Big Brown, Triple Crown??Big Brown, winner of the 08 Kentucky Derby and the Preakness

Claudia Nowak with our pups and Ana

Ana & Claudia

Sleeping Pups

There is big news in horse racing with another triple crown contender. The last one was Smarty Jones in 2004, he ended up falling short in the Belmont. Big Brown won the 2008 Kentucky Derby impressively from post 20, WAY on the outside. It was an awesome race. He did it again when he easily won the Preakness 2 weeks later this past weekend. In 3 weeks, he will be racing the Belmont against some awesome horses. Can he do it?? It has been 30 years since a horse has won the triple crown. The last one was 1978, when Affirmed beat his all time rival Alydar by a nose. Big Brown is an impressive horse, we are hoping THIS is the year where history will be made. Watch the Belmont, the 2nd week of June and you COULD witness history. We hope so, I'd like to see it happen in my lifetime, it has been a LONG time!

We had a very nice weekend. First Lee & Claudia Nowak came to visit and see our new pups. Ana very much enjoyed them as you can see by the above photo of her on Claudia's lap. The puppies loved all the snuggles. Then, Larry's sister Sue and our niece Karlie came over to stay with Ana so we could go to a wedding with our friends Becky & Brandon. Ana had a blast with Sue & Karlie. We also had a GREAT time getting to leave the house and hang out with our friends. We were a little tired as a result on Sunday, but by afternoon we rebounded enough to go and visit Tim & Michelle Riley's kennel in Grayling. They have a very nice setup and beautiful dogs. Tim picked us up some dog house barrels from downstate, so we picked those up for all our future new additions to the kennel. Ana loved running around their property, eating their chocolate and crackers. Sherry Sutherby and her little cattle dog "Zip" were there also. Ana loved Zip, I think she would have taken her home if Sherry would have let us! On our way home, we stopped at the park in Grayling so Ana could run around and burn off a bit more steam before we headed home to feed the dogs. It was a very good weekend, tiring, but I got all rested up yesterday. We look forward to more rest and relaxation this coming Memorial weekend.

Mother's DayAna holding Odessa's pups

They are now 1 week old

Star (left) teaching young "Jersey Girl" the ropes in lead.

Zoey (left), our SUPER girl and Fender, rookie of the year.

Dana (left), one of Zoey's female pups from her 07 litter and Jackson, one of our soon to be 2 year olds that raced all this past season with the main team.

Prophet, our new 3 year old from Frank Holmberg. He had a super season racing on Frank's 1st place Tahquamenon 12 dog team and Jerry Papke's 1st place Apostle Islands and 3rd place Midnight Run team. We are very glad to have this happy boy in our team.

I had the BEST Mother's Day! I got to sleep in, then Larry made me his famous "breakfast sandwhich". Then, we were off to my family BBQ. The food was delicious! I was thinking about my mom's macaroni salad ALL week long. It was soooooo good!!! After that Larry, Ana, my parents and I went mushroom picking. It was fun looking, but I only found 3. We have not had a good season for it around here in a few years because of the cold springs we've had. Oh, well, the cold made for a great day to run the dogs and tire them out so they won't be so noisy. We ran two 12 dog teams and Ana helped me give the commands. She also gives them their treats after the run. She is very helpful. She says "see, I'm big enough!" The first team, we put one of our promising yearlings, Jersey, in lead with Star. She did super in lead and never missed a beat. She is definetly a natural leader. We also ran 4 of the 10 month old pups in the team. All did super as well. In the 2nd team, one of our other super yearlings, Boston, ran lead with Windows. He made my Midnight Run team this year as a yearling and did awesome. He did a fabulous job in lead and stayed focused. Windows always does a great job keeping him on the trail. He is a big dog, so he has to run lead with a VERY strong leader, like Windows. We also ran 3 of the 10 month old pups in this team. All did great. All in all, it was a GREAT day. Too bad Mother's Day isn't more than one day a year!

Puppies!!!! Odessa/Mike Lee pups 4 males, 3 females

Ana petting the new pups

Our new frames for our dog barrels

Yesterday Odessa had her pups, 7 total, 4 males, 3 females. Needless to say, Ana was VERY excited to see them. They came a couple of days early, but all seem healthy. We haven't decided on names yet.
We've been super busy as usual. The weather has been great! Larry has been making new frames for the dog's houses to raise them up off of the ground a bit. He also drilled holes in the bottom to keep them cleaner. I LOVE them and the dogs seem to also.
Our morel mushroom season has begun, so we will be searching the woods in the coming days. It is so much fun! Ana even finds them. I'll post how many we find in our "secret" locations in a couple of weeks.