Sum, Sum, Summertime!!!Ana canoeing on Father's Day

Going under a bridge

Going under a tree

Larry working on the basement

Ana helping

me, reading in the dog yard, one of my favorite things to do when it's nice out

Tefa, enjoying her summer relaxation time

Fender and Odessa (in her house) relaxin'

Georgie, actually being still, for once

Boston

Jackson

We are busy as usual here at Coyote Run Sled Dog Kennel. It seems like the summer is already flying by, even though it is really just beginning. The dogs are enjoying their summer relaxation time. Only 2 months till fall training starts up again. Fender is getting fatter by the day. She is due to have her pups on the 18th. I can hardly wait!!

Larry has been very busy finishing our basement. The walls are up, electrical almost done. Almost time for drywall. It will be so nice having extra living space when he is finished.

For Father's Day, Larry, Ana, and I and my parents, neice Makenzie, Aunt Sherry, Uncle Fred, Uncle Lee, Aunt Sueanne and cousin Logan all went to Borcher's in Grayling for a canoe ride. It was awesome! The weather was absolutely perfect! We ended up going for 13 miles this time. I can't wait to go again.

We are thoroughly enjoying summer this year. Fall training and all the hard work that comes with it will come all too soon. Even though I am not fond of the hot temps, I am not complaining! It is nice to have this much needed break!

This weekend is the 4th of July already! We are planning on watching fireworks in Mackinaw City with family and friends. Hope you all have a great holiday weekend!!

Summer and more Waiting!!"Silly Lilly" says "yeah, it's summer!!

Prophet (left) and Zoey in lead after one of our final spring training runs

Jersey (left) and her mom, Zoey, in lead after one of our spring training runs. Jersey is very promising and will most likely be running main lead with her mom on our main team next winter. She is GOOD!

One of our spring puppy runs this year. We have 5 pups out of Mike Lee/Odessa from last year that we harness broke this spring. They are naturals! We got a total of 8 hookups on them. They are ready for fall now.

Larry and Ana during spring kennel clean up. All winter we put tons of straw in the dog's houses to keep them warm. Well, then we spend all spring raking and cleaning it up! It took us 2 weekends in early May to get it done. It is a BIG job!

Ana on her new swing set that Larry built. She loves it! We are trying to teach her to pump her legs so she can do it on her own. She is very stubborn though! Must take after Larry:)

Ana in her seat on the back of the four wheeler. This is where she rides during training runs. She holds the bar to stay on safely. Plus, she is higher up than me, so she can see the team.

Our super 2.5 year old female, Fender . Her mom, Odessa was bred to the Magnusson's super dog Billy this spring. Billy has incredible race credentials like being in Doug Swingley's 2nd place Iditarod team, Melanie Shirilla's 1st place Wyoming Stage Stop team, and many great race finishes for the Magnusson's. So, we were very excited for pups out of these two. Well, May 5th came and went and no pups. Odessa didn't look pregnant, so I took her into the vet for an Xray. NO PUPPIES!!! We were extremely disapointed. Not for long though. We discovered that one of the best dogs in our kennel, Fender was in heat. Fender has been on my main team for every race since she was a yearling. She is a machine. So, we called up the Magnusson's and they dropped Billy off out our place on their way back home. Now hopefully, we will be expecting some super pups July 18th. All that waiting AGAIN really sucks though! The days will probably go by extremely slow!

We have been busy as usual here. Spring brings us many outdoor projects. We are almost finished with everything outside. We will then move to working on the basement. We hope to have it finished by the end of summer, before fall training starts. Once training starts, there is no time for anything else.

Ana is done with preschool until fall, so it is so nice not getting up at the crack of dawn anymore. I love my sleep!

We have had only had a handful of warm days here. It has been a really cold spring. I'm like the only one not complaining though. It gave us a chance to get tons of work done and run our dogs.

My blog entries have been few and far between lately, so I promise to update more regularly. On the schedule today: our garden. Hopefully, it will all be planted by Sunday. I will take some pictures of all Larry's hard work shortly. Have a great weekend!!!

More Spring Training....FINALLY!Ana helping give snacks after running our 12 males

Our SUPER 2.5 year old main team female, Fender (left), running lead with our retired leader, Windows. This was the first time Fender lead successfully, like a pro, out of the yard.

Stopped on the trail, while Larry removed a tree that had fallen

Ana helping give snacks to the 12 females we ran in the first team. (Memphis and Lilly in wheel)

The last 2 miles, we put Serra in lead with Fender. They did awesome together. Serra is only 1.5 years old and the most like her mom, our SUPER leader, Zoey.

me and Ana after running the male team

Serra (left) and Fender after the run

Ana with Boston (left) and our rookie of the year, George.

After a month of waiting for the ice to melt, we FINALLY got to hook up teams on Sunday. It was nice and cold out, perfect for the dogs. We ran two 12 dog teams. One all male team and one all female team. 5 of the dogs are our pups out of Mike Lee and Odessa. We are very excited about that litter. They now have 5 hookups on them and we hope to get a half a dozen more before it gets too warm out. Then, they will be ready for fall. It was so nice to get out with the dogs after such a long time off. They were so happy and we barely heard a peep out of them the rest of the night! It was great!!

We have been busy as usual here. We are cutting lots of wood for next season already and doing our spring cleaning outside, which includes a TON of raking. Especially, the dog yard. During the winter, they get lots of straw to keep them warm. Well, when the snow melts, the straw is EVERYWHERE!!!! So, we then have to rake it all up before we start the whole process over again next fall. It is an endless cycle.

Last weekend, we got the rarity to have a day to ourselves. My parents took Ana for the night, so we headed North to the Magnusson's kennel for a BBQ and some dog talk. Jerry & Ali Papke, the Holmberg's and JR Anderson were also there. It was a great time!! It is nice sitting around talking dogs after the race season. When we are racing, we don't have much social time because we are either feeding or dropping dogs or getting ready to race. We especially enjoyed Jerry's hilarious stories. For those who have not met Jerry, well, there is never a dull moment. Thanks Bruce and Monica for a great night!

We are also expecting puppies in only 15 more days out of the Magnusson's super Swingley male, Billy, and one of our very best females, also out of Doug Swingley's kennel, Odessa. She is showing a little so we are hoping for a nice sized litter. We are very exicited about this breeding since Billy has such great credentials. He ran on Doug's 2nd place Iditarod team and Melanie Shirrilla's 1st place Wyoming Team and the Magnusson's winning teams over the past couple of years. He should add some great dogs to our kennel.

I am also very happy that Ana is almost done with school for the year- yeah!! I won't have to get up at the crack of dawn to take her to school till next fall. Only about 4 more weeks left!!!! Well, that is all for now. My next post will probably be when Odessa has her pups around May 5th.

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!!!!!!!!!!!!