Happy Easter!?!

If it wasn't for a delightful meal with friends, this holiday would have been just another day for us. As usual, there was way more food than there were people to eat it.  And, it was all really, really good, as usual!  

Things were not quite as good on the home front this weekend.  With the warm weather moving in we have had some serious melting of the snow happening.  And this year, we now have a leaking ceiling!  The house is OLD and has likely lost most of the insulation in the roof so the woodstove heat and air leaks everywhere make for a great place for condensation and ice to build up.  And, now that is melting and coming though the sheetrock ceiling!!!  Ugh!  It's going to be a mess to get it all cleaned up and a huge expense to get it all fixed!!  We did not need this.  

The dogs are doing good and we are starting the "spring" chores of clearing out the trench and chipping out the doors and pens.  Soon, we will be pumping the water out of the pens to try to keep the mud down.  

Happy Easter! 

C & T & the Gang

Dog sled rides ....

We haven't done much running of the teams lately let alone given many rides.  I schedule for us to take two foreign exchange students from the Rotary club I am a part of for a ride!  They arrived right on time and we got them dressed with some additional warm gear before heading out to the pens.  Tom had set up the sled for a 10 dog team and we even set it up with a second sled on the team so one would be riding and one would be on the second sled.

The team was:
Sherman & Jasper
Raller & Shelby
Kivek & Dude
Kako & Gus
Marco & Zena

They left the kennel and I took off on the sno-go to meet them at the turn around.  That's when disaster struck!!  Tom stopped the team with the sled on an angle and when he attempted to move the team forward to let the girls switch position, the very strong 10 dog team decided to put all their power into moving forward!  I jumped on the second sled and stepped on the brake!  Just as I look up, the front sled with Lidia in it is on its side and poor Lidia has disappeared into the deep snow!  We got the team stopped and got Lidia dug out.  She said her shoulder was hurting but she was okay.  She rode the second sled back to the house and was feeling better by the time we were back here.

Jen had stayed at the house and finished cleaning the pens Tom hadn't gotten to and was ready to help us get dogs unharnessed and put up after the run!

After the ride, we had hot cocoa and cookies and had a chance to visit before it was time to head out.  All in all, it was a good day!

Finally ... dog mushing!!!

It's been a very busy few months and I just haven't had anything good to report so I haven't done any updates!  

However, we took three teams out this afternoon so I thought I would post a report!  

Team 1

Sherman & Jasper

Rallie & Shelby

Kako

Gus

Zena & Marco

This was a great team.  I rode in the sled since we are giving a ride tomorrow we wanted to figure out which team would haul a load the best!!  And I am quite a load to haul!!  HA HA!!!  This team took just under 20 minutes to go about 4 miles.  We don't make good time but we have fun!!!

Team 2 

Baleen & Shasta

Stubby & Bolio

Kivek

Dude

Rufus & Tanner

This team seemed a bit slower right off the get go.  The leaders weren't keeping the team lined out and we had to slow them down some!  Then, when we got to the turn around Shasta decided to go the back way around the loop.  Then they missed the turn into the turn around loop ... I hopped out of the sled and ran down the trail a bit to get them going the right way.  To let them by, I stepped off the trail just a bit.  The snow is deep just off the trail and I fell down.  I figured I would just stay down until the sled was next to me to pick me up... well, as the sled was coming up to me the runner caught and the sled ended up running into my shin and then running over my leg!!  Shit!  That hurt!  It took this team just over 20 minutes to do the 4 miles.  

Team 3

Panzer & Patton

Shammu

Muktuk

Hannah

Yeti

This was figured to be the slow team but they were just as fast as the other teams.  The key was I was not sitting in the sled this time!!  Tom ran the team alone while I started the cleaning of the pens!  He said they looked really good.  He took Panzer out of lead at the turn around and Patton ran the team home as a strong single leader!!  

I am sore tonight, but I am hoping I am NOT too sore tomorrow!!  I can feel the stiffness settling in because I also fell in the dog yard this morning while feeding the dogs breakfast!!  

Happy Trails!!

C & T & the Gang