DEER CAMP, and you guessed it, MORE TRAINING!!!!!!Larry teaching Ana to play chess at Deer Camp

This is "Deer Camp". If that carpet looks familiar, it was Holiday Inn's carpet in the 80's.

Larry with Eddie (left) and Manny, one of our yearlings that just ran lead for the first time. He did surprisingly well!

Larry's team coming into the driveway

Ana playing with her doll house with "Jake"

Ana showing off her new headlamp! She was so excited to go outside after dark to test it out.

Larry coming home with another team. Zoey (left lead), our super spectacular leader from Doug Swingley and Jackson (right lead). Jackson is a 3 year old main team dog out of Odessa (Swingley) and Elrond (Curtice). Jackson started leading like a super star this year, which we are very excited about!

Well, time continues to fly by. Life and training 2 teams keeps us more than busy. We took 2 whole days off from training to go deer hunting. We stayed the weekend at Deer Camp and had a wonderful, relaxing time. Nobody shot any deer, but it sure was nice getting away for a couple of days. Ana would like to move to Deer Camp permanently. There is no electricity and the wood heat keeps us toasty warm. I could stay out there forever!

Training is going very well. We are still way ahead of last year's mileage. The teams are both looking very strong. We are getting a little sick of the long runs with the four wheeler though. I am looking forward to a HUGE dumping of snow so we can get on sleds. Last year, we were on sleds by Nov. 21st. Not this year. We are supposed to get some snow on Friday. Unfortunatley, it won't be enough for sleds yet. So, we will be doing our 30 miler on the four wheeler. NOT really looking forward to that!

Happy Thanksgiving to all from the Fortier's!!!!

Shaws Etc......Larry and I giving our presentation on our training program.

(photo courtesy of Shannon Miller)

Our crazy team during hookup time at Shaw's training weekend a couple of weeks ago (photo courtesy of Shannon Miller)

Sharon, Lyle and I doing what we like to do best...."talkin dogs!"
(photo courtesy of Shannon Miller)

Dr. Tim checking out Liddell during the rabies clinic
(photo courtesy of Shannon Miller)

This year's litter, now 3.5 months old. They are Billy/Fender. Pictured is Susie (left), Roxy, and Libby.

Dee Dee, another pup from this year's litter

Ana & our Border Collie, Jake E Jake, playing soccer

Me & Jake

Larry & Roxy

Ana and the puppies on our "puppy walk" today

Things are busy as usual here. Notice my last entry was a month ago!! Partly because my camera has been in the shop for that long. I FINALLY have it back and am so excited to take pictures again!! We went to Shaw's annual training session a couple of weekends ago and had a blast, as usual! It is so nice seeing old friends and actually getting to relax and hang out in between training runs. We never get a chance to do that during the races. It is never long enough though, next year we will try and come a day earlier. Our young dogs got a TON of passing practice both days, which is awesome training for our upcoming races. Larry and I also talked about our training program for us as well as the dogs. I was a little nervous, but after I was up there talking about something I LOVE, it wasn't bad at all. Other than dog training, we are just staying busy with Ana, her school, work and getting ready for winter. I can't believe it is already November! We are a bit ahead of our usual training, so that is always a plus. We are hoping that our little "tweaks" will help further our kennel this season. Well, that is all for now. Time to get a team ready to run.

BEAR CAMP 2009Tahquamenon River

Star (left) and Boston in lead

All our young dogs staked out at camp

Our team on one of the many beautiful trails

Ana, Me and Jake, our Border Collie pup. For the record, he is the ONLY dog my mom EVER let inside the cabin! He was sooo good all weekend!

The boys ready for a run!

A green bug on a leaf

Odessa & Cowgirl sprawled out in the afternoon

Larry evaluating the team after the run

me watering Jackson (left) and Liddell on the run

Larry & Ana fishin'

Fender (grey dog) and Serra, 2 of our most promising young females

Eddie (left) and Prophet leading the team

The team after a run. Jersey (left) and her mom, Zoey in lead

Cigar, our pick of our current yearlings out of Mike Lee & Odessa

Larry and dad building a roof over the front porch

This is a little late. Over Labor Day Weekend, for the 2nd year in a row, we went up to "Bear Camp". It is my dad's cabin in Mcmillan in the U.P. Larry, Ana, me, my mom & Dad and Aunt Sueanne and Uncle Lee all drove up for a spectacular weekend! It is out in the middle of nowhere (really!) on the Taquamenon River, the perfect place for us to be! We took our entire kennel of dogs up also and trained every day. It was so much fun! We also got lots of relaxing time in, which is always a plus! The only thing that sucks, is leaving after a fun filled weekend. We hope to go up again, one more time, before the snow gets here.

Let The Madness Begin!!!!!Larry's team on their 2nd training run. Dana and Star in lead.

My team going up the "big hill". It is almost a mile long and very good training for the dogs.

Dana, one of our most promising leaders and she is only 2!

Ana and Rags, one of our yearlings.

Ana with Fender's pups. They are now 7 weeks old.

Our Border Collie pup (left) getting checked out by Libby and Roxy. Jake's favorite activity is herding the pups.

Ana and Roxy

Ana and I taking a break from stacking wood

Larry and I after we ran our teams. Ana took this picture.

Fall training started for us on Aug. 21st. The temps finally cooled off and we were more than ready to start hooking up dogs! The dogs have been a little nuts the past couple of weeks, so we couldn't wait to run some of that energy out of them. They were amped, but our runs went smoothly, with no equipment malfunctions. Thank goodness!!!

Our basement project has been put on hold for now. We won't have time to get much done until spring. We still hope to get the ceiling and the floor done before we stop working on it for the year.

The pups are now 7 weeks old and growing fast. Ana has made sure they get tons of attention. If we are outside (which is all the time), she is with those pups.

This weekend we are packing up the kennel and going to the U.P. to my dad's cabin for a little R & R and of course, some dog training. We can't wait to get away!! Plus, it is nice that we can take our dogs on vacation with us. We hope everyone has a wonderful Labor Day Weekend!!!!

Puppy & Kennel UpdateOur Border Collie puppy, Jake

Jake sleeping, living a tough life!

Jake sleeping again, one of his favorite activities

Ana with all of Fender's 3 week old pups, Libby, Dee Dee, Susie, and Roxy

Roxy (top) and Susie

left to right: Libby, Dee Dee, Susie and Roxy

me with Roxy and Libby

Larry after our final sanding of the drywall in the basement

The starting line up, all ready, for the start of fall training August 20th

The summer has gone by so fast!! I can't believe it is already August and fall training is only 13 days away! It has been a cool summer, but I have LOVED the weather! The drywall in the basement is finally done, it took us a month. Just Larry and I did all the work. I will NEVER do it again! Now I know why people hire this terrible job out to a professional. It turned out awesome though and was well worth the work. Plus, we saved $$ doing it ourselves. This weekend, we will be cleaning up and painting the walls. There is still a lot of work to be done before training gets too far underway.

We have a new addition to our kennel, a Border Collie pup that Ana named "Jake". We have been looking for the right one for a few months now. We finally found a breeder from River Run Border Collies, 30 miles North of Grand Rapids. Jake, being a medium energy BC, fit us perfectly. He is sooo smart! He learned his name on the first night we had him. He comes when called, sits, lays down, fetches his toys, shakes, and a few other tricks and he is less than 10 weeks old. He is also doing very well with potty training. Ever since our 12 year old, beloved Border Collie, Bailey, passed away from Cancer 2 years ago, we knew we had to have another one. We waited until Ana was a little older first. With Fender having a small litter this summer, it was the perfect time for us.

Fender's pups are now 3 weeks old and getting around very well. Dee Dee is the most adventurous and eager to explore, with Roxy right on her heels. Libby has just started to explore more and Susie is the most shy. We will have to work on that!

As you can see from the last photo above, I am more than excited to start training again. After all of last year's hard work, we REALLY needed a break. Now, I am ready and I have had their line up ready for about 2 weeks. We have a magnetic board with all the sled dog's names on it. We stick it to the pole barn so Larry and I both know who is in which team. It makes it much easier and faster to hook up 2 teams of crazy dogs!

This weekend is also the "Meet The Mushers" event at Russ and Sherry Sutherby's. I cannot wait to attend! We will get to meet Iditarod Mushers: Dee Dee Jonrowe, Ryan Redington and Jason Barron. It will also be nice to take a break from all the work we've been doing, relax for a bit, and of course, talk dogs!