Hauling Boulders

The digging weather is at its best for these industrious huskies. Already they've excavated many summer dens, although some of them are just inside the gate for me to step into as I enter. Today's work is hauling boulders from the upper field. Thankfully many years ago a hard working farmer stacked them all as he cleared his fields.

The winds have downed quite a few dead trees in the wooded areas.

Photo: Tsunami in his 'digs' from last year.

And now it's 75 degrees, and tomorrow...? Schizoid weather.

We had ten or more inches of snow; then two days later, 75 degrees; thunder and lightning this morning and tomorrow to be forty degrees. The deer are hanging around closely as in this photo with Sierra or near the deck with Skinny.

'S no fun!

Sierra, below, before Ruthie tried to tear off her ear. Sierra is the self appointed herder/guardian and Ruthie tore through a chain and a bungee to run about, not in her turn.

Turkey on left, deer in center, waiting by the corn can.

Tanni (below) and Evalina, watching the morning unfold.
It was hard for the dogs to see out/see each other. This is Yo.

I shoveled the houses off to give them each a semidry perch.

While it was beautiful, there were branches falling off of the heavily laden trees. It snowed for 24 hours straight (or more). I don't know the actual accumulation, but the photos speak for themselves. The dog tempers flared today, too, leaving Sierra (in photo before the action) with a torn ear and wounded feelings. The deer and the turkeys came right up to the house to get their corn and carrots. Everyone was out of sorts , it seemed. And tomorrow we're headed for warm weather and back into the 60's again, so imagine the muddy mess about to present itself out here. Ah, Spring!

Nonfunctional Snow!

The worst kind... after all the pens are set up for Spring with tarps, etc and now about seven (at least) inches of this heavy wet concretelike snow. Arghh. And more to come tonight...stop the snow dances , it's late April! If we can't use it, don't snow, please!! The good side of this is that my granddaughter (age two) LOVES snow and this delighted her today. She wanted to spend her time with her little shovel.

Early a.m. photo

Wildlife Wandering

Just saw two big coyotes or small wolves wander through here down by the deer corn. Temps have been warm (74) so all the critters are out hunting. I took photos, but it was too dark. The dogs were all loud last night with noses all pointing toward the driveway, so I investigated and found nothing. Possibly these were their visitors. There are a lot of great smells for Skinny on his daily ATV runs and he pays very close attention. Maybe the field cameras got something, will check later.

The Black and White Look

Photos: Top, Scuba out of Butcher's Elan; Middle, Buddy, Redington lines (blue eyes); Bottom, leader,

Skinny (black/white), Zirkle/Louden/Attla/Swenson.

Spring Lists

This the list from last year's blog in late April. Seems like we're just a bit ahead this year, but this is a good 'to do' list for me to reference. (this year not headless rabbits, but headless birds lying about). And much of the same going on. Last year we had 17 inches of snow about this time, but we are DRY here. Of course, we can always get another snow storm. We have started the straw hauling, the slow slow process.

Last year's list:

Feeding dogs, of course. (hauled in multi pounds of food from the truck).Clean up food dumped by dogs who say they've had enough high fat content. (switch to lower fat mix).Scooping straw from ice, pitching into containers for hauling. (major part of the day)Hosing out concrete pens as straw pitched out.Washing mud off of my face/teeth (several times).Cleaning all pens, of course.Connecting/draining the hoses. Cleaning water pails, watering all dogs, twice.Hauling the waste on the snowy, icy, muddy trail on the ATV.Getting ATV unstuck.Putting up tarps in half the pens for shade (70 degrees, sunny). (dogs help by jumping, on me)Charging battery on 2nd ATV and moving to shed for hauling. (hook positive first!)Moving several dogs for different reasons. (full moon, dogs coming into heat, again; dog eating gate)Starting and moving lawn mower.Fixing broken chains for two dogs that need to be tied. (fence leaper, gate eater)Cleaning the cat's room, washing the boxes.Airing the house dogs' beds.Meds to dogs with allergies enhanced by Spring. (Balto may need surgery on ear)Hauling rocks from the upper field to fill newly dug holes. Ground very nice for dogs' digging.Cooling overheated ATV from hauling.Riding all the trails, to check for downed trees (none over trail, hooray! but numerous downed in woods from heavy snows)Getting ATV unstuck.Treats to dogs, late day. Answering their questioning looks about why they can't come out to run. (porcupines, skunks)Chasing Skinny into the woods when he returned to the house at night. Setting trail camera to look for predator leaving headless rabbits.Today, more of the same.
Posted by Julie at 5:58 AM 0 comments
Saturday, April 19, 2008

Easter

We had a beautiful Easter Day, starting with a wonderful sunrise, taking some longer runs with the house dogs, watching the dogs sunbathe as we started putting up shade tarps and ending the day with a great family dinner.

Photos: Skinny (above) and Easter sunrise. Low fifties , temperature, bright sun.

Muddy Run with seven dogs

We took seven dogs and three humans on a very iron ore muddy run yesterday. The temps were in the 40's and the sun was high so it was just about too warm to do that. The bridge over the river had some washout but our team was already committed to crossing, which we did safely and then did a turnaround (a bit of a test, luckily we had two guides and one driver).

All dogs were very excited to go for the run, but think they were happier to get home. The dogs and harnesses were iron red when we returned. With the dry weather and winds we've had I thought it would be dry and cool but it was not. We'll just hangout with free runs awhile longer here this Spring. Our kennel wooded trails are still deep with snow and ice.

Dogs who ran with great spirits, all, yesterday were: Buffy, Rosie (lead); Medio, Kiddo, Herman,

Quattro and Copper.

Photos: Upper, seven dog team enroute home. Lower, Ore encrusted harnesses in the 'dishwasher'.

More snow

Not lost here, just busy with Spring cleanup and then more snow. Trails change from day to day, but we are running ATV on them. Recent snow was wet , now icy. The pens were nice and dry and the huge wet snow made them into muddy ponds again. Today more sun. We give up, go away winter!!

Dogs all fared well through this long winter, even the oldies are bouncing around in the warm sun (when it shows up).

Photo: House pals take a run in the fresh snow. Sierra, Skinny and Buddy