Let it Snow!!!!!!Ana with Koyuk (left) and Windows after her first sled run with her team

Ana ready to go! We hooked her sled to the snowmachine and she mushed her team down the road. She loved it! It was so fun seeing her give the dog's their commands just like we do. Koyuk & Windows had fun too, of course!

George & Tefa, 2 of Larry's dogs. Tefa is one of his main leaders and George is on of our promising yearlings out of Zoey/Strider

Me and my 10 dog team last Friday on a 15 mile run. We have so much snow, our training is awesome!!

Dana & Liddell, another 2 of Larry's yearlings on his team, also out of Zoey/Strider

Larry's 10 dog yearling team, Jersey (2 year old on left) and Star in lead. Jersey is out of the first litter we had with Zoey/Strider. It was so good, we repeated it the very next year. For those interested Strider is one of Pete & Sharon Curtice's main dogs.

Eddie (brown male 2 year old) and Cowgirl leading my team the other day. Eddie is a very promising young leader from the Curtice's. Cowgirl is one of my main leaders from Andrew Cesario

Yesterday we did a checkpoint run with Jerry Papke's team. Larry and I both ran 10 dog teams, Jerry ran his main 12. We went 22 miles to deer camp, layed over for 4 hours and ran 9 miles home. The 2nd leg was supposed to be 13 miles, but the dogs missed the turn. Earlier in the day, Jerry lost his team going out of our driveway. I was first out, Larry was 2nd, and Jerry left third, then my dad followed with the snowmachine. Thank goodness because he scooped up Jerry, sped up to his team that was trying to pass Larry, got right up beside his sled, then Jerry jumped over to his team Roy Roger's style. The rest of the run was smooth. We had so much fun on our trails. Our teams looked very good.

Here is what we feed the dogs. We get asked this all the time. Well, in this bucket is what we feed at night: Redpaw kibble, Eureka meat mix, psyllium (helps prevent diarrhea), fish oil, wheat germ oil (for the Omegas) and we also give each dog 1 vitamin E pill daily as an antioxidant. Looks yummy, doesn't it??

Ali, Jerry's girlfriend tending to his team at our checkpoint

My team, somewhat resting. Eddie is being a good boy nestled in the straw. It took a long time for the dogs to finally lay down, about 2 hours.

Larry's team at the beginning of the layover. Tefa & Star were the only ones to lay down for about the first 2 hours. Then, the young dogs finally got the hint to rest

Prophet (a super 3 year old from Frank Holmberg) and Jackson were the only ones out of our 20 that did not rest well. They were sleeping standing up for 4 hours. Didn't seem to matter though, both did great on the 2nd leg

Zoey (left) and Cowgirl, my main leaders this season

Star & Tefa, Larry's main leaders this season.

Since this snow came, we have been super busy running dogs. It is almost too good to be true to get this snow so early. We have been getting storm after storm. Thanksgiving was great also. We spent Thursday with my family and Saturday with Larry's family. It was very nice to see everyone and the food was GREAT, of course! Today is a day off for training and tomarrow is my 32nd B-day. I can't believe I am that old!! Well, until next time..........

Deer Camp, Snow and SLEDSSSSS!!!!!Ana in her comfy bunk at deer camp.

Can you see Mr. Camo, I mean Larry in this picture? I really don't think he could ever been seen by a deer in this getup.

Jackson hidin out from all the snow on Friday

Duelly enjoying all the big flakes falling from the sky

Our beloved wood boiler doing its job, oh how we LOVE it!!!

Ana on her sled. Larry was pulling her around the yard with the snowmachine so she can learn to ride her sled

This is the team Larry ran. Cowgirl (left) and Eddie ran lead

My 6 dog team at the bottom of the huge hill. Look to the top of the hill, there is a whole other hill when you crest this one. It is really HUGE!

Last weekend we spent our days and nights at Deer Camp. Ana loves it out there and so do we. It is such a cozy place, enveloped in warmth from the wood stove. I could stay out there forever. It was nice getting out into the woods for the opener of gun season. What sucks for us is we have to take turns hunting. Most men don't have this problem, they go out into the woods while the women stay home and take care of the kids. Well, that is not so with the Fortier's. We both hunt, so the fun of hunting has to be shared. I only hunted one morning and I let Larry hunt twice so he could have a chance to shoot a buck. I'd like him to get a nice one like my 8 point that is hanging on our wall so when his buddies come over he doesn't have to say, "no, my wife shot that one!"

Thursday we had about 6 inches of snow. So, I went out on a 17.5 mile run with the ATV. By the time I got home we had atleast 10 inches. I could not believe how hard it was snowing while I was out. I am glad I went out in the day time or I would not have been able to see a thing! The next morning when we woke up, we had atleast a foot of snow, so out came the sleds! This is the earliest in years that we have been on sleds. Last year it was December 1st, so we were elated to leave that stinky, noisy ATV in the barn and go out on our quiet sleds. Larry took out a 7 dog team and I took 6. It was so fun!!! Yesterday we gave them a day off and today we are going out with sleds again for an 18 mile run.

Halloween & Dogs, of course!!!Ana in her costume on Halloween. She was so excited to be a sled dog. I even had a leash hooked to her harness so she could pull me. She LOVED it!

Ana & her cousin Maddie at Kera & Larry Platte's party they put on for all the kids.

Ana & Makenzie at the party. Makenzie was Wednesday from the Adam's Family

My sister, Jennifer, getting off of the hay ride. The Platte's have a hay ride for the kids and parents and pull everyone around the neiborhoods so we don't have to walk so far to get candy. It is so much fun!

Last week, the kids in Ana's preschool went to Flemming Farm. They had so much fun. Here, Ana is climbing on all the pumkins trying to pick one out to carve. I really think she cared more about climbing around, than picking a pumkin.

Maddie & Ana ontop of the haybales. Flemming Farm set up a haybale maze for the kids to run through. When they got tired of that, they all got ontop and jumped from bale to bale.

Ana's class ontop of the hay bales

Me, with a 14 dog team on a 14.5 mile training run last weekend. Here, we are pulling up one of our giganto hills on Post Rd. It is VERY hilly where we live, so the dogs get a great workout.

The dogs pulling me through the valley on Mushroom Rd.

The dogs after the run. Zoey (left), my main leader, with her daughter, Dana. Dana is only a yearling and very good in lead already. She is a natural in lead like her mom.

Well, a lot has happened since I posted last. We got our wood boiler finished and I am happy to report, we are finally WARM!!! Well, a bit too warm. Larry about heats me out of our house each night. Since we heat with wood instead of propane, we can afford to turn the thermostat up. Larry really likes that!

We also had one of our dogs, Memphis, get very sick after the Shaw weekend. Turns out, on the way home in her dog box, she peuked up her food, it aspirated into her lungs, meaning the food went down her trachea instead of esophogus and into her lungs, causing an infection. Then she got pneumonia. We did not think she was going to make it. I am happy to report now, that she has made a full recovery. She is still inside the house for another week, then will go back outside and start some light training in a couple of weeks when we are sure all the fluid is out of her lungs.

As you can see from the photos above, Ana had a busy week last week as well. I LOVE her preschool. They teach the kids so much. Ana had so much fun at Flemming Farm and trick or treating with her cousins.

Dog training is going very well, except for the recent warm temps. We have not trained since Monday. But, the temps are cooler now, finally, and we will be taking the team out tonight on a fast, fun 8 mile run. Then, this weekend we will do a couple of 14 mile runs.

Shaw's Training Weekend The yearlings finally resting after their run

The two year olds resting after their run

Boston, one of our most promising 2 year olds. He ran on my Midnight Run team last year as a yearling

Zoey (left) in lead with her son Boston

Liddell (left), one of our yearlings, next to Jackson, one of our other super 2 year olds

Odessa (left) and Star

Georgie (left), another yearling and Duelly

Cowgirl (left) and Zoey, two of my main leaders

Star & Tefa leading the team

Last weekend we went up to Bob & Jan Shaw's for our annual training weekend. We had so much fun!!!! Ana stayed home with Grandpa and Grandma and Larry and I headed up with 22 dogs. It was so nice seeing everyone and having a great doggy weekend. The trails were awesome, the weather crisp and cold. Perfect for running dogs! This weekend is esential for our young dogs. There are tons of teams, so we always get lots of passing practice in. This is very important to train before our upcoming races. We are happy to report that every young dog did super passing!! We even had 3 of our two year olds in lead: Eddie, Boston & Jersey. They did excellent and passed other teams like pros. What a wonderful weekend. Only thing, it is NEVER long enough! It sure was nice getting home and picking Ana up though. We always miss her, so maybe next time she will come with us and camp out. It is nice to get away, but soooo nice to come back home. In other news, training is going well. We are a bit ahead of schedule, so that is always nice. More to come later..........

First Day of School, Training etc......

Ana, her cousin Maddy and their friend Landon on the first day of Preschool.

Ana helping daddy dig the trench for our new wood boiler

digging the trench

The team on Gas Plant Trail on a 7 mile training run last week. Look how beautiful the colors are!!

The team at the bottom of the "big" hill. I know, we are real creative with our names. We have the "big" hill and the "huge" hill. The big hill is a steady incline and is almost a mile long. It is a great workout for the dogs in early fall while we are building muscle.

Memphis (left) and Star in lead

Ana playing with Cigar, one of the Odessa/Mike Lee pups in the background

Well, we are busy as usual at the Fortier house. Ana started school a few weeks ago. She LOVES it. She has to put her back pack on like a big girl when going into the school. She has so much fun there that she wants to go every day. Thankfully for me it is only 2 days per week of getting up super early. We are also getting a wood boiler. For those that don't know, it is a giant woodstove that is outside your house, making it safer. You pipe it into your furnace and burn wood instead of using propane (which is HUGELY expensive in these parts). This will more than cut our heating bill for the winter in half. Needless to say, I've never been so excited to get a wood boiler as I am now. Just turning my thermostat up is going to be exciting!!! We spent one weekend cutting and stacking wood (very hard work) and the rest of our wood is coming from a loggers train we are slitting with our friends. This will be enough wood for over a year!! Our training is going very well. We are ahead of schedule this year, which is a great place to be. We are running 8 miles and ready to move up the distance, but some warm temps later in the week might delay that till next week. Everyone is looking awesome. We have a lot of leaders we are rotating. Star, Odessa, Zoey, Tefa, Cowgirl are our veteran leaders. We also have a lot of the 2 year olds like Eddie, Jersey, Memphis, Fender, Boston, Jackson and a few others. George, Dana and Serra are our best yearling leaders. Windows, our 9 year old super leader, started the season with us to help sharpen the skills of our younger dogs in lead. Sadly she has about reached her limit with our young team at 8 miles and will be dropped from training soon. She has so much drive and has been such an awesome dog for us. It will be hard seeing her sit on the sidelines for the first time in her life. She will resume training when we harness break the Odessa/Mike Lee pups, who are now 5 months old. We will do that in December. Well, that is all for now. Next weekend we go to our super fun training weekend in the U.P. at Bob & Jan Shaw's. I will post more pictures and another entry after we get back.

Lance Mackey Comes to MichiganLarry & I with Lance
Lance & his wife Tonya with the Nowak's

Everyone listening intently

Two weekends ago we went to the Full Moon Fall Fling at Russ & Sherry's Sutherby's kennel. Lance Mackey, who has won the Yukon Quest (1,000 miles) the last 4 years in a row and also the Iditarod (1,150 miles) the last 2 years in a row was the speaker for the weekend. The other incredible thing he did was in 2007 after winning the Quest, he went on to win the Iditarod only 10 days later with 13 of the same dogs! Everyone said it could never be done in the same year and he did it TWICE! So, needless to say, we were very excited to meet Lance. It was a wonderful weekend. On saturday, it was really laid back, with about 25 people. We got to hang with Lance all day and listen to his amazing stories and training/feeding advice. I can't begin to say how awesome it was. On Sunday, there were tons of people and Lance gave an awesome presentation. Tim Riley also gave a presention on the history of the Iditarod and about preparing for his 2009 rookie run with a team from Nature's kennel in the U.P. There were awesome door and raffle prizes as well including a Wiggy's sleeping bag and a beautiful parka. We got to meet mushers that we haven't met before and reconnect with old friends. It was such a fun weekend. It was nice actually getting to relax for once. Thank you Russ & Sherry and everyone else who helped put on a wonderful weekend we won't soon forget!!!!!

Belated Labor Day WeekendBears at Oswald's Bear Ranch in Newberry

You might be a Redneck if.....you go swimming with socks on!!!

My mom & Aunt Sueanne

Larry & Ana

Bridge going across the Tahquamenon River

The Tahquamenon River

Aunt Sueanne, Uncle Lee, Ana & dad

Me, Odessa & Star

Zoey & Star

Ok, this is a little late, but we've been beyond busy lately. Labor Day weekend, me, Larry, Ana, my mom & dad and Aunt & Uncle went up to "bear camp". It is my parent's cabin located North of McMillan on the Tahquamenon River in the U.P. We also took 23 dogs up with us so we could train on the awesome trails up there. It was soooo nice and relaxing. We had a GREAT time up there. Needless to say, we did NOT want to come home!!! We were spoiled every morning after running dogs with a HUGE breakfast of blueberry pancakes (made with blueberries we picked up there) and the BEST dinners. I could get used to that!! We hiked around and looked at all the other neat cabins along the river, went to Oswald's bear ranch, we ate out one night at Timber Charlie's (the BEST restaurant in Newberry) and I got to witness my family swim in the FREEZING river. It was funny and there was no lingering. Everyone was in and out in the blink of an eye. It was way too cold for me, I relied on the solar shower to get clean!! It was a wonderful weekend with my family. I look forward to being able to go up there again sometime before winter. Stay tuned, more to come on our amazing weekend at the Sutherby's Full Moon Fall Fling. We got to meet the Incredible Lance Mackey!!!! He is the 4 time Yukon Quest Champ and won the Iditarod the last two years in a row only 10 days after winning the Quest (1,000 miles), one of the toughest races in the world.