Yuck!!!!

It's too warm now and the snow is turning to slush!!!!  We came out the driveway to go to town today and it was 8 inch trenches of slush!!!  can't train the dogs because they would hurt feet - the last time we trained was Christmas day and who knows when again!!!  Oh the life of the dogsledder!!!!

Merry Christmas to all of you!!!!!

Having a great Christmas day - in town to church and now calling the kids to wish them Blessings and this afternoon to Jan's for dinner at 6!!!  Take care all!!!!

It sure looks like Christmas up here!!!!!!

Sorry it’s been so long since I have written!!!! Lots going on what with the holiday gatherings – so I will start where I think I may have left off!

A week ago Friday we left for the lower peninsula to have Christmas with family – this is our 3^rdyear of gathering at Spanky’s Pizza for the pizza buffet and opening presents – we came into town on Friday nite and our angel of a neighbor, Dee had already make a fire in our wood stove so the house was warm and toasty!!!  Since it was still a bit early before bedtime, we dropped in on Dee to thank her for the HUGE plate of chocolate and peanutbutter fudge she had left for us!!!!

Saturday we got up and just had granola bars for breakfast since there was no water turned on!  (too much hassle to drain again and put anti-freeze back in) and then went into Fremont for the party!!!  All the family came with the exception of Keyon, (working his shift at the North Muskegon fire department) and Karen my sister and her husband Larry (she just had had hip replacement surgery 3 days prior).  We had a great time and it was good that the room we rented was well sound-proofed because with 12 grandchildren all playing with their new toys it got a bit loud!!!!  We even had a performance from Ocean, Oak and Aeja on their violin, guitar and cello!  And Grandpa even remembered he could sing Silent Night in German out of the clear blue sky!!!

After the 4 hour part we left to go back to the UP and had no problems getting home – still lots of snow up here and none down south!

Through the week we trained every other day and Randy used the sled for the first time this year and I followed him on the snowmachine.  We did have some problems the 3^rdtime out with the sled as the dogs didn’t want to turn at the corner he wanted so while he was waiting to hook onto the snow machine to turn the team he slid even farther into the corner so we had to turn the whole team back on itself to get them going in the right direction!!!! In the meantime, I had tried to get the sled unstuck from being hooked on the snow machine runner and had backed up not remembering the drag was hooked behind me!!!  So we took the drag off and got the dogs unhooked and Randy took off leaving me to turn the sled around and follow …………..only I couldn’t turn the seld around because I was stuck in the snow where I had buried myself trying to back up with the drag on!!!!  All of a sudden I hear Randy yelling at me from around the corner of the trail to come and help him because somehow (he doesn’t to this moment actually know how……….) he fell and lost the team and took a “header” in the snow!!!!  Between the two of us we got it unstuck and drove crazy fast down the trail trying to catch the team and , lo and behold, we found them about ½ mile down the trail stopped, with the snow hook buried in the snow!!!!! What luck!!!!!!  So we finished the run of 19 miles without problems but were both exhausted and frazzled by the time we got back – so instead of running 2 teams we quit while we were ahead!!

Oh I forgot, we were already sore from the day before when we had gone out on a wild goose chase looking for a part of the trail that is going to be part of the race course in January – and we got lost – and we got stuck……………..twice!!  Once we almost rolled the snowmachine over on ourselves!! Luckily Randy figured out where we made the wrong turn and we found our way back home!!!

Friday nite we were invited out to dinner and a show (just like a date nite!!) by Carol and John Waltman so we went into the Elks and I had whitefish and Randy had his ususal boring chicken strips and then we went to see “Star Wars”!!!!  It was in the very old and recently restored theater in Newberry – apparently there are not very many movie theaters in the UP – like 3??!!!  I enjoyed it very much but Randy was a bit out of the loop since he doesn’t remember ever seeing a Star Wars movie!!!!

Saturday was church and we took the priest, Father Marty and his seminarian guest for the year, Mark out to dinner for the second time.  At the same time we were inviting Fr. Marty to come, Mark was being invited by another gentleman that was here from downstate Detroit area who was up here at his cabin in Naubinway – so we all ate together – the gentleman is a recent widower and I suspect a bit lonely and seemed to relish his time with us all!!

Today Randy “got back in the saddle” so to speak, and we took the other half of the kennel out with the sled – this time, no big problems!!!!!!

For Christmas day we are invited to Jan’s house for dinner with the Caldwells and she has asked that I bring the same cranberry sauce that I gave here at Thanksgiving time – from a recipe I made up…………so we will see if it turns out the same!!!!

If I don’t have a chance to write again before Christmas, please enjoy all of the wonderful Blessings that this season brings!!!!!!!!!

Snow and more snow............

We certainly are in the right spot for it!!!  It snowed all day yesterday while we trained and more - got about 6 inches and it is supposed to snow some more tonite and tomorrow - just hope it isn't too snowy on our way downstate on Friday!!!  Got my Christmas tree on Sunday when we were out trimming trail trees = we cut one down that was leaning over the trail and the top of the tree makes a perfect tree for out small space in the house!!!  Can't beat the price either!!!!

happy Monday!!!

we did go to the fundraising dinner and did have fun though we didn't know a soul there!!!  We danced several dances to the 2 bands they had playing and even got 2 local gift certificates in the silent auction!!!
Sunday we went out to clear more trail - it was a good thing we ran into Frank Caldwell because we wold have started clearing the wrong trail!!!!  Up to 40 today and slushed up the trail - cold over nite so it turned the trails into icy treacherous trails!!!!  So instead of training we did some final Christmas shopping at Sault St. Marie!!!!  On the way home now it's snowing, verging on blizzard so we will see how much we will have to push around tomorrow to make the trails good again!

Yo from the UP!!!

Another week of training in the books…………well calendar……….we are over 200 miles and going 15.3 miles currently without the dogs panting at all at the end of the run!  We want to get up to 20 miles before race season and that is very do-able!

Kind of an unexciting week – training one day and then trying to trim the snow-loaded trees off from the trail – we worked on one section of the trail for an hour and only got 100 yards!!  So many trees bent over with the snow load so that we have to not only cut the trees off and shove them to the side of the trail but pull the tops of the trees out of the foot of snow they are buried under!!  That’s the hardest work, pulling them out of frozen heavy snow.

Today we are going in to a fund raiser dinner for a family in Newberry that got burned out of their house and then to church.  Tomorrow we are going to do more trimming of trees on the trail and then meeting Waltmans and Jan and going to a Christmas program that the whole town of Newberry produces!!  We went 2 years ago and it was very good with lots of variety of musical talent!!

power is back on!!!

what a relief!!!  3 days without water is too long!!!  Trained dogs yesterday and today went out and cleared more trees and low=hanging trees from the trail -lots more to do tomorrow and 3 more inches expected tonite!!

3 days without power!!!

Big snowstorm 12 inches on tues nite and Wednesday - filled the trail in nicely but having no power is a pain - have drained the hot water heater for water and can go next door to Jans for it - using a generator for some power to heat the house  - ran the dogs for 12.5 miles today on a beautiful trail!!!! Hopefully we will have power again tomorrow - the trucks are out near us working on it!!!!  We love you!!!

YO!!! From the north country!!

The last time I wrote we were going through a “meltdown” here – and we still are = though today through tonite we are supposed to get the worst storm of the year!!!!  They are predicting  over a foot of snow!

We trained on Saturday both teams and it wasn’t too bad – lots of trenches in the area where the hunters are going back to their bait piles but all in all, not too bad. Sunday was warmer yet and we were afraid that the icy trenches had frozen overnite and might hurt the dogs so we just rode around the trail on the same course as what will be the race trail in January (so I could see where Randy would race if he decides the trail is good enough to do the 6 dog , 24 mile run)  There were lots of pretty wild hills and bumps in the trail to be sure – it will take quite a bit of snow to smooth things out!!

Yesterday the conditions were pretty much the same so instead of training we decided to tackle dog toenails!!!  It went pretty well, all things considered – like the fact that our four youngest have never had their toenails trimmed!!  And the other 3 second youngest we know are extreeeeeeeemly difficult to do!!!  It’s like trying to hold an alligator  on your lap!!!!!  We actually got everybody done with out too much sweat!!!  I am the holder and Randy is the cutter so I say I do the hardest job but I don’t want to make any mistakes on their nails so I make Randy do it!!!

Today is another “no training” day so we are off to town!!!  Thanksgiving we are going to Ray and Patty Brown’s (neighbors about a mile down the road towards Lake Superior) for dinner – all the neighborhood is invited so it ends up to be over 20 people = the table takes up their whole house!! We also do a “white elephant” gift exchange – so that’s very fun!!

In case I don’t post again before:  HAPPY THANKSGIVING AND ENJOY OF ALL GOD’S BLESSINGS!!!!!

Escanaba has no snow!!!

It looks like spring!!!!

Oh my goodness!!!

You know that grill I shared the picture of with all the snow on it?  Well the snow on it is all gone - and the trails are mush - what a mess!!!  We didn't train yesterday because it was raining and in the 40's again and we were afraid the dogs might get hurt punching through the soft snow - so today we are off to Escanaba to get another ton of dog meat!!!!  We take the blue truck and almost got stuck getting out to the main road!! and that was in 4 wheel drive!!  Randy says it will be better going back home with the extra weight on the truck.  But don't know how much training we are going to get in the next week - supposed to be warm pretty much until a week from Sunday!!!  Just have to do what we can!

Today is in the low 40"s!!!

We didn't train yesterday because when Randy went out to groom the trail in the "non-quiet" time from 11 to 2 there were 4 hunters in the area and we decided not to bother them - but we did train today!  a little soft and some melting but we think we have enough hard packed base to stand up to the next few warm days and maybe even some rain!!

Meeting with Austin in Marquette was very fun - went to a pizza place a lot of the college kids talk about - Austin had not been there yet so he has now!!!  Then we drove around Marquette and saw what we could from the car and then up to his dorm room - very nice!!  One of the nicest campus'/dorms I have seen!!!

This is what the grill on the back porch looks like now!!!

Crazy snow up here!!! We did train the dogs the last 2 days because they will be laid off for the beginning of deer season for at least 2 or 3 days!!!  Finally we have a path between each dog house so we aren’t wading through knee- deep snow to bring them back and forth to the line to run!!!  The trail is looking pretty good except some deer hunter that must have a camp back in the woods came through and plowed up part of our trail and made a berm so deep we almost tipped the snow machine over going through it!!! 

Tomorrow we are going to Marquette to visit Austin Kukal at Northern Michigan University which should be way fun!!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...........

Be careful what you wish for!!!!!!!  We wanted snow to train dogs and boy, did we get it!!!!  A minimum of 2 feet!!!  Knee deep!!!! And more to come in the next few days!!!!  We are on our way to town right now to buy a part for the snow plow so we can fix the plow controller!!!  If ever we needed a snowplow, today’s the day!  The road isn’t bad cause the snowplow has been through and right now it’s not snowing so visibility is good.  Randy went out to check on the training trail across the road and barely made a dent in the trail to pack it – so no training today!  Then when he returned home and went to drop off the drag he was pulling behind, he got the snowmachine stuck in the dog yard!!!! And then spent an hour digging that out!!!  The snowmachine is running today after he replaced all of the fuel lines, but it still only runs in low gear – just keeps acting like there is an air leak somewhere in the fuel system.

Yesterday we went to town twice!!!!!  The first time we bought the new fuel lines and then realized that we had not brought back the red box movie we had rented – when I called them to ask about buying it (they offered to sell for $4 at time of rental and we paid $3 for the 2-day rental!!) they said since we had rented it we couldn’t buy it and that it would be a $3 a day late fee – and if it went over 17 days it would be $29!!!!  So we drove back in to town and were going to go to the Elks Lodge for a vetern’s day dinner, only to find out the dinner was last Friday!!!  So we went to Zellar’s for whitefish and liver dinner!

Ooops – I spoke too soon – it’s snowing again!!!!

The good thing is that all but one of the 22 dogs we are training are all doing good and working to their potential!!!!  We had 2 but the biggest dog in the kennel that doesn’t move around in his circle very much got in shape and is doing much better!!!

yo!!!!

Not too much new to report! We did go to Jan’s for delicious fish and Jim Oehlschlaeger and the Waltman’s joined us – I had brought frozen strawberries that Aeja had picked at one of her summer jobs (that girl had 3 different jobs last summer – no wonder she had already saved up to get herself a pick-up truck; and she doesn’t even turn 16 until March!!) so I baked biscuits we had shortcake for dessert!  We had a good time talking about the 3 guys’ experiences in the Vietnam war ; the other 2 in the Army and Randy in the Navy – all of them managed to avoid being in the middle of the fray…  So while I am thinking about it, Thank you to all veterans for your service!!!

It has snowed almost every day for the last week – when we went into Newberry Thursday for a meat sale at the grocery it was pretty treacherous driving!!!  Thus far we have about 9 inches of snow – the trail had some soft spots in it when we trained yesterday but Randy has been dragging it along with Frank and Regina Caldwell and the crew at Bruce’s – so most of it is getting packed good – we are doing it a bit different this year – last 2 years we stayed and trained on our side of the road until maybe mid-December but this year we started going over across the road for the rig session training and haven’t used the trails on this side again since then.  It makes sense not to have to pack this trails on this side for just us to use when there are 3 different teams of people to pack the trails if we only use the other side.  The only tricky part is getting across the road looking to be sure there is no traffic coming.  We have gotten both of our snowmachines running but now are having trouble with the one we just got fixed over the summer – it quits after going about 10 feet – hopefully Randy will figure out the problem!!  We also put the plow on the plow truck that we also just had fixed this fall – transmission- and now it’s leaking oil and hydraulic fluid – does it ever end????!!!!!!!  Also because of the early/heavy snow we put the trailer over across the street in a parking area for the state forest – it’s very inconvenient if I think of something I want or need from the trailer, to drive ½ mile to get it!!!

Going to church tonite – hope the road is pretty clear and training again tomorrow – 2 teams of 11 – Randy says we have over 90 miles on them and they are looking the best yet!!!! More later!!! 

update!!!

Yesterday we made a whirlwind trip to Marquette to buy a new phone – my iPhone 6S died overnite!  One minute it was fully charged and the next it was dead………………  so we went to Best Buy (it was the closest one at over 2 hours away) and spent $600 on an new one – it’s kind of like getting a new toy……….

We also stopped and got some worming medicine from the vet we know there that is also a dog driver, Tim Hunt – that wasn’t cheap either - $200!

On our way into Marquette, we started seeing emergency vehicles – like about 10 of them- who were responding to an accident that must have happened maybe 15 minutes before we came upon it – pretty bad – one of the vehicles was rolled over and the other smashed up- thankfully it didn’t look like anyone was badly injured from what we could see.

Only spent about an hour and a half in Marquette and then started back home so we could feed dogs in the light – did stop part way home at a lovely little stone restaurant we have always wanted to try but seemed like we didn’t have time or it was closed – it was very cozy and had rustic furniture just like my house!  The whitefish was delicious!

When we got home we found an unexpected surprise visitor, the owner of the house we rent was here from down by Cincinnati – not for a very good reason though – he had been at his brother-in-law’s funeral in Lansing.  So we visited with him during the evening and saw pictures of the new boat they have purchased to go through the inland waterways this year!

We ended up getting about 3 to 4 inches of snow for the first real snow of the year!  It will make training dogs today harder because it’s not enough for the snowmachine and the 4 wheeler will slide!  And then tonite we go to Jan’s for a fish dinner!!

Happy Halloween!!!! BOO!!

Well it was a very successful rig training session with over 300 dogs out pounding up and down our training trails across the road from us!!!!  The potluck was delicious as usual, and we had fun talking to people that we haven’t seen since last year’s session!  We enjoyed a talk from Dr. Tom Gustafson DVM about soliciting information from dog drivers about what vets should know about sled dogs and their health from the dog drivers perspective – he handed out forms to be completed anonymously to be sent back to Tom and then forwarded to the DVM group he belongs to. We talked to Marco and Annie Rivest and found out that Bellerive’s barn (I believe it was June when it burned down – no dogs were hurt – someone saw the barn burning and knew to turn them all out into the exercise field) is not re-built yet and that the dogs are being trained by Samuel LaForce right now – so we will be looking forward to calling Claude and Melanie to get an update on how this season is going to go for them!!

This week we trained Tuesday and Thursday following having trained at the rig session on Friday and Sunday 6 miles.   This week we took the same trails and added 2.5 more and made a really big change that impacted the “human” members of the DeKuiper racing team –we had been running 3 teams of 7 or 8 but Randy decided to break it into 2 teams of 11!!  Yes, it makes the time out on the trail shorter, but, boy does is ever equal more effort and stamina on out part!!!!!  I guess I wasn’t quite in shape to handle that many dogs without a break in between!!!  It all went well for the dogs it was just the “humans” that had sore backs and shoulders!

Wednesday we decided to go to Sault Ste. Marie to shop so we went to Dunham’s and I bought a new pair of training boots, out to lunch at a Mom and Pop eatery on the main street across from the Sault Locks and then to Walmart – and I still forgot some of the things on my list!!!!

Last nite, Halloween, we went over to Jan’s and watched the movie “God is Not Dead” and I carved our pumpkin and made roasted pumpkin seeds!  Today I have discovered that the phone is not charging again so we are trying to figure out how to make an appointment in Marquette (2 hours away) to maybe have the “Geek Squad” replace the battery – I did drop it in the sand out of my pocket while training which I think is what started the whole “not-charging” issue a couple of weeks ago – darn phones; can’t live with them and you can’t live without them!!!!

More later!!

Pre-Halloween Update!

Another week has flown by! We have now been here for 16 days and have trained 6 times – 3 teams of 7 or 8 and finally the dogs are acting like they know what they are supposed to do when we start harnessing – they were pretty wild especially some of the young ones and the new dogs we bought last year. Yesterday when we were hooking in the last dog in the team one of the pups from last year chewed the tug line ahead of her in half – and Randy had just replaced it the nite before!!!!!  It was like she said “oh, new line!  This will be yummy!!!”  We ran the dogs 6 miles yesterday and took them across the road to the area we usually don’t start training on until  we have maxxed out on the number of miles we can get on this side of the road.   The reason we went over there is because this is the annual rig training session put on by Bruce Magnussen and Jan Shaw – the 20^thor so I think……. And so there were about 4 or 5 other teams out training on the trails which gave us a chance to run our dogs by them and see how they behave – we did 3 head on passes and passed a truck twice so it was beneficial training and they all did pretty well, even the young dogs! Last nite we went over to Bruce’s and watched as more and more trucks and trailers with teams pulled in and we all sat around the fire sipping and eating until 9 and then Randy (who had not dressed as warm as I had encouraged him to do…..) got cold and we came home. Tonite is the big potluck and they have a speaker coming in so I will have to give report on that later.

This past week I was still recovering from the cold and it was rainy more days than not but we did manage to go to the lower Tahquamenon Falls on last Sunday and took some beautiful fall foliage pictures.  We also watched a movie at Jan’s one nite, looked for her dog, Katie, one morning when she decided to hide in her yard instead of coming back in the house like she does every other morning – we rode around on the 4 wheeler looking for her in the cold rain because we knew how upset Jan was to not find her for 2 hours! Yesterday I spent half the day looking for my new birthday earrings and my necklace and haven’t yet discovered where I put them!  Good thing it’s a small place to live!!

The trees’ leaves are beginning to fall as we are past the peak of the color season but it’s still beautiful out there!!!  Hope everyone is well and we miss you all!!!

we are uppers once more!!

Moved up a week ago and got started on the right foot with a horrendous cold!!!  Just getting over it and have trained in very "warmish" weather" 3 times - it's always amazing how crazy they are the first few times we hook up!!!!  other than colds, feeling good and renewing old acquaintances up here.   Hope this finds all of you in health and good spirits - the wifi at the house is not working well this year as well as the phone so we may be less communicative this year until we go to the next destination!!!

fortunately the Oswald bear ranch was open after their season for us to go see the bears when we went up to set up the dog yard!!!  Priceless!!!

And it gets better!!!!!!!

Much colder today - thank goodness they went over the parking lot with the groomer (all the slush from yesterday had frozen into a very gnarly parking lot!!!) and the trail was much better for the dogs .Randy went out 9th and had a good clean run with no stops - he had 2 dogs that were not working very hard but finished good and managed to move up a place to 8th!!!  Talk about saving the best for last!!!!

So tonight we drive back the 2.5 hours to Bellerive's and then in the morning Claude is picking us up at 9am to go have "farewell breakfast" with the family - Melanie and Patrick have been in Florida buying a condo for the family so we haven't seen them for awhile and it will be good to catch up!!

Then we are off to Michigan!  I will post if something noteworthy happens - other wise will post when we are home safe and sound!!!!

Photo of Randy's today team before he left and the video is taken from a point in the race where they have done a mile loop and then come back close to the start/finish

Best race result this year!!!!! Wohooo!!!

Pretty warm day and lots of slush in the parking lot - they had the unlimited
 teams go out in the middle of the day before the 6 and 4 dog so that was good - the trail was a bit soft - had to work with
the weather  - but Randy ended up 9th out of 21 teams so we were  ecstatic!!!!  He went out last and only had to pass one team and didn't have to stop at all so he had a clean run!!!  we will see if he can stay in 9th tomorrow!!1

Not a very exciting week..........

Made our last trip to Walmart in Shawinigan for this year and trained only a 3 mile loop yesterday (it was all they put in with the groomer after all the snow we got on Sunday and Monday).  Today just getting ready to leave tomorrow for the last race at Valcartier!!!  Should be fun but warm - like last year it warmed up and there were big puddles of water all over the parking lot!!!  We will see!

stayed in 7th but not last!!!

Good clean run today with no problems and Ultra (the dog who has never led in a race) did fabulous again!!! The blizzard started before we left to come home
and the driving was not great (saw a couple of accidents on the way home) but we made it safe and sound..  Got back to 6 or more new inches of snow and then had to clean out the kennel to put the dogs back in there to save/prevent my knee from getting hurt - in the meantime, the Bellerive's front end loader came to plow the  yard so we had to move the  truck and trailer for that and then feed the dogs and then I had to make dinner so now at 9 o'clock we are finally settled in for the nite!!!!!

So the "fun run" was pretty fun.............

Unless you think coming in last is not fun..............

Only 8 6-dog teams and 7 unlimited teams showed up on this beautiful winter/spring day - sun shining and moderate temps!  got the 12 dog team up to the line and everything looked good--- until JR Saucier overtook Randy and then while Randy slowed down to give him a good pass, our dog, Dozer, decided it was a good opportunity to cross right in front of his passing leaders to take a bite of snow out of the bank!!!!!  So they had a tangle that probably cost JR winning today and put Randy in 7th instead of 22 seconds faster and in 6th - very fast teams, a fast trail and fast times!!!  Randy's average was19.84 mph and he was the slowest!!!!

More tomorrow!!!

Pretty uneventful week....

We trained tuesday and thursday and left today for Valcartier for a "pot race" - the owner of the Valcartier resort already has the trail in for the race next weekend so they are having an informal race of sorts tomorrow - we drove the 2 hours + with no problems and are parked her for the nite - we will see tomorrow morning how many people come for the "fun run"

Last nite we went to dinner at the only restaurant in Charente with Bellerives and they have sold to new owners that seem to want to "upgrade" the menu - so they had escargot on the menu and Melanie encouraged me to have them for the first time in my life...........not too bad...............

Not quite as good as we had hoped............

Randy put Swix in lead with Greg (who is already pretty old for a leader but still dependable - at least for shorter races) and I could tell she didn't start out very well from the chute - and she didn't do well after that either............  After about 4 miles of Greg towing her and slowing everybody down, Randy stopped and put Fred up there and things went somewhat better until Lester (the dog we bought last year that was really going to "jump start" the team this year.............) started neck lining and finally dragged - so then Randy had to put him in the bag - we can't tell what the problem was, he isn't limping and acts fine??!!!  So, all in all, Randy dropped down to 14th .............not what we wanted....
Only one more race in two weeks at Valcartier - the snow and water part just north of Quebec City - we may also go to a fun run there next weekend and be able to have the dogs run the trail before the real race!!!

So this is what a lot of snow looks like!!!!!

Pictures were taken on our way to the race site at a little town near Charette!!!


So the first day of the race went very good!!!  18.6 mph average for 10 miles!!!  Even though several of the fastest Quebec teams were not here - Claude Bellerive and his two teams, Guy Girard and Rejean Therrien are at the Rondy and North American races in Alaska - but Randy had no problems and came in 9th out of 18!!!  He is switching leaders for tomorrow hoping to go faster - we will see!!!

Healing mode..........

Randy was pretty sore after the falls on Saturday but is doing better (it doesn't hurt to laugh or cough as much!!) and the swelling in my knee is decreasing bit by bit every day but is still sore - it will certainly change the dog training roles if we train today or tomorrow!!!!  Just wanted you to know we are doing better!

Uh oh...........again...............

I mentioned in my last post that I might not be able to report on the race until Sunday or Monday because there likely would not be any cell service at the race site – which is at a park on a mountain top!!!  So, the discerning reader might ask, why have you been able to post on Sunday early afternoon……………..?  Because we are not at the race site- we are back at Bellerive’s and have been since last nite……  Again, you might ask, why…………..?  Because Randy got disqualified and I got run over by a run-away sled!!!!!!!!!

Started out to be a great day – we had had no problem getting to the race site and also climbing the very steep hill up the mountain -  Got up to a beautiful sunny day with mild temps and helped many 6 dog teams get out – there were 25 6-dog and 14 unlimited teams.  The entries were down a bit from last year for whatever reason (2 of the unlimited teams however, are competing at the Fur Rondy – (so that should have given 2 places moving up without them here!)

We got the team of 14 to the line without too much difficulty and Randy purposely put Ice and Lester in lead because he knew there was a bad left corner in the trail and those 2 generally tend to stay on the right side of the trail – at least better than all our other leaders….  We had a little glitch at the start because I couldn’t hear the countdown but Randy said he started fine – when he got to the bad corner, the “right-handed” dogs hugged the corner hard left and he crashed into the brush they had put down to prevent that from happening – he fell, lost the team and he ended up with a tree, butt first, wedged under all of his sled and between his brake and the sled!!!! It took 3 trail help to lift the sled, get the tree out of the sled by pulling the sled/team backwards – when they got that out the snow hook was tangled and holding the brake down – so picked up the sled and pulled back again and the trail help pulled the snow hook out before Randy was ready to go and he lost the team again – he went down the trail a bit more and had a tangle in front from the soft snow in the middle of the trail and when was untangling the leaders came back towards him and then the snow hook pulled out and he lost the team again – this time for good…………the team came in with another spectator/friend/driver and Randy came in on a snowmachine……………..Ughh……….

You might ask what I was doing while all this was going on and why I wasn’t at the finish line to catch out team when it came in????????  Well…………while I was watching the last unlimited team go out, as they hooked his snow hook to a line to hold him until the countdown, his snow hook rope broke and I saw a team of dogs and sled coming at me at what seemed like the speed of light!!!!!!  I was standing in a group of maybe 10 people but I was the only one that got hit by the sled!!!  It hit me on the right side and knee and I was down thinking I had a broken leg………..well once the initial pain decrease and I moved my leg I found out it was only sprained – so I hobbled back to our trailer and put ice and a wrap on it – thankfully so many wonderful people pitched in to help us water the dogs and take all the harnesses off -  Randy put all the dogs back into the trailer by himself which is a lot of stepping up and down!!!!  We decided to leave because Randy was disqualified and I was hurt and wouldn’t be able to help drop dogs from the trailer – so here we are………back at Bellerives, both feeling like we have been run over by a Mack truck and the dogs back in the kennels!!!!

Hopefully I will have use of my knee by Friday cause there is another race, then a weekend off and then the final race the weekend of St. Patrick’s day.  I think the the ligament on the inside of my knee is sprained and it will be pretty healed by Friday – it already feels better now than last nite!!!! 

I told Randy either God is trying to tell us something loud and clear or else we had this happen so we avoide being in some other place where it would have been worse – it was just too freaky to have 2 terrible things happen to us in one hour!!!!!!

More later!!

 the view approaching Mt. Gosford

 The race site with the mountains in the background

on our way home to lick our wounds..................

Pre- race day!!!!!!

Finally get to use the dogs that we have been working so hard with and for (615 training miles so far.........)!!!!  The race is in Woburn, a little town outside of Sherbrooke, Quebec, about an hour from the US border.  Claude says it takes him 3 hours to get there which means probably 5 for us!  Randy is only running 14 this race and the trail is 12.5 miles in somewhat mountainous territory (the hill getting to the race site is reallllllllly steeeeeeeep).  I don't know for sure if I have any telephone service there so I may have to wait until Sunday nite or Monday to give you updates!

We did go shopping on Wednesday and looked at helmuts but the type Randy wants with the sliding shield were not at any of the 3 stores we tried - we could go to the bigger city of Trois Riviera but we will wait and see............

Update

Since Valentine's Day things have been kind of uneventful.............except when I didn't close the outside door to the barn tight at last potty break of the night and it blew open and was 0 degrees during the night and all the pipes froze!!!!!!  The next morning when we discovered it we spent 1.5 hours with our inside infrared heater, my hair dryer and our heat gun desperately trying to thaw the pipes before they came to train and would need hot water!!!!!!  Unbelievably, we got the hot water running 1 minute before they came to get it!!!!  Randy told Claude what had happened when he saw him that nite and he said it had happened to him before too.......whew!

We also had a shopping trip to Shawinigan and Randy bought a thumb splint which is even better than the "metal stick" they sent home with him from the hospital - so he will be wearing it for the next two weeks - still no pain - just hard to manage without using that whole hand.  He taught himself to tie his shoe laces and zip his jacket so that's 2 less things I need to do for him.!!

Last nite we went out to dinner with the Bellerives and as always, had a very nice time!

Today we have to clean out the pens again - should be done every 2 days it appears and now it's been 3 - we have come to the conclusion that it's almost as much work having to clean the pens as it is to have to drop the dogs 5 times a day!!!

We are also going to shop again today - Randy has made up him mind he is going to wear a helmut while running on the sled!

 Pretty un-natural position.........wouldn't you say?  looks painful!!!

 the view from the house looking over at the barn with all the snow - on the right you can see the "snow mountain"

 You can use duct tape for anything - even medical necessity!!!

this is what they use to clean the drive way!!!!

Happy Valentine's Day to all!!!

Boy was that ever a biiiiiiiiiiig blizzard!!!  When we got up yesterday morning the snow was knee deep!!!  I bet we have a bigger snow pile in our yard than you do!!!!  i don't have a cord with me to download a picture of it but I will in the next few days.....  Yesterday I didn't even come over to do laundry because Claude stopped by out trailer (after he got stuck with his SUVin the driveway) to say that Lise (the housekeeper would not be able to drive in to work because of the roads......I think he thinks she either does or helps me with the laundry - but I do it all - she speaks no English at all so it's kind of hard to communicate)  So we watched the loader clear the barnyard and the driveways for fun and fed dogs in the barn and that was about it!!!

So today I made Randy a big breakfast for his Valentine complete with Quebec syrup!  And now I have been up at the Bellerive's doing laundry for the last 2 hours -

Don't know about tomorrow training - Hermel went out with the groomer this morning about 10am and he is not back yet - so he is either stuck or broke down!!!  So there may not be a trail to train of for awhile - at least our dogs are in a big pen where they can bounce around!!!

if anyone ever wants our opinion on the efficacy of socialized medicine..........

we would be happy to provide it!!!!!!!!!!!!!   not good - 13 hours in the emergency room!!!!  (several people that had been there with sick kids finally left after like 8 hours and gave up) For sure we didn't have a life threatening emergency but come on...........  finally about 12:30 an we saw the doctor and she put numbing medicine in 2 sides of his thumb and then manipulated the thumb
back into the joint (I have seen some pretty gross things as a nurse but I couldn't watch!! - then we had to have another X-ray which meant calling someone in to do it - so when all was said and done it was $900 out of pocket (which most of it should be reimbursed by our Priority Health insurance should cover........) and a hard splint without use of the hand for one week and then a smaller splint for 2 weeks and then supposed
no sports activity
for 6 weeks - so that's not gonna happen!!!

13 hours in this waiting area and we did make some new friends of about 8 people that could speak English -some were delightful, some were wacky, and several knew the Bellerive family.  All a Blessing to pass the time and smooth Canadian/US relations!!!

We didn't get home until 3am and thankfully the Bellerives dropped dogs for us so we didn't have to do that when we got home - in the morning we watered them and then again, thank goodness for the Bellerives, we put the dogs into the barn/kennel so that we didn't have to drop them 5 times a day and risk further hurting Randy' hand!!

Today a big blizzard which I know many of you are also getting - coming out of the trailer this morning knee deep snow!!!

We think that Randy will be OK to train dogs soon (fitted a glove and mitt over the splint) but won't be able to do that till it stops snowing tonite and then they pass the groomer over the trail- so maybe thursday -   until then I hope to do laundry tomorrow up at the Bellerives'!

uh oh................

Good training trails the last 4 days - unfortunately we are like "all dressed up and no place to go" since so many races have been cancelled!!!!  we trained Thursday and Saturday with the snowmobile - so Randy thought it would be good to use the sled and build some speed on the dogs - so I went out ahead of him and we did 13 miles of the best trail that we have seen here or anywhere in the last 5 years!!!!  He didn't remember to take the GPS with him so he didn't know for sure but was quite confident that he was doing around 19mph!  at least part of the time and he had to slow them down with the drag for at least 5 miles of the trail.  So we were almost done with the run, I had stopped the snowmobile to check that traffic was clear and then took off across the road for the barn/home and hurried back to get ready to "catch the team" when he got back - well I had just gotten off the snow machine and I heard the dogs and sled arrive behind me and when I turned around all 7 dogs were in a big ball wrapped around the timeout bars in the yard...........and no Randy!!!!!!!!!!  I hadn't turned around to check he made it across the road OK and the first thing I thought is that the car I saw coming (but he still had time to cross safely) had somehow sped up and he had gotten run over!!!!  Mean while I had to untangle all the dogs and get them chained to the truck and prevent one of the females from getting bred all the while wondering what had happened to Randy...... then I saw him walking (the road is about 1/4 mile from the barn) and thought "whew"!!!!!!!!!!  And then I saw him holding one hand up in the air just like he had that day in Alaska when he lost the end of his finger training dogs!!!!!  and sure enough, he had injured his left thumb!!!  Thumbs are just not supposed to be permanently pointed in that direction!!!!  So I put all the dogs back into the trailer and we called Bellerives' business to find someone to help us get to the hospital.  We got ahold of Patrick and between him and Claude they brought us a car and then Claude led us to the nearest hospital (he was on his way to Montreal for a meeting) in his car and then he came into the hospital with us to be sure there was someone that spoke English!  So that was 2p and now it's 6:30 and Randy has had an x ray of his hand but hasn't seen the doctor yet.................

I will let you know what the outcome of our newest adventure is when I can!!!!!

Amazing!!! I figured out the way to get the tv to work!!!

I said a prayer yesterday - not a big prayer
 but just one to have me think of what to do..............turns out I had one thing wrong on the choices of setup = s o now we are good again!!!!

Bad weather today - rain and warm temps so they cancelled both the race in Vermont and the Woburn race          -and they formally canceled the race in Laconia NH so now that makes about  5 races we were going to do and now only have 3 races to go!!!

What's up???? not much...........

_{The last few days have been quiet- training Tuesday- shopping Wednesday (I did buy myself some new underwear, socks, yoga pants and a “Canadianne” sweatshirt – all at Walmart – so if I need anything else I will have to go elsewhere………..  I did find a “stash” of turtlenecks up in the cupboard by the bed head, so I am not quite as bad off as I thought!}

_{Today we trained 1 teams of 8 on the best trail Randy says we have had since we left the east side of the 407 in the UP.  Also training today was our friend Mario and he had Marcel riding the 4 wheeler with tank-tracks ahead of him – when our dogs met them head on, Fred and Ice jumped up on a 3 foot bank on the trail to avoid the 4 wheeler and then jumped right back down after it passed and went straight ahead without a tangle!!!  In the dogsled world, that is amazing!!!}

_{We have found out that the race for this weekend at Woburn is cancelled – we are getting rain tonite and it must have already rained on their trail..  For today Jim Lyman has said that it looks bad for Laconia NH, so they are not cancelling but they never do till the last minute.  That leaves 3 more races in Quebec – hope they go cause we would hate to have this be a “one race season”!!!!}

Another mixed day of good and bad..........

The good was that I had volunteered to make dinner for the Bellerive's in my InstantPot and had gotten a beef roast last week and they said it would be good to get together on Monday - so when I texted to see what time, the note from Melanie kind of made it look like it was at her house and it would only be 4 of us - then 45 minutes before we were to meet Claude stopped by to ask what time to pick us  up to go to dinner -so that made it from a 4 person dinner to 6!!!  Yikes!!!!  So I quick thawed some homemade applesauce  from the freezer and along with the carrots, potatoes, gravy and squash I had ready and the dessert and salad Renelle brought we had plenty!!!!   And when I had pressure cooked it looked like 1/2 the size it started as so I thought for sure we wouldn't have enough but there was enough for leftovers!!!  Couldn't have turned out better!!

So the really bad things were that when we got home Sunday nite I couldn't get the tv to work..........thought maybe I was just tired and impatient and would figure it out in the morning..........nope!!!!  I have tried everything I can think of and don't know what has happened but now I can't get any tv stations even thought it shows 3 blue lights out of four on the antenna control!!!!  So today I am still without and in withdrawal!!!!!

The other thing that I realized was that, even though I haven't yet had much need for nice clothes to wear, I wanted to wear a shirt I was sure I had brought .................did a concentrated search of everywhere possible the garbage bag of my clothes were...........and no bag............nowhere...........no clothes for Cris!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Randy tried to cheer me by saying it was pretty tricky of me to not bring all my clothes so that I could go shopping-------------????!!!!!  Especially on a day I was making dinner!!!  So what I think happened is that Randy thought the bag was to be stored in the UP for when we come back in the spring -so it's in the dog meat freezer............................

And today we got the freezing rain that everyone else has had and things were all frozen over - including the trail for training today - so Randy just went out to see if the top layer of ice has melted and maybe we can still train yet today!

More good news soon!!!!

Well some things went better and some didn't.............

Not quite as blustery weather yesterday, so that was good..........the trail was a little more packed........so that was good..........we didn't have any broken harnesses or dog fights........so that was good...........but the dogs really didn't perform as well as we expected!!  Randy switched back to an old leader and replaced the "hot shot leader" that we bought last year but the older leader ran out of poop 1/2 way through the race!  So he stayed in 14th and that was good!!  Made just enough money to pay our entry and club membership!!!

OMG!!!

bad start...........not so good race..........Randy is 14 out of 19.  started with a dog fight as we were about to go to the start line - then as he was in the final countdown, the wheel dog broke a harness (yes it was one of the ones Randy had fixed..........) so he didn't leave the chute at "go" = maybe 30 seconds to a minute later - and then just after he left he had a neck line came off a dog just in front of wheel - and had to stop at a trail crossing to have someone help him stop the team and put in a new neck line...........so 5 minutes out of 1st which I have calculated is 24 seconds per the 12.5 mile course - oh yeah, the young dogs that have never raced did pretty good except Skye who does not like to run in "deep snow" - I guess Randy spoiled her by only training on a good trail!! Maybe he will do better tomorrow and for sure we won't put the 2 dogs that fought together again!!  So time to feed and more to come tomorrow!!!

Well Randy goes out last.........

That could be a good thing or a bad thing.............stay tuned!!

Welcome 2019 racing season!!!

We are sitting at the St. Luc race site - just pulled in an hour ago and fed dogs - the trail looks a little soft but hopefully that's just at the start line - we are nervous as always - Randy clearly remembers a corner he has to make in the first few miles!  That's the problem with knowing the trails!  The dogs have not run since their 3 miles fun run on Tuesday due to the cold weather so they should be full of "pi__ and vineagar!!!!

Now that I finally remembered that I could use my "personal hotspot" (duh!!!!) I will be able to update you far more frequently!!!!!  Yeah!!!!  And will let you know what place Randy goes out after the draw tonite!!

Finally I have the internet!!!!

Hello!!!  Just sitting here in the trailer at Bellerive’ watching tv on our “English speaking station”!!  Crazy but I am really looking forward to seeing some of the shows I can only see here (“Murdoch Mysteries” and “Heartland”).

We did leave on Wednesday (packing up the whole house again like from the fall – and just dumping it all every which way into the trailer) and had figured out a way to get the dogs out to the trailer (we have left it parked across the road in a parking area for the last 2 months not wanting it go through what we did last year………….digging ourselves out of the driveway for 4 hours…………) we hooked 2 teams up to the snowmachine and ran them over there (about ½ mile) to the trailer and didn’t even put harnesses on them…just ran them off their neck lines !!!  worked pretty good except for the leaders……….. Got on the road about 1p and had to stop in Newberry at the license bureau to get a different plate for the truck – they go by different standards in Canada so it is one way of trying to placate the “Canadian DOT”. 

So far I have only identified 2 things that I forgot from the Deer Park house…………my favorite shirt I just got at Christmas………….and the bottom to the toilet!!!!!!  We have used a camp toilet for forever and I went to use it and opened the lid and saw the carpet underneath!!!!!!  Took it out to clean in the spring and never put it back!!!  On to “Plan B”!!

It was snowing pretty hard so we had the truck in 4 wheel drive as far as we went – which was only about 4 hours!!!  We got through the border crossing at Sault Ste. Marie without problems but then thought the roads were getting too bad so we pulled off close to Sudbury.  Slept the nite in a “un-official semi trucking parking place” in a little town –

Next morning (Thursday) on road again…………got a call from JR Saucier telling us the race in Quebec is canceled!!!!!!  We are ½ way to our Quebec home so it’s a toss up-----we decided to go east (it would have been 340 miles to go back for the race in Kinross in the UP or the same to go east)

Good travels – no problems – got through Ontario without the “evil DOT” stopping us again this year!!!

Into Bellerive’s drive at about 10p and to bed at midnight!

Friday saw Claude briefly and found out the race at L’ Epiphanie was canceled because of the rain they had the nite before and it had made the race trail unsafe.

It was very icy on the parking area here at Bellerive’s so we opted not to train the dogs on Friday or Saturday.  Today (Sunday) we took out 2 teams of 8 with the snow machine and in a blizzard!  The dogs did well though the first team went off the trail a bit because none of us could see the trail!!

Tonite we get to have dinner with the Bellerive family in the house and re-renew our friendship!!!

Today is Wednesday and I thought that on Sunday at Bellerive's we would be able to get on the internet but for some reason it wouldn't work for me..........so today we are in the A & W in Shawinigan so I can give you the latest news!!!

The biggest action this week has been the weather - I know we are not alone...........snow, snow and more snow!!!  The big road grader from Bellerive's company has had to plow our parking area twice already!!!  We managed to run the dogs for a short exercise run yesterday but they pretty much had to wade through parts of the trail that had blown in!!!

Really this is the first day we have have even un-hooked the truck and gone any where!

The plan going forward is another exercise run tomorrow and then pack up and go to the St. Luc race site on Friday.  It is about 1.5 hours away.  This is the race that Claude Bellerive sponsors and put the trail in with the equipment from his company and his own trail groomer - then there is a week with no race and then hopefully the next one will be in Laconia NH!!!

I may be able to post on Friday on our way to the race if there is something exciting to say.........sorry it took so long for me to post!!!

Update for 1/17

Another week; more training successes!!!  After giving some dogs that Randy felt were too slow for our team away to friends, and getting the two hurt dogs back in the team (one of the ones that was hurt, Vinnie, broke a harness lunging in it to go today; then Randy re-hooked him twice more and he broke it all the way into the webbing on the harness!!!!) we now are ready to race with 16 dogs; all with over 500 training miles on them!!!!  Right now we are kind of wishing we had gone to Manitoba, the dogs are looking so good – but knowing that it will be below 0 tomorrow here and that race is farther north and in the prairie and that it’s always colder there, we are glad we “wimped out”!  So now the big question is whether or not the first race in Quebec (Epiphanie) is going to have enough snow on the fields to cover the plow ruts!!  If we don’t leave for there next Wednesday, we will stay here until Friday and go to a race in Kinross about an hour and half from here. Randy would rather do the Quebec race but we will see what happens!  We just finished packing up 3 garbage bags of clothes for the trailer and took a pick up full of dog meat and put it under the floor in the back of the trailer – quite a bit more stuff to pack – I figure it will take me at least one day!

Not too many social events lately- did go out to dinner in a place in Hulbert (about 1 hour from here – the big draw  is that if you get there in the late after noon you can get a table right next to a wall of windows over looking where they feed deer!  When we got there about 50 deer were munching on corn!!! So close that if the window wasn’t there you could touch them!!!  The occasion was Jan and Patti’s birthday – a great time was had by all!!!

That’s about it for now!!  Hasta luego!!!

And the picture doesn't even show what blew off the fence!!!

Well I think I have regained my composure...……..have you ever typed an entire page and then had your computer freeze and you lost the whole blasted thing???????!!!!!!!!  If anyone has any suggestions as to why “Word” would choose to do that to me and what I might do the next time it would be appreciated!!!!  Actually it just did it again to me but this time I “outfoxed” the computer – I didn’t shut it down when it froze – I just shut it and went and made a pie and when I came back and opened it again it was back to normal???  Poltergeist??????

That’s what happened – so now I will try to re-create my masterful storytelling piece…..

The last week or so has been relatively calm………until the blizzard and me getting lost in it and getting the snowmachine stuck!!!!!!

So, we had gotten down to pretty much ice again this last weekend and were training on the east side of the road we live on – because Randy had spent so much time grooming the trail it didn’t lose much of the base and we could still train on it without booting the dogs or hurting their feet.  We were expecting snow but didn’t dream it would come so much or so fast!!! It was welcome but for a few days it was rough getting around…….2 feet in 3 days!!!

It was the last training run that we were going across the road with Randy on a sled with 2 – 8 dog teams with me leading them on the snowmachine – well it proceeded to snow, and then snow harder, and then blizzard while we were out!!  Randy had drawn me a map of where I was to lead him (this is the one part of the trail I don’t know well and it’s ever-changing with everybody making new paths to train on within the trail – so the first team I do OK; only made wrong turns 4 times………..the second team seemed to be going alright until it got to be really really blizzardy and I could hardly see the trail to go ahead!!  About that time I reached a decision point and I remembered that we had gone straight ahead the last time………or was it at another spot?????  So 5 feet into the turn I realized I was wrong and turned hard left= well with 2 feet of snow and me pulling a drag to groom the trail, you guessed it, I buried myself!!!!!  I started madly pawing at the snow around the snowmachine trying to get it to go ahead and knew that Randy would be catching me soon and would be upset……………he did and he was………..  He even hooked the team down so he could get the drag off the machine but it still wouldn’t go ahead – sooooooooo  “I will be back for you------“ and I was left alone in the Lake Superior woods, in a blizzard with a stuck machine 6 miles from home………….   Since I was not going anywhere I decided to get serious about digging myself out – so I peeled of clothes and started in earnest!!!!  I dug all around the machine and under the track and under the runners so the whole machine could drop down to the packed snow and get a grip – at times when I was pawing the snow out from under the runners the machine would drop an inch and I would thank God that my hand had not still been under it!!!!!  I finally got it dug out enough and the drag off and out onto the trail that I thought it could make it out the 5 feet I was off the trail – so I turned the key and it wouldn’t start – I thought it must be flooded so I let it sit for 15 minutes (or so it seemed since I didn’t have a watch………..)  I repeated this process for several more times but to no avail……. I had checked the kill switch (the button on the dash that you press if you want to stop the machine in an emergency) when I was first trying to get it out to make sure it wasn’t pushed down (I had already had that experience of not having start because the button was pushed down on too many occasions….) so I didn’t think that was the problem – 

Then I heard a snowmachine approaching!!!!  I thought it could be Randy but didn’t really know how long I had been out there and knew that when he got back with the dogs he still had to unhook and unharness them and put them back in their circles—it wasn’t Randy – it was Regina Caldwell!!!!! She had tipped over on her snowmachine and was trying to get it re-started when Randy passed by her with the team and asked if she could go give me a lift!  After I asked her if she was AAA she was going to just give me a ride but I wanted to try to get out of “stuck” – so I told her I couldn’t get it started and wouldn’t you know it………..the stupid ***### kill switch was down and she popped it back up and it started!!!!  I must have bumped it again in my fervor trying to get un-stuck!!!! So I pulled back up out of the hole I had dug and onto the trail, hooked the drag back on the machine and away we went with me being pretty proud of myself for digging myself out………….but sheepish about the wrong turn and the kill switch……………..

That was 2 days ago and today we went out to train with the sled; only this time with all 14 dogs that Randy thinks he will race!!!!!  Aside from “getting my jacket on too slowly” so that a dog had time to chew through his neckline, we got started to go on the same trail I still don’t know……….only this time I led for part of the way and then he passed me with the sled to do the side trail!  The dogs were trying to “empathize” with me because they made 2 wrong turns themselves (the second time we had to hook the sled hook to the snowmachine runner to turn them the right way and they could still pull the hook out of the snow and me on the snowmachine!!!  The only way I could stop them was to hold the brake so Randy had to go up and turn them, not just once, but 3 times!!!!  They definitely wanted to go for a longer run!!!

Well our plans have changed again – We were considering going to a race in Vita, Manitoba a week from now but looking ahead at the weather it’s supposed to be near zero here next weekend and it’s always much colder there – Randy says he doesn’t want to be racing in  -20 degrees weather – can’t say as I do either!!! So who knows where or when to next – just don’t want to be “all dressed up and no place to go” with a dog team with over 450 miles on it!!!!!

Snow...............snow ..............snow!!!

Lots!!!!  8 to 10 inches!!!!  We needed it so bad!!! and we got it!!!  today we trained all 16 dogs (all that are able to train at this point) on the trail across the road since we got the good snow yesterday!  We used the snow machine still cause we are not sure of the trail but maybe tomorrow!!!

May God Bless you all in this New Year 2019!!!

Take stock of all your good fortune – family friends and good health!!!

Well the holidays are over went to Carol and John’s along with another couple and Jan Shaw for an appetizer party and then out dancing at the American Legion in Newberry on New Year’s Eve) and it’s back to the regular routine of training everyday – 18 dogs one day and then a team of 3 the opposite days (to get the injured dog, Vinnie, back into shape – he has run 4 miles twice and still is not limping after the time off and the laser treatments!)  Tomorrow we are going to try the sled on our groomed trails on this side – running them so that we miss the difficult triangle turn and only using 6 dogs in each team – it will be more work but hopefully they will gain some speed not using the snow machine to train!

They cancelled the Tahquamenon race that was supposed to be this weekend (the warm weekend and traffic ran the trail down to ice on many parts and it would not have been safe for dogs or people!) and now we are waiting to hear if the Kalkaska race is going to get enough snow for the next weekend – it will almost take a miracle because they don’t have any snow right now!!!  The next weekend after that is supposed to be in Quebe and they don’t have snow there right now either!!!  What a deal – Randy might have the best team he has had in 10 or 15 years and have hardly any races!!!

Tonight we went to a restaurant/inn that I have wanted to go to since I heard it advertised on the radio, Chamberlin’s Ole Forest Inn – an old lake front inn with 2 floors of rooms right out of the 1920’s!!!  Lots of wood and the fireplace and view of Manistique Lake.  We met the owner, Bud, while he was putting wood in the fireplace and he let me go upstairs and look in all of the rooms where the door was open and unoccupied – beautiful!!!  Reminded me of the rooms that were in the movie “Somewhere in Time” that was supposed to be at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island in the early century!

We didn’t use the sled today because we wanted to be sure they would take the turns well as they are not what they are used to – they did fine so the next time will be with the sleds.

We found out from Jan Shaw today that the Kalkaska race is cancelled and re-scheduled for the end of February.  We also called out friend Dave Hochman in Manitoba near Winnipeg and they have 1 foot of snow yet and have a race the 3^rdweekend in January – depending on whether there is a race in Quebec we may go up there to race the first time this year!

Tomorrow is supposed to be training the injured dog, Vinnie but right now we are getting some rain – hope it doesn’t last very long and we lose snow or it ices up!!!!

 Chamberlin's Ole Forest Inn

 Randy looking online for some runner wax!