Dear deer family

We've had two families of deer coming in for corn lately. Yesterday we had a lot of snow and I was happy to see the family with the very small fawn coming in. At times there is another family, a buck , a doe and a fawn.
Saw a fox running down our road the other night... wildlife abounds ,rabbits are plentiful . Plentiful rabbits mean plentiful coyotes, of which we've seen a few more than usual this winter.

Start photo from JP30 race

This is a photo of our team, number 2, in the start chute at the Jackpine 30. Although you can't see it in the photo, it was bitterly cold , with thirty below zero windchills. The dogs just love that kind of weather... let us run!! Liller, the ten year old leader on left in photo, looks revved to run, as does her co leader, daughter, Buffy.

Singing Stella

Stella, with her beautiful singing and happy running, is going home to Alaska after spending a winter training with us. We'll all miss her so much, our happy cheerleader, but Lillen her pen partner will miss her most. Stella goes back to a racing kennel in Alaska . She's fast, happy, very agreeable with all dogs, harnesses/hooksup and runs well. We hope for good things for her.
And we have our dibs in to buy her back if she does not become a racer.

Mighty Pine Mountain

Photos don't do this justice but this one shows the length of the landing.
Looking down from the top is a bit intimidating. The jumpers climb the side of the scaffolding with their skisto get up there to jump.

Winter Sports

As Julia, our racer, was driving a dog team in her race , her 16 year old son was having his first ski jumps off of 120 meter, Pine Mountain. She was then able, on Sunday, to attend the jumps as were we.
Pretty incredible in itself to jump off a 120 m. ski jump, and his first jump on Sunday was 131 meters, or 430 feet, by far the longest junior jump , outstanding ! Will attach one or two photos of his jumping. He has been training for a long time for this opportunity and all spectators were happy for him!

News article on wild ride of Jackpine 30

This is a link to a news article about the Jackpine 30 , one of the musher's wild rides.
http://www.miningjournal.net/news/story/0219202006_new03-n0219.asp

Congratulations to our team!

Our team of Julia, Liller, Buffy, Ruthie, Kiddo, Martin and Quattro placed ten out of 28 in a chilly competitive Jackpine 30 this weekend.
Although we didn't want to know the temps at start time they varied in the area surrounding from minus 19 to minus 32. With new snow and a last minute reroute of the trail it was punchy trails and plenty of challenge. Julia's recount of the race sounds like a straight from Disney movie, including losing her team a few times, once on top of a ski hill. They were caught by a
skiier but he let them go when he thought she could reach them, so of course off they went again. After the race the mushers shared their stories of losing their teams on the very challenging trail.
We are very proud of our great team, Liller being a ten year old leader and Martin, returning to the race world for a bit. Strong and beautiful they are!
Thank you to Stan for being a great tour guide , contributing the only photos (I broke my camera) and listening to the all day chatter about dogs!

Storm coming affects ski jump/sled dogs?

There is a significant storm coming in with predicted accumulations of up to twelve inches of snow and wind chills reaching to minus forty. This is our weekend for our team to race the thirty mile sled dog race out of Gwinn where the same conditions are predicted.

And it is the weekend for The Continental Cup at giant Pine Mountain ski jump. This is a photo
from the end of the jump late this morning as the jumpers were hoping for some practice runs.
It appears that the storm will interfere with jumping until Saturday. The winds were gusting up the hill and caused the cancellation of practice jumps.

More rescue details, Quest

http://www.yukonquest.com/servlet/viewphotocategory?id=1069&page=1

Another story on the rescues on the Yukon Quest. We met Alissa in September when she was handling for a musher's kennel in Fairbanks. Very glad she is okay.

All's Well in Yukon

Heard that all dogs are well and rescued from the extreme weather conditions in the Yukon Quest race. There were 88 dogs and 7 humans airlifted out by Blackhawk helicopter, all in good condition.
There is a photo on the Yukon Quest website under Photos, Mile 101.
Very glad to hear all is well. What a tribute to dogs, mushers and especially volunteers who did the rescuing.

View from the trail

Photos on our trail

Martin is the white dog running in wheel. We wish he could talk so he could tell us his own stories of Eagle Summitt. Liller, in lead, is a veteran of Iditarod and we wish she could talk, as well. Buffy, in co lead ran last year's Tustumena 200 in Alaska. We feel very lucky to give these dogs lifetime retirement homes.
Of course, Julia, on the phone in first photo, we are lucky to have you, too!

All's Well

This is a link to the Fairbanks news story on the lost mushers and dogs.
http://newsminerextra.com/quest06/news/2006/02/13/alls-well-that-ends-well/

Very glad all is well.

Toughest Sled Dog Race in the World

http://www.yukonquest.org/servlet/viewnewslist?null&resolution=1024&referer=http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=yukon+quest+sled+dog+race&btnG=Google+Search

The Yukon Quest, a 1000 mile race from Fairbanks, AK to Whitehorse, Yukon has proven itself to be just that. Saying that this is the worst storm in years, there were numerous mushers trapped while trying to descend Eagle Summit. One team did get separated from its musher for a period of time but has been found and airlifted out, suffering only mild dehydration. A lot of credit to the pilots and other volunteers who went in to rescue the veteran and rookie mushers overcome by the tremendous storm.
Our dog, Martin, is a veteran of this tough race, as is Skinny, who is now retiring. You have only to watch Martin on a downhill to know he knows how to ease down a mountain, as he digs in.

Tech on the Trail

This is the first time I've ever heard a phone ring on a dog sled much less seen someone answer it!
Couldn't resist taking a photo of Julia answering her cell phone, receiving a call from a Minnesota friend.
All six dogs were working and playing hard this morning, loving the trail . Julia spotted a flock of birds which she thought were grouse taking off . I missed them and also did not see any deer this a.m. The backwoods is as beautiful as ever , as we racked up another 25 miles. It was in the teens and good running for dogs. Liller always gets a frosty face. We took Quattro for a sixth this a.m. and left Herman (much to his dismay) back at home. Still haven't finalized the six as all seven doing well.
Well, speaking of tech, the upload won't work right now so will just print this without photos.

New View and More Miles

Today we took our six dog team on a twenty five mile run in prep for their 30 mile race a week from Saturday. Julia starts them on a fast uphill and then a fast downhill and out the gate to the railroad grade. We weren't quite sure how far into Michigan we'd go but actually went to the village of Pentoga for our turnaround. We calculated a ten mph average for the first leg, which would be a competitive speed for the type of race we'll run (not a sprint race).

It was a beautiful day, the trails were nearly perfect and even though the sun was bright the dogs did not get too warm. They all seemed to really enjoy the new views and especially the deer on the trails, deer always make them pick it up. There are several views of the river as we run and Julia said she was noticeably cooler as we skirted the river. Liller, the leader, knew exactly where she was and headed for the route to the river cabin. Dogs are uncanny in their ability to remember trails.

We did see more machines today than usual. One group wanted a photo so we stopped for a quick visit, good socializing for the pups. Another couple was stopped on machines and also took photos. Most people we meet on machines are happily surprised to see sled dogs running.

Countdown

We are now counting down to another race and getting miles.
The team is narrowing down and it looks like it might be:
Buffy, three year old female leader; Ruthie, three year old female;
Liller, ten year old female tough! leader, Kiddo, three year old female, team dog,
Martin , nine year old male wheel dog and Herman or Quattro, (two year old male or three year old female) wheel dog.
Liller is an Iditarod veteran. Martin is a Yukon Quest veteran, Buffy is a Tustumena 200 veteran and Kiddo, Quattro, Ruthie and Liller are JP 30 veterans.
In this photo, on this day, these dogs were running full out at 22mph; we slowed them with the drag pace them for a longer run.
Today they ran sixteen miles. The plan is to run 21 miles on the next run. The race is next weekend. If it is too warm, Martin will not make the team and will be replaced by Quattro.

Rescued dogs

We have enjoyed the opportunity to give a good home to dogs in need at rescue , at times. Our aged Lab, Chena, is a rescue as was our now deceased Anatolian, Solo. We have six others still with us who are rescues to whom we've given lifetime homes. They have given us so much more than we could give them.

Last year we picked up seven dogs in need of rescue (all from one home)... one of them still lives with us (Buddy) . Today at the race we returned our race bibs for our racers and were able to photo two of the rescued dogs racing. They are purebred Siberian huskies and this is their four dog team in the takeoff. They seem very happy in their new home and well loved.

Race photos

Photos didn't load yesterday, will try again. Very nice sprint team, all females except male leader, I believe.

Racing

We took ten dogs and two racers to the race this morning, but in mid morning prior to our race times our racers were called home because of an accident in their family. It was frightening and we are just hoping all is well for them !

The traveling in our area was very snowy. The accident occurred in another area of the state. The dogs did get a good training chance to ride in their boxes and to be let out at the race site, to see all of the other racing dogs and hub bub. And they ran their victory laps of the pens around the other dogs who didn't get to go.
The first class was an Unlimited Class and one team did run 18 dogs, that's quite a string. The photos are of a friend's 14 dog team.

Dogsled.com

We are off to two days of racing if the weather holds.
This is a link to a very good sled dog update page.

http://www.dogsled.com/

Snow

We did get three teams run yesterday after school. Two four dog teams and one six dog team in preparation for the weekend races. It was a long day of shoveling and hauling and more shoveling... and in the night it has marvelously snowed again... schools are delayed which translates to more shoveling.
Other than the pressure to get things done for all dogs and still be race ready with trails, training, it is a very beautiful world this morning. Looks like twelve accumulated inches on the deck and snowing. However temps are to be warmish today which does not bode well for dry, manageable snow. Our trip for dog food is delayed yet another day. Fortunately I bought the last three bags of fillin food available in our local petmart. We can make it through the weekend.