Let it Snow

Pretty quiet here , snow was beautiful yesterday, and more is falling this a.m. Dogs are restless.

Deer are hiding. A bit slippery out there.

Today's work: Feed all dogs, clean the pens, haul water; haul the waste (without Martin as too near property line with hunters); unload dog food from truck; load truck with garbage and haul, pick up Chena's Rimadyl; pick up Eagle Ultra for soup in afternoons (fifty mile round trip); unload truck; feed the deer and birds; give the dogs late day soup. Busy day before Thanksgiving. Hoping the hunters are taking a day off nearby.

Copper's Family

Just reading the paperwork on Copper, in full. Our original Scuba, matriarch of our kennel, was out of Lacanin's line. Copper's 2 great grandfathers are Lacanin and Granite, most impressive bloodlines. It's wonderful to have another Scuba relative here.

But, further, Copper's grandmother (Huslia) is out of Sven, our LilleN's father. And Copper's great great grandmother is our Sulatna's grandmother, more incredible dogs.

Copper continues to be very well mannered and very sweet. His pals love his company in their pen (Kiddo continues to be in charge).

Sloppy, but hunters busy

In the morning the pens were icy and slippery; it was foggy and generally dicey , a day for Sorels and Yaktrax. But, there were close rifle shots at 7AM, setting the tone for a restrictive day. The house dogs went out with me to feed the deer and I took a trail walk with one dog on lead (Timber). There were coyote and fox prints on the trail, very few deer prints. The trail camera has a new nice fox photo.

But, later in the day the doe with two fawns finally did come in. The little buck and little doe fawns enjoyed the apples and corn. I hadn't seen them for a bit so was glad to see they are making it.

This season is long for dogs, but they're being very good, enjoying a few extra treats along the way.

Opening Day

Loud rifle shots disturbed the dogs a bit yesterday. The deer moved in close to the house and dog pens; one doe with her two fawns who are regulars and at one time, six deer were huddling nearby. One neighbor asked permission to track a wounded buck onto my land, which , of course we allowed, but it did bring the noise very close.

Dogs in Blaze Orange

Copper settles in, off tether, with the three girls in his pen, Zoom (in photo), Kiddo and Sherpa.

He loves the free running in the pen, but we haven't tried him , off tether, outside the pens.

Firearm deer season

Michigan's firearm deer season opened yesterday with loud shots just across the river and deer running through. We did take a trail walk but Sulatna spooked and ran straight home.

Wisonsin's season opens tomorrow so today is a hustling one, to get the dogs settled. Most will be tethered for the opening hours. We will take one last trail walk, but even the house dogs have to go out on a tether as we are in the heart of hunting country.

Photo: Buck on a friend's field camera. He's a beauty.

A "Do it All" Day

We started at 6AM and finished just now, at 5PM.

First, of course, all dogs had soup, as we planned to run. I didn't really plan the teams ahead of time and that was obvious in the first hook up. No helpers were here today, so I first hooked up Buffy , Ruthie, Medio, Herman and Rosie. The theory is that they (except Ruthie) live together so they should be pretty calm in hook up.

Well, Herman, the steady reliable guy, ate his harness and tried to eat the gangline. I moved him to lead to take his mind off of waiting and Rosie went to wheel (tiny Rosie). She ate the tug off her harness. We took off, Buffy pulled out of harness; Herman pulled out of harness and all was a mess. Without a helper , of course, I used the brake, reharnessed as best I could the leaping leaders and took off again. I'll bet we stopped ten times. Poor little Rosie, ran extremely well but she was tired after all of the goofing around. She is the smallest dog and she ran in wheel.... what was I thinking? I was thinking, let's just GO!

Stars that they are, Medio and Ruthie just kept their heads down and did nothing but run like troopers. Buffy definitely did not like Herman in lead.

NEXT: I decided to run the Kiddo 'family'. The hookup took 11 minutes and that was with only two harnessed. But the takeoff and run were picture perfect, no problems at all, 2.5 miles. They missed one command. If I had had a helper, I would have stopped but it would have been an assured tangle to do it.

After that run, I free ran 25 dogs, all in different combos. Then I took six dogs on a trail walk. We picked up the cameras and found a great photo of a coyote, just 20 minutes ahead of our first team run this morning. Maybe the scent made that first team wilder.

After cleaning all the pens and watering all, we fed hamburger soup, fed the deer and it was getting dark, so that was it. Copper did extremely well today with his new penmates. He was off of his tether all day and had a ball, running and playing and digging.

Better view of Copper (in wheel)

This is a better look at Copper and today's small team. He's a striking dog, nice fur, beautiful eyes, and similar in coloration to the Liller/Skinny family. In fact, when running I kept forgetting that he was not Kiddo, who often runs in wheel. The girls on his team today are four and five years old.

Tomorrow we will introduce him into the pen of Kiddo, Sherpa and Zoom, to see if they'll accept him as a pen mate. He's been very well mannered with all introductions . Sulatna plays with him/flirts with him when she's outside.

Copper's First Run

Photo: Reaching the top of a long uphill climb, Copper is in wheel and doing fine.

Because we know Copper, our new dog, is excitable in the hookup , we started him alone, in wheel, with calm Kiddo, alone, ahead of him, and Buffy and Matilda in lead.

We ran two miles without a hitch. Copper is a great cheerleader along the way . If you slow down, he yodels to 'go'! He is very strong and muscled. He was also very sweet to handle. He had no trouble with the uphill and the speeds (9 to 13 mph). He eats well and drinks well.

In the return he lined out just perfectly as we unhooked. Tomorrow we hope to run him in an 8 or 10 dog team, weather permitting. The high was fifty two degrees today, November 11th :(

We have only 3 days until Michigan firearm deer season , just one mile from Michigan border; Wisconsin season starts on the 17th. Blaze orange is everywhere and our dogs are now getting their blaze streamers.

The saga of transporting dogs

Copper has finally arrived after five attempts to fly from his former home. I'm sure he thinks running Iditarod was MUCH easier than trying to fly here from Utah! (First attempt; dog care backed out here; second attempt, Salt Lake airport said he was too late to board; third attempt, a blizzard in Marquette; fourth attempt, mechanical failure in Utah plane: fifth attempt, rerouted to Detroit, for an overnight, but finally arrived, Marquette, MI).

After his fifth attempt, a two day saga, we were VERY happy to leash him carefully and take him for a walk in the snow in Marquette yesterday. He settled in right away with fresh chicken soup .

Once back at the kennel, we went about our usual chores, free running dogs, etc (all visiting him at his pen), so that he could see that life is good here.

Today we hope to run him in a small team, since with firearm deer season coming up, he'll have to be tethered for two weeks.

The Marquette airport gets special praise for their kindness, as always. The pilot had radioed ahead that Copper was onboard (probably howling as Stella did, entertaining the passengers).
The agents all gathered around to meet him and one agent carried his crate to my truck. They walked outside with us showing us the best area for him to relieve himself. His crate was bone dry/clean. He had a great welcome there.

Fox

This nice fox was hiding behind a tree, ready to pounce at something when I noticed it first yesterday. This is the same one (black markings distinct) that came up toward the house a few weeks ago. It seems that there is a family of them as others I've seen do not have this distinct black marking. S/he is very confident and regularly travels the trails. It's rather large so perhaps it is a male.

Sixes

Finally, we're running six mile runs! Not soon enough, though, as deer rifle season begins next week, shutting us down. The railroad grade was not dusty because of the recent snow melt. We started with booties on some, but they didn't want them on.

It was a good day for the six miles, about twenty degrees and cloudy . Hopefully, we'll get some eights into Michigan before Nov 17th.

Buffy and Matilda ran lead; Ruthie and Sherpa ran in swing; Herman and Kiddo ran in wheel.

It was a well matched team and everyone was great. Kiddo could shed a few more summer pounds, but did very well. Matilda is really shaping up to take leader commands well. Nice to have another leader in training.

In Like a Lion

Photo: Sulatna, age 13. Her return tumor continues to grow, but her spirits are high. She does get chilled easily, thus the coat.

Our first snow came in with gusto! One neighboring town had 50 mph winds knocking out power lines. Ours weren't quite so dramatic, but it was windy and we had our first snow.

Nice to see the different wildlife tracks for a change.

We had to cancel a trip to pick up a dog as there was more snow/wind trouble up that way.

But, it doesn't look as though this bit of snow will stick, just a day to practice wearing boots, toboggan hauling, hauling straw, repairing dog house leaks, etc. The hoses finally had to be dragged way so watering is with buckets. The old reliable 96 ATV died on me, so the big one will be used for all work and running dogs.

And we cooked meat soup for late day hydration. The weather energized ALL of the dogs, all were wild to run . In all, 24 dogs had free runs in the fresh snow, even aging Balto.