Almost that time again....Picture I found online of Larry and the team at the Beargrease 150 this year

Another picture of Larry and the team at the Beargrease. Cowgirl and Zoey leading the team

Charging down the trail

Fender had 4 female puppies on July 14th. We are very excited about these new super dogs. Their dad, Billy is spectacular with an incredible race record. Fender has been on the main team since she was a yearling. She is a wonderful mom and does not like us handling the pups. They are named after famous female mushers: Dee Dee, Libby, Susie, and Roxy.

We went up to Mackinaw for the 4th of July. My family came up there as well as our good friends Jim, Tiahia and their girls, Sophia and Emma. They had a blast with the sparklers.

Larry and Ana playing with sparklers

Our house dogs Sissy and Willie, playing in "Shady Acres" with 3 of our sled dogs. Sissy and Willie love it when I put other dogs in there to play with them. George, Jackson and Rags are 3 of our most playful sled dogs.

The summer has been flying by. I can't believe it is almost August already. It has been a cold, but great summer. I am not complaining about the lack of 80-90 degree days and neither are the dogs though. Larry is kickin butt on the basement. The drywall is hung and now we are mudding the seams. We hope to be done with the drywall and painting by August 11th, when our new furniture arrives. Our current furniture will go downstairs and our new stuff upstairs. We are also ripping out all of our carpet and installing pergo wood floors throughout the entire upstairs to make it more "dog and kid friendly". I don't recommend carpet for anyone with kids or dogs!!! We are also less than a month away from the start of fall training. I can hardly wait!! We still have a lot of projects to get done before it starts though.

Sum, Sum, Summertime!!!Ana canoeing on Father's Day

Going under a bridge

Going under a tree

Larry working on the basement

Ana helping

me, reading in the dog yard, one of my favorite things to do when it's nice out

Tefa, enjoying her summer relaxation time

Fender and Odessa (in her house) relaxin'

Georgie, actually being still, for once

Boston

Jackson

We are busy as usual here at Coyote Run Sled Dog Kennel. It seems like the summer is already flying by, even though it is really just beginning. The dogs are enjoying their summer relaxation time. Only 2 months till fall training starts up again. Fender is getting fatter by the day. She is due to have her pups on the 18th. I can hardly wait!!

Larry has been very busy finishing our basement. The walls are up, electrical almost done. Almost time for drywall. It will be so nice having extra living space when he is finished.

For Father's Day, Larry, Ana, and I and my parents, neice Makenzie, Aunt Sherry, Uncle Fred, Uncle Lee, Aunt Sueanne and cousin Logan all went to Borcher's in Grayling for a canoe ride. It was awesome! The weather was absolutely perfect! We ended up going for 13 miles this time. I can't wait to go again.

We are thoroughly enjoying summer this year. Fall training and all the hard work that comes with it will come all too soon. Even though I am not fond of the hot temps, I am not complaining! It is nice to have this much needed break!

This weekend is the 4th of July already! We are planning on watching fireworks in Mackinaw City with family and friends. Hope you all have a great holiday weekend!!

Summer and more Waiting!!"Silly Lilly" says "yeah, it's summer!!

Prophet (left) and Zoey in lead after one of our final spring training runs

Jersey (left) and her mom, Zoey, in lead after one of our spring training runs. Jersey is very promising and will most likely be running main lead with her mom on our main team next winter. She is GOOD!

One of our spring puppy runs this year. We have 5 pups out of Mike Lee/Odessa from last year that we harness broke this spring. They are naturals! We got a total of 8 hookups on them. They are ready for fall now.

Larry and Ana during spring kennel clean up. All winter we put tons of straw in the dog's houses to keep them warm. Well, then we spend all spring raking and cleaning it up! It took us 2 weekends in early May to get it done. It is a BIG job!

Ana on her new swing set that Larry built. She loves it! We are trying to teach her to pump her legs so she can do it on her own. She is very stubborn though! Must take after Larry:)

Ana in her seat on the back of the four wheeler. This is where she rides during training runs. She holds the bar to stay on safely. Plus, she is higher up than me, so she can see the team.

Our super 2.5 year old female, Fender . Her mom, Odessa was bred to the Magnusson's super dog Billy this spring. Billy has incredible race credentials like being in Doug Swingley's 2nd place Iditarod team, Melanie Shirilla's 1st place Wyoming Stage Stop team, and many great race finishes for the Magnusson's. So, we were very excited for pups out of these two. Well, May 5th came and went and no pups. Odessa didn't look pregnant, so I took her into the vet for an Xray. NO PUPPIES!!! We were extremely disapointed. Not for long though. We discovered that one of the best dogs in our kennel, Fender was in heat. Fender has been on my main team for every race since she was a yearling. She is a machine. So, we called up the Magnusson's and they dropped Billy off out our place on their way back home. Now hopefully, we will be expecting some super pups July 18th. All that waiting AGAIN really sucks though! The days will probably go by extremely slow!

We have been busy as usual here. Spring brings us many outdoor projects. We are almost finished with everything outside. We will then move to working on the basement. We hope to have it finished by the end of summer, before fall training starts. Once training starts, there is no time for anything else.

Ana is done with preschool until fall, so it is so nice not getting up at the crack of dawn anymore. I love my sleep!

We have had only had a handful of warm days here. It has been a really cold spring. I'm like the only one not complaining though. It gave us a chance to get tons of work done and run our dogs.

My blog entries have been few and far between lately, so I promise to update more regularly. On the schedule today: our garden. Hopefully, it will all be planted by Sunday. I will take some pictures of all Larry's hard work shortly. Have a great weekend!!!

More Spring Training....FINALLY!Ana helping give snacks after running our 12 males

Our SUPER 2.5 year old main team female, Fender (left), running lead with our retired leader, Windows. This was the first time Fender lead successfully, like a pro, out of the yard.

Stopped on the trail, while Larry removed a tree that had fallen

Ana helping give snacks to the 12 females we ran in the first team. (Memphis and Lilly in wheel)

The last 2 miles, we put Serra in lead with Fender. They did awesome together. Serra is only 1.5 years old and the most like her mom, our SUPER leader, Zoey.

me and Ana after running the male team

Serra (left) and Fender after the run

Ana with Boston (left) and our rookie of the year, George.

After a month of waiting for the ice to melt, we FINALLY got to hook up teams on Sunday. It was nice and cold out, perfect for the dogs. We ran two 12 dog teams. One all male team and one all female team. 5 of the dogs are our pups out of Mike Lee and Odessa. We are very excited about that litter. They now have 5 hookups on them and we hope to get a half a dozen more before it gets too warm out. Then, they will be ready for fall. It was so nice to get out with the dogs after such a long time off. They were so happy and we barely heard a peep out of them the rest of the night! It was great!!

We have been busy as usual here. We are cutting lots of wood for next season already and doing our spring cleaning outside, which includes a TON of raking. Especially, the dog yard. During the winter, they get lots of straw to keep them warm. Well, when the snow melts, the straw is EVERYWHERE!!!! So, we then have to rake it all up before we start the whole process over again next fall. It is an endless cycle.

Last weekend, we got the rarity to have a day to ourselves. My parents took Ana for the night, so we headed North to the Magnusson's kennel for a BBQ and some dog talk. Jerry & Ali Papke, the Holmberg's and JR Anderson were also there. It was a great time!! It is nice sitting around talking dogs after the race season. When we are racing, we don't have much social time because we are either feeding or dropping dogs or getting ready to race. We especially enjoyed Jerry's hilarious stories. For those who have not met Jerry, well, there is never a dull moment. Thanks Bruce and Monica for a great night!

We are also expecting puppies in only 15 more days out of the Magnusson's super Swingley male, Billy, and one of our very best females, also out of Doug Swingley's kennel, Odessa. She is showing a little so we are hoping for a nice sized litter. We are very exicited about this breeding since Billy has such great credentials. He ran on Doug's 2nd place Iditarod team and Melanie Shirrilla's 1st place Wyoming Team and the Magnusson's winning teams over the past couple of years. He should add some great dogs to our kennel.

I am also very happy that Ana is almost done with school for the year- yeah!! I won't have to get up at the crack of dawn to take her to school till next fall. Only about 4 more weeks left!!!! Well, that is all for now. My next post will probably be when Odessa has her pups around May 5th.

Spring Training & Family Time

Spring is the time for us to train our young dogs, relax on the weekends and just have fun with our family. Training for races takes A LOT of time and can be pretty stressful, so we are definetly enjoying our down time this season.

We have been taking Ana skating at the Sportplex in town on the weekends. It is so much fun!! She is a natural, skating all over the place with ease. This past weekend Ana's Aunt Suzie (Larry's sister) and cousin Karlie came to stay with us. We went skating again out out to dinner. I forgot my camera, so no pictures!

Ana, laying on the ice, tired, after all the skating

Two weekends ago, we gave Jason & Laura Cherry's family sled dog rides as part of a fund raiser for Ana's school. It was so much fun teaching new people about the sport and letting them enjoy our dogs. The weather was warm and beautiful and the trails were awesome. After a long day of running dogs, we hooked Ana's sled to the snowmachine and towed her behind. You can see by her face that she LOVED it!!

Ana took this picture of us after we ran all the dogs that day. It was a great weekend!

Larry & Ana after we had our snack

Ana & I

After the Cherry family headed home, we ran our own teams. I ran a team of 7 females with Zoey (left, my main leader and one of our main breeding females) in lead with her yearling daughter Serra. Serra did awesome! She is a natural in lead like her mom.

Smarty, one of our 11 month old pups out of Odessa & Mike Lee

Rags, another one of our pups. We have 6 left out of that breeding from last year. (One of the pups, Ruffian, lives with Shannon Miller and her sled dogs in Ohio). They have 4 hookups on them and all are doing awesome! Rags looks exactly like her mom, Odessa.

Man O War, or "Manny". If you didn't know yet, we named them after our favorite race horses.

Cigar (left) ran lead on his 3rd training run and did super!

Curlin, the little lover of the litter

Another picture of Cigar

Big Brown, the other female in the litter

Star (right) and our super leader Zoey jumping with joy after the run

Boston & Georgie (our super yearling), both out of Zoey & Strider, running lead together this spring. They are both very promising dogs in our kennel.

Larry ran a team of 7 males and one female. They are Boston & George in lead, Eddie and Prophet in swing, Gibson & Dana in team and Franklin & Liddell in wheel. When hooking up, they broke our huge, very strong snubline! Good thing we had the snowmachine out there so we could catch them!

This is the 7 dog all female team that I ran that day. Zoey & her daughter Serra in lead, Star & Cowgirl in swing, Memphis in team and Fender & Silva in wheel. We had so much fun!

We only have about a week or so worth of snow left, then we will get the ATV out and continue puppy training until it gets too warm. We also had Odessa, one of our main dogs from Doug Swingley's kennel, bred recently to Billy, from the Magnusson's kennel. Billy was on Doug Swingley's 2nd place Iditarod team and their Winning Wyoming team. He has also been on the Magnusson's winning teams the last couple of years. He is a spectacular dog and Odessa is awesome, so we cannot wait for the pups.