain and then it froze and made terrible ridges in the driveway!!  So we got about an inch of snow yesterday and were able to train on our side of the road again today
 - only 8.5 miles but better than nothing!!!  Don't know when snow is predicted again - and of course, we get the weather report for Newberry and that is 1/2 hour south of us so we usually get more snow and colder than that prediction!

Went to Mass tonight and into the "timber charlie's" restaurant to use their wifi -

If I don't get the chance to write again before:

Have a Blessed Christmas and Happy New Year!!!!!!!

Can't believe how fast time goes by!!!!

The Tahquamenon Sled Dog Race meeting on Thursday was good – I mostly sat and visited with Carol during the meeting but Randy enjoys meeting with the people interested in dogsledding – at the end of the meeting Margaret Harvey wanted to know who her “snowplowing fairy” was and we all pointed to Randy – he ahd done her driveway 2 days before so she would be able to get to her house when she arrived.

Friday we trained both teams with the snow machine and skipped the sled for the day – we ran shorter because we are already figuring by looking at the 90 day forecast for Anchorage Alaska that they are going to have a hard time putting on a race – they have rain and high temps forecasted for the time the race would go.  If we don’t go to Alaska that means we will be in Quebec and the longest the race ever is (and frequently is even less than advertised due to conditions….) 16 miles – we are already going over 20 so we may as well start doing some shorter runs so they don’t get bored with the mileage and the trails – so we only went 11 miles on Friday.  

Saturday we got up and started getting ready to travel “downstate” – we did leave right after feeding at 1:30 – stopped for a short visit with our priest, Fr. Joe Fix, in Evart – he has done radiation and is almost finished with his chemo treating lung cancer – he looked pretty good, all things considered but was very tires having just said Mass.  We got home about 8 and found a lovely fire going in the wood stove and a dish of peanutbutter fudge on the counter!!!  Our wonderful neighbor, Dee Krise, had been down and warmed the house for us = when we are gone there is only a space heater going to keep the pipes from freezing in the back room so the rest of the house gets pretty darn cold – depending on the temp outside it takes a couple of hours to get things “unthawed”!

Sunday we were at Spanky’s Pizza in Fremont by 11am – people started straggling in and the buffet opened and by the time all had arrived we had 20!  Presents were opened (Elaina got the award for “most excited acting over a Christmas present” with the 4 dinosaurs she got – almost hysterical with joy!!!!!!)  We had a really nice time visiting and catching up knowing that we won’t see them all again for at least 3 months!!!

Then back in the truck and drove back the 5 and half hours to the “UP cabin” – got home about 9 – 

Monday neither of us felt really great and the trail was too soft to train dogs (if we used it, it would chew it up ….) so we just laid low all day.

Today Randy is out trying to groom/pack the old trails on this side of the road the we used for the first 2 months – there is considerably less snow than there was even Friday so perhaps he will get it packed enough we won’t hurt their feet if we train today – the forecast for Newberry is not looking great………rain and high 30’s for tomorrow but then snow for 3 days after – we are hoping that just being a half hour north and on Lake Superior will make it be colder here and give us more snow- Randy was already talking about going to Quebec (where we found out from the Bellerives has 3 feet of snow!!!) last nite when he first heard about the forecast of rain here!  Can’t argue with “Mother Nature”!!!!!!!

Training went good today – not too bad since Randy had only gone over once just this morning!  There were just a few 1-2 inch soft spots in the trail but snowmachines had been driving over most of it – 11.5 miles – so tomorrow we will run again thinking that it’s going to rain in the afternoon and maybe the next couple days and maybe the trail will go “to pot”!!!!

Another busy week!

Well now we truly know what is wrong with the snow machine……………on Friday with the first team on the way home (about 5  miles….) the engine blew up!!!!!!!!!!!  No question about what’s wrong now……………..  we walked and rode and pushed and then finally made it back and then took out the second team with the other snow machine – it’s smaller and can’t pull the drag as good as the other but I guess that’s what we are stuck with now!

On the weekend we met Mitz and Keyon and the grandkids in Gaylord and had a delightful Christmas exchange with them!!!! 

Monday was training and then and Tuesday I decorated the house for Christmas; including the manger scene I had made last year from Lake Superior rocks and going out and “chopping down a Christmas tree” all by myself using the snow machine to find a tree in the woods!!!!!

 Today (Wednesday) was the big one……….the one you look forward to every year (and for me not in a good way……..)……….the first run with the dogs on the sled!!!!!  I dread it because, invariably, something goes wrong!  And it did!!!!!  The first team went out the drive and across the road good and around the really hard corners good and only made one small mistake at a turn which they quickly corrected- however, the second team had a small problem with Randy hitting a ridge in the corner in the driveway (which is hard packed right now) and caught his runner and flipped the sled!!!!  He dragged for a little while but I was already caught up to him and the team so he waved me on and I followed them into the dog yard………..what could have been a real disaster with the wrong dogs, turned out OK with these dogs – they stopped where they were used to stopping and then proceeded to bunch up into a big dogs and lines MESS!!!!  I unhooked tug lines as fast as I could and had most of them untangled by the time Randy “showed up” – walking a bit stiff…………  None of the dogs got tangled or angry and fought so it was a big BLESSING!!

Thursday nite we go to the Tahquamenon Sled Dog Race at Carol and John Waltman’s and then train again Friday.  Saturday we will head down to our house after feeding dogs and then Sunday have Christmas with family at Spanky’s Pizza buffet!!!!  

Hope Friday goes better training – I already volunteered to go out to the driveway where he fell and try to smooth the place where his runners caught but he says he doesn’t want to walk right now………………….

The week in "review"!

What a whirlwind week it was with Ocean here!  We trained only 2 days of the time he was here but that was different for me because I stayed home while the 2 of them were out on the trail!!!  So I was even more of “just the dog handler”…………  He had 2 pretty exciting training runs because the snowmachine quit on the trail and the dogs and the men had to pull it most of 10 miles home!!!!  After I realized they were over ½ hour later than they should have been I took the other snowmachine out looking for them and found Ocean waiting for someone to come out and get him in the middle of nowhere!!!

The most dogs he ran was 3 because we ran out of time and snow…..  Friday nite Jesse, Cindy and the rest of the kids drove up to stay at Deer Park Lodge for 2 nites.  We took them out to dinner Friday nite to the Wolf Inn and ate with Carol and John Waltman and Jan Shaw and her son-in-law -  they were very pleased to meet our family!

Saturday morning we went down to their cabin for a big breakfast and then were on the road to Taquamenon Falls –about 45 minute drive north and east of here.  That was very fun – only Jess had seen them before so they were all pretty amazed at how big they were and how close you can get!! After that we went to the Lake Superior beach across from Muskellonge State Park and went rock hunting – we were all looking for agates, and found some that remotely looked like they might have been……..but not really!  By then it was time for dinner so we came back here to our “very crowded with 10 people in it house” and made chili and the kids all got to go around the 4 mile training trail pulled on the sled by the snowmachine.  Then we got Greg (last year’s lead dog) out and he pulled 5 kids down the driveway!!!!!  He was a little whipped by the 5^thkid!!!  But they all had a blast!!  After chili, Oak made a bonfire and we roasted marshmallows and had s’mores and made “footprint drawings” in the snow.  The 3 big kids stayed here over nite and we ended the day by playing the “DeKuiper version” of charades!

Sunday morning we all went to 9 am Mass in Newberry and then out to breakfast – it had snowed about 8 inches overnight and it was beautiful so the roads we not great going into town!!! It looked like a fairyland-   when we got home after saying goodbye to family, we noticed the lights kept flickering…………yup; the snow must have caused some lines to be down so we all of a sudden had no power!!!  It only lasted about 3 hours but we scurried around before it got dark to make sure we were ready for the “long haul” if need be - We are heating the “cabin” with only an electric infrared heater; the only other heat source we would have is a propane heater on the wall but it would be working without the fan!  So, a blessing to have the power come back on!!

Today was sleeping in and then trained two teams – on the second round the snowmachine quit again about the same area it had before…………strange………but  by blowing into the gasline Randy was able to get it started again.  I guess he doesn’t really know what is the problem with it!!  He’s replaced the gas, the line and the filter but it is still happening!  Just lucky I didn’t have to walk 10 miles back to home!!!

 the 1930's movie theatre in Newberry - restored in the last few years

 original paintings in the theatre

 Ocean's 3 dog team

DeKuiper's at Tahquamenon Falls

 Lake Superior ice sculpture

 the biggest snow so far this year!!!