Perfect Summer Ana getting a kiss from Windows, my retired SUPER leader

Koyuk giving Ana some love (another retired leader)

Larry & pups on our puppy run

Larry's new invention, introducing the "Musher Tote"

Pumkins are blooming!!!

Clouds after a storm

This has been a perfect summer and I can't believe we are already at the tail end of it. The temps have been awesome!! No 90's here, at all for an entire summer. That has to be some kind of record. While some people have been complaining about a lack of summer, we are LOVING it!! It has been consistantly in the upper 70's with lots of sun.

Now we are hoping for it to quickly become cooler, because in 2 short weeks, we beging fall training with the dogs. I cannot wait to see what my team will do this season!! Our summer projects are pretty much done and now we are concentrating on getting the dog equipment ready. We will be training two 12 dog teams, then when Windows & koyuk cannot keep up with the younger, faster dogs, they will be dropped from training and live our their retirement in the house. Koyuk will love it, but it will probably take some adjustment from Windows. She is the queen of the kennel and still has the drive to train and she still thinks she is young enough to race. She goes crazy when she is left behind.

I recently signed up for my two biggest races of the 2009 season. Our races for next season will be: Tahquamenon, two 8 dog teams 43 miles, the Beargrease 150 (this will be my rookie year) one 8 dog team, the Midnight Run one 8 dog team 91 miles and then we will close the season with a close, fun shorter race so Larry can run the main team. It should be a great year. We have a lot of young talented dogs coming up that we are looking forward to running. I am hoping to place in the top 10 in every race this year.

Larry has been quite busy this summer. He and Ana planted some pumpkins and they are now starting to bloom. We've never grown anything before, so it is fun to see how these plants keep changing. They check them every day. Larry also built us his new "musher tote" so all 3 of us can comfortably run dogs together. I drive, Ana sits behind me and has a saftey bar to hold her in, plus we are putting a seat belt around her so she can't fly off. Then, larry gets pulled behind on his "musher tote". It is like riding a sled. I am still a bit skeptical and think on the first big turn with a huge string of dogs, he'll go flyin in the woods, but we haven't lost him yet on any of the puppy runs. So, we will see. It must be quite funny for our neibors to see us cruisin down the road on this contraption. We look more like Redneck Racing, than Coyote Run Kennel. Oh well, it sure is fun!!