Sunday, April 02, 2006

Spring Forward and Meltdown and Kennel Schedules


Today is the change to daylight savings time and this is the sunrise over the meltdown.

Any dog kennel in Spring meltdown is a busy place. We always start by digging trenches. The mud becomes deeper and more difficult to navigate and the mud boots get a workout. After we trench, we start pitch forking straw out of the pens. Hauling becomes a major chore and goes on into June.

The dogs seem to take the mud in stride and we try to get their kennels to dry as quickly as we can. The entry gates are often deep puddles.

Our schedule changes, too. All winter the dogs look forward to being harnessed and going for long runs. As racing season ends, then we allow them to free run two at a time, outside their pens. We have to shift away from that when the Spring smells are just too tempting and lure them off the trails . Now we are curbing the free running except for the very reliable
older dogs. Once the summer trails are re established we can start the free running again.

We always measure the coming of Spring by how long we have a snow trail. We still have navigable trails (if you are a dog or a deer), but the grass showing around the trails is very tempting as are the birds chirping and the wandering wild life. I think the latest we've kept a snow trail is April 10th, so Spring is just about here.

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