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December Idita-Diary

December 29,2005 (unemployed)

The last two days Tasha and Duane have run the France team and Brandon has run the others.  I feel like I am out of a job.  Fortunately, we still do not own an automatic dishwasher so at least I serve some purpose.

We had a very fun tour of five leave yesterday morning after two days on the trail and a group of 8 come last night.  It is a faster turnaround than we usually like but we wanted the New Year's off from touring this year.  The group of five included a friend of ours named Steve who has followed the Iditarod for a few years and knows more about the race than I do.  He got to run one of my main Iditarod leaders "Goose" and did a great job with him.  Goose is the class clown of the kennel and usually knows when a substitute teacher is on the sled.  When he can get away with it, Goose will mark every tree along the trail as his.  Brandon led Steve on the tour and when everyone was getting ready to leave, Steve requested Brandon again for next year.  That is what I like to here!  The remaining four of the tour were Jim (the Dad but the youngest of the group), Jared (the absolute perfect son that if I had employees I would hire in a second), Abby (the daughter with a quick wit and a happy smile), and Joe (the friend who is just plain tough).  From what the Guides have told me; Joe had the best crash, Jim was the first new professional ever to get stuck in a bush (now called "Jim's Bush"), Jared was the easiest person to guide ever, and Abby now has a fan club that is based at Nature's Kennel.  Thanks to all five of you for enriching our lives and taking good care of my dogs.

December 27, 2005 (Christmas excitement)

Christmas with the human families was exciting!  Well at least it was for us bi-pedals.  Mo and Hop went along with us and they were exhausted by the time it was all over.  The picture is of the two of them sleeping in the car on the way home yesterday.  We had a tour group arrive last night and Duane from AMSS is coming up today to do some dog conditioning with me.  Back to the FUN!

December 23, 2005 (Mo-mo)

The campout yesterday went nearly perfect, everyone even kept their boots on.  I had Mouse and Vinnie in lead for the first leg and then Yooper and Bert in lead for the second leg.  Jim used Maple, Mick, and Vinnie #2 while Brandon used Arlo, Nat, and Bonfire.  Nat ended up with a muscle tear in his left rear leg so he ended up getting a ride back in my sled the second half of the run.  We will give him a good two weeks off and see how he is doing.  Skip and Tops were both back in the team and looked great.  Lips sat out the run because he was favoring one of his front legs a little after the run two days ago.  We are at the training mileages now that we will see minor injuries more often.  My theory is to pay extra attention to the dogs after every run and try and catch the bumps and bruises right away and give the dogs time to heal.  Once the injuries become major it is no fun for anyone.

The picture above is Mo-mo our house dog.  Mo is a critical part of the team and our life.  (A small factoid, the dog food "Momentum" is named after Mo.)  Below is a list of the 28 dogs in training and their relation to Mo:

Sons: Maple, Mick, Mouse, Vinnie #1, Goose, Yooper, Luke, Boom, Lips, Sisu

Grandsons: Clark, Gimli, Harry, Arlo, Nat

Nephews: Shad, Quill

No relation: Bonfire, Skip, Sebastion, Big Ben, Starman, Razzle, Vinnie #2, Bert, Tops, Max, Zip

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!! (The next update will be after Christmas.)

December 22, 2005 (I lost my dogs)

My dogs were stolen before yesterdays run!  I know who did it and I don't dare call the police because she would hurt me.  She is more powerful (and meaner) than the mob.  Her name begins with a T and rhymes with "asha".

Jim, Brandon and I had our sleds ready to go, our ganglines laid out and even had a few dogs harnessed and in the team when a sexy little woman that usually resides in the house came out into the kennel.  She was dressed for a dog run and asked, "How far are you going?"  I told her and she decided that she would do the days run in my place.  In 8 years of marriage, I have learned not to argue.  In fact, I believe that I responded with my older brother's two words of advice for a successful marriage, "Yes Dear."  The run went perfect and all teams were able to get some passing practice in with each other and our leased team that was out on the trail.  We left Skip and Tops out of the run because they were a little stiff from the previous days run.  Today we have a campout scheduled.  I know Tasha will not steal today's run because she would rather be warm by the fire.

December 21, 2005 (I lost my boot)

"If you're not making mistakes, then you're not doing anything.  I'm positive that a doer makes mistakes."  -- John Wooden

Yesterdays run was perfect........ for Jim and I.  Since Jim did not know the trail I guided him and his team through the UP wilderness while I left Brandon to fend for himself.  Our teams performed perfect over a trail that included soft punchy snow with no bottom, plowed road with no resistance and, much to Brandon's dismay, about a mile of slightly frozen swamp.  About 10 miles from home, Brandon's team excelled going through the soft swamp. Around one of the corners, Brandon put his foot down to catch his balance, and it came back up out of the muck without a boot.  It was about 1/4 mile down the trail before Brandon could get his team tied off.  He had a chilly run back in his sock, through more water, to retrieve his long lost boot.  Our clothing is designed to actually dry itself with body heat in temperatures above zero so Brandon was fine.  Uncomfortable, but fine.

We are off again today for a longer run yet.  And yes, we get to through the area that is now named, "Boot Swamp".

December 20, 2005

The tour went well and the "new professionals" were a GREAT group to start the season off with!  Ellen and Mandy were from the Detroit Free Press and I was honestly a little nervous before they showed up.  I had an imagined two people office bound with long fingernails, a fear of the UP that was based off the movie Deliverance, and no sense of adventure.  As it turned out, Ellen has a zest for life that is rare in our societies low risk environment.  She is one of those rare people that carry an aura of comfort and beauty with her.  Just being in conversation with her, relaxed me and made me smile more.  Mandy is a HUGE risk taker (two trips to Iraq to cover the war) and has a smile that fills a room.  She is one of the first people that I have ever met that seems to be enjoying life more than I am.  Bill and Pat were the "Newlyweds" (19 years of marriage) of the trip, even sharing a bunk at the winter tent.  They reminded me of my in-laws, really just one person in two bodies, which is really cool if you ask me.  I saw Bill out on the trail running along his sled on the first day.  I was concerned that he did not have enough dog power so on the second day I let him use one of my main Iditarod dogs, Bonfire.  A big Oops on my part because Bonfire would not listen to a word anyone said and was more of a problem than a help.  Pat, according to her pre-trip questionnaire, was out of her comfort zone.  Well you would not have known it by her performance!  What a trooper!  Even when she appeared a little cold Sunday morning, the smile was still on her face (maybe it was frozen on her face).  Byron from the show "Wild Weekends" on Comcast was the last of the tour.  Byron has visited our kennel previously and is a TRUE professional.  I warned our guides to have things ready a day ahead of time because Byron is usually early, sometimes up to a day.  Well this time he got in late Friday, got a little sleep, and was non-stop energy all weekend.  I admire him because he is doing what he loves to do in life and it shows.  Fortunately he is good at it to!

I was able to experience the first day with this fun group, make sure they were still smiling in the morning after camp breakfast, and then I was off on a 6 hour drive to make it to the AMSS Christmas Party.  AMSS and the company president, Duane Morelan were a huge reason for the success of our kennel last year.  They not only helped us pull off the Iditarod financially but Duane helped do some of the training.  He went with me on a 200 mile training run over a very rough trail in January.  Even with blisters on his hand from hanging on (it was the roughest trial I have ever experienced in Michigan) he held tough.  The picture above is Duane on a pre-race run in Denali National Park.  (The weather was beautiful and the dogs had fun but a moose shortened our trip because it would not give up the trail.)  The Christmas Party was fun and I presented my Iditarod Odyssey program.  I just love talking about my dogs, especially when the audience is forced to listen to me.  After the party, Duane and I went into the bar area of the Country Club and drank coffee (honest) and talked until too late.  I drove part way home and then pulled over in a rest area to get a few hours sleep.  I woke up 6 hours later, oops.  Today Brandon, Jim H. (a friend from Pennsylvania) and myself are off for a 50+ miler to stretch out the dogs legs since they have had a few days off.

December 16, 2005 (Max)

Life has been fun crazy lately.  Snow, removing snow, packing snow, sled dog running, and the first tour comes today.  Fun, Fun, Fun!!!  I am starting to get that ill feeling from lack of sleep.  Life is too fun to sleep right now though.

Brandon is out on his first solo campout.  I hope the dogs take good care of him.  I have a longer run scheduled today because tomorrow I will be escorting a photographer through the tour on snowmachine and then Sunday I have an Iditarod Odyssey speaking engagement (actually it is a party) downstate for AMSS.

Aaron Peck sent me a picture of Max.  I think Aaron did not enjoy the Max Headroom picture from the October 18th entry.  The one he sent is a beautiful photo!  Thanks Aaron.

December 12, 2005

We have had more good runs.  As the mileage keeps going up nobody seems to be lagging behind.  That is a good thing.  What is a bad thing is the darn females going into heat in our kennel. Even though there are none in my team the smell must permeate a 5 mile radius of the kennel and it changes the behavior of all involved.  Yesterday Harry and Sebastion got to spend a little time face to face with me supervising in order for them to know that neither one will be breeding anybody.  They both started going to into dominance behavior suggesting that they are the studliest male.  In actuality, they learned that they are just the males with the smallest brains on that given day.  Kind of sounds like humans doesn't it?

December 10, 2005

The Dogs, Brandon, and I had a great time on the campout.  We were able to get a nice early start to the day which allowed for a return to the kennel by 8 P.M. so we could still have dinner with our friends that are visiting this weekend.  The dogs had a tough run because they were breaking trail for most of the run and some of the trails were rutted from logging trucks.  The two year olds are starting to look more like veterans and Brandon is improving as well.  He had his 10 dog team bootied before I had my 18.  Not bad for a guy that just started running dogs a few months ago.  I decided to bump Vinnie #2 and Bert to Brandon's team and take Skip and Bonfire from him.  It is pretty exciting because this is the first year that we have enough depth to make cuts on things other than performance in harness.  Vinnie #2 got bumped because he is one of the oldest dogs in the team and Skip and Bonfire are just as good and younger.  Bert is still too skinny to start the Iditarod.  We will keep pouring the food to him and if he gains weight before March he could still make the team.

Luke and Zip led me for the first half of the run and Arlo and Nat led Brandon.  Zip continues to improve in lead but is still somewhat unsure at times.  He was not to fond of breaking trail at first but I just slowed the team down until he found his comfort zone.  By the end of the run he was back to full speed.  Luke was Incredible!  I ran Luke in lead during training last year but he was not good enough to run race lead.  This year it looks like he will get some time up front in France and Alaska.  On the way home I had Mick and Maple leading the convoy.  Maple was screwing off for the first few miles leaving camp so him and I had a little heart to heart.  He is such a cocky dog that he always wants to run the show.  It makes him a good solid hard headed Iditarod sled dog but he is consistently vying to dethrone the human from the alpha position.

During the campout, Brandon fell asleep sitting on his drag pad leaning against his sled next to the fire.  I wish I would have had a camera.  I am not sure that any of his white water raft guide friends are going to believe his stories without photos to back him up.

December 9, 2005

A day of work projects today.  We are at the point in training were the dogs are running farther but running less often.  Today Brandon and I hammered out a bunch of small stuff that needed to be done.  It is now done.  Tomorrow is another campout with the dogs.

December 7, 2005 (Happy Birthday MOM!!!)

I'm back, finally.  I spent the weekend in Alaska enjoying the company of mushers, Iditarod staff, and Uncle Chuck.  Alaska gave me a "warm" welcome back with a 20 below zero Sunday morning.  I know it sounds funny but cold in Alaska is so much warmer than cold in the Midwest.  At 20 below I spent a somewhat comfortable hour outside with a light jacket, running shoes and no long underwear.  Tasha says that I do not count for judging how cold it is out anymore though because my last brain cell (that was only used to tell the body it is cold anyway) died during my first Iditarod.  I used the picture above of Mark Nordman (Iditarod Race Marshal) in my presentation to show rookies what a trail hallucination may look like.

On the return flight I spent a very thoughtful 36+ hours in Detroit Metro airport earning two free round trip airline tickets to Alaska (or anywhere else in the lower 48) in exchange for my time.  I was one person away from investing another 8 hours of my life for another ticket.  The time at the airport gave me an opportunity to meet a few new friends, eat some wonderful airport food, and to revise my planning of the next few months.  I had great Iditarod sleep training the first night at the airport.  I carefully selected a corner by gate A46 that looked like it did not have any fresh spills on the carpet, made my self comfortable on the concrete with my carry-on for a pillow and covered up with my coat.  After a deep 45 minutes of sleep I was awakened at 2 a.m. by the intercom, "We will now begin testing the fire alarm system, this is only a test, you do not have to exit the building."  This was followed by the screech of the fire alarm.  After three of these tests, I slept through the rest and awoke about 5 a.m. with a hooded airport cleaning person standing over me.  I just waved, rolled over, and slept for another hour.  A big "Hello" to Bob, Bedonna, and Dawn for helping my airport stay go a little faster.

Please support these fabulous Nature's Kennel Partners!   If you are interested in joining the Nature's Kennel Corporate team, please email Ed or Tasha.