Hello Again!!!!

 HELLO OUT THERE!!!!!

Yes we are still alive and kicking!!!  We are in Quebec right now with the first race here tomorrow at St Luc – but I will catch you up on what’s happened over the last year……….

For the most part we have been well – even well enough to cut down 5 huge maple trees and cut and split them and stack them so the dish could get a signal for our wifi!!  I was the skidder and used the 4 wheeler to get the brush out into the woods and we felt really healthy and in shape!

That was after Randy had a bout with something called “Transient Global Amnesia” – a catchall phrase when they can’t find any other reason why you can’t remember the last 24 hours………..in this case in the beginning of it he thought he had retired from Continental, which would have been about 35 years ago!

Per usual the year has not been without vehicular problems.  Trouble with the truck starting, found stainless steel shavings in the intake of the sensor.  Didn’t run well and took it back to Great Lakes Truck Repair in Newberry and found a leaf stuck in the intake of the sending unit.  Rand to Escanaba and back to get dog meat  and back and no problems. Was worried about the fuel problem so had the mechanics add a lift pump. Cost twice as much as they guessed because of our truck’s design.  Had them check out “abs” light on the dash, and found sensor bad and wheel bearing.  Cleaned up wiring on regulator for air bags.  Found on the ride to Quebec the cruise control isn’t working – but something we can live with!!!  On the ride to St.Luc the fuel transfer pump wasn’t working –(puts fuel from the big tank to the main tank…) and thank goodness it was a loose wire that he found when he looked.

As we went to the UP for our final stay (Jim Oehlschlaeger is wanting to get rid of the dog yard and make the home more “resort-like”) we were there only a week and I got appendicitis!!  It was ruptured, then I had an abcess then I had fluid on my lung!!!  And no training for Randy for 3 weeks without his trusty dog handler!!!  I have recovered completely and am almost good as new!

We trained at Deer Park for the 4 months and the highlights of our nature living were seeing the wolf on the trail again and 3 eagles all at one time. Over that period of time we had snow, then no snow, then lots of snow, then melting- they cancelled the Tahquemenon race because of the melt so our next spot was the Baldwin race – it was a bit slushy but ran both days and Randy got first in the 8 dog!!!!

So next stop, Charette, Quebec – no problems with the drive, good roads and saw Claude down at the kennel/barn the first night on Wednesday (dinner with family next week after his race this weekend)– trained all 19 dogs Thursday and they went about 5 miles and made all the turns around the course good.  arrived at St. Luc this afternoon.  I have wifi in the community building so I will be able to update you on how the race goes tomorrow.   14 dogs and the toughest man I know (as Jess like to say about his dad!!!!) 

Results are in!!!!  13^th out of 21 teams!!  Randy averaged 17.74 mph and the top speed was 20.5 !!!!

Today was a beautiful day for a race – cold enough to have the trail stay hard and sunny!!!

Went to Mass this morning as the church is within a block – the priest spoke English so we visited for a minute – the rest was pretty hard to understand in French!

Randy had a terrible time with another team that stopped on a corner, then one of the 2 dogs he had in the bag jumped out into our leaders and he had a bad tangle!!!  Still all the dogs performed well and they were happy coming in!!!  And in 11^th  place out of 21!!!

So tonite back to Bellerive’s an hour and a half away and good clear roads – tomorrow maybe to Shawinigan to Walmart (my big day out!!)  

We just sold a dog so that’s good- time to decrease the feed bill!!!

I will try to keep up with the blog – the only wifi I have is at the Bellerive’s house and that doesn’t always work for me………….

Ii talked to Brittany Colbath today and supposedly the race next weekend is a big party!!!! So we have a lot to look forward to!!!