Have a Blessed Christmas and New Year!!!

 Our newly hung Christmas present from the kids (Amy, Bill and Caitlin) a picture of all 13 grandkids!

ill

Remembering the "reason for the season...."

Didn't train on Thursday so we went into Newberry to buy more fuel for the snowmobiles - I may have mentioned it but some days we go through 8 gallons of special snowmachine (no ethanol) fuel a day between grooming trails and training!!!!  Also bought more groceries (you know.....while you are in town..... a half hour away.....and you don't know when you will be there again......) and went out to a pizza place that is in a beautiful log home/cabin!!!

Trained yesterday and took some different trail for 17.5 miles - beautiful snow-covered pines and sweeping hills= wish I had brought the camera!!!  should do something with the go pro that I bought Randy 4 years ago.....

Cleaned house today and plan to go into to town for Mass unless the weather turns ugly while Randy is out grooming the trail.  Plan to go to Jan Shaw's for Christmas dinner - it will be a first for us to have leg of lamb!!!!!

O Christmas tree......

One more year I cut down a tree slightly bigger than I should have.......I intended this to be a tabeltop tree and it didn't quite fit!!!!!  at least it did fit in my "mason jar tree stand"!!!

Today was the first day training across the road and it went very well all things considered!!!  the first team with Dozer and Spark in lead did amazing crossing the road and finding the trails and listening when to turn!!  It was slightly easier with the one and two year old leaders (Noah and Fred) to follow the scent of the first team and they did pretty darn good too!!!

Made chili and maybe pumpkin pie later..........

what now!!!!!

Life is if nothing else, for me NOT BORING!!!!!!!!!  Saturday after feeding dogs we left for “downstate” to have our family Christmas gathering – Dee, our wonderful neighbor, had a fire started so the house was warm when we got there!  All that was needed was to turn the water back on……so as Randy was getting ready to go outside and do that in the basement, he noticed the reflection of flames on the window – it didn’t take long for him to figure out that it couldn’t possibly be the fire in the living room woodstove reflecting in the window and realized it was a fire on the snowmobile trailer – in fact the 4 wheeler was on fire!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Incredibly, somehow, the winch on the 4 wheeler on the trailer started on fire spontaneously!!!  I never saw the fire because I was in the house and Randy ran out to put the fire out without letting me know – he had a hard time of it because it was the plastic fender on fire so every time he put snow on it to squelch the fire, it would re-start and he ended up having to put it out patting it down with his gloves!!!!  It was a darn good thing he had the gloves on!!!!  The rest of the nite was uneventful……..went into town to Walmart and bought some more groceries for up north and some cheap kibble dog food at Tractor supply – then had to eat something and while we were eating, who should surprise us, but Mark and Jamie Kukal!!  Caught up on the boys and their life and it was good to see them!!!

Next day up got ready to load presents and go to town – turned off and drained the water….again…..  Had a wonderful time with our family and they all made a special effort to re-arrange their schedules to make time to see us – many presents opened – I think the mice-in-a-stocking Christmas ornaments I made were a hit with all the grandkids – though I did see a couple of them trying to take the mouse head out of the stocking!!  The timing was just about right for us to visit and open presents and everyone get their fill from the pizza buffet – so we left after 3 on our way back to our northern home – Randy was tired (quite a lot of driving and much activity….) and ate the licorice the grandkids had given him to keep himself awake – we were making good time and thought we would be home by 8 ……….until……….the power steering on the truck started to fail…….and it got worse and worse and the lights started getting dimmer………it was a blessing we were only about 5 miles east of Newberry – we made it without crashing or stopping into the parking lot of the Quality Inn and got a room for the nite!!! – just a half hour away from out house!!!  But amazingly, at a place where we could get help- Randy called Frank our neighbor, a musher and a mechanic at the Ford garage in Newberry and he said he was working on Monday and would look at it – I stayed at the motel and Randy drove the 5 miles to the garage with quite a bit of difficulty……  It turns out that what had happened is that the bearing in the idler pulley froze thus throwing the serpentine belt off, resulting in the power steering loss………almost sounds like I know what I am talking about (I had to ask Randy 4 times the names of the pulley and belt…)  Frank was able to figure out what the problem was but couldn’t get a replacement belt until Tuesday morning and Frank didn’t work again until Wednesday (the Ford dealership left it up to Frank whether he wanted to tackle the problem with our GMC behemoth!)  So tomorrow morning Randy will ride in with Frank to work and fix the truck and then Randy will drive our truck back – it sure is convenient to have a neighbor like Frank!  He even let us drive his truck home yesterday because Regina was coming into town later in the day!

Yesterday we trained both teams for 17 miles – it was almost too warm at just freezing – so today just catching up on rest and Randy is just going over to follow Frank around his trail system so he can see where he goes to get 22 miles in training.  Our side of the 407 we have almost maxed out on mileage and the corners and turns are a little bit more difficult to negotiate on the sled – Randy hopes to start using the sled on Friday and train by going out the drive on our side of the 407, crossing the county road, and then using the trails on the west side (it is also the trail system that Magnusson’s use and it is where the Taquamenon race trail is located).  So we will see what he has to say when he gets home!x

this is the only extra mouse I had left!!!!

When you didn't bring a nativity scene with you, you have to be creative with what you do have!!!

Randy picked up the big rock on the beach and it looks like it has an angel etched into the stone.......

the week in review!!

 Sunday nite after the Christmas music program in Newberry at Seder's Pizza - they call it "Stinky Sticks" cause it has garlic butter on it!!!  not as good as Spanky's though!!!!

 This was wild!!!  It's called pasty pizza!!!!  you can pick what filling you want so cheese, hamburg olives and green peppers were ours!  good but still not as good as Spanky's!!!

 Talk about a huge poinsettia!!!!!  made of metal!

-->

The week has gone by entirely too fast – doesn’t seem possible that it was already 7 days ago that I posted – the days are filled now with either training the dogs or grooming the trail.  Since I last posted we have gotten over 15 inches of snow and had the drive plowed twice – that’s a lot of snow to move around so the dogs have a solid surface to run on and won’t develop fissures (splits in the skin between their toes from spreading out and plunging down into deep snow)  It is also much colder – down to 0 yesterday morning – needed to put more hay in the dogs’ beds and have to chip ice off from the trailer step several times a day where it is melting off from the roof and dripping down the side of the trailer at the door.  We didn’t have this problem ever before and we are thinking it must be the way we are parked and the angle of the roof……….

Last Friday we had dinner at Jan Shaw’s with Carol and John Waltman for Carol’s 75^th birthday (they have included us in everything up here – you will not meet a friendlier group of people anywhere!!) and Saturday there were 11 people at Watlman’s for a Christmas potluck that was desicious!!!  Sunday we drove into town for the Christmas program at the Methodist church – people from the community that have musical talent presented – bell choir (which I loved!!!), flutes, guitar, violin and cello, choir, you name it!!!  It was wonderful!!!!  Then out to dinner at the pizza place from the pictures above.

The rest of the week has been training, grooming, cooking warm meals, getting the snowmobile battery replaced, working on some craft projects for Christmas presents, more training, grooming……….you get the picture?!!

Today is a non-training day and tomorrow we train and then Saturday we leave for downstate (a new word in our Yooper vocabulary….) to have Christmas with our kids and grandkids.  Hope the weather is conducive to traveling 5 and a half hours!!!

Per Amy Trenkle request I have been trying to post a video I took of us training dogs in a beautiful part of the snow covered trail but am not able to get it to download on facebook – I think I have tried about 6 times and it just won’t go through – I will keep trying because it gives you a good feel for what it looks like on our trail!!!

 coming home from Newberry - you can see the snowstorm cloud up north!!!!!

Below - me in my new warm parka ready to go out with Randy and groom the trail!!

Now it's really looking alot like Christmas!!!

From 0 inches to 6 in 24 hours!!!!

What a difference 4 hours can make – we started yesterday (Wednesday) with a trace of snow on the ground and it was 40 degrees and this morning we are at 6+ inches of snow and more on the way with a weather advisory!!!!  And it feels like 17 degrees – not only is this Michigan weather but even more fickle, northern Michigan next to Lake Superior weather!!!

Monday it rained and rained and rained till we had big puddles extending all across the trail in numerous places so that the dogs had to go into the woods a bit to avoid them when we trained on Tuesday.  It had been kind of warm the last week (when they have gotten used to 32 degree weather and we train at 40 it seems warm to them!) and so we had dropped back on the mileage to about 7 miles and because it was back in the 20’s on Tuesday we did the 13.7 miles we had been doing – everybody looked good when we got back and didn’t seem winded at all – the really big key thing we think is helping is the water additive we found out about from Frank and Regina Caldwell across the street!  Every single one of them drinks all the water we give them at the end of the run!!!  Something unheard of with our dogs in the past!!!  Not only are they re-hydrating, but it also replaces the glycogen they have used running.

Tuesday we also took the jeep over to Caldwell’s (Frank is a mechanic at the Ford garage in Newberry) because (even though we had replaced them last spring) the brakes were smoking!  Sure enough a caliper was hanging up and needed to be replaced!

Randy ran around the trail with the 4 wheeler and the drag to get the trail packed and added a couple more miles to the trail.

Today he just fed the dogs breakfast and is out on the trail again packing the new snow to train today.  It’s going to be a bit brisk out there – fortunately, we just bought some dogsledding clothes from Jan Shaw (the kind you wear when you distance racing with the down liner and anorak with a fur ruff – and in Randy’s favorite color…..purple!!)  So I should be able to stay warm as toast riding around on the 4 wheeler for 16 miles!!!  I also bought some new goggles while we were in Grand Rapids last week – I am trying to prevent my cheeks from getting frostbitten again – you know once you have frostbitten the skin it is way more vulnerable and takes even less to happen again – so now I get red and peely when it’s not even that cold so with the goggles I cover just about everything up except my nose!!!

This Saturday John and Carol Waltman are having a neighborhood Christmas potluck – it’s the only weekend that everybody will be in town and not visiting relatives – I think I will bring the little green bean casserolettes again!  Then Sunday there is a community Christmas sing along at the Methodist church – we are planning on that as well!

Beginning of December already!!!

 our view crossing the Mackinac Bridge coming home

 looking for agates and other stones on Sunday at the beach near us

 picture of the moon last nite overlooking the lake but you can't see the lake.....not a good enough camera in the phone??

 out to dinner last nite with Carol and Jon at Grand Maraia - really neat bar - the table is on a barrel and the top lazy susan part is glass with sand and agates under it

lots of rock to choose from!!!

update

Yo from the Yoopers!!!  The last week has been kind of busy – we trained on Monday and Tuesday and then went to an impromptu visit with my back pain doctor on Wednesday for a consultation – the 2 injections he has done on the T7,8,9 facet joints has not changed the pain I have in my middle back = so he suggested a different approach bathing the spinal cord around the backside with  steroid – as I write right now it seems to have worked!!! 

So we fed Tuesday and then left about 3:30 and thought we had a room in Cadillac for the nite – got there and they were booked up with people doing outside construction work!!!!!  We said “well it looks like it will be easiest to just go home for the nite………….and called Dee  to say “please start a fire in the house for us” and when we got home it was perfectly toasty inside (it helped that the temp was almost 50 degrees that day and somewhat sunny)  The pain in  the but part is that any time we come home you have to turn on the water and the gas and then when you leave drain the pipes and antifreeze them and turn off the gas…………..

We did have a list of things we had not brought with that we forgot so it was good to get those and bring them back north – not to mention I had a bazillion  Christmas presents to      wrap and check on for our family Christmas on December 17^th in Fremont at Spanky’s Pizza =

So   went to the consultation and got an explanation of the new “approach” and agreed (hope it works cause I may not come back if it doesn’t???......) scheduled for 1:50 pm on Thursday…  we went directly from the office to Red Lobster and had my favorite- crab legs!  Then shopped at Sam’s Club for some rice for dogs and a few other things and then to our hotel on 28^th street.  Good nite rest and good breakfast in the morning and then more shopping for Christmas and me and then the injection at 1:50 – went well and I hope I am not imagining it but it feels like it might have worked this time!!!

Have to stop in Newberry for some non-ethanol gas for the 4 wheeler and then home and bed traand training dogs tomorrow!!!

Trained short both Friday and Saturday due to the warm weather -- did have some passing practice with the Caldwell's 9 dog team today - about 20 passes in an hour -we did see improvement in our team not getting distracted!

Going to church tonite and shopping for still some more things I have forgotten for Christmas and more food........always more food!!!

Thanksgiving dinner was great!!

About 15 people at the Brown's house on Lake Muskellonge ( sp?) and funny thing Randy sat at one end of the table and me at the other!!  I sat where I can eat left handed and he ended up with no place close!  They had 2 turkeys and lots of left overs - my green bean casserolettes (green beans in a pie crust in a muffin pan filled with green bean casserole) turned out fabulous and we gone once around the table!  Regina Caldwell brought something called pumpkin fluff that you were supposed to eat with a graham cracker (Randy put it on his pumpkin pie....) that I need the recipe for!
We were there over 4 hours so you know there was lots of visiting going on - what nice and warm people up here - treat us like we have been here for years!!
The really funniest thing that happened is that at about 3 p I thought maybe I should look back at the message inviting us to dinner and make sure what time dinner is planned - wasn't in the message so I called the Brown's house and she said, "we told people to be here at 4 but we probably won't eat right away" - I had been planning my green bean stuff and me getting ready and Randy feeding dogs for a dinner time of 6:30!!!!!!!!!!  In 1/2 hour I cooked the beans in the oven and got me and Randy ready to go - we were only 5 minutes late and yes, they didn't eat dinner for at le

 Friday not much going on because we trained on Thanksgiving - I worked more on my Grandma Santa gifts for all the grandkids (13 special Christmas ornaments that I made once 40 years ago and am now re-creating- boy that makes me feel old to be able to say that........)
Today we trained 2 teams and went 2 miles farther up to 13 and some now!  Unfortunately when we tried Andy in lead in the first team he and Greg got into an argument.....no injuries but very unpleasant.....    Most of the snow is gone again but it keeps snowing/hailing on and off - it's 22 degrees right now.  Church tomorrow!!!!  Have a great rest of the weekend!!

the most exciting thing that happened to me this week.....

That would be on Monday nite while cooking a turkey breast in our cute little oven in an aluminium pan that was very sturdy while cold but not so much while hot..........took the pan out of the oven and it folded up and poured hot grease/water on my stockinged and moccasined foot!!!!!  Could have been much worse - only have a 1 x 2 inch blister - and thanks to our wonderful daughter, Cindy, we have Silvadene!!  Went into Newberry on Tuesday to get the prescription and some more dressings.
I looked kind of funny wearing Randy's boot on my left foot and mine on my right but it worked to go shopping for food and to McDonald's for lunch!   Because I burned my foot we didn't train yesterday and today Ashley helped us do most of the dog-moving around so I don't burst the blister - hopefully with tomorrow off from training I will be good to go on Friday!

We are going to the neighbors for dinner tomorrow evening and I am bringing green bean casserole - both the normal casserole and one with a twist making it in pie crust in a muffin tin!  Will let you know how it turns out!

And in the same culinary vein of discussion, we had our first pasties (a UP staple) for dinner tonite!!  Randy was sure he would not like them because he thought they had rutabagas in them (it was just potatoes) and he hates any kind of pot pie!  We bought the pasties from a church group that our friends Cathy and Richard Robinson (owners of the Rainbow Lodge) sold.  A few weeks ago we also bought huge cinnamon rolls from another group - seems like home made food raises money up here!!!

So about 3 inches of snow this morning - Randy dragged the trail before he ran dogs and it was mostly snow covered but some bare spots - we had to leave off 3 dogs from training today because yesterday the snow in the dog yard was crusty and those 3 developed some bloody toenail edges.
Not much else to report till tomorrow!
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone and remember to count the many many Blessings that you have in your life!!!!

Great day training...and we didn't get shot!!

4 inches of snow overnite - Randy dragged the trail and it was good for the dogs - we expected them to act crazy after not training for 4 days but they were really pretty good!  actually even better than the last time!  Went 12 miles and didn't see any hunters or hear any shots.
Tomorrow no training and taking Jan Shaw in to her doctor appointment and then maybe some grocery shopping for what I am planning to take to the Browns for Thanksgiving dinner - plus I already bought a turkey breast and thing I will cook it tomorrow

overdue update!

 very fun yard ornament in the town of newberry - maybe I need one of these gnome houses!

 the thanksgiving decorations at the Dekuiper trailer/homestead

newly made Christmas decoration - amazing what you can do with a white dog food bucket!!!

The week has flown by and it seems we have been very busy = from memory I will give you the highlights:

Friday – delicious dinner at the Elks – Randy had a free steak dinner for vetern’s day and I had white fish – you can’t beat the amount of fresh/local whitefish and perch we are able to get around here!!!

Saturday – pretty much hanging out and going to church in the evening

Sunday – training – now using another section of trail and are going 12 miles (I think) with the 2 12 dog teams – Noah the 2 year old is doing an excellent job leading!!!! He is working himself into being a $10,000 dog!!!!  All 5 leaders are doing very good at gee and hawing – we presume that all the different trails with many choices and intersections is making them listen more closely to Randy – at home we just did the same trail mostly so there were not many decision points – this complicated trail system is keeping them on their toes!!!  By the time we harness, hook up, run and undo the harnesses and put them back for teams it is over 3 hours.

Monday – thought about running 2 or 3 days in a row because we have to take off later in the week for deer season, but the weather wasn’t great so we didn’t .  Found out our neighbor, Jan Shaw, had been admitted to the hospital with blood clots in her lungs on top of the pneumonia she has had the last week- how awful for her!!

Tuesday: ran the dogs again on the longer trail – they are coming back not looking tired (except for 2 of the 3 yearlings ) and all but 3 of the 24 are drinking this K9 super fuel stuff in water – it is expensive but it replenishes their glycogen after exertion – we have never been able to get them to drink glycocharge after a run or a race, but they love this and drink it down to the last drop!

Wednesday : knew we wouldn’t train because of opening day of deer season so we had arranged with our dog food provider, Greg Janders in Bark River, to have us pick up another 2000 pounds of special mixed dog food – it is chicken, beef and liver and eggs and several vitamins and minerals – it costs $ .60 a pound but the dogs are doing well on it and it is really our only choice since we aren’t picking up venison butchering scraps and grinding it ourselves.  So we h...ooked the blue truck up to the horse trailer that has the walk-in freezer in it and headed for Escanaba and Bark River (about 2.5 hours one way on good roads)   It was raining like a Banshee so we didn’t make very good time – we did stop at Walmart (big city shopping up here) and did visit with Greg and his wife (they are mink farmers – way more to it than I have ever thought!!!   With the breeding and the biting when you move them………..

On the way there we got pulled over by a state trooper ---------- for going to slow!!!!!!!  We were on a bad stretch of road before you get to Escanaba and we were going about 40 mph in a 55 – he pulled us over thinking maybe something was wrong but Randy told him it was because the road is too damn rough!!!  We had also neglected to put the proof of insurance and registration back in the truck so it was back in the trailer, but luckily for us he didn’t pay any attention to that!!!

Got back home about 7:30 and very dark by the time we stopped to fill propane tanks in Newberry.

Thursday :  another non-training day but it was OK cause the big trip yesterday got us tired!

Friday:  decided to open up a trail that had been blocked by the loggers doing a clear cut – we took the blue truck into the woods and had to go about a mile through some pretty iffy trails with lots of beach sand in 1 foot deep ruts!!!!  Made us feel like we were at the Silver Lake sand dunes!!!  Got to the blockade without getting stuck and spent a good 2 hours pulling stumps out of the way with the truck and a chain and sawing with the chainsaw – they had it blocked realllllly good!

In the evening we went to Wolf Inn for dinner with Carol and Jon Waltman and Cathy and Richard Robinson – we had a leisurely 3 hour dinner!

Today, Saturday, we were thinking we would train about 12 pm but just as it got to be about then I started hearing lots and lots of gunshots!!!!!  So Randy took a nap and I am catching up!!!  Tonite we go out to dinner with the Caldwells , the neighbors across the street that are dog drivers from New York state – they have lived here now for 5 months.  We made a special request to have dinner with them so we could talk dogs.

Also we heard from a guy that has dogs and lives in Minnesota – when he was here for the seminar in October Randy admired his bearclaw necklace and said he would like to have one – so guess who is going to have a bearclaw necklace????!!!

The really big news is that we got messages and today a facetime call from Ocean, our 11 year old grandson that shot his first deer yesterday, all by himself, at about 100 yards at least, exactly in the right spot, and…..a 6 point!!!!!!  We are very proud of his great accomplishment!!!  Congratulations Ocean DeKuiper!!!!

got 4 inches of snow and have dragged the trail twice!!!

Woke up to a very wintery day with lots of snow and very cold (15 degrees) I think it is time to get the sleeping bag/comforter out!!!  At one point the gas ran out so just the little infrared heater kept it a balmy 54 in here! 

this morning we went with Frank and Regina Caldwell, Margaret Harvey and 3 guys from Tasha and Ed Stielstra's kennel out on the trail for the Taquamenon race which is January 4th, I  think - and we cleared a couple of big blown over pines off the trail - it took only an hour with that many people!

Trained the dogs on snow for the first time this year this afternoon.  They seemed very excited about the new snow - Randy had dragged the trail last nite and then again before we trained and it was very good and packed - even though we only had to pack 4 inches!

Tonite we go into town to the Elks for a dinner that is free for veterns with several of the people in the "neghborhood" - who knows what tomorrow will be !!!

we are in a blizzard!!!!!

just as we would expect being only 3 miles away from Lake Superior - I have spent the last 2 days making things ready for "winter" - we tried to put the awning up today but it was already frozen.  I put everything inside that I had outside under the awning and it was a good thing because the snow blew all over the place and the outside carpet and table were all covered with snow!!  There were pretdictions of large amounts of snow last nite but when Randy went to the meeting for planning the 2018 Taquamenon race last nite the DNR officer said the predictions were highly overrated - instead we have gotten the storm today - started out abit this morning and by mid-day was wild and wooly - we went over to Margaret Harvey's to help her put the snow blower on her tractor and then went down to Lake Superior and it was crazy windy and blowing snow!!!! we walked down the to the beach so we were Tlose and personal with the water - wow! As of now we probably have 3 inches of snow on the ground and it's still windy - Randy went out to drag the trail so we can train tomorrow adn came back looking like a snowman!!!
Some of my free time for the last 3 days has been checking in on Jan Shaw - she was diagnosed with pneumonia Monday and needed a little extra  TLC - a chance for me to get to know her and Carol Walkman her close friend, much better (also a retired nurse).  Felt good doing some in-home nurse-type care!
The rest of my sit-in-the trailer time is making crafty things for Christmas presents - so it looks like a craft store in here too often!!!

Will take some pictures of training tomorrow so you can see how wintery we are!!

we are settled...

into pretty much a routine,,,,,,,,without much variation - the only variant this week was going to church today - otherwise we trained everyother day - all of them - and most of them are doing good!!
Going to have dinner with the neighbors on Perch Lake tonite- more tomorrow~

Sunday- our first snow as residents of the UP!!!

Drove into town for church last nite and had several snow flurries along the way but were surprised to see snow on the ground this morning!!!  We did go over to Frank and Regina Caldwell's to follow them thru the winter wonderland while they were training their mid-distance team 12.5 miles -(so we can familiarize ourselves with the trails across the hiway)  The rest of the day I have been putting insulation over the windows because it looks like it might be winter from now on!!!

 Wayyyyyyyy big waves!!!!!

Celebrating Halloween at the DeKuiper trailer in Deer Park, Michigan!!

It was indeed a terrible storm!!!!  We could feel it rocking the trailer all nite long!!!

So of course we needed to go see just how angry the Lake Superior shore was!!!  I about blew away taking a video of the beach (which I can’t seem to get posted for some reason….)  There were whole trees being tossed around like toothpicks in the waves – no way to know for sure but it seemed like there were waves 10 or more feet tall breaking out in the lake as far as we could see!!!!  Easy to imagine why there are over 5,000 ship wrecks on the Great Lakes – especially Superior!!!!

The training is going pretty good – we trained everybody Monday, then took storm day Tues off, then converted from 3 8 dog teams to 2 12 dog teams for Wednesday and Thursday – spent some time Friday widening the 2 track trails so the dogs had more room to go around the hug lake-like puddles in them from all the rain we have had!!!!  Trained the 2 12 dog teams today in a light sprinkle but plenty cold at 38 degrees!!!!!  Went on a new trail and farther – Randy says we only went 5+ miles but it seemed longer to me!!  We also are started today running Noah in lead for the first time and he did great!!!  We have 4 solid leaders but it is good to have some spares!!!

Last nite went out to dinner with Jan Shaw and some of her friends to Wolf Inn – had whitefish – delicious!!!!!  Then stopped over to the Halloween party at Pine Stump Junction (wearing our orange jack o’ lantern shirts) and did a bit of dancing to a DJ!!!  The costume winners were a family all dressed up like the Adams family!!!  The best of them was Uncle Fester and Wednesday!!!!

This afternoon stopped over to Caldwells to see if they were interested in a dog we have that seems to only want to trot instead of loping -  they do more mid-distance so we thought he might work good for them but they weren’t interested right now – on to Newberry for church tonite!!!

This week I signed up for HULU and have gotten to see lots of Halloween movies…….maybe too many for Randy’s taste!!!  Just think about all the Christmas movies I will be able to see!!!!

Sunday thru Tuesday

Saturday because it was too warm all of the people here for the training session only ended up doing about a 2 mile run – quite disappointing, but what can you do?!

We spent some time visiting around the fire pit and then came back home to feed our dogs and then went back over to Magnusson’s for the 6p dinner – what a potluck!!!!  Way good stuff to eat!!!  We did the easy and goes-like-hotcakes thing again, shrimp cocktail.  I didn’t even have room for meat, there were so many delicious salads and treats!!!!!  After dinner we had 2 people speak; Lloyd Gilbertson (about his start as a dog racer and more….) and JR or Jarod Armstrong form Ely, MN about using essential oils for dog behavior modification and treatment of injuries.  It was a very pleasant nite!

Sunday morning was too warm again and it was supposed to cool down after an early afternoon rain – so we helped clean up Magnusson’s “party clutter” and when they said they were going out to take down the trail markers from the trails they were supposed to run had it not been too warm.  So we got our 4 wheeler and followed them around a 5 and 8 mile trail system until……………it started raining, then harder and then harder till we were soaked and cold to the bone!!!!  Needless to say our trail looking was done for the day – cam home and dried out and didn’t see anyone for the rest of the day.  Jim had left Sunday morning so we were back to “status quo”.

Monday was cool enough to train and with rain predicted much of the week coming, we trained all 25 dogs – took us till 11am to do it but it was good we did because there certainly won’t be any training today!!!!  It’s pouring and 47 degrees with wind gusts up to 55 mph and flood warnings for the lakeshore!!!!  Think we will take another little ride to see some of those big waves!!!  Just hope it doesn’t blow the awning off the trailer!!!!!

Friday nite

went over to visit the dog drivers at Bruce Magnussen's - not as many there as I imagined - maybe because it is going to be so warm this weekend.  Only about 8 kennels there - perhaps more tomorrow!

We had grilled hamburgs with Jim and then we had a surprise visitor!!  Al Hardman stopped by and spent a good couple of hours with 3 guys that had all completed the Iditarod  -  lots of good stories!!!!!  very fun to listen to!!!

Today was too warm to train again so we slept in and stopped over to Magnusson's again thinking the vet would be here to give the rabies shots - it's a good deal for us - we have 15 dogs that need them and they are only $8.50 as compared to $20 in the office!

10/19 throught 10/20/17

 Some Lake Superior property we looked at - $231,000 for 13 acres and 167' of frontage - about a 250 ft. drop off to the water!!!

 The fallen tree we both had to lay down on the 4 wheeler to drive under with the 8 dog team!!

Managed to get2 teams ran before it got too warm.  You can see from the picture above that we ran into a little obstacle when we went out with the first team!  I didn’t know the first time we went under the fallen tree if we would make it or be rubbed off onto the ground – it’s not like you stop and measure ……..  we did make it but I was glad I have lost a couple of pounds over the last year!!!  Went back later in the day and cut it out of the trail so I have some nice pieces of pine to do “something” with……..  The rest of the day we rode around on the trails looking to see if anything else had blown down and new trails we could use – late last nite Jim (the owner of the place we are staying at rolled in and so we visited a bit with him.  He is up for the big training session and shot clinic they are having across the street at Bruce Magnusson ‘s  (it has always been at the Shaws house but with the passing of Bob, Bruce offered to have it at his place)  Don’t know for sure how many dog people will show up but as I write this there are already 6 dog kennels here with more they know are coming – so that already equates to about 2-300 dogs in the neighborhood!!!!

Didn’t train this morning but probably should have even though it was already 48 degrees at 7:30am.

Today we visited with Jim and then went over to offer our help setting up to Bruce but he and his wife Monica had it all done.   Looks like tonite is burgers with Jim and don’t know if it will be cool enough (supposed to be a low of 58 degrees according the the weather app) to train at the training session tomorrow – even if they only go 3 miles (which they are planning on) it may be too much for our dogs – just because they would get so excited before they even went out on the trail!!!

More tomorrow!

Monday Tuesday and Wed

 Crisp Point Lighthouse

 Areas ravaged by the fire by Rainbow Lodge and the Two Hearted River

 view from the top of the light house

 me picking rocks

 the neighbor's Halloween decor

 an angry Lake Superior

Sunday nite was windy and dark so we did go down the road 2 miles to the easiest access to the Lake Superior beach (right across the street from the Muskellonge Lake campground).  You can see the pictures above!!

Monday we trained only one team cause it was warm (up to 50) too fast.  Because Randy forgot where he packed the rice for the dogs’ carbohydrate supplement (he since remembered he packed it under the floor in the dog part of the trailer) we decided to go to Sault Ste. Marie to the store to buy rice (we normally buy it in 25 pound bags from Sam’s Club – because we thought we forgot it we ended up buying 4 2 pound bags at the grocery store in Newberry – at 4 times the price we would usually pay – and we use 2 pounds a day for the dogs!).  It’s about an hour and half ride and it was a nice day to see more color in the trees (I would say they are close to peaking….)  Found the Walmart and of course I found more stuff to buy – still wish I had been able to talk Randy into clothes shopping at Goodwill for some stuff I forgot, but no such luck!  That trip took up most of the day so it was feed us and dogs time by the time we got back. tCrisp Point Lighthouse – it’s on the Lake Superior shore east of where we are – we took all back dirt roads on the way there and paved on the way home.  Took us about two hours to get there – the last 12 miles took an hour!!!!! They are doing lots of logging and with the recent downpours, the road was really muddy and torn up!!!  We passed 2 logging trucks head on and had to pull off of the road into the woods to let them pass!!!!  We also drove through a lot of the ground that was leveled by the forest fires up here a few years ago- amazing how that changes the terrain!!!  The light house was a delightful destination and very secluded compared to all the other tourist spots (could have something to do with the horrific road you have to go on to get there…..)  There was a couple our age camping in a tent there as volunteer hosts for the week – they are from Duluth MN – the light house has been preserved and renovated over the last 20 years – we even went the 64 steps up into the top!!!  And of course, since we were at the beach, I had to collect more rocks!!!!  Still haven’t found anything exciting like an agate or amethyst, but I will keep looking!!!!!

Wednesday morning we were able to get 2 teams run- though it was right on the bubble for temperature -  it’s a good thing almost all of the trail is in pine forest and shaded so it stays cooler even with the sun coming out!  Now we’re off on another 4 wheeler ride to scout out trails!!!!!

Saturday

Saturday was a good day to be in the UP!!  Up at 8 and ran two teams with it about 45 degrees.  Ran Coal (new) and Oslo together with 8 and Spark and Greg (new) with 9 – it was the first time we didn’t have to have me in front to lead them on the trail with the other 4 wheeler, since they have gotten used to the turns.  So I actually got to ride behind and see how they were running!!  The amazing dog is Chase, a one year old out of Oslo and Doe, who not only ran very hard the whole trail, but got himself out of a a tangle on the fly!!!!  After training a 2 hour nap (us old people need those you know……….) and then we went for another ride in the jeep around the neighbor hood.  We looked at four different camp grounds within a couple miles of here (Pretty Lake, Perch Lake, High Bridge, etc.) and found out the trail the Caldwells across the street are using to train.  By then it was time to go to town for more groceries and church.  The little church is one of three the priest is responsible for (the other 2 in Naubinway and Grand Marais) – the regular pastor had kidney stones so we will have to wait another time to meet him.  We went out to dinner on the way home to the “Wolf’s Den” – a place we had eaten at before and is only open on weekends.  I had whitefish and it was delicious – I think that might be the 4^th time in 2 weeks!!!  Of course it’s abundant here!!!

Over nite had a horrible rain and wind storm!!!!! Thought it was going to blow the awining off from the side of the trailer!!!  They said there would be 30+ mph winds and it sounded like it!!!  Had to wake Randy up shortly after we went to bed because I could hear something was wrong in the dogyard……sure enough, one of Jim’s dogs had broken another chain and was dragging it around ands was in Muggs’ circle and had her tangled up in it!!

Still raining this morning and windy so we slept in and now I am making a pot of ham and pea soup which Randy is not-so-patiently waiting to have done.  The wind has died down a lot but it is supposed stop raining in a while – maybe we will drive over to Lake Superior (only about 2 miles away) to see how big the waves are!!

Since it was too warm to train at 50 degrees this morning- we played tourists!!

Upper Taquamenon Falls

 Picture of the bell from the Edmund Fitzgeral in the Shipwreck museum

 Freighter going thru the straits

Last nite we ended the day of telephone frustration with Randy taking a long 4 wheel drive looking at what trails to train on next to go farther with the dogs while I was on the phone with the Apple advisor trying to unlock my phone.  After dinner we wathched 5 episodes of Wyatt Earp from 1955 – they were pretty good shows back then!!!!

When we got up at 8 it looked pretty cloudy and gloomy out plus was too warm for the dogs to run so we decided to see some of the local sights we had not visited yet.  After a breakfast of ham and pancakes with Bellerive Canadian maple syrup  we set out for Whitefish point and the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum – it took about an hour to get there and the landscape was beautiful wherever there were maples – I would say we are about 75% color right now.  It was $13 each for admission and that included a movie about the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, the museum, the rescue boat house and the lightkeeper’s home.  We were there about 2 hours and there were walkways out to 2 beaches.  You can see the picture of me walking and one of a tanker like the E. Fitzgerald out in the narrows off Whitefish Point.  The other pictures are of places around the museum grounds and of Taquamenon Falls, both the upper and lower.  Beautiful with the trees in color. Lots of people with the same idea as us!!!  The parking lots were almost full like it was summer!  Didn’t start raining until we headed for home about 5.  Randy fed dogs and then we took Ashley (the dog handler for Jim Oehlschlaeger- the guy who owns the place we are renting space at) out for dinner to Stump Junction (her boyfriend is a cook there at nite) and we had a “surprise pizza” made just for by Steve.   Tomorrow will barely be cool enough when we get up so we will see how training goes then!