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January 2nd, 2003
Well, we'll use the madness that surrounds the Christmas holiday season as the excuse for taking so long to write another update.  Now that that is over, the official race season begins!  We do have snow here for this weekend's Tahquamenon Race, Yippee!!  (Unfortunately the Elton Race that was scheduled before Christmas was canceled.)  Ed is entered in the 12-dog pro, 63 mile race, I am entered in the 6-dog pro 43 mile race, and we have talked my dad into running the adult 4-dog, 4.5 mile race!  Dad is coming up tomorrow (Friday) to get on a sled for the first time in his life to prepare for Saturday's race. I think he's very excited, but I'm not sure how his head handler, Mom, is handling her nerves!  We also have a friend from Duluth, Jesse, coming over to join in the fun, and we'll see if we can get her signed up at the last minute as well for the 4-dog race.  We do have her talked into a camping trip for Sunday and Monday so we can really put some miles on the dogs these next few weeks.  We plan to run 60 miles, rest for a while, and run 60 home.  It will really put the pressure on the dogs that will race this weekend to see what they can do.
    Ed got me an "arctic oven" four-season expedition tent for Christmas, so we'll take that with us and sleep with the wood stove roaring while the dogs curl up in their straw for the night.  The tent sleeps 4-5 people and is really quite cozy.  We tested it out last weekend with my sister and her husband.  The tent worked great, camping was a blast, the dogs were the most misbehaving bunch of rascals that we have ever had!  I think they were showing off their rebellious side for the relatives.  The dogs ran really slow and goofed off a lot, finally got settled into their camping spot, and then spent the rest of the night chewing off neck-lines and tug-lines and howling at each other.  Actually, I do have to give the boy dogs some credit here, they didn't chew at all, it was the girls who chewed, the boys just howled.  Needless to say, we didn't get much sleep that night!  So, we are ready to try it again (although Josh and Tennille haven't called to see when we are going next :.)
    If any of you out there reading this are just going stir crazy due to the lack of snow in your area, you are welcome anytime to give us a call and bring your skis, snowshoes, or dog teams up here.  We only ask that you leave your snowmobiles home, there are plenty of those on the trails right now anyway.  Since we are one of the few places in Michigan with snow, the snowmobilers have been out in full-force seeing how much area they can cover in the shortest amount of time.  There is even very little snow in Newberry, so they are all parking about 1/4 mile away from our house to get on the trails. Luckily most of our dog trails only cross the snow machine trails and aren't part of the same system or I think our dogs would be pancaked!  After living in Minnesota for so long, we can truly appreciate this wonderful white stuff!!

January 7th, 2003
Twenty of our dogs raced last weekend, and twenty crossed the finish line happy and healthy.  Ed ran the 63 mile 10-dog race, I ran the 43 mile 6-dog race, and dad ran the adult 3-4 dog class.  The dogs were a little slower than we had hoped, but at least they all made it to the finish line with no injuries and smiles on their faces.  Ed's young leader, Allie, didn't think that passing teams head-on was too exciting, so he had to stop and change some leaders.  Tasha's team loved the trail because it was filled with quick twists and turns.  And Dad, well, he thinks he could have beaten his team if he was running on foot!  What can we say, we gave him our 11 year old leader, Trapper, and his speed isn't too great at 77 dog-years old!  It was just fun to have a race on snow and have other musher friends in town. Hopefully it starts snowing elsewhere in the midwest so we can race again.

January 9th, 2003
I was doing some computer work tonight so I decided to write another update.  We had hoped to run the dogs on a short run today, but when we looked at them in the kennel this morning, they were pretty sore and tired.  No, it wasn't from a night of wild parties, it was from a few wild nights of running.  In the past three days both race teams have run over 160 miles.  We did our long camp out with Jesse and then ran up to a musher friend's cabin for a visit (Jim Oehlschlaeger's cabin is about 45 miles by dog trail from our kennel).  It was a very warm day for a run, about 42 degrees, but comfortable for the mushers!  We sat on Jim's deck to eat our lunch in the sunshine.  Luckily we had a good base on the trails, or we would have had to put wheels on the sled to get back home.  Today winter returned with a vengeance.  It wasn't too cold, about 20 degrees, but it was sure blustery and snowy.  We are supposed to get up to 6 inches of snow tonight, so we'll see if it actually comes true.  We are having a group of 12 high school kids from Chicago coming out for rides tomorrow, so some extra snow would really be exciting for them. I think just walking into a kennel of 60 crazy dogs will be exciting come to think of it!  We'll do a short program, let some puppies run around to steal their mittens, and then take them on a ride. The dogs will be happy to have some people to pet.

January 11th, 2003
Well the dogs certainly have had a weekend of socializing.  We had a great time Friday with the high school students at our kennel.  They were some of the most enjoyable teenagers we have worked with.  The dogs liked watching the kids play a touch football game in the middle of the kennel.  I think Cheetoh and Sam were placing bets on which team would win.  I could just read the dogs minds, "Look at those silly humans, they chase balls around and roll in the snow just like we do."  We were lucky their bus could even make it in the driveway as we had received about 6 inches of snow the morning that they came.
    Now, the kids have left, but the snow keeps on coming.  We have received about 12-14 inches in the past 24 hours, and the up the forecast for this week just states, "chance of accumulating snow every day,  for the next few days."  They don't even give an estimate of accumulation, just that it will snow, and it will accumulate.  I don't know if being so vague is good or bad.  Ed snow blowed the driveway twice yesterday, and this morning we woke up to another 4 inches.  We had to leave early to take 20 dogs down to Charleviox to give rides today, and we just hope that we can make it back into the driveway tonight.
    My sister teaches 5th grade at Charlevoix Middle School and we offered to do a dog sled ride fund raiser for the 5th grade class.  The city ski hill was kind enough to let us use their facility, so even though the Charlevoix area had no snow, they made snow for us all through the night so we could have a small loop for rides.
We had about 160 kids brave the wind and the cold to hop in the dog sled.  I think our dogs were as amused with the snowboards and skis as the people were with them.  It was a great experience for the dogs to be in such a busy setting with skiers, snowboarders, and spectators all around them.  The only time the dogs really see crowds of people is at the beginning of a race, so this is a chance for them to be in a social setting without the stress of being at the starting line.  It was really interesting to see which dogs were very relaxed with all the kids around, and which were really apprehensive.  After a couple loops around, Bronto decided that the pressure of having his picture taken was just too much and that he really wanted to go back to his dog box and hide.  We decided that he didn't need to stress out any more, so we gave in and let some of the other more social dogs get in the spotlight.  Rock, Buddha, Badger and many others thought that it was just wonderful that all those people came out just to see them!  I looked in the dog boxes after we got all the dogs loaded when the rides were done, and not a single eye was open.  I think that getting constant attention from people is almost more tiring for them than running a hundred miles!

January 18th, 2003
There's some things about raising dogs that are wonderful, and some that are heartbreaking.  I'm sure it's the same with raising children.  We had a very humbling experience this week when we lost one of our 11 month old puppies, Audrey.  She had been struggling with keeping food down the past few months and her appetite and energy would come and go.  Sometimes she looked really good, and sometimes she really looked sick, so I finally took her into the vet early this week.  She didn't have any obvious health issues, but appeared to have some stomach pain and discomfort.  The vet did some blood work, put her on some stomach medication and told me to try switching her diet, thinking she may have a food allergy or slight inflammation.  She ate really well the first day I had her back home, but the next morning she looked sick again.  By the afternoon she was drooling, delirious, and pacing.  We rushed her back to the vet and he was going to take some x-rays to see what was going on inside.  The blood work and x-ray both concluded that she had something major going on with her liver.  We discussed trying to treat it and keep her as a pet, but the doctor suggested that the problem had probably already reached toxic levels, and that her quality of life would be very questionable.  We all decided that to make her suffer any more was not what we wanted to do.  What a tough little girl. 

January 20th, 2003
We had some friends come from Duluth this weekend to marvel at the snow, and they nearly had to wait until spring to get back home.  We have received no less than 12 inches of snow in the past twenty four hours.  We spent the night out on the trail with about 70 dogs (6 teams) on Saturday.  It snowed almost the entire time we were gone so the dogs were breaking trail both on the way out and on the way home.  They are very tired to punching through snow and hauling loaded sleds.  I think we'll give them a couple of days off.  Actually, I should say we'll give ourselves a couple of days off.  I just want to sit INside for a change instead of outside.  I'm not sure how much of a break I got though, because today, on my day "off" I had to snow blow the driveway and kennel just so we could get the car in the driveway and walk around to feed dogs.  I'm sure I'll be doing it again tomorrow by the looks of it outside right now.  I don't want to complain about the snow, but I think we'll scratch the house plans for this summer and build an enclosed stadium instead so we can just put everything thing we own under cover and no snow will touch it!  It's ok to dream isn't it!

January 30th, 2003
What a great vacation to Duluth last weekend.  Hiccup joined us for the excursion, just to see what the big wide world was like, and to keep Ed and Tasha from missing the dogs.  She adjusted to Chris and Audrey Hazelton's couch very quickly.  They have thought about getting another house dog, and Hiccup is Chris' kennel girl friend, so he asked if she could come along.  She has never been inside before, and I was just amazed at how she acted like she'd done this a hundred times before.  She asked to go out to the yard, ate with the house pets, and watched movies.  However, she was very excited to see her buddies when she got back to the kennel and said she preferred our dinner of meat goulash instead of the boring dry food that house dogs get.  After such a nice weekend, we concluded that we definitely miss our friends and the sunny skies of Duluth, but not the bitter cold, snow-less Minnesota winter weather.  Ed would like to make it our summer home once we can afford two kennels, a lake house, and a boat to take the dogs water skiing.

But, reality sets in back here in the UP, and we are most energized by a "snow-free" day!!  We talked to a friend who knows a plow driver in the area and said he has had to plow mass amounts of snow seventeen of the past nineteen days.  Now that's called significant snowfall!  We can't see over the banks in our driveway anymore, and the puppies see them as quite a challenge to crawl over and play king of the mountain.  I feel like we've had way too much free time the past two days without the task of snow shoveling, snow blowing, and snow hauling.  It's been nice.  We were finally able to run some faster trails with the dogs last night. Several mushers in the area have been working together to get the trails broken open so we can run racing dogs instead of freight dogs plodding up to their bellies.  We've concluded that if the UP 200 gets a serious snow storm during the race, our team will do great breaking trail, but if it's fast, hard trails, they are not going to remember how to run fast!  Regardless, they are still fun, smiling, easy going dogs to run.  I came back with my 12 dogs after a long this morning at about 3 am, and Clover and Sneeze immediately laid down and put their legs around each other.  It was the cutest moment of dog snuggling that I can recall.  I didn't have to look at them long to realize that I needed a few moments of sleep myself.  Needless to say, it was not an early morning for chores at our house!.

February 3rd, 2003
"I don't ever remember a snowfall this deep over night."  --Ed
"Me neither." --Tasha
"Help, I can't get out of my house."  --Opal
"Has anyone seen Mole?" --Willow
"Has anyone seen my food dish?  I really need that food dish.  I really like that food dish.  I'm hungry."  --Bronto
"This much snow is cool, cool, cool, cool!!!!"  --Sandy the puppy
"I wish all this snow was marshmallow cream so I could eat it all up."  --Sumo the ultra-fat puppy
"Ed, can you please stop using the snowblower, it interrupts my sleep."  --Banana
"Excuse me, there appears to be a snow drift inside my house, could I get some help here?"  --Ivy
"Hey, can anyone let us off our chains so we could just play in it.  We don't care if we have to swim around the yard like otters, we'd still have fun."  --the 14 young puppies
"Fine, you can get off to play, just don't drown in a drift." --Tasha

Get the point?  We are defiantly snowed in.  Even though it is still snowing after about 18 inches in the past 14 hours, Ed decided to snow blow the driveway because if we don't do it now, we may not be able to do it again until May.  People weren't kidding when they asked why we were moving to snow country!

I was just looking through the February/March edition of Lake Superior Magazine, reminiscing about the Lake that we knew and loved in Duluth.  I still love that same lake, but it's a different world here on the south side.  In Duluth, it seemed like Lake Superior was just a pretty piece of nature to observe, not really having an effect on our lives.  Here, the Lake affects us nearly every day with its dose of lake-inflicted snow fall!  What a difference geography makes.  The sugar-sand shoreline of the Lake in this area appears so much more clam and serene when compared to the jagged rock outcroppings along the north shore.  However, that's just a trick to make one believe that that weather would resemble the shore line.  There is nothing calm and serene about winter here on the south shore!

We need to get another run on the dogs the early part of this week. It appears we'll be running snow machines today in order to blaze a trail through the fluff.  I can't imagine what the upcoming UP 200 would look like if we got a storm like this during the race.  The race route has been changed to run from Marquette to Chatam and then north to Grand Marais--right into the Lake Superior snow machine.  The race usually heads south from Chatam toward Escanaba, but due to poor snow in that area, we will run north.  Ed has decided to take the boys, and I'll run the girls (and 4 boys).  Our goal is to get every dog to the finish line, and judging by the number of miles we've logged this training season, that is a very feasible goal.  We'll give the dogs a pre-UP 200 "pep rally" this weekend when he head down to do the Pellston Icebox (35 miles).  The dogs will appreciate some new scenery and a chance to get out socialize with their fellow canines.  That is, if we can get out of the driveway!

February 18th, 2003
Oh we have a lot of catching up to do!
The Pellston Race was great!  Ed and I both rant he 12-dog races and had a great time, as did the dogs.  Ed finished 8th with the A-Team and I finished 7th with the B-Team!  Yes, you read that right, I smoked him!!  (He would have done better had he not taken a wrong turn down a plowed road and have to turn the team around..I paid Badger five bucks to do that!)  The trail was really punchy and soft, but it was still a great race with outstanding hospitality.  We will definitely return next year.

This past weekend we truly tested the dogs in the UP 200.  Ed and I both ran 12-dog teams in the 240 mile race, and both successfully made it to the finish line.  What an experience!  The race began in Marquette, went 34 miles to Chatham , where we rested 3 hours, then 86 miles to Grand Marais, where we took a much needed 8 hour rest, and then back to Chatham where we rested 5 hours, before heading home to Marquette.  The two 86 mile legs really took their toll on the dogs, but they did just great.

Ed started the race with Hawk, Badger, Maple, Mickey, Mouse, Quill, Shad, Goose, Prowler, Pooh, Stone, and Rock...those that made it to the finish line were:  Badger, Shad, Prowler, Rock, Mouse, Goose, and Mickey.  Tasha started with Mole, Willow, Allie, Sneeze, Vinnie, Tyran, Bronto, Butter, Clover, Opal, Ivy, and Hiccup.  The finishers were:  Mole, Hiccup, Sneeze, Vinnie, Butter, and Ivy.  Any of the dogs that either of us dropped had minor wrist or shoulder injuries, or in Tyran's case, he was just plain tired!  The dogs are all happily back in the kennel now, and they all are looking great.  Clover still doesn't feel like eating much and Hawk still has a sore wrist, but I'm sure that by tomorrow, they will be much better as well.

We were very proud of the kids as Ed finished a very respectable 7th place and Tasha finished 11th.  The race started with 30 teams, and only 14 made it to the finish line, so we are just thrilled that two of those teams were ours.  There has never been both a husband and wife to finish the same race in the same year, until now!  We do owe a great big thanks to our outstanding handlers Steve Tchozeski (Tasha's Dad), Mike Stielstra (Ed's dad), Steve Long (a guy who never even knew this insane sport existed until 5 days ago), and Charlie Eshbach (a long time friend from Houghton...every successful racing team has a Yooper rooting for it!)  I'm not sure who thought the race was more exhausting, the mushers or the handling crew!

There's so many thoughts that ran through my head as I was running those 86 mile legs when I thought, "I should write that in the journal," but all my thoughts are so scattered right now that nothing is making sense.  I sure hope the dogs don't feel this disorientated!  No wonder they are so happy to back in their houses and back to the normal routine!

February 19th, 2003
All the race pups look great today. I began packing for this weekend's adventure; a speaking engagement at Boyne City Middle School and then a weekend of dog sledding programs at the Michigan DNR's Becoming an Outdoors Woman Weekend in Onway, Michigan.  I'll pack up the dogs that haven't gotten much of a chance to travel this year so that they can get a vacation in too.  I'm back to thinking normal again after a few days of sleep depravation, so I can actually plan the weekend and the programs this afternoon.  It's amazing how long it takes to get back into a normal routine after a weekend of such little sleep and endless miles on the trail.  Time seems to be non-existent during these long races when you are running dogs through out the night and sleeping during the day.  I'll have to do some mental preparation before we get to the Beargrease in a couple weeks.

February 26th, 2003
I met the most amazing group of women this past weekend at the Becoming an Outdoors Woman (BOW) winter weekend.  I have only heard great things about this organization, and now I know first hand that they are all true.  This is a wonderful organization that encourages women of all ages to try new outdoor adventures in a safe and encouraging environment.  Lynn Marla of the Michigan DNR and Nancy Thurston, the event organizer, did an excellent job of making every woman fell that she could be successful in any of the courses offered.  Women could choose from things like ice fishing, mushing, tracking, winter rafting, snowshoeing, and skiing.  I have included the link to this great organization if anyone would like more information:  Michigan DNR website, look for the BOW link, or try the Michigan Outdoors Women's Club.
I had the pleasure of teaching 3 class of 12 women the basics of dog mushing.  Each person got to ride in the sled to get some great photos and got to drive their own sled (attached to my team) across the lake. There was very little snow in Onway, but we were able to make a route across Nettie Lake.  It is very unnatural for the dogs to do a loop in the open area of a lake, but Trapper and Weasel mastered it beautifully.  I do have to admit that the loop kept getting shorter and shorter as the dogs realized that they were in control of when the team turned around since it was so icy that I couldn't stop the sled to correct them!  The women got to really test their driving skills when the second sled they were driving got whipped around on the turn back home!  What a great vacation for myself and the dogs.  (I took ten dogs that haven't had the chance to race this year to give them some excitement, and they loved the extra attention!)

February 17th, 2003
Just when you think that the puppies are all well trained and they best puppies in the world...they seriously misbehave!  Ed and I had fourteen 5 and 6 month old pups running around this morning as we were cleaning the kennel.  This is a pretty normal routine as they get a chance to tackle each other as we scoop up the you know what.  I was getting the food out to put them back on their chains, got eight of them on, and was missing the remaining six.  Instant panic sets in:
"Ed, have you seen the puppies, they were just here, and now they are gone."
"No, but I just petted Sumo and Joyce, are you sure they are missing?"
"Yes.  I'll look for their tracks the fresh snow."
"No luck?  I'll go get the snowmobile and you keep tracking them."

An hour later...."I can still follow their tracks pretty easily, but I'm getting tired of this nature walk in circles, I'll try to cut them off again at the road."
"Sounds good, I'll keep tracking through the snow, it looks like they are headed back home."

An hour and a half later..."Let's go back to the kennel and see if they've made it home on their own."

"How in the world did they get back here...and HOOK THEMSELVES UP TO THEIR CHAINS????!!!"

Thanks Rick and Geri for finding them down at the corner (of 415 and 455), piling them into the car, and driving them back to the kennel.  They will remain under strict surveillance for a while!

February 28th, 2003
 We are on our way to Duluth for the Beargrease.  I'm sure that I'll have some tales of the trail soon to share.  My Marathon team consists of: Badger, Maple, Mickey, Mouse, Goose, Vinnie, Shad, Quill, Hiccup, Opal, Butter, and Rock.  We also have a team in the 150 Mid-Distance Race, that is being run by Chris Evavold (our sled builder) and his team is: Prowler, Stone, Sneeze, Clover, Ivy, Bronto, Tyran, and Pooh.  The dogs should be recovered from UP to finish, but they are certainly not a "fresh" team, so we'll concentrate on just getting healthy dogs to the finish line!  I'm a little concerned about trail conditions as I understand the snow is quite minimal and it's been warm there the past few days.  I'm also somewhat nervous about my leaders for the race. I added Hiccup to the team as she'll make a good back-up, and I know that Badger will make it no matter what, but it's the young boys that have been giving us trouble recently.  Maple ran the whole 150 Beargrease in lead last year, and has decided he is tired of leading the past month or so while training.  I really like him as a leader because he is very fast, but fast doesn't matter if he's not running.  I guess that is what makes my race exciting, not only is the trail an unknown, so are my leaders!!

March 7th, 2003
Congratulations goes out to:  Badger (leader), Hiccup (leader), Opal (leader), Mickey, Mouse, Maple, Goose, Butter, Rock, Vinnie, Shad, and Quill for their 7th place finish in the Beargrease Marathon (275 miles!!).  Ed also receives congratulations for winning the Best Kept Team award along with super star handlers Rob Milburn, Nikki Silverstrini, and Jesse Hanson.  And lastly, the humble musher Tasha received Rookie of the Year!

I was pretty nervous driving up to the race start and seeing the green grass and gravel driveways, but the trail was snow covered (after the first 5 miles) and the weather was perfect.  Maple and Badger started out of the chute in lead and about 2 miles later Maple decided that he wasn't going to run lead, he was going to sit down and cause a disaster.  I couldn't stop the sled very well (the brake and snow hook don't work well in the frozen grass) and just as I would get up to the team to change the leaders or undo a tangle, another team would come by and my dogs would take off again.  I finally gave up and left them in a ball, let Maple and Badger run free, and scooted the ball o' dogs and knotted gangline line down the trail about 200 feet until I could snub off to a tree.  The first tree I hooked to must have been dead, because when I was up front messing with the leaders, I got passed by another team and caught my own sled as it went by.  I was able to quickly stop again (the dogs don't run well if they are balled together), and I threw my snub line over a DNR sign post.  At this point two more teams passed me, with Badger standing in the middle of the trail hitch-hiking, trying to get a ride on another team because he had had it with me, as Maple was peeing on the post where my sled was tied.  I called Badger over and he came trotting up to me and gave me the "look" which I'm sure meant, "well, if they won't take me, I guess I'm still stuck with you, let's get on with it." I re-grouped, took a deep breath,  hooked Badger back into lead with Hiccup, demoted Maple to point, and took off again (after losing about 12 minutes of race time).  The remaining 270 miles were down right boring compared to that.

The race was much easier on the dogs compared to the UP 200 because there was more rest time and the distances between checkpoints was much shorter.  It didn't take the dogs long to figure out that they got to rest after every 40 mile run instead of after 90 mile runs as it was in the UP.  This course was also much more exciting for the musher with the big hills and spectacular panoramic views.  You know you are climbing up good sized hills when you see signs like "Scenic View Ahead" and "You Are at the Top of Heart Break Hill".  I was able to use the hills to my advantage though as I ran or pedaled up every one, and rode down.  Sometimes I had to put both feet on the break and jump on it just to keep the team slowed down so they could safely get to the bottom, only to find that I was putting both feet back on the ground to head back up again!  I now see Ed's true motivation for getting me to race, because he didn't want to have to do all this running in the Beargrease!

This was a great conclusion to our race year, but we're all a little sad to see the season coming to an end.  We still have lots of snow here for puppy training and fun dog runs, but the anticipation of racing is always great motivation to get out there and run the dogs.  We have some weekend dog sledding trips coming up soon that will keep us busy as well as some school programs and presentations.  We see so may friends at races, that we have to keep having people visit us here so we don't get so lonely!

I'll be working on getting some race pictures into the photo gallery on the web site, so keep watching for some great pictures to be up next week.

March 13th, 2003
Puppy Training Festival 2003 is now underway!  We re-organized our kennel early this week so that all the dogs are in mini-8-dog teams.  We have at least 2 six month old puppies in each team along with several adults and a couple of leaders.  We set a kennel record on Tuesday as we ran every single dog in the kennel in one day (about 64 dogs).  Everyone got to go about one mile! The race dogs thought it was great, and the puppies thought it was too far.  We'll keep running them every day and work up to three mile runs next week for the babies.  Some of the little ones are naturals, and others are still figuing out how to run straight, but they are getting better each day.  Sumo, Millie, Joyce, Clarence, Gumbi, and Sandy are all absoutley wonderful, the Momo litter (Tasha, Rugrat, Yooper, Xena, Boomer, and Luke) are a little younger and not quite as excited, but yesterday Rugrat and Boomer did great.  Rugrat is so small that the smallest adult harness we have is slightly big on her, so I told her she has to keep growing!  We still have PLENTY of snow for running the sleds, and even with the projected warm weather coming, I'm sure we'll still have a good base of snow.  It's much more fun to train puppies by sled than by quad. The sled is much quieter than the engine noise from the four-wheeler.  I'll keep you posted on their progress!

March 20th, 2003
Spring has arrived in the UP, eh!  Well, ok, so we still have over two feet of snow on the ground, but it is melting!  And, there are other signs of spring to be found across this wonderful, yet strange part of the world:

• Porcupines are on the prowl.  Nana and Mole have been the official puppy walkers, but yesterday they took off while we were walking down the driveway toward home.  Three hours later they returned, with a few little spines stuck in their mouths. The quill pulling process was relatively minor.  Each of them only had about 5 or 6 quills, so either the porcupines are short on quills this year, or our dogs are getting smarter.  Although, I'm not sure the dogs thought the quills were small and minor, Nana had two quills that totally pierced her tongue, going through to the back side.  Ouch!
• Sumo believes that spring is in the air.  Sumo, the cutest, fuzziest, rolly-polliest puppy has decided that he's a ladies' man and want to get every female to be his sweetie pie.  Even though he's a little young to start dating, he still thinks he's in the running for stud dog of the year.  We should probably tell him that those actions have placed him on the "to be neutered" list for this summer.
• Puppies will be arriving any day.  Hedgie is expecting her first litter of puppies within the next week.  We had a little accidental "love on the trail" in January and as a result we have a litter due very soon.  We are actually very happy with the potential this litter could bring.  Both Hedgie and Hawk (the father) are outstanding sled dogs and we have always tossed around the possibility of breeding Hawk (brother to our fantastic leader Badger) but never did.
• And finally, even the Yoopers are getting into the spring spirit. While eating lunch in the local Subway today, we overheard the following conversation between the Subway Lady and the flannel dressed, blue jean wearing Yooper:

No joke, it's all true folks.  Spring has definitely arrived in Da' UP, Eh!!

March 28th, 2003

New puppies have arrived!  Hedgie (daughter to kennel favorite Momo) gave birth to 4 beautiful babes on March 21st.  The two boys and two girls are all very healthy and plump!  We happened to be hosting a "learn to mush" weekend at our kennel that same weekend, so we chose to name the puppies after the three adventurous souls that soon became avid mushers.  We have Natural (named after Dean Zimmerman, who was a natural on his inaugural sled run), Happy (named after Dean's wife, Laura, who's upbeat spirit enlightened the whole weekend), Stuff  (named after Sarah Sheppard who learned how to correctly use her stuff sac for her new sleeping bag on the trip).  The fourth puppy is named Arlo, after Chris Evavold (his middle name) who was instrumental in this accidental breeding.  When Chris and I were getting the dogs unhooked from the gangline on a winter camping trip in February, we didn't work fast enough!

But, speaking of winter camping, we went on our last camp out of the winter last weekend with some unsuspecting tourists from Wisconsin.  It is always fun to take people out on a trip who have never experienced the wilderness by dog team.  Dean, Laura, and Sarah all learned to drive their own teams Saturday morning, and by the afternoon we were headed out into the UP.  The weather started off as very questionable on Friday night when it was raining as we were feeding the dogs.  However, by Saturday morning, we awoke to 6-8 inches of heavy, white cement (also known as snow).  It was actually just what we needed so we could safely run out of the dog yard and cross some trails that had previously been down to dirt.  The trails were in perfect condition, although the sky was overcast the remainder of the day.  But nevertheless, the campfire was warm and the hobo dinners delicious.  Just when I thought we were out of weather's torment, I awoke to the sound rain on our tent Sunday morning.  Dean and Laura's upbeat attitudes of "it's ok, this is still so much fun" brought sunshine to the breakfast table.  By the time we had camp broken down and the dogs hooked up, the sun was peeking through and we were off for a fifteen mile dog run back to the kennel.  We were all thankful for the clear skies, but it's a good thing our trip was on it's last leg.  By the time we made it back home, the trail was nearly flooded and the roads back to dirt.  It's amazing what a little sunshine can do for both the spirits and the trails!

Unfortunately the warm weather combined with the rain today has pretty much brought an end to the sledding action.  We still have a LOT of snow on most of the trails (a base of 2-3 feet) but some of our routes run on county roads that are now dirt. Also, the snow is very saturated and "punchy", meaning that the dogs punch through just as you would punch through if walking thorough deep snow.  This can cause shoulder injuries if the dogs twist or fall quickly while running fast.  We may be able to salvage our puppy training trail if the weather cools off so we can keep those little ones in shape!  Although, I think the puppies enjoy tearing around the dog yard just as much as running in harness!

April 1st, 2003
No, I'm not fooling--there is still plenty of snow up here, with more expected tomorrow.  I think Spring is pulling an April Fool's joke on us!  I can't complain too much though.  I've been running the puppy teams the past few days and the trails are still in great shape.  Ed has been in Minnesota the past week selling a few dogs and visiting some mushing friends.  So it's been up to me to keep the kids at home happy!  My sister was up for a few days this weekend and after our shopping day in Sault St. Marie Ontario, we spent the rest of the weekend running puppies.  We've also had our hands full with our 3 month olds.  They are quite the bunch and love to tear around the yard. 
  Peso really wanted to go home with Tennille and help her out for the spring!  Needless to say, we are all ready for Ed to come home so he can help out with the chores again!  Although I do admit that with 20 dogs on vacation with him, the kennel nearly seems empty with only 30 left at home to feed!
 

April 14th, 2003
Believe it or not, we are still running sleds!  The trails are still in great condition, even though some of our road crossings are down to dirt, we can still manage to get some great puppy training miles on the young dogs.  We have some friends here from Duluth this weekend that came to skijor and dog sled, they couldn't believe how nice the snow was.  We didn't want to tell them that we have lost over half of it, we don't want to brag too much! The exciting part is that we are seeing some real natural leaders and hard pulling puppies.  Tasha, Boomer, Luke, and Yooper (all Momo puppies, 8 months old) are really shining in lead and starting to figure it all out. Stacey and Chris (our one-year-olds) are leading the puppy teams every time we run.  Running the puppies really adds and element of surprise every time we go because you never know who is going to be the stand out.  It's different than running the seasoned adults because you can see the puppies learning and growing with every run.

The really great part of spring is that even though there is snow on the ground, it's been warm enough to begin building on the house again.  We spent the winter living in between Al's cabin and a motel in McMillan, so we are very anxious to get the house enclosed so we can live with the dogs.  We are definitely making good progress.  Hopefully our spring like weather continues so we can keep putting up walls and installing windows.
 
 
 

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