Shaw's Training Weekend The yearlings finally resting after their run

The two year olds resting after their run

Boston, one of our most promising 2 year olds. He ran on my Midnight Run team last year as a yearling

Zoey (left) in lead with her son Boston

Liddell (left), one of our yearlings, next to Jackson, one of our other super 2 year olds

Odessa (left) and Star

Georgie (left), another yearling and Duelly

Cowgirl (left) and Zoey, two of my main leaders

Star & Tefa leading the team

Last weekend we went up to Bob & Jan Shaw's for our annual training weekend. We had so much fun!!!! Ana stayed home with Grandpa and Grandma and Larry and I headed up with 22 dogs. It was so nice seeing everyone and having a great doggy weekend. The trails were awesome, the weather crisp and cold. Perfect for running dogs! This weekend is esential for our young dogs. There are tons of teams, so we always get lots of passing practice in. This is very important to train before our upcoming races. We are happy to report that every young dog did super passing!! We even had 3 of our two year olds in lead: Eddie, Boston & Jersey. They did excellent and passed other teams like pros. What a wonderful weekend. Only thing, it is NEVER long enough! It sure was nice getting home and picking Ana up though. We always miss her, so maybe next time she will come with us and camp out. It is nice to get away, but soooo nice to come back home. In other news, training is going well. We are a bit ahead of schedule, so that is always nice. More to come later..........

First Day of School, Training etc......

Ana, her cousin Maddy and their friend Landon on the first day of Preschool.

Ana helping daddy dig the trench for our new wood boiler

digging the trench

The team on Gas Plant Trail on a 7 mile training run last week. Look how beautiful the colors are!!

The team at the bottom of the "big" hill. I know, we are real creative with our names. We have the "big" hill and the "huge" hill. The big hill is a steady incline and is almost a mile long. It is a great workout for the dogs in early fall while we are building muscle.

Memphis (left) and Star in lead

Ana playing with Cigar, one of the Odessa/Mike Lee pups in the background

Well, we are busy as usual at the Fortier house. Ana started school a few weeks ago. She LOVES it. She has to put her back pack on like a big girl when going into the school. She has so much fun there that she wants to go every day. Thankfully for me it is only 2 days per week of getting up super early. We are also getting a wood boiler. For those that don't know, it is a giant woodstove that is outside your house, making it safer. You pipe it into your furnace and burn wood instead of using propane (which is HUGELY expensive in these parts). This will more than cut our heating bill for the winter in half. Needless to say, I've never been so excited to get a wood boiler as I am now. Just turning my thermostat up is going to be exciting!!! We spent one weekend cutting and stacking wood (very hard work) and the rest of our wood is coming from a loggers train we are slitting with our friends. This will be enough wood for over a year!! Our training is going very well. We are ahead of schedule this year, which is a great place to be. We are running 8 miles and ready to move up the distance, but some warm temps later in the week might delay that till next week. Everyone is looking awesome. We have a lot of leaders we are rotating. Star, Odessa, Zoey, Tefa, Cowgirl are our veteran leaders. We also have a lot of the 2 year olds like Eddie, Jersey, Memphis, Fender, Boston, Jackson and a few others. George, Dana and Serra are our best yearling leaders. Windows, our 9 year old super leader, started the season with us to help sharpen the skills of our younger dogs in lead. Sadly she has about reached her limit with our young team at 8 miles and will be dropped from training soon. She has so much drive and has been such an awesome dog for us. It will be hard seeing her sit on the sidelines for the first time in her life. She will resume training when we harness break the Odessa/Mike Lee pups, who are now 5 months old. We will do that in December. Well, that is all for now. Next weekend we go to our super fun training weekend in the U.P. at Bob & Jan Shaw's. I will post more pictures and another entry after we get back.

Lance Mackey Comes to MichiganLarry & I with Lance
Lance & his wife Tonya with the Nowak's

Everyone listening intently

Two weekends ago we went to the Full Moon Fall Fling at Russ & Sherry's Sutherby's kennel. Lance Mackey, who has won the Yukon Quest (1,000 miles) the last 4 years in a row and also the Iditarod (1,150 miles) the last 2 years in a row was the speaker for the weekend. The other incredible thing he did was in 2007 after winning the Quest, he went on to win the Iditarod only 10 days later with 13 of the same dogs! Everyone said it could never be done in the same year and he did it TWICE! So, needless to say, we were very excited to meet Lance. It was a wonderful weekend. On saturday, it was really laid back, with about 25 people. We got to hang with Lance all day and listen to his amazing stories and training/feeding advice. I can't begin to say how awesome it was. On Sunday, there were tons of people and Lance gave an awesome presentation. Tim Riley also gave a presention on the history of the Iditarod and about preparing for his 2009 rookie run with a team from Nature's kennel in the U.P. There were awesome door and raffle prizes as well including a Wiggy's sleeping bag and a beautiful parka. We got to meet mushers that we haven't met before and reconnect with old friends. It was such a fun weekend. It was nice actually getting to relax for once. Thank you Russ & Sherry and everyone else who helped put on a wonderful weekend we won't soon forget!!!!!

Belated Labor Day WeekendBears at Oswald's Bear Ranch in Newberry

You might be a Redneck if.....you go swimming with socks on!!!

My mom & Aunt Sueanne

Larry & Ana

Bridge going across the Tahquamenon River

The Tahquamenon River

Aunt Sueanne, Uncle Lee, Ana & dad

Me, Odessa & Star

Zoey & Star

Ok, this is a little late, but we've been beyond busy lately. Labor Day weekend, me, Larry, Ana, my mom & dad and Aunt & Uncle went up to "bear camp". It is my parent's cabin located North of McMillan on the Tahquamenon River in the U.P. We also took 23 dogs up with us so we could train on the awesome trails up there. It was soooo nice and relaxing. We had a GREAT time up there. Needless to say, we did NOT want to come home!!! We were spoiled every morning after running dogs with a HUGE breakfast of blueberry pancakes (made with blueberries we picked up there) and the BEST dinners. I could get used to that!! We hiked around and looked at all the other neat cabins along the river, went to Oswald's bear ranch, we ate out one night at Timber Charlie's (the BEST restaurant in Newberry) and I got to witness my family swim in the FREEZING river. It was funny and there was no lingering. Everyone was in and out in the blink of an eye. It was way too cold for me, I relied on the solar shower to get clean!! It was a wonderful weekend with my family. I look forward to being able to go up there again sometime before winter. Stay tuned, more to come on our amazing weekend at the Sutherby's Full Moon Fall Fling. We got to meet the Incredible Lance Mackey!!!! He is the 4 time Yukon Quest Champ and won the Iditarod the last two years in a row only 10 days after winning the Quest (1,000 miles), one of the toughest races in the world.

Shelter Dogs, Shady Acres & Training

Meet Willie, our new addition from the local animal shelter

" Shady Acres"

Inside "Shady Acres"

Ana with Star & Tefa (right) after our first training run

George (left) & Gibson

Lilly (left) & Dana

The 2nd team we ran Sunday morning, Eddie (left) and Jersey in swing

Well, summer is almost over and we have been extremely busy, as usual! First of all, we have a new addition to the house/kennel. His name is Willie, he is a Border Collie/Husky. When I went to get my kennel license renewed in the spring, the ladies at animal control showed me this dog that was put in the shelter for killing 30 chickens! Some people found this dog wandering around and for some reason they decided to put him in their chicken coop and then decide what to do with the dog. Well, Willie had a great time in there, killed all the chickens and ended up at animal control. Huskies and Border Collies are very hard to home so they wanted me to take a look. He was very sweet and good with Ana and I said I'd think about it and walked out of animal control not wanting another dog. So, over the summer, my good friend Sherry Sutherby (knowing we love Border Collies/huskies) kept emailing me the picture of this dog I had seen in the spring that was on Pet Finder. Two weeks ago, she emailed me his picture again and I told Larry. I had mentioned this dog earlier in the summer, but we definetly don't need any more dogs, so I said we shouldn't get him. So, I told Larry that that dog was STILL at animal control and was very unhappy and over the past few weeks, seemed very sad. So, Larry decided to go and take a look at him. I told him to call me BEFORE he made any decisions. Well, I called his cell phone and asked him how it went. He said "Good, I'm on my way home". I asked where the dog was, he said "in my truck"!!! So, we decided to try him out for a couple of weeks to see if he'd fit here. We don't have chickens or any small animals, so that is good!! Well, it turns out we are going to adopt him. He is very sweet, a bit shy, but good with kids and our other dogs. He is great in the house and well mannered. We weren't planning on getting another house dog so soon after losing our other Border Collie, "Bailey" last October to Cancer, but he really need a home. Also, he needed a home with people who are framilar with those breeds. They have some quirks and are not for everyone. So, we named him "Willie" and looks like he is here to stay.

I made Larry promise to build my huge pen I've been asking for though, since he got to keep Willie. It took almost 200' of fence, 4 bee stings from yellow jackets, killing bee nests and lots of hard work, but we finally have "Shady Acres". It is a fenced area for our house dogs and retired sled dogs so they can run and play with each other. I hate seeing retired sled dogs without anything to do, they like to be busy, so now they can play with our house dogs in Shady Acres. I do have to say they LOVE it!! So, thanks Larry!!

Our fall training usually starts August 20th, but it was way too warm. Our first training run was early Sunday morning, the 24th. They dogs were CRAZY to go!! It was so much fun and good to be back running dogs. We trained two 12 dog teams and went 3 miles. We had 2 retirees, 16 race age dogs, and 6 yearlings. Our yearlings were super! They are a repeat breeding that we are very excited about. Looks like we will be able to have another training run tonight and might have to wait till the weekend to run again, the temps are on the rise again.

This weekend we are going up to the U.P. near McMillan to my dad's cabin to run dogs for the weekend. He calls it "Bear Camp". It is AWESOME and there are miles of trails. It is right down the road from the Steilstra's kennel. I could live there. It is a great place and so relaxing right on the Tahquamenon River. Ana is very excited and asks me every day if it is Labor Day Weekend yet. We plan to take her to Oswald's Bear Ranch and to visit the Shaw's and the Holmberg's while we are up there. I can't wait to get away for a few days!! Have a great Labor Day Weekend everyone!!

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!!

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.