Spring Training & Family Time

Spring is the time for us to train our young dogs, relax on the weekends and just have fun with our family. Training for races takes A LOT of time and can be pretty stressful, so we are definetly enjoying our down time this season.

We have been taking Ana skating at the Sportplex in town on the weekends. It is so much fun!! She is a natural, skating all over the place with ease. This past weekend Ana's Aunt Suzie (Larry's sister) and cousin Karlie came to stay with us. We went skating again out out to dinner. I forgot my camera, so no pictures!

Ana, laying on the ice, tired, after all the skating

Two weekends ago, we gave Jason & Laura Cherry's family sled dog rides as part of a fund raiser for Ana's school. It was so much fun teaching new people about the sport and letting them enjoy our dogs. The weather was warm and beautiful and the trails were awesome. After a long day of running dogs, we hooked Ana's sled to the snowmachine and towed her behind. You can see by her face that she LOVED it!!

Ana took this picture of us after we ran all the dogs that day. It was a great weekend!

Larry & Ana after we had our snack

Ana & I

After the Cherry family headed home, we ran our own teams. I ran a team of 7 females with Zoey (left, my main leader and one of our main breeding females) in lead with her yearling daughter Serra. Serra did awesome! She is a natural in lead like her mom.

Smarty, one of our 11 month old pups out of Odessa & Mike Lee

Rags, another one of our pups. We have 6 left out of that breeding from last year. (One of the pups, Ruffian, lives with Shannon Miller and her sled dogs in Ohio). They have 4 hookups on them and all are doing awesome! Rags looks exactly like her mom, Odessa.

Man O War, or "Manny". If you didn't know yet, we named them after our favorite race horses.

Cigar (left) ran lead on his 3rd training run and did super!

Curlin, the little lover of the litter

Another picture of Cigar

Big Brown, the other female in the litter

Star (right) and our super leader Zoey jumping with joy after the run

Boston & Georgie (our super yearling), both out of Zoey & Strider, running lead together this spring. They are both very promising dogs in our kennel.

Larry ran a team of 7 males and one female. They are Boston & George in lead, Eddie and Prophet in swing, Gibson & Dana in team and Franklin & Liddell in wheel. When hooking up, they broke our huge, very strong snubline! Good thing we had the snowmachine out there so we could catch them!

This is the 7 dog all female team that I ran that day. Zoey & her daughter Serra in lead, Star & Cowgirl in swing, Memphis in team and Fender & Silva in wheel. We had so much fun!

We only have about a week or so worth of snow left, then we will get the ATV out and continue puppy training until it gets too warm. We also had Odessa, one of our main dogs from Doug Swingley's kennel, bred recently to Billy, from the Magnusson's kennel. Billy was on Doug Swingley's 2nd place Iditarod team and their Winning Wyoming team. He has also been on the Magnusson's winning teams the last couple of years. He is a spectacular dog and Odessa is awesome, so we cannot wait for the pups.

Midnight Run 2009 6th place!!!!!!!my team loping into the finish

Shannon Miller ran 6 of our dogs in the Jackpine 30 and also finished 6th! Thank you Shannon for taking such great care of our dogs and helping us before the race!! Gibson before the race start

Prophet before the race start

Me and Georgie, our awesome yearling, before the race

Jackson, relaxing before the race

Me and Odessa

Cowgirl, one of my main leaders

Just before the race start

Odessa (white dog), Zoey (my main leader) and Fender before the race

We had our last race of the season last weekend, The Midnight Run, a 94 mile race. The first leg of 47 miles, went ok. We had a couple of problems out there. My team tried to pull me onto the highway (we were on a trail right next to it) 3 times! I would plead for Zoey to drag us back to the trail and she always listened like a good girl. Cowgirl was bound and determined to have us running down the highway. Thankfully, Zoey is strong enough to pull her and the team the correct way. The trail was very punchy for almost 30 miles. They got almost 2 feet of snow 2 days before the race. This made it very tough for me and the dogs. We got held up at a couple of road crossings waiting for huge lines of cars. We got done with the hills and Marquette Mountain and were headed toward the overpass. We run under it, there is a highway ontop. Well, Cowgirl heard the cars overhead and would not go under. Instead, she turned the whole team around and came back to me and the sled. There were no volunteers and nothing to hook down to. Two ladies came running and held my sled while I turned them around and untangled a huge knot of dogs. Then, they lead me under the overpass, where we then ran over some hay bales and a huge barrel. Finally, the last 19 miles into the checkpoint is on a nice, flat, well groomed snowmobile trail. The team was really cruisin for this section. We were the 2nd team into the checkpoint since we had started 4th and passed 2 teams. The team looked super! We took booties off, rubbed them down, put their coats on them, fed them, then bedded them on straw for the 6 hour layover at Deerton. All the dogs rested very well. About an hour before our departure, we walked the dogs around to see if anyone was sore. Everyone was fine except, Gibson had a slightly sore wrist and George had a ripped pad from taking his frozen bootie off when we got there. We bootied George and ran Gibson around to warm him up. Larry told me to start the 2nd leg slow to warm them up. Well, I tried, but we took off like a stinkin rocket! I was standing on the brake with everything I had. Gibson & George showed no signs of injury the entire 2nd leg. We were screaming down the trail. The first 20 miles was a nice, hard packed fast trail. We started the 2nd leg in 10th place and quickly caught 2 teams. I was hoping I wasn't going to fast, but the team was moving effortlessly. About 20 miles in I caught the fast teams of John Hull & JR Anderson. I passed both of them, then JR caught up and we ran together for quite awhile. He repassed me at one point. The last 25 miles was more soft, punchy trail. There were a lot of hills and tight, twisty trails. In the hills, Cowgirl wasn't driving anymore in lead next to Zoey. Her line was quite loose, so when JR stopped for a tangle, I put Odessa in lead and Cowgirl behind her. We caught back up to JR and the next time he stopped, we repassed him. John Hull was still close behind and would catch up everytime we stopped. Finally, we got onto a nicely groomed snowmobile trail for about a mile, but the swing dogs were over-running Odessa. So, I had to stop again and put Cowgirl back up in lead. In the meantime, JR passed us again. Not wanting him to get away, I called up the dogs with more than 10 miles to go. We went passed JR again. Then, we turned onto more tight, hilly, twisty trail. At this point, I was not going to give up 6th place without a fight. I kicked and ran with everything I had and gave the dogs their commands to pick the pace up. Slowly, we started to put some distance between JR & I's teams. Finally, I looked back and couldn't see him anymore. I knew he wasn't far behind, so we had to work as hard as we could to keep our spot. My legs were so sore and cramped already from all the running and kicking! Finally, We came out of the woods and the finish was in sight. I called up the dogs again and they came loping into the finish! All I could see was Larry's face as he stepped out of the crowd. He had a huge smile on his face and was shocked to see I had passed 4 teams for 6th place! He was so proud of us!! We had increased our lead on JR to 9 minutes on that last section and beat John's team by 4 minutes!! The dogs gave me everything they had and left it all on the trail. It was a perfect end to an awesome season!!

WE WANT TO THANK OUR SPONSORS: NORTHWOOD LAND COMPANY AND POWERHOUSE GYM!!!!!!!!!!!!

Beargrease 150 4th Place, Rookie of the Year!

Larry right before the start of the biggest race of his life

Our good friends Jerry Papke and Ali Dodge

Zoey (left) and Cowgirl, ran lead the entire race


Well, our kennel has a lot to be proud of this season. Last week, we were getting ready to head to the Beargrease 150, the biggest race we have ever done. I got the flu last Tuesday and thought for sure I'd better by the time we got out to Duluth. A stomach flu turned into a hacking head cold. Saturday night at the bib draw, reality struck and I realized I may not be up to running a 130 mile race. We talked with the race marshall and he gave us until an hour before the race start on Sunday to switch drivers if needed. Sunday morning came and I still felt terrible, so Larry stepped up to drive my team. I've never seen him nervous before a race, but he was definetly nervous for this one. We hooked up our main leaders Zoey & cowgirl, Odessa, Prophet, Fender, a yearling Georgie, Jackson & Gibson and then they were off, rocketing out of the starting chute onto the fast trail of the Beargrease 150. I quickly drove to the next checkpoint, following Ali, who is Jerry Papke's girlfriend and dog handler. We arrived at 2 Harbors and parked our trucks. We cannot have the dogs staked out around the trailer at this first checkpoint, so the work had begun for us. I bungeed as much stuff as I could fit on my little plastic sled and walked the 1/4 mile to the checkpoint. The checkpoint is basically a big field with DEEP snow. The teams arrive and have to do a layover here. You have 8 hours plus your time differential to use at this checkpoint and the Finland checkpoint. Our rest was to be a total of 8:58. It took me 3 trips to get all our supplies to the field. Then, I had to dig a huge snow trench for Larry's team when they arrived to protect them from the wind and just to make it easier to take care of the team. I was disapointed about not being able to race until I started digging. I thought I was going to throw up at one point. I met Joanna Oberg's mom and one of their handlers and they came to the rescue and helped me dig the rest of my trench. I was very grateful! I was also glad I did NOT run the race. This is a very hilly course, and I would not have been able to help the dogs by running up the hills. Larry's team arrived before I was expecting them to. Luckily, I was ready for them. They looked awesome! We pulled the team into the trench and hooked the snowhook into a tree. Snacked the dogs, took off booties, rubbed them down with Accede, put their dog coats on to keep them warm, fed them a light meal and spread out straw so they could rest. Larry then walked to the truck to warm up and get something to eat. I stayed and watched over the team in the bitter cold. It was about -8 at this time in the early evening on Sunday. Only a couple of our dogs layed down at this checkpoint. They were frisky and pretty wound up. I was about freezing to death and wanted to get them back on the trail so we could take our extended rest at Finland where the dogs can rest at the trailer. That meant I could also stay in the truck and keep warm!! So, after 3:10 worth of rest, we rebootied the dogs and Larry got back on the trail for the 2nd leg of the race. I then packed up our stuff and Ali and I drove to the Finland checkpoint, the last checkpoint of the race, to wait for Larry & Jerry's teams to arrive. This checkpoint was way better, but it was very cold and windy. It was well below zero. Luckily, we didn't have to haul anything anywhere. We just got everything ready for our teams to arrive. Larry's team came charging into the checkpoint, looking spectacular. I was shocked they looked that good. This is a long race! They were jumping and barking to go, but we pulled them over to the trailer. Snacked again, took off booties, rubbed them down with Accede (a liniment to keep muscles warm), put dog coats on them, fed them, then bedded them around the trailer on thick beds of straw. THIS time, everyone konked out and fell fast asleep like good doggies. We had over 5.5 hours of rest at this checkpoint. The final leg, Larry was to leave in 6th position, only 2 minutes out of 4th place. I was just hoping he'd hang onto 6th place. Two very good teams were right infront of him, Tom Benson & JR Anderson. I didn't think we could catch them. When Larry started the 3rd leg, he said the team was fresh and he finally took his foot of the drag mat and let them cruise. And cruise they did!! He caught Tom's team pretty early on that run and a few miles later caught JR's team. The team was flyin! Meanwhile at the finish, I watched Dave Turner win the race, Don Galloway take 2nd (he won last year) and Dawn Breedlove was 3rd. I was not expecting Larry's team yet. I saw another team coming and Ali and I said at the same time "wholy crap, that's Larry!!!". Our dogs came loping across the finish line, jumping and barking to go. I could not believe it! This was our very first Beargrease, so not only did Larry finish 4th, but he got "Rookie of the Year" honors. They had the 2nd fastest 3rd leg time also, less than a minute slower than Dave Turner's team. We really made up some ground on this leg. I am so proud of Larry and the dogs. They were awesome! We finished the race with all 8 dogs and Zoey and Cowgirl led every step of the race. The team was flawless! Jerry Papke's team also did awesome. He started the last leg in 8th place and rocketed his team to a 6th place finish!! He is also a rookie and had an awesome team. Now, onto the next race, the 91 mile Midnight Run, the 3rd weekend in February. This time, it is MY turn!!

Tahquamenon 2009 Ana and my niece Maddie after the race with Larry's team. We both ran the 8 dog Pro 43 mile race

My team finishing a very strong 3rd place out of 19 teams!!!!!!

Larry's team also finishing a very strong 7th place out of 19 teams!!!

Getting ready for the race

More getting ready, lots of preparation before the race starts

My team 5 miles out at the first road crossing.

My team on the way back, the last 5 miles. They really picked up the pace after the road crossing and finished strong! I was so proud of them!

Larry's team the last 5 miles. Notice Larry isn't wearing his hat. This part was just after a TON of hills and soft trail. His team did super and finished strong also.

Me with my main leader "Zoey" and my 3rd place trophy. Zoey was spectacular!

Me accepting my trophy at the awards banquet and getting my check for $500!! That is the most I've ever won and the best I've ever placed in a pro class race.

Larry accepting his check for $225 at the awards banquet! We paid for our trip and a month's worth of Redpaw dog food with our winnings.

We just had a super time this weekend. The weather was perfect, we saw so many of our friends and the dogs were fantastic. We both had great races. Larry started the race 7 minutes before me. It took me 25 miles to catch Larry's team. They were really cooking along and doing very well when I caught them. He had Tefa & Odessa in lead, Jersey and Lilly ran in swing, Eddie & Dana (a yearling) in team, and Liddell and Franklin (yearlings) in wheel. Jersey ran lead the last 5 miles afer Tefa wanted to go slower up there. She really did great and picked up his pace. His team finished very strong! My team was Zoey & Cowgirl in lead, Prophet & Fender in swing, Boston & George (a yearling) in team, and Gibson & Jackson in wheel. I was so proud of my team. The last 5 miles I gave them the going home command and they dug in and gave me everything they had. They looked great and loped across the finish line. So, looks like all that hard work paid off. December was a tough month of training, but it was worth it. Next on the racing calendar is the Beargrease 150 in 2 weeks in Duluth, Minnesota. This is three 40+ mile legs with 2 checkpoints. I still have to decide for sure the 8 dogs that I will be taking with me. There is a ton of very big hills there, so I will be taking my hardest working dogs with the best endurance.

In The HomestretchChristmas Day, at 2:00 am, after we got done wrapping all Ana's presents

It didn't take Ana long to open everything

Larry showing Ana how to play her first guitar

Christmas Day at my family's house. Ana dressed in Maddie's fairy princess outfit

Maddie got a bunch of dress up clothes for Christmas. The girls had a blast running around in all the fancy clothes.

Makenzie, my 10 year old neice, who is the other dog lover of the family. She will definetly do something dog related when she grows up!

Well, the Christmas's are OVER! It has been a very busy month. We enjoyed seeing our families and spending time with everyone. I forgot to bring my camera to the Fortier family christmas. Or as Shane put it, Fortier Family Fun Day. It was a blast! We had an excellent time, especially since Shane brought his "yellow bird" to the gathering. As fun as it all was, it is nice that it is over and we can now take a breath and relax a bit.

We are also in the homestretch of our tough month of training the dogs for our first race, Tahquamenon, on January 10th. Last Friday, before the warm up and rain, I took out our best 12 dogs: Zoey, Cowgirl, Odessa, Lilly, Fender, Star, Prophet, Jackson, Gibson, Boston, and two yearlings, Franklin & George on a 42 mile training run. It was a tough run, lots of trail breaking, but the dogs were awesome! The last 14 miles the team really finished strong, they were like a freight train coming home. All 12 finished very strong and happy. I was so proud! With over 700 miles on both teams, we are more than ready for the 43 miles at Tahquamenon. Larry and I will both run 8 dogs. I will have the main team and Larry will have some nice veterans mixed with a few yearlings to give them experience. I am already getting nervous! I always get a queezy stomach and cannot eat a thing before a race. I do not start to feel better till we leave the starting chute. Then, it feels just like a training run and I start to relax. Larry on the other hand, never gets nervous. I wish I was like that! Well, tonight is New Year's Eve. Happy New Year everyone! Have a fun, safe night tonight! Until next time.......

Birthdays, Holidays and of course, more dog training!Ana turned 4 years old on December 10th. We had a sledding birthday party for her with my family and our great friend Hatch on the Twin Peak hills down the road from us. We used to go sledding on these hills in high school with all of our friends quite often. Billie, my other best friend from high school, always had her birthday parties at these same sledding hills. Ahh, the memories....
This is Hatch, one of Larry and I's best friends and the person who helped get us together. He is up for the month before he moves to Dallas, Texas. Hatch and I became friends in 8th grade when we used to walk to the Community Center every day after school to play basket ball. I really suck at that sport, but we still had fun. We have been friends ever since. Hatch is a city boy, originally from Mustang, Oklahoma, so we had to lend him the above get-up to go sledding. He was surprised he was actually warm all day!

Training is as intense as ever right now. It seems we haven't had one moment to relax between my birthday and Ana's, the holidays and getting 2 teams ready for the Tahquamenon race January 10th. I will be glad when this month is OVER! Above is Star (black dog) and Jersey, a promising 2 year old (Zoey/Strider), leading Larry's team. The yearlings and young dogs are looking spectacular. I even stole Georgie, a big male yearling out of Zoey/Strider from Larry's team and have been running him in mine. He runs like a veteran and was one of my strongest on our last long run of 31 miles last weekend.

Pictured above is Franklin, an awesome yearling male, also out of Zoey/Strider (spotted dog) and Duelly. Franklin is next on the list of dogs for me to steal from Larry's team. He is an animal in harness and also did super on our 31 mile run last weekend. Duelly is the big black male. He has the funniest personality, but is all business in line. He keeps a nice steady lope the entire run, no matter what distance we run.

Well, on Monday I was in a very bad mood. We had a SUPER 31 mile training run on Sunday with both teams, but it was warm out, 36 degrees. Then, it drizzled, then rained and on Monday, it was 7 degrees and everything froze up. I always get a bit cranky when our spectacular training trails get ruined. We took 2 days off and got a bit of snow and were able to go and run again this week. Last night we got hit again and now there is a bunch of new snow for our 20 mile run tonight. It should make for a nice cushion for the dogs. The trails were a bit too speedy the last 2 days, making it hard to slow the teams down. Larry had the ride of his life last night that included being drug down a plowed road. Tonight's run should go well with all the new snow.

Tomarrow, we head downstate for the day for 2 family Christmas's. Yes, 2 in one day! Then, we head back home and Sunday we are scheduled to go 35 miles. We are not done with Christmas though. We still have my family's on Christmas day and Larry's family on the Saturday after. Still training dogs in between those days. Then, on that next Sunday we are supposed to have a very long run and do another checkpoint. Did I mention we are busy??!! I am hoping January and the races come SOON!!!!!!!!!!!

Let it Snow!!!!!!Ana with Koyuk (left) and Windows after her first sled run with her team

Ana ready to go! We hooked her sled to the snowmachine and she mushed her team down the road. She loved it! It was so fun seeing her give the dog's their commands just like we do. Koyuk & Windows had fun too, of course!

George & Tefa, 2 of Larry's dogs. Tefa is one of his main leaders and George is on of our promising yearlings out of Zoey/Strider

Me and my 10 dog team last Friday on a 15 mile run. We have so much snow, our training is awesome!!

Dana & Liddell, another 2 of Larry's yearlings on his team, also out of Zoey/Strider

Larry's 10 dog yearling team, Jersey (2 year old on left) and Star in lead. Jersey is out of the first litter we had with Zoey/Strider. It was so good, we repeated it the very next year. For those interested Strider is one of Pete & Sharon Curtice's main dogs.

Eddie (brown male 2 year old) and Cowgirl leading my team the other day. Eddie is a very promising young leader from the Curtice's. Cowgirl is one of my main leaders from Andrew Cesario

Yesterday we did a checkpoint run with Jerry Papke's team. Larry and I both ran 10 dog teams, Jerry ran his main 12. We went 22 miles to deer camp, layed over for 4 hours and ran 9 miles home. The 2nd leg was supposed to be 13 miles, but the dogs missed the turn. Earlier in the day, Jerry lost his team going out of our driveway. I was first out, Larry was 2nd, and Jerry left third, then my dad followed with the snowmachine. Thank goodness because he scooped up Jerry, sped up to his team that was trying to pass Larry, got right up beside his sled, then Jerry jumped over to his team Roy Roger's style. The rest of the run was smooth. We had so much fun on our trails. Our teams looked very good.

Here is what we feed the dogs. We get asked this all the time. Well, in this bucket is what we feed at night: Redpaw kibble, Eureka meat mix, psyllium (helps prevent diarrhea), fish oil, wheat germ oil (for the Omegas) and we also give each dog 1 vitamin E pill daily as an antioxidant. Looks yummy, doesn't it??

Ali, Jerry's girlfriend tending to his team at our checkpoint

My team, somewhat resting. Eddie is being a good boy nestled in the straw. It took a long time for the dogs to finally lay down, about 2 hours.

Larry's team at the beginning of the layover. Tefa & Star were the only ones to lay down for about the first 2 hours. Then, the young dogs finally got the hint to rest

Prophet (a super 3 year old from Frank Holmberg) and Jackson were the only ones out of our 20 that did not rest well. They were sleeping standing up for 4 hours. Didn't seem to matter though, both did great on the 2nd leg

Zoey (left) and Cowgirl, my main leaders this season

Star & Tefa, Larry's main leaders this season.

Since this snow came, we have been super busy running dogs. It is almost too good to be true to get this snow so early. We have been getting storm after storm. Thanksgiving was great also. We spent Thursday with my family and Saturday with Larry's family. It was very nice to see everyone and the food was GREAT, of course! Today is a day off for training and tomarrow is my 32nd B-day. I can't believe I am that old!! Well, until next time..........