Happy 4th of July!!!watching fireworks in Mackinaw City

my mom & dad

Smarty

Larry & Ana on our puppy walk to "soup pond"

the pups checking out "soup pond"

We had a wonderful 4th of July weekend. On Friday we walked around Mackinaw city with my parents. It was a glorious day, not a cloud in the sky! In the evening we all went to the lakefront to watch the fireworks. Ana was so excited, but it was a LONG wait till it got dark. She loved them, then said they were "too loud for kids". She didn't like the ones with the HUGE BOOM. Those are my favorite! When leaving, it took us a half hour just to move about a foot out of our parking spot. There were so many cars all trying to leave at the same time. If we go back next year, we will definetly park in a different place. We didn't end up getting out of town for an hour!! The gas prices didn't seem to affect the turnout either, it was packed up there!!

On Saturday our friends Brandon, Becky, Michelle & Ted came over for a campfire. The conversation and of course, the smores were wonderful!! Sunday, we had a nice relaxing day around the house to ready us for the coming week. It was a beautiful day so we took all the pups for a walk to "soup pond". It is really just a huge mud hole that looks like pea soup. The pups and Ana thought it was great. Ana actually wanted to swim in it- yuck! All in all, it was a great weekend.

Finally!!!! Summer!!!Ana in the new "poop pit" that Larry dug by hand! He was so proud of it, too bad I had to start filling the beautiful hole with, well, you can guess what!

Larry with Man o War (left) and Rags

Me and Smarty. He really fits his name. He is VERY smart! He looks exactly like his dad. I hope he turns out like him.

Ana playing with all the crazy pups

Curlin

Cigar

Man O War ("Manny")

Well, it finally quit raining after almost 2 weeks of rain EVERY day and turned into summer. It has been so nice out. As you can see above the puppies are really growing. Ana has been working hard keeping them socialized. We have been busy with summer projects the last couple of weeks. Larry dug us a new poop pit. We had an excavator dig the last one when we built the house. It lasted 7 years and we needed another. So, to save us the $250 it would cost to dig a new one, Larry dug it by hand. It only took him 6 hours and one chiropractor visit! The summer is already flying by, I can't believe it will be the 4th of July next Friday! We always go up to Mackinaw city for the 4th. We like to shop at all the gift shops, get ice cream and fudge and then go out to dinner. Hopefully, they will also have fireworks while we are there. We can't wait to take Ana to see fireworks this year. She was always too small before, so this will be the big year. Well, Happy 4th of July everyone!!!

Ana & Odessa's pups

Rags

Pile O pups

Odessa hiding from the pups

Cigar

Big Brown sleeping while sitting

The pups are now 5 weeks old and getting friskier by the day. We went with some of our favorite race horses as the theme to this litter.

The boys are: Man O War (one of the greatest race horses of all time 20 wins out of 21 races), Curlin (07 horse of the year), Cigar (one of the winningest horses, tied Citation's record), and Smarty (o4 Derby & Preakness winner).

The girls are: Ruffian (one of the greatest fillies of all time), Rags (first filly to win the Belmont in 102 years, winning in 07) and Big Brown (this year's Derby & Preakness winner). Yeah, she has a boy name, but oh well!!!

Nothing much has been going on here, except I swear it will never stop raining!!! It has poured every day for about a week now. The poor dogs all have HUGE puddles/lakes at their spots. I have to dig little rivers daily to get the water away from them. Poor guys! I am really getting sick of all the rain. When will it end????

Atleast we live on a hill, or we'd probably be underwater.

Martin & BJ went to their new home last week in Quebec. We delivered them across the border last Thursday so their new owner wouldn't have to drive so far. Duelly goes to his new home on the 23rd. He will be living in Ontario.

Oh, it is pouring again!!!! Big surprise!!!! Maybe we should get a boat, I wonder if we'd save on gas???!!! Probably not.......

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.

2008 BreedingOdessa (picture from last summer)

Odessa & Windows (picture from fall training 06)

Mike Lee (father of this year's litter)

Well, spring is FINALLY starting to arrive. It was taking FOREVER!!!! We STILL have snow here, but it is quickly melting with all the warm temps. Usually I don't want spring to come, but this year's winter was a bit long, so I can' t wait till all the snow finally melts.

This year, we bred Odessa to Mike Lee. Odessa is one of our very best females that we bought from Doug Swingley. She always makes my main team, is a super female and all of her last litter turned out to be great sled dogs. We still had four of her yearlings training with our main team the entire season: Jackson, Fender, Tak, and Gibson. Gibson & Fender even ran the Midnight Run this year and did awesome. We chose Mike Lee from Jerry Papke's kennel for the stud. Mike Lee doesn't look like much, but he is a heck of a sled dog. He is also the full brother to our female Zoey that we also bought from the Swingley's. So, esentially we are crossing our most promising Swingley lines together. Mike Lee lead Frank Holmberg & Jerry Papke's teams to two 1st place finishes (Tahquamenon 12 dog & 8 dog Apostle Islands) and two 3rd place finishes (6 dog White Oak & The Midnight Run) this season. We think this cross will be a good one and can't wait till the pups get here. She is due May 8th and is already showing. Ana is super excited for Odessa to have her pups. We will keep you posted!