We woke up to -16F. After breakfast, I took Shammu to the vet for a urinalysis to make sure there isn't an underlying infection as the reason for her leaking pee when she is laying down. No infection but the tumor is still in the bladder. Shammu is on meds that should help. While I was gone, Tom fed the other dogs their breakfast.
The afternoon schedule had us going out to get some wood. The sno-go didn't want to stay running so we decided to walk out to the woodlot and pull a small load of wood home with human power. Sure, we could use the dogs, but we didn't do that today. We got a couple of trees down and a load hauled back to the house.
Next, it was time to clean the pens. Even at -25F the dogs were running around playing and having fun! Now that we have snow, I have been keeping a few trails through the open area of the dog yard shoveled out for easier walking for the humans! What's really funny is to watch the dogs run around and they prefer the trail too! Go figure!! :) But, the other thing we figured out is that it is about 330 feet around the outside trail. So, we would have to make 16 trips around the trail to make an extra mile of walking while we are out there. Tonight, I challenged myself to do 4 laps while each set of dogs was out of their pens. I get exercise and the dogs get extra time out of their pens!! They followed me!! It was so funny. I might have to have Tom record it one night!!
We had plans to run at least one of the three teams tonight but with the temps continuing to fall, we decided the humans didn't really want to go out!! The dogs would have been okay and would have enjoyed it but it would have been hard for me to stay warm while riding in the sled!! So, no running tonight!
Since we didn't run, we decided it would be a good time to go get some fuel oil so we don't run out. That meant that I would need to go to the dump to empty the back of the truck to get the fuel containers in there too! So, off I went at 10 pm!! All is finally done and we are inside for the night with the four inside dogs relaxing here with us until we head to bed!!
Happy Trails!
C & T
Saturday, November 30, 2013
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Running the teams ...
We FINALLY found time to run the teams today!!
Team 1
Baleen & Sherman - Lead
Dude & Kivek - Swing
Tanner & Rufus - Team
Kako - Team
Zena & Marco - Wheel
Tom had planned to run the team with the 4-wheeler for the added safety of having a 700 pound machine at the back end of a team that hasn't been run at all this year!! But, neither of the wheelers would start. Plan B ... use the dog sled!! The trails were awesome and the sled was the right way to go!! Tom drove the sled while I rode in the sled. This team did a GREAT job. We only took them about 3 miles for this first run but they looked great. The weak link we have right now is weak leaders but these two actually did a great job. Kept the line out tight and followed most directions!! They did the 3 miles in 20 minutes!
Team 2
Shasta & Jasper - Lead
Bolio & Stubby - Swing
Rallie - Team
Gus - Team
Yeti & Shelby - Wheel
Got the change out accomplished pretty quickly and we were on the trail with this team in no time. We took off from the house with Tom driving again and me riding. Got about a half mile into the run and as we came around the corner there was something in the trail. My heartbeat took off because at first I thought it was a moose in the trail. Turns out it was just our neighbor, Oliver, coming home with his team hauling a load of fire wood. We stopped our team and I went up to the spot between the leaders and the swing dogs. Tom got in the middle of the wheel and team dogs. Tom also turned the sled on it's side to help slow it down if things got out of hand. Oliver was running a very inexperienced team to so we held our team off to the side while he led his team past ours. Yup, we all need to work on the passing thing! Oliver got past and took off toward home while we went on our way to the turn around. This was a good experience for all dogs involved!! After that, we made it around the trail without any trouble at all.
Team 3
Muktuk (11) & Kia (13.5) - Lead
Patton (9) & Panzer (9) - Swing
Hannah (7) - Team
Sioux (13.5) - Team
Shammu (11) - Wheel
This is the "old dog" team (ages beside their names). They did the 3 miles loop without any hesitation, though, much slower than the other teams!! :)
All in all, it was a good day of running the teams. Now that we have the first run of the season out of the way, I will try to remember to take a camera next time and get some pictures or video.
Happy Trails!
Team 1
Baleen & Sherman - Lead
Dude & Kivek - Swing
Tanner & Rufus - Team
Kako - Team
Zena & Marco - Wheel
Tom had planned to run the team with the 4-wheeler for the added safety of having a 700 pound machine at the back end of a team that hasn't been run at all this year!! But, neither of the wheelers would start. Plan B ... use the dog sled!! The trails were awesome and the sled was the right way to go!! Tom drove the sled while I rode in the sled. This team did a GREAT job. We only took them about 3 miles for this first run but they looked great. The weak link we have right now is weak leaders but these two actually did a great job. Kept the line out tight and followed most directions!! They did the 3 miles in 20 minutes!
Team 2
Shasta & Jasper - Lead
Bolio & Stubby - Swing
Rallie - Team
Gus - Team
Yeti & Shelby - Wheel
Got the change out accomplished pretty quickly and we were on the trail with this team in no time. We took off from the house with Tom driving again and me riding. Got about a half mile into the run and as we came around the corner there was something in the trail. My heartbeat took off because at first I thought it was a moose in the trail. Turns out it was just our neighbor, Oliver, coming home with his team hauling a load of fire wood. We stopped our team and I went up to the spot between the leaders and the swing dogs. Tom got in the middle of the wheel and team dogs. Tom also turned the sled on it's side to help slow it down if things got out of hand. Oliver was running a very inexperienced team to so we held our team off to the side while he led his team past ours. Yup, we all need to work on the passing thing! Oliver got past and took off toward home while we went on our way to the turn around. This was a good experience for all dogs involved!! After that, we made it around the trail without any trouble at all.
Team 3
Muktuk (11) & Kia (13.5) - Lead
Patton (9) & Panzer (9) - Swing
Hannah (7) - Team
Sioux (13.5) - Team
Shammu (11) - Wheel
This is the "old dog" team (ages beside their names). They did the 3 miles loop without any hesitation, though, much slower than the other teams!! :)
All in all, it was a good day of running the teams. Now that we have the first run of the season out of the way, I will try to remember to take a camera next time and get some pictures or video.
Happy Trails!
Sunday, November 10, 2013
Snow!! We have snow!!!
We finally have some significant snow on the ground!! After a warmer than normal October and what looked like it was going to be a strange November we actually had a significant snowfall this weekend!! I think the official amount for North Pole is 5.9" ... I was saying 6" so I think I was close!!
With the warmer than normal weather we have had we have been able to get some things done that we thought were going to be hold-over projects for next summer. We also started the process of getting some wood from the back "40". We are trying to get a couple of loads to get us through the week so we do not have to take any off the stacks that we have put up. The stuff that is stacked up is dry and ready to go, we just like seeing it stacked there since we have plenty of wood to get out back.
The area that we have fallen behind is in training the dogs. We haven't taken a team out at all this year. I really can't tell you why. We are tired, it's more than we want to do in an evening, too many projects and not enough time. We just need to get out there and get the going. We have pretty much everything ready and we will have no excuse next week.
Hopefully, this snow will be the kick in the pants that we need to get the dogs out!!
Happy Trails.
With the warmer than normal weather we have had we have been able to get some things done that we thought were going to be hold-over projects for next summer. We also started the process of getting some wood from the back "40". We are trying to get a couple of loads to get us through the week so we do not have to take any off the stacks that we have put up. The stuff that is stacked up is dry and ready to go, we just like seeing it stacked there since we have plenty of wood to get out back.
The area that we have fallen behind is in training the dogs. We haven't taken a team out at all this year. I really can't tell you why. We are tired, it's more than we want to do in an evening, too many projects and not enough time. We just need to get out there and get the going. We have pretty much everything ready and we will have no excuse next week.
Hopefully, this snow will be the kick in the pants that we need to get the dogs out!!
Happy Trails.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
