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!!!