Ana playing on my new sled. She was saying "C'mon girls, straight ahead, straight ahead!" She had her stuffed dogs infront of the sled.

Larry running the team on a fun 8 miler

Star (black dog) and Cowgirl in lead

Another team out for a run with Larry

Otter & Odessa in lead

Our runs are still going well. We still have a total of 21 dogs in training for our two teams. We'd love to sell a couple of dogs, but it seems that every time we put one on the 4-sale list, they come off a few days later because everyone is STILL hanging in there. Otter and Star are really shining in lead. Otter is SUPER on commands and is only 3 years old, so I will have many more seasons with her leading my team. Larry broke the 8 mile record again last weekend, running it in 32 minutes with the ATV. The dogs were flyin'!! That was the team above with Cowgirl and Star leading. We are still running our 14.5 mile trail and the dogs are finishing strong. We will move them up to the 17.5 mile trail on Friday. I wish we'd get atleast a bit more snow to cushion the dog's feet some. The trails are getting slick and are a bit icy. We had some small cuts on some feet after last night's run. Looks like it is time to bootie some feet, yuck, booties can start getting expensive when we don't get snow soon enough. The trails get rock hard and that is not good on their feet. Hopefully we'll also be on sleds in the next week or so if we get the snow we are supposed to get. I always get worried about the transition to the sled though because our trip out of the driveway and down a plowed road before our 2nd turn can get a bit hairy. I've lost teams on that 2nd turn more times than I want to admit. My dad is usually following me on the snowmachine, thankfully, so we can catch the team as quick as possible. That turn to Larry is nothing. He goes out of the driveway with a 12 dog team like a piece of cake. It is so easy for him.

Deer Camp & Dog Trainin' Ana's 1st deer camp stay

Ana helping with the dogs

Well, we've been busy as usual around here, so I haven't been able to post another blog entry in awhile. We just got back from spending 3 nights out at deer camp for the opening weekend of the gun season. We had so much fun out there and Ana LOVED it and didn't want to leave today. We all saw some deer, but nobody saw anything big enough to take. There were a total of 4 spike horns that were seen, but we don't shoot spikes to let them get bigger. My dad got a big 10 point in Canada the week before that will score in the high 150's on the B&C scale, so he didn't mind not getting anything. We LOVE deer camp. It is so relaxing and the food is awesome!!! I'm so glad Ana liked it out there, which means we will stay more often now that she's a bit older.

I've been super busy training dogs lately with the longer miles. We ran 14.5 last week and followed that up with two fast, fun 8.1 mile runs. We finally broke our ATV record time this year for the 8.1 mile trail. Larry ran a 14 dog team with 8 yearlings in it on Saturday and did the run in 34 minutes, averaging 14.29 mph. I ran it the day before in 35, so of course Larry had to beat that with his team. He even changed leaders once during the run!! The dogs were cookin and came in so happy with tails just a waggin. Before that we broke our 11 mile trail record. Before it was 1:08, which I did about a month ago. Doesn't sound too fast, but last year we ran it in 1:14 and it is an extremely hilly/difficult trail. Well, about a week and a half ago I ran it in 1:03. The dogs came in not even looking like they ran, so we upped their mileage. My team this year is half yearlings, so I am very excited for next season when they will have a racing and training season under their belts. So, we've been pretty pleased with our training so far. We've had a couple flat runs, but most all our runs are going very well this year. Well, I will post more training pics after Turkey Day. So, HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!

Trouble on the TrailFender (grey dog) and her brother Jackson

Well, we have snow!!! It should be exciting, but really it kind of messes up training this time of year. The trails are a sloppy mess so you can't do as much speed stuff because there's not enough snow for sleds, there are trees down in the trail, and it makes kennel chores very annoying. We had a good 11 mile run this week. The dogs are ready to move up mileage, but we will finish out the week with our 8-11 mile runs. Last night I ran 14 dogs on our 8.1 mile trail. This was supposed to be fast and fun and I always try to beat my best time for this particular trail when running it if everything is going well. We have a record ATV time and sled time for this trail. Obviously the ATV time is slower than the sled time because the dogs are pulling me and a 500 lb ATV. Plus, there are TONS of HUGE hills here. For example, in the last 3 miles of this particular trail there is the "Huge" hill and the "Big" hill. I know, we are creative with the names! The "Huge" hill is about a 1/4 mile long, but very steep, like a ski hill. We live near an area that had a ski resort in the 70's. Then, after that we encounter the "Big" hill, which is less steep, but still big, hence the name, and it is .7 miles long. So, this trail isn't flat by any means. So, anyways the run was going awesome. I tried to stop the team a couple of times for a break, but they wanted none of it. They were nuts and wanted to keep going!! We were maintaining 15 mph pretty much the whole run, sometimes up to 16 mph. We made it up the "Huge" hill and at the bottom the team was again cruisin at about 15 mph. By this time we were at 26 minutes total and the record for this run with ATV is 36 min., 13.5 mph average. We only had about 2 miles to go, so we could easily do it! by the time we almost reached the "Big" hill, I saw a HUGE tree laying across the trail. Uh oh, I stopped the team and went up to investigate. It was too big to move, I tried. The trunk was 3/4 of the way across the trail and its branches extended all the way to a steep bank on the left side of the trail. The dogs were foaming at the mouth to go. I pulled Star and Cowgirl ontop of the bank and decided we'd try and go around it. I knew we'd have trouble getting the ATV up it though, but this is all we could do. Star and Cowgirl ran on the bank and went around the tree like good dogs, but when they dropped back onto the trail after the tree, the rest of the team followed and got drug into the tree. The team pulled all the dogs through its big branches, except Cowboy, who was running infont of wheel. His necline broke and he was spun around facing me and tangled in the tree branches. I stopped and went to untangle him, but the team was pulling forward and his tugline was still hooked up, so it was really putting pressure on Cowboy's body. His harness was completely wrapped around some of the branches. I tried to untangle him, as the team was pulling on him harder and harder. THEN the light bulb in my brain went off and I finally remembered why I've been carrying a leatherman all these years in my pocket. I cut his tugline loop and he was free and seemed ok, so I fixed his lines and put him back in the team. We finally made it home, but the record will have to wait till another run. We did do it in 42 minutes though, even after all that chaos. Cowboy was fine, but he had a scratch on his back from the tree. Thank goodness it wasn't anything more serious. Oh, incase you are wondering, our record with the sled is 28 minutes for this trail, averaging 17.35 mph.

November TrainingOtter & Fender (right)

The temps have been great here lately, so we've had some nice training runs. We did our first 11 mile run last night with 8 yearlings and 6 adults in the team. They did super! We ended up doing the run 7 minutes faster than a really good 11 miler that we ran last season. We even had lots of stops for various reasons, one being a tree down in the trail. Thankfully, there was a small opening and I just pulled the team around it and kept going. Last season, me and Jerry Papke ran that same trail and there were two HUGE trees in the trail. Going over the 2nd tree, my ATV tipped over on its side. It was after a really bad storm. That was a scary run there for a bit, but we both finished fine. We will continue to run 8-11 mile runs for the next week, with a fun run or two (shorter run) thrown in there every once in awhile, then we will go up to our 13-15 mile trails for most of November. I like to be up to 20 miles by the first of December for the racing we are doing- shorter mid-distance. Surprisingly, the yearlings are handling everything we are throwing at them speed & mileage wise. They finish every run with wagging tails and ALWAYS want to run. That is what I like about these guys. A number of them are also running a very good lead at this time: Fender (finished in lead last night), Jersey, Boston, Jackson, Gibson & Eddie to name a few. My main veteran leaders are shaping up to be Star & Otter for commands and speed and Zoey as a back up leader. Of course, we rotate different dogs into lead every training run so everyone gets a chance up there. Well, I hope this weather stays nice and cold this month so we have great training and we have snow by December 1st!!!

Our Tribute To Bailey

"Our faithful Buddy"

We got Bailey 11 years ago from the Allegan county "Hilltop Rescue" when we were going to college in Kalamazoo. He was all wet and sitting in the back of a pen filled with other dogs, looking pathetic. He was the one Larry wanted, so we took him home with us. Right from the start, he was a dog that NEVER left our sides for anything. He got into trouble a lot that first year as a pup (he was 4 months old when we got him). One time we came home to our blinds in our apartment ripped down, our Christmas tree knocked over, and Bailey sittin on the couch waiting for us. We thought we had been broken into, but Bailey had broken OUT of his kennel and destroyed our house! I was not very fond of him at first, but we quickly grew attached after he got over his puppy antics and became the BEST dog we had EVER had. He was pretty spoiled, slept on the bed with us and went with us everywhere, especially since we couldn't leave him in a kennel, he was the ultimate escape artist! Even after we got into sled dogs, he was still the only one that got to be in the house. He had kind of a snobby attitude with the sled dogs and would only associate with the females at certain times! He seemed to know he didn't belong outside with "working dogs". He was the king of the kennel and all the other dogs knew it. We never had to tie him up or keep him confined, he always stayed around the house and never caused any problems and lived a carefree, healthy life up until 8 months ago. We found a bump on his front leg and took him to the vet only to find out the worst news. He had Osteocarcoma and would only have a few months to live. We made him as comfortable as possible for the remainder of his life. He was on a pain pill every day and slept on his pillow. The last month he really started to go downhill and his tumor grew to the size of about two softballs. He exceeded his expected lifespan of 4 months and lived 8. On Thursday the 25th, we said our final good byes to him. Larry took him in and Dr. Greve made it very peaceful for Bailey. We are grateful for the 11 years we had the privledge of knowing him. There will never be another dog like Bailey.

Good Bye old friend.

Shaw's Training WeekendThis is our trailer, finally finished. It has 26 individual dog boxes, but we can double box and haul as many as 52 dogs if we had to. Thankfully, we don't have that many!
This is Saturday at Shaw's. We kept the yearlings tied out all day. It was such good training for them just being there around all the other teams. They actually got used to all the comotion pretty quick and even relaxed some.

Memphis (left) and Peavey. Memphis DOES sit still, it is a miracle!

Tefa & Star (black dog) in lead on Sunday morning. Can you tell they were pumped?

Zoey & Windows leading one of our teams on Saturday morning.

Otter (brown dog) and Star leading the 2nd team on Saturday. Look at that doggie smile!

We had a great weekend at Shaw's. 7 of our 11 yearlings have never even been boxed in the dog trailer, so the experience was awesome for them. They got a TON of passing and head on passing all weekend. Saturday on the 8 mile trail, most of the Odessa yearlings were way out in the weeds with every pass. Eddie, Jersey, Memphis and Boston barely batted an eye at the other teams. What a difference a day makes. Sunday all the yearlings passed well, Tak & Fender were still cautious though, but not like the day before. Otter was the only leader that hesitated on some passes. We ran her with Windows on Sunday and Windows showed her the ropes. She will hopefully take after her mom when Windows retires. We had a great time talkin' dogs with all the mushers up there and eatin great food! Thanks to Bob & Jan for your wonderful hospitality as always.

Projects DONE!!! Ana outside helping with the dogs

Windows & Fender(right). Fender is only a yearling and is doing super in lead!

Gibson (left white dog) and his sister Peavey

Cowgirl (left) and Jersey. Jersey works so hard in the team I swear she is gonna keel over, but she never does. She always finishes with her tail waggin.

The team going fast again. They love this change from the slow hard pulling

Takin a break

Well, we are finally DONE with ALL projects, including and most important, the dog trailer!! It looks beautiful! I will post a picture on the next blog entry. Only thing that sucks is it will only stay nice looking until we use it, the dogs jump all over it, then it is covered in mud- oh well! The only thing we are waiting for is our ATV axle to arrive in the mail. Then, we can have our ATV back, I can't wait, I hope it gets here so we can have it fixed before this weekend. We go up to Bob & Jan Shaw's in Newberry this weekend for training and rabies shots for the dogs. I can't wait, it is so much fun up there and there are always TONS of teams, so all our youngsters will get a bunch of passing practice. Have a great week and weekend!!!