Who We Are--Meet Ed and Tasha and our 2008 Summer Glacier Guides, Meghan and Cindy

Winter Adventures

Idita-diary--what's going on with Nature's Kennel??

Mutt Club--New for 2007-2008!!  CHECK OUT THE NEW SHIRT DESIGN!

NK Gear--Cool clothing with cool sled dogs!!

Educational Programs

Links--Area lodging, sled dog equipment, and more!

Tasha's Adventure Journal Archives

(Click on photo thumbnails in the text to see larger images)

• More archived journal entries, photo albums and press updates

February 22nd, 2006 Just when I thought I'd be more responsible with my journal...life got just to hectic.  Over the past three weeks, we had twenty people here for overnight tours, packed for the UP 200 sled dog race in Marquette, had five new puppies, run four teams (45 dogs) in the UP 200 and one team in the Midnight Run (8 dogs), did a school presentation in Marquette, won the UP 200 :.), unpacked from the UP 200 so we could do the final packing for Iditarod, loaded 16 dogs, 5 drivers, two sleds, and TON of gear into the dog truck to head to Alaska, did another tour group, shoveled snow, plowed the driveway, cooked dinner for ten guests two nights a week, played with the puppies, and shoveled snow again.  Tires me out just thinking about it all.  I'd love to have some photos to post for the race last weekend, but amidst all the craziness, I've misplaced my camera. It's probably buried under something, like a dog house!

Since Ed has been doing a great job updating his Idita-diary site, I'll just be posting on that for the next month or so while he reports from his travels in Alaska.  Around here it's the same-old-same-old routine...feed puppies, shovel snow, feed dogs, plow the driveway, scoop poop, cook dinner and have a fabulous time with our tour guests who come from around the country to experience our awesome winter.  Our trails are in fantastic shape and Jake is still here with me to hold down the fort.  We have been holding Hedgie's new puppies (born on Valentine's day).  I thought I'd take the liberty and name them according to that theme (Ed had other things on his mind) so we now have:  Arrow, Cupid, Val (Valentine), Venus, and Hera (Aphrodite was too long for a puppy name, and Hera is the goddess of love and marriage). 

February 6th, 2006 Ok, it's been a long time since the last entry at Christmas.  I guess I'm just no competition for Ed and his journal.  I'll still try to keep a few things updated here, and as we get closer to Iditarod, I'll take Ed's journal over so I can keep everyone updated on happenings in Alaska.  I'll be here at home this year, it's just so difficult for both of us to be gone at the same time, and one needs to keep track of all the tours, puppies, and snow!  As you can see, I've had to even shovel out my bird feeder. 

Happy Holidays!!

December 22nd, 2005  I'm glad Ed has been keeping everyone informed through his Idita-diary, because I surely haven't been doing too great of a job!  We are in the midst of winter madness...Christmas present wrapping, La Grande Odyssée packing, guide training, tour operating, dog running, and remaining sane through it all!  We had our first tour last week, and will have a week of tour group craziness after Christmas as well.  We are headed to Boyne Highlands ski resort for New Year's for two days of giving rides to the skiers.  Then it's a mad couple days of packing before heading to France on January 4th.  That has been an experience in itself!  The amount of vet paperwork, vaccine updates, checking microchips etc. is getting pretty overwhelming...more on that in the La Grande Odyssée Journal that is slated for me to create today. It's a good thing our guides/handlers are doing such a fantastic job, or I think the dogs would have to lock me in one of the puppy pens for going crazy!  Jake took Tasha Canine to the vet in Marquette this morning for a bite that she got last night as I was passing Steve's team.  Big Ben (who is a big baby) has a BAD habit of lunging at the oncoming dog team.  I can't figure it out, because he's always so docile in the kennel.  Michele is out snow blowing the driveway, Casey is getting ready for a 20 mile run with the yearlings, and Brandon, Ed and a friend Jim Haibach, are out on a long camping trip with the race teams.  I'm stuck inside finishing up some things on the computer, finishing ride reservations, and organizing France paperwork.  I think I'd rather be on the dog team!  It will be nice to relax for a few days of Christmas as we head to both my parents and Ed's parents for the long weekend!

December 2nd, 2005  No need to be worried about the snow now...there's about 12-14 inches on the ground, and more to come.  I think it will be coming through April.  And in this world, snow brings work!  Ed is in Alaska this weekend for the Iditarod rookie meeting, no, not because he's rookie, he's speaking to all of this year's rookies.  I guess the committee figured that Ed has made enough mistakes in the past two years that he'd have a lot to share!  So, we've been digging out the sleds, digging out the puppies, and digging out our driveway!!  I took some time to train our guides and handler in sled driving so they can get some practice time on the runners before the guests arrive.  Snow also brings lots of tour bookings...that's a definite plus!  Since there is no base on the trials at all, and since the dogs are HYPED about snow, the runs have been pretty interesting, and fast! No one has lost his or her team, but we have had some near rear-end collisions as the braking systems don't have a lot to dig into!  Brandon and I are going to take the A teams out tomorrow and the guides are going to keep getting familiar with the touring trail.  We did some slight modifications again this year, so the dogs have yet another trail to learn.

November 29th, 2005  We were all excited to run sleds with our 10 inches of Thanksgiving Snow, but unfortunately, it has all turned to slop overnight.  We debated yesterday about getting the sleds out, but I'm glad we didn't because we would have been very disappointed this morning with the meager conditions.   The puppies were pretty funny flailing through the white powder, and they don't seem too distraught by the mud this morning.  They are always happy to be free-wheeling around the yard regardless of the weather! 

The dogs (and dog-walkers) had a great time at the Petoskey Holiday Parade just before Thanksgiving.  We took six dogs, Momo, Badger, Gretszky, Rainy, Tasha, and Flood to show off some holiday doggie spirit.  The truck was all decked out with garland, bows, and puppy wreaths, and the dogs all had ribbons around their necks.  It was a beautiful snowy day so Santa could make it to the parade with his reindeer too! 

The new puppies are sooooo adorable!  Tiger and Purple are both being great mothers.  Purple's puppies are four weeks old, and Tiger's are three weeks.  I got to name Purple's litter. So, in honor of Opal who passed away this fall, I decided to stick to a "birthstone" theme:  Females--Emerald, Ruby, Sapphire, Males--Jade, Jasper and Onyx.  The one with the white stripe in the picture is Onyx. 

Our "kennel crew" keeps expanding with the arrival of Jake at 5 am this morning on the Greyhound bus from Minneapolis.   He was looking for a winter of adventure, camping, and dogs...he has come to the right place.  Michele and Casey have been handling the "yearling" side of the kennel, so I'm sure they are delighted to have more help over there.  Brandon is assisting Ed with the racing team, and may even get to do a few races himself this winter.  I'm doing the ever-daunting tasks of marketing, tour scheduling, school presentations, advertising...and squeezing in an occasional dog run with my France team.  Which, by the way, is looking AWESOME!  (Thanks to all the help from Ed!)

November 12th, 2005  We've had about three seasons the past two weeks!  On November 5th we got about 6 inches of wet, heavy snow that was more of a nuisance than a blessing!  When snow comes this early it simply makes a MESS!!  The ground was not frozen so there was puddles of slop both in the dog yard and along the trail!  We were still able to run the four-wheeler, but it was pretty slick going around some of the corners.  Luckily, fall has come again, and all the snow has melted so the trails are in much better shape.  In fact, it is about 50 degrees here today, a great day for finishing some outdoor projects before the snow really comes to stay!  We have a new guide here with us as well, Casey has joined us from Maine for the winter.  She has two Siberians of her own who came along with her for the season, and I know Michele is happy to have someone else to work with.  We also have a few new additions to the dog yard.  Purple and Tiger both had puppies within the past week. They are sisters and were both bred to the same male, Starman.  Ironically, they both had six puppies, three girls and three boys each!  So, we are in the process of naming our new arrivals.  Ed and I have been taking turns naming the litters, so I get to name Purple's and he gets to name Tigers...we'll let you know our choices soon!  We have decided to sell several of the female puppies, so if you know of someone who would like a fuzzy Christmas gift...

Plans are still on to race a Grande Odyssée in France in January for.  Ed has been doing a great job with most of the training, and I've been trying to keep up on new marketing ideas and securing sponsors.  Some friends and I have developed the "sponsor a dog to France"  project and all the new information is linked here and on the homepage.  It's a logistical challenge to get all the dogs there, secure transportation, dog food, and other arrangements while in France, and then be ready to run the race!  And, I'd better keep getting in shape to run up the mountains and learn some French!  The dogs are doing fantastic though, so I'm VERY excited to see what the team can do!

October 29th, 2005  Well it's hard to compete with Ed's journal, but since he just talks about dogs...I'll try to fill you in on other events happening around here.  Our handlers have begun to arrive, which greatly reduces the work load and gives the dogs some extra special attention.  I will soon have each of them write a short bio and make a "staff" heading on the site.  After spending three years working at the hospital in Newberry, Michele has decided to leave her position at the lab and join us as a full-time guide.  She has helped us out for the past year by kennel-sitting and helping with the dogs so it's great to have someone already familiar with the "routine" to jump in and help out everyday!  Brandon hails from Holland, Michigan and spent the past summer white water raft guiding in Colorado and Virginia.  He is a graduate of Western Michigan and is using his degree to it's fullest potential (just like the rest of us) by running dogs!  Teddy is also a native of southern Michigan, and spent his summer working on Mackinac Island.  We assured him that the dogs won't kick as hard as the horses!  Having extra help enables Ed to focus more on running the race team,  and frees me up for time to secure sponsors, go "on the road" with the dogs, and call my mother :.)  Speaking of "on the road", I am headed to the Detroit wilderness again next week to speak at a wilderness club meeting and to take the dogs to the Novi Snowmobile Show.  I have added a new "on location" link to the website, so you can track us down and say hi!  We will also be attending the Holiday Parade in Petoskey, so if you'd like to come along and walk a dog in the parade, just let us know! 

October 19th, 2005.  I was sorting through some old files on my computer and found a cute essay that I submitted to some magazine last fall (it was never published), but I thought you may enjoy it:

Sled Dogs and School

Each year as fall approaches, I find myself starting to thinking about school.  I taught kindergarten and 1^st grade for several years when we lived in Duluth, Minnesota.  After leaving the classroom to move to the U.P. in order to run our sled dog kennel full-time, most of my friends thought I would miss the classroom and the joys of teaching.  There are some things I miss about teaching, but as I have spent my days training dogs, I’ve come to the realization that I really never left the classroom.

Do I miss training a group of twenty-five rambunctious kindergartners how to quietly walk in a straight line down the hall? Not really, I am now train twenty five one-year-old sled dogs to pull in a straight line and to be respectful to their neighbors as we run down the trail.  Just like the kids, the dogs try to push their neighbor over, argue for space, and bark when they are not supposed to. I swear I see the dogs try to stick their tongues out and make faces at each other just like my first graders did.

Do I miss the excitement of fresh young minds, eager to learn about what the world has to offer?  As I watch the young dogs leap into the air when waiting for the rest of the team to be hooked up, I’m reminded of the excitement of my students showed as they anticipated an up coming field trip or special event.  Just like the dogs, the students were always eager to go somewhere, and it usually didn’t matter where we went or how far away it was, just as long as we went somewhere.

Do I miss recess duty?  No, I’m still correcting behavior and giving time-outs.  Taking nine six-month old puppies on a tromp through the woods sure resembles recess to me as they wrestle each other to the ground and look up to see if they are getting caught. Maybe it’s just the ingrained teacher in me, but it sure seems like the puppies are always trying to get away with something. 

Do I miss one of the most common phrases elementary school teachers hear everyday, “He started it.”?  I still get that phrase from my new students too.  Just as we are sitting down to dinner yesterday, I went racing out to the dog yard to find out what the sudden barking commotion was all about.  I found myself standing in the middle of the kennel, in the midst of a suddenly quiet group of sixty five dogs.  All of them were intently staring at a ruffled grouse standing five feet from the east side of the dog yard.  I got the “look” from all the dogs, and it clearly said, “he started it.”

Do I miss the end of summer and the challenge of a new group of students?  Yeah, I still miss the end of summer, especially when I have to set the alarm clock again.  But it’s no longer waking me up to get to school.  It’s waking me up so I can beat the warm fall days and get the dogs run while the crisp morning air still lingers.  Just like all the eager children out buying school supplies and new shoes, the dogs are clearly excited about going back to school as I pull out the harnesses and stretch out the ganglines.  The teacher comes out in me as I organize new teams of dogs, write up training plans, and even make new name tags on all the dog’s houses. 

So, once again, I’m anticipating the start of fall, the beginning of school, and the excitement of the new students.  It’s always nice to see familiar students, in my case those are the experienced adult dogs I train, and comparable to 4^th or 5^th graders.  They know the rules of the hallway, the routine of school, and the expectations of the teachers. But those kindergarten and first graders, who come bounding down the hall, wearing new shoes, and overflowing with anticipation of what the world has to offer still warm my heart.  I’ve had to let my friends know that I still teach those same young students, but they come bounding down the hall on four legs instead of two, showing off a new harness instead of a new pair of shoes.  Let’s start school, let’s go somewhere!

October 17th, 2005  Gee, I now have pressure to keep updates on my journal since Ed has started his Idita-diary!  He's so proud of the fact that he has become "computer literate".  I spent the last week or so in Indiana doing school presentations and a club meeting for the Central Indiana Wilderness Club.  I was home with enough time to do a quick house cleaning (although Ed did do a fantastic job before I returned) and got last minute things set up for the annual Women's Weekend.  There was thirteen of us who spent the weekend running dogs, stamping, eating, and talking about all the crazy things men get us involved with!  More photos of the weekend are on the "Women's Photos" page.  We'd love to have more of you girls join us next year, so watch for the updates next fall.  It was finally cool enough to consistently run dogs, so we got in a few teams each day.  It's also cool enough to close up the garden and I picked the last of the squash and harvested the end of the potatoes.  It looks so dead out there, a sign that snow is just around the corner.  Ed spent the weekend with his parents in Ludington, so the girls and I were left in charge of running the "A" team.  I guess they survived because there were no scuffles, no tangles, just good, happy dogs.  In fact, Michele even commented on the fact that the dogs listened to us so much better without Ed hanging around!  I've asked to get a promotion from running the yearling team, but Ed just smiled...so I walked back over the "hooligans" this morning to take them on a run.  It's amazing what difference a year makes in the life of a sled dog.  The dogs on our "A" team this year were on the hooligan side last year at this time, thrashing around, learning how to run lead, and running into trees if they saw a squirrel or oncoming dog team!  It does remind me of teaching kindergarten when everyday is a new adventure and the milestones are large, the light bulbs are always flashing inside their heads, and they all want to be the teacher's pet. 

I'm getting pretty excited about the upcoming race in France.  It's kind of difficult to get a LOT of good information about the race, location, timing, etc., which leads me to believe it will be an adventure in more than one way!  My parents are going to head over with us and rent a car to follow along.  I'm still in the midst of seeking sponsors, my least favorite, but most important job.  I'd rather spend my days in the puppy pen, but realized that the puppies do need to get fed each day!  We did get some great sponsorship news from dogbooties.com this past week.  They will  be supplying us with dog booties and collars this season.  It always feels good to have someone believe in us! 

September 26th, 2005  Whew!!  What a crazy past few weeks.  Momo, Tasha Canine, and I have returned from our school presentation circuit in the Detroit Area.  The girls were outstanding in the classroom and in the city traffic.  Tasha loves to drive with her head out the window and stare at all the cars...she'd never seen so many!  We began our visit with a stop at the Michigan Women's Historical Museum and Hall of Fame.  I was part of the most recent exhibit, "Michigan Women A to Z", listed under letter K for "Kick Butt".  The dogs spent the afternoon in the museum as part of the open house.  We then headed to Detroit for a variety of schools presentations.  Monday was spent at the Children's Village School in Pontiac, a facility for abused and neglected children and kids who have had been convicted of a criminal offence.  They really enjoyed the program, although I got a few thank you notes back and the kids thought the program was good but that "my jokes were not funny and really lame." Guess you can't please everyone!  We also did three days of programs for home school groups where the students participated in the Pulling Together program, along with doing  vet check and building a mini dog sled. We spent two days at camp with DeKeyser Elementary students doing outdoor programs and then headed to Cabela's for the day to show off the dogs to all the shoppers.  Sunday was spent at a fall festival in Dundee, and then it was back to Detroit do several more schools and head back home!  The girls and I were exhausted and ready to be out of the crazy city!  I'm glad that my commute to work is twenty steps into the dog yard instead of twenty minutes on the freeway (and only spending twenty minutes on the freeway would basically get you no where!).  Ed had a busy week at home, and even fit in a trip to Minneapolis to be best man at the wedding for his friend Alex Tava. 

Our annual "So Mush Fun" event was this past weekend. We had a great turnout and had great fun running dogs and playing with puppies.  It was beautiful on Saturday and the rain held off until the campfire was just about over.  Ed made marshmallow guns for the kids, but I think the adults enjoyed them more!  The puppies were thrilled to have so much attention and people to jump on!  Penny Kurchak got to practice driving her new sled dogs, Squirrley and Peeper.  They headed home with her to Au Gres, MI where they will be the hit of the neighborhood! 

September 8th, 2005  Well, you thought mail delivery in the U.P. was slow...we just received on of Andrew's drop bags from Iditarod!  It looks like it was postmarked in Shaktoolik in August.  I guess they must have waited for the boats to get to the village before sending out the supplies!  Being it's Andrew's drop bag, we are a little worried about what may be rotting deep inside. 

I am getting organized and packed to head to the Detroit area for about two weeks of school programs.  I will be at several different types of settings including several home-school gatherings and an overnight camp.  I'll also be at Cabela's in Dundee for the day on Saturday, September 17th (my birthday) doing some short demos.  I have the sled, Sacco cart, Momo and Tasha all ready to go!  We are looking forward to our little "working" vacation.  Ed was commenting to a friend on the phone this morning that it's a week of "easy money", yeah, easy for him to say, he'll be staying home and playing with the puppies as I'm entertaining about seven hundred kids!  Ok, he'll probably be doing a few chores around the house, and training my France team, and keeping the 110 dogs fed, and answering the phone and emails...

I'm sure I'll have some great kid stories and photos when I return.  So, if you want to hear the stories in person...remember that SO MUSH FUN weekend is here on September 23-25...we'll see you then!

August 29th, 2005  Puppies Galore!! I thought it was about time I get some puppy pictures updated before they become adults!  Stormy has finally settled into motherhood and even won "Sled Dog Mother of the Year" this week.  We got a tremendous amount of rain on Friday, and her "den" that she dug under her house got flooded.  By the time I got outside to check on the puppies (who are 13 days old) the den was filled with water and she had already carried the pups to high ground and dug a nice little bed under the tarp for them.  They were fuzzy and dry and never knew how smart their mama was!  Pie is doing excellent as mother to the 6-week old "Great Lakes" puppies.  They are the most snuggly puppies I remember; they melt in our arms.  Raven has her hands full with 7-week old Sponge Bob and brother Patrick.  As soon as they get out of the pen...they take off at a full sprint towards the woods.  Never mind that their legs are about 6 inches high, they feel that they can tackle the world!  Tasha's puppies are now about 11 weeks old, and are a handful.  They all line up on top of their house to be fed, and then devour their food in about two minutes!  As kids around the state head back to school, classes have started here at the kennel as well.  The kindergartners have begun fall training--I have nearly thirty yearlings (dogs about 12-18 months old) this year who are all learning to run straight and not to chew their necklines and harnesses.  They are all doing fantastic and show their enthusiasm as they screech and scream while getting hooked up or waiting for me to straighten out a tangle on the trail.  Just like kindergarten, every day is something new and every time we run I see significant improvement.  Ed is training the adults again and I often tease him that I have fewer necklines chewed with the young dogs than he has with the adults that get overly anxious!  It works out well, as he doesn't have the patience for silly puppy behaviors and I don't like the power that eighteen dogs have when pulling the four-wheeler! 

Click on all photos below for larger images. 

Babies Claudia and Colleen--Stormy's puppies

The "Great Lakes" -- Erie and Superior

Tasha's Puppies line up at feeding time

Here come the yearlings...look at how they are all pulling...you'd never know it is only the second time in harness for some of them!

August 26th, 2005  OPAL 2004 and 2005 Iditarod Finisher, and one of our favorite sled dogs of all time passed away on Wednesday, August 24.  Opal was only six years old, and was one of our best leaders, toughest dogs, and everyone's favorite.  She had a very unusual and severe internal infection that overtook her body in a very short time.  She spent her last days with us on the couch and died in our arms.  She will be certainly be missed. 

 August 19th, 2005  Finally...Stormy had her puppies.  She was a few days overdue and HUGE, but only three tiny puppies arrived. The way she looked I had expected 5 or 6.  Sadly, the male didn't make it through the night, so we now have two girls who will be very FAT as they will have plenty of milk!  I named them Claudia (after our good friend Claudia Nowak) and Colleen, since Colleen Wallin owns Stormy. 

We held a work weekend this past weekend...named "HEAT" for Help Ed And Tasha.  Our HEAT helpers worked the weekend in order to earn "dog credit" towards the purchase of a dog.  Thanks to Merlin, Frank, Laura, Keith, Darren, Jake, Tim, Shelly, Jake, Emma, Sam, Mike, and Christine, we got fire wood cut for the year, along with a few miscellaneous jobs around the yard.  The unfortunate part of the weekend was that Keith worked for Rock, so we had to say good bye to one of everyone's favorite dogs.  It was the first Iditarod finisher off of Ed's team that we had sold, and I was surprised how sad Ed was to see him go.  Rock will now be the superstar of Keith's small kennel near Webberville.  Rock is most excited that he gets to check out the couch, and live with his new human sister, Bella Rose. 

Thanks to the cooler weather we have been able to start fall training.  Ed has the "A" team and I have most of the females along with the WILD yearlings.  It's been fun to see what the new dogs we purchased from Aaron Peck in the spring are like.  We didn't get a chance to run them much right after we purchased them because it's been such a warm summer, but I know Ed has some new favorites to run in the team. The small puppies are doing fantastic as well.  Sponge Bob and Patrick are now the favorites among kids because they are the perfect age to hold, and they have the cutest names!  Tasha's puppies have all found their voices and spend a lot of time screeching like crows in their pen wanting attention!

August 8th, 2005  I think the heat has affected my brain and I forgot to update the journal.  The dogs are certainly ready for cooler weather, but the forecast does not look too promising.  The puppies are handling the heat pretty well.  We made some "basements" in each puppy pen to keep the moms and babies cooler.  The pups are much more comfortable but they like to crawl to the very back so I have to crawl underneath to dig them out!  They have been getting a lot of hands on attention with all the summer touring guests.  Sponge Bob and Patrick had their first supper yesterday at 4 weeks old.  They weren't too interested since there are only two of them nursing--they have an "all you can eat" buffet!  Pie's puppies were a little more excited about food (they are 3 weeks) since there are six of them to share mother's milk!  We have also had lots of friends and relatives visit...sometimes I wonder if they are coming to visit us or the puppies!  I can usually talk someone into helping with chores, although the kids prefer to ride in the wagon than feed the dogs!  We also headed down to Traverse City for "musher" picnic hosted by friends Lee and Claudia Nowak.  We went down early for a sail on the Nowak's boat with mushers Charlie and Robin Boulding.  The Bouldings live north of Fairbanks in the bush of Alaska.  Robin's parents live near Traverse City and Charlie has run the Iditarod nine times and has won the Yukon Quest twice.  He's one of the most loved and memorable mushers of distance racing.  It was great to get to know them, and I thought Charlie and Ed would be sharing dog stories, when in fact, they were sharing thoughts on sail boats. Charlie and Robin just purchased a 32-foot sailboat in British Virgin Islands (thanks to the fact that Charlie sold his Iditarod team after this year's race to use as a down payment on the boat!).  I think it would have been safer for Ed to "talk dogs" instead of "talking sailing".  We have dogs...we don't need a sailboat!!  I am keeping busy this week trying to make some plans for the potential of doing a distance race in France in January.  I just found out I was one of 5 mushers in the U.S. invited to participate in Le Grande Odyssée in France.  This is a 14-day, 500 km race that will run through the French and Swiss Alps.  It is an invitation-only race where mushers have to apply and then be selected by a race committee.  It's quite an honor to be selected...but I think the hard work will be coming up with the $12,000 to run the race!

July 18th, 2005 More new puppies!!  Pie is the proud mother of 2 girls and 4 boys.  We had decided to name these after the Great Lakes after a recommendation from a summer touring group.  So, extend a warm welcome to Michigan and Clair (named after Lake Saint Clair), Ontario, Huron, Erie and Superior.  This is Pie's first litter, and she is very relaxed and loving the puppies.  She picked the best day out of the month to have them, it's finally less than 95 degrees with a nice breeze.  This has been an unbelievably HOT and DRY summer.  I finally move Raven's puppies outside today as they've been on the cool floor in the house since it was so hot.  Hopefully we don't see those temperatures again this summer!

I finally got the garden patch puppies named.  They all looked the same so it was hard to tell who was who!   The puppies now have names:  Rhu (Rutabaga), Sprout (Brussel Sprout), Cullie (Cauliflower), Art (Artichoke), Gus (Asparagus), Bok (Bok Choy), Robi (Kohlrabi), and Melon (Watermelon...the largest puppy).  They LOVE attention, so be sure to come up and wear your shoe laces; they like to untie them too!!

July 10th, 2005  Puppies are Born!! Raven had two boys on Saturday, while Tasha was out of town....Ed took the liberty of naming them with out  prior approval...please welcome Spongebob and Patrick.  What is the kennel coming to now???!!!  It's so hot today that she is laying on the living room floor with them to stay a little cooler, and is very happy that she doesn't have to feed eight in the heat like Tasha Canine!

July 7th, 2005 Tasha Canine's Puppies continue to surprise us!  Tasha (the dog) had dug a hole under the whelping house to keep the puppies in because it's been so hot.  We kept moving the puppies back into the house, and she would keep carrying them into the "basement" where it was nice and cool.  We finally gave in and realized that "mother knows best". So, they've been raised underneath the house, and now are starting to craw out from under to eat puppy food.  I don't remember having a littler this advanced at such an early age.  They were walking around nearly before their eyes were open.  I think we are in for trouble with this litter! 

We finally got some rain last week, but along with it came some severe winds.  We almost lost Mouse as a tree fell right across his circle and across his chain. He was standing right next to the tree and couldn't even lift his head!  It's a good thing we were home when it happened.  Ed got the chain saw out and diced up the tree as Mouse watched.  Mouse thought it was pretty neat that "we showed that tree who was boss!".  We have been busy on the weekends with the summer tours, and had about 100 guests here last weekend.  Ed thought we would have a few more, but I thought that was a pretty good turn out. At least it buys our dog food for the upcoming week!  We finally have our signs all up along the road so people can find us now!  Ed routered like crazy and I was a painting machine to make sure they got up before the summer ended!  We've even had a few people who were up here in the winter, but came back in the summer to bring friends or family to show them what they did.  The puppies are loving the attention, especially Slingshot and Hellboy, the ones that are 14 weeks. We have been taking the older puppies (the Incredibles and Spices) to the ponds nearby to swim.  I need to remember to take my camera because I don't ever remember having a litter who likes to swim so much.  Dash will just take off across the pond for no apparent reason and will swim to the other side.  I guess it's good exercise for him!  I am off this weekend to a concert near Traverse City (Alison Krauss) and to spend some time with my parents and sister.  We'll see if Ed can make it here alone, and entertain all the touring guests as well!  I think I'd better plan to be back early on Sunday so he can have some reprieve!

June 21st, 2005

Ed finally made it home from his week long fishing trip...and came back to quite a few surprises.  I have all the flowers planted in the kennel...thanks to an anniversary gift from my mom and dad.  There is now about 16 hanging baskets in the dog yard and flowers planted around many of the building and walkways (thanks to Michele).  It was nice and cool last week, but has gotten pretty steamy this weekend.  Tasha's puppies are doing fantastic and are HUGE!  I put them back outside in the pen so it's a little quieter.  They are already crawling outside of the house so we may have to put a little block up to keep them inside.  The two new pups from Minnesota (Hellboy and Slingshot) have been having a great time following our friends Caitlyn and Elizabeth around in their Barbie Car.  I'm thinking it may be a great new training mobile!

Vinnie and Momo got invited by the Mackinac Island Tourism Bureau to the Horse and Pony Parade on Mackinac Island on Saturday.  Michele helped us on this end, and Tim, Shelly, Emma and Jake met us over there with Pearl and Nana. There was about 100 dogs in the parade, and then we did a short demonstration/talk after the parade.  This was the end of the Lilac Festival on the Island, so there were about 10,000 people hanging around and enjoying the beautiful day.  Vinnie wasn't too sure about the ferry ride, but we got him settled in.  He did love getting ice cream and Momo was totally enthralled with all the horses.  I think she thought they were REALLY big dogs! 

Pearl was pretty tired after an exciting day!  Vinnie and Mo visited the Grand Hotel and wait in line for ice cream!  Vinnie wore his special "Iditarod 2005 Finisher" vest and everyone was very impressed with his accomplishments!

June 12th, 2005  Congratulations Tasha Canine...it's a boy, a girl, a boy, a boy, a girl, a boy, a girl and a boy ! (I think I identified them correctly!) Tasha had a lot of trouble with her last litter (7 born, 2 survived...Cheech and Chong), so we have had her in the house the past month or so getting her acclimated so that she would have her puppies inside.  That way, we can keep a closer eye on them and try to keep her a little calmer.  Her last pups all died within the first 5 days, so I'm hoping for the best this time.  So far, so good.  Everyone is healthy and nursing well, and she doesn't appear to be agitated at all.  Ed is gone to Canada fishing this week, so I got to play "midwife" last night.  Tasha was in labor most of the day yesterday so I knew we were getting close, and then last night she woke me up about 4:45 am, and wanted to sleep in the bed and have her puppies there too!!  Believe it or not, there IS a limit to how far I will go for the dogs!  We made a nice whelping box for her downstairs, so I went down and laid on the couch so she would stay in the box.  We weren't downstairs 10 minutes and the first one was born!  I took some pretty good photos, I hope Tasha doesn't mind me exposing her, but it was pretty neat to watch the whole process up close.  Besides, what else was I going to do at 5 in the morning??  The pups will make their first visit to the vet in about 3-4 days to have their dew claws removed.  Then it will be all up to mom to take care of them for about 4 weeks before we will start them on mushy food.  I'll keep them in the house for about the first two weeks just to be sure that all is well, and then we'll move them outside to the real whelping house and puppy pen!

June 6th, 2005  Summer is here, and it's time for vacations...ok, a weekend away without dogs definitely counts as a vacation.  We met friends in Indian River for Memorial Day Weekend, and believe it or not, we didn't even take a dog along with us!  Ed and I, along with my parents and Tim VanderMeulen ran in the Mackinac Island Memorial Race. It was a beautiful morning, no wind and the sun rose on the lake as we crossed the bridge.  We made it back to Indian River just as everyone else was getting up!  The rest of the weekend was spent eating a lot of ice cream, having water balloon fights, and sitting around the campfire.  It was a much needed vacation, and the best part of it was that when we returned home our friend Michele (who lives in Newberry and is our official kennel-sitter) planted flowers all around the house and kennel.  I told her that that worked out great, I got more done around the house by being gone! 

Michele and I headed to Duluth this past weekend to do a "dog shuffle".  We took Panther to Andrew at his parent's in Herbster, WI (near Bayfield), and as you can see, the dogs had a great time traveling!  We returned Willow to Chris and Ingrid Evavold, and also took them Little Heaven to replace Hedgie who we've decided to keep for breeding.  We had to deliver some food as well, and if you look closely in each picture, you can see Little Heaven's head in the dog food bag!  We also picked up two puppies from Ward and Colleen Wallin.  Many of you have met the "Disasters" who we purchased last summer and you may remember that Flood (one of the pups) had an enlarged esophagus so he became Michele's house dog.  We picked up Flood's replacement this weekend, who actually has the same parents as the disasters.  Ed has named him "Hellboy" and we brought his sister along, who I think we'll name Slingshot (as Ed has been trying to kill the squirrels who get in the bird feeder!). It's much easier for the puppies to adjust to a new place if they had a buddy, so we surprised Ed with two! The puppies each got baths before we left, and they found lots of things to chew on in the car as we traveled along!  Ed complied about the HOT weather that he had all weekend while we were gone, and I assured him that the cool front is coming because it was 54 degrees in Duluth when we left Sunday at 3pm! It was GREAT to see all our old friends, even though it was short trip.  I do miss the city life, but don't miss the Minnesota red-clay and mud...I'd rather have the sand any day!  I spent the morning today planting my garden, so hopefully we'll have a few veggies in a few weeks if the mosquitoes don't devour them! 

May 27th, 2005 The porcupine still lurks in our midst...I'm pretty sure it is dead.  Trapper found it for the second time and yesterday Rock returned with 20 quills in his leg and foot and about 10 in his mouth.  The puppies have yet to discover it, so I'm sure it's at the far end of the kennel away from the puppy trail.  Tasha Canine is getting very full of puppies...her tummy has exploded and so has her appetite.  She is due June 10th and we'll be keeping a close eye on her once the pups arrive.  Last spring she had a litter of 8, but had a hard time adjusting to motherhood and only two survived (Cheech and Chong).  We think she was laying on the pups and squishing them, so this time she will have them in the house so we can watch what is going on.  Our new dogs from Aaron Peck (the kennel Ed purchased after Iditarod) are all settling in very nicely and getting along great.  We have "de-segregated" them so that now they are all mixed in with our dogs so they can get to know each other better.  They go on walks together now and wrestle in the evenings with the new friends.  My favorites are Big Ben, who reminds me of Rock, Max, who only likes females, and Zip, because he loves to play with Bert.  We also purchased nine 9-month old puppies from Aaron who love to run around with our pups and swim in the pond.  There are 6 "Hockey Players":  Jerome, Yzerman, Gretzky, Hallie, Tucker, and Cassie, and 3 "Cheeses": Munster, Monty and Feta.  Cheech and Chong are also "big dogs" now as they have moved out of the puppy pen and into the kennel.  We decided it was about time since they are nearly as big as Momo and much larger than Rainy, not to mention the fact that Cheech elected himself the boss of the puppies and constantly tried to strut his stuff in the puppy pen.  We'll have two more litters in about 1 1/2 months:  Raven (bred with Thunder, a new dog) and Pie Pie bred with Maple.  So...get those puppy names ready...we'd like to stick with a theme for each litter so it will be easier to remember who goes with who in the future!

We are frequently asked is this our "slow" time of year since most people assume that since winter is over, that we have lots of time since we are not training dogs...WRONG!  It's the time of year that we try to make money, attract new sponsors, get the kennel cleaned up and make new  improvements.  Ed and I both act as caretakers for a friend's home in Munising, so during the week we are traveling back and forth.  On our days off, we have been getting the place ready for our "summer tours" to begin mid-June.  We will have our kennel open to the public on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays this summer from noon to 8 pm, June 17-October 1st.  We'll do an Iditarod program, talk about dog care, provide a guided tour of the kennel, allow guests to hold the puppies, open a small gift shop, and even demonstrate the running of a dog team by 4-wheeler.  I went to a lot of kennels in Alaska last summer who are doing a similar thing, and thought it would be a great idea to get something started like that down here.  We'll keep you posted on how it goes!  Ed is getting a little "Iditarod Bug" as the first-day sign-up for the 2006 race approaches in June.  He is not going to sign up this year on the first day, as we need to acquire a major sponsor before we make the commitment.  I would hate for him not to go after learning so much in the past two years, so the "money search" is on again...which I have to admit is not my favorite part of the job!  Fortunately, I feel we have a lot to offer companies, as we will have two outstanding competitive teams for the mid-west races this year, in addition, Ed was the only musher in Michigan and one of only a small handful of mushers from the lower 48 to run the Iditarod the past two years.  And lest we forget, we have the cutest, most cuddly sled dogs I've ever seen.  Who, by the way, all have their summer "haircuts" as I brushed them all two days ago.  It looked like a pack of rabbits got attacked in the dog yard there was so much fur blowing around! 

May 13th, 2005  Here's to the first Nature's Kennel Dog--Nature.  Nature was put to rest on Wednesday, after 15 years of training over 150 puppies, keeping Ed in line, and protecting us all.  She now lies in the center of the kennel parkway so she can still be the center of attention and be on time for dinner.  It's the first time we've been left without the alpha female, boss of the universe, the only non-husky on the premises, and all-around "dog who knows everything and speaks human".  Her memory and bark will be with us forever.

It was raining and cold this morning, so we ran several teams of dogs.   What else is more fun than getting muddy, soaked, and thinking that we must have missed spring and summer because this sure feels like fall today!  The girls all did great, and Ed wanted me to mention that he even got Puppy to run great in harness.  Never mind that we've given her an extra month to mature before trying to get her adjusted into the team, Ed would like to earn credit for his "magic".  After running a lot of the puppies and yearlings today, Ed and I did decided that we have a nice working relationship in the kennel.  I don't mind the time it takes to train the puppies and yearlings that he doesn't have the patience for, and he likes to go on the LONG training runs with the adults that I really don't care for.   So, I'll continue to train the wild and crazy puppies, and hand them over to him once they stop chewing, stand on the line, don't wrestle going down the trail, and are good, well behaved adult sled dogs! 

May 10th, 2005  The Iditarod Odyssey program had a great turn out at our little local town hall.  As I told a friend, I can't believe that so many people want to come and hear Ed talk about himself :.)  Actually, I think everyone came to see the super star sled dogs.  And the dogs loved the program because they got to have free hot dogs!  It was great to see so many friends, and have some of our Mutt Club and Super Mutt Club members pay their special dogs a visit.  We also had the famous "super cool sled dog stuff" raffle where nearly everyone was a winner!  I have CD's made of the 2005 Odyssey Program (it's a powerpoint file) and if you'd like your own copy, just let me know.

Momo and Trapper (Trapper is the 14 year old who wanders free around the kennel) reminded us that they are still more dog than human as they showed up at our door on Monday after we had finished chores showing off mouths full of porcupine quills.  Neither of them was too happy to be tied to the post by the porch as each awaited the "quill pulling treatment".  I have a feeling there's a dead porcupine somewhere close to the house, so I've been on the watch for stinky dead stuff! 

Ed and I have begun our summer work in Munising for our friends Barb and Charlie.  We are also in the midst of planning our "summer touring" programs.  We'd like to open our kennel to the public on weekends this summer, and offer a short Iditarod program, a dog sled demonstration, and an opportunity for people to pet the puppies and get a kennel tour.  More details will be posted as we get them ironed out!  The black flies have just hatched, so we are definitely reminded that we live in the U.P.!  They aren't too unbearable yet...but I'm sure the "best is yet to come!".  Ed's dad brought up a tiller this weekend and has my garden all ready for planting, so I'm off to put the potatoes in the ground, and hope for another bumper crop this year!

April 27th, 2005  No snow today, so that's a good sign!  I took the Sacco cart again--wow that is a wild ride!  Ed took out two of the big boys yesterday, and commented that he can't believe that I like to go on it!  Once you get used to being so low to the ground, it's really not too bad.  I took Winnie and Opal today and even though they are small, they had no problem pulling me. 

Ed is finally catching up on some of his fan mail from the Iditarod.  He said we should have a map of the US and pin point each place the letters come from.  Tonight he has letters to answer from Arkansas, Iowa, Colorado, Illinois, Kentucky, Montana, Nebraska, Virginia, Kansas, Idaho, Indiana, Minnesota, and of course one or two from Michigan.  Most of the kids send a short letter, some send school pictures, one sent a picture of her new puppies, and one 8-year old said that he picked Ed as his musher because he "reminds him of a cartoon character".  How is it that Ed's reputation has reached all the way to Arkansas??!! Most of the envelopes come with a self-addressed-stamped envelope so each kid gets a bootie and musher card. Rock said he would personally like to deliver all the letters to the kids himself. As you can see, he's pretty proud to be front row center in the latest class picture taken at the kennel of the Grand Marais kids on their field trip.  I subbed at Curtis Elementary School today.  The students asked where Momo was, and were pretty excited that they got the "sled dog lady" as their substitute teacher!

April 26th, 2005    I think the photo says enough!

April 24th, 2005

Ed has been bothering me to write another journal entry...I didn't realize how long it had been.  I told him that I would show him how to do the updating, but he said no, I could do it.  We had a great vacation a couple weeks ago as we headed south...to Indiana.  We did a couple of school programs on the way down, and on the way home, but still got to spend about 7 days doing "nothing".  Those of you who know us well, know that "nothing" always means "something".  In this case, it meant walking miles around downtown Chicago, visiting the Field Museum, going to see one of our favorite folk musicians (John Gorka) and spending a few days hiking around Turkey Run State Park in Indiana.  The weather was great...nice and warm everyday.  The time away from dogs was great, but after about 10 days on the road, we were more than ready to get back home!  I had a few school programs up here to finish up, and we had the Grand Marais students here on Wednesday for a field trip.  The dogs always LOVE it when all the kids come to visit...well, most of them love it like Rock, Momo, Pather, and Skip.  Mickey and Mouse are always skeptical of so many people wandering around the kennel!  We are also in the midst of making plans for next season, as this is the time of year when we decide the winter touring schedule, the races that we would like to do, and the number of dogs we need for each of those activities.  We are also preparing to kick off our summer season and will be opening the kennel to the public with demonstrations and programs of summer tourists.  There is a need up here for more tourist attractions, so we would like to help fill that gap by offering an Iditarod program, having kennel tours, and hooking up the dogs so people can see what they look like in a team.  We would not offer rides as the weather is too warm to run multiple teams, but we would be able to do a short demo.  I will have more information on those programs on the homepage as the plans become more concrete.

For now I have have been training leaders with our new Sacco cart.  I will have Ed take some photos of me with the cart, which resembles a "sit-down" bike, with two dogs hooked to the front of it.  We are also running teams with the 4-wheeler on cool mornings so that the dogs don't get too bored this spring.  We also have our Iditarod Odyssey program scheduled...so hopefully we will get to see some of you up here on May 7th for the program. 

April 4th, 2005

As you can imagine, everyone is finally back home...and back to work.  We just finished our last tour of the season this weekend.  A group of Japanese students from Ann Arbor came up for a weekend of warm adventure!  It was so warm that we could run dogs in a t-shirt; fun for the people but a little hot for the dogs!  We are now getting ready to celebrate with a vacation to the tropical city of Chicago and the warm state of Indiana.  We would have traveled to Florida, but Ed decided to spend his vacation money on several new dogs.  We had to quickly make space for 18 adults and several puppies who are still on their way here from Ontario.  They are all settling in, and Tasha is still trying to forgive Ed for purchasing dogs without prior approval!  Next year I'll have to be in Nome to make sure that no more rash decisions are made!  We still have great snow on our trails up here, so we are training puppies today and playing with Ed's nephews.  They are pretty excited to turn their own teams and see how well Uncle Ed can handle the dogs!  Andrew is getting ready to head off for the summer, but will be here until we return from vacation.  He's looking forward to a quiet week and just hanging out with the dogs.  I am in the process of lining up an "Iditarod Odyssey" program date similar to the program we did last year.  The drop bags are still returning with all the cameras...and stinky booties...and old gloves...and left over Iditarod "junk"! 

March 26th, 2005

I realized after I got home to check the email and website, that I never posted the fact that Andrew made it to Nome as well!  I'm sure you have all figured that out by now though!  It took a while for Andrew's dogs to get flown out of Nome, so they guys just left Alaska on Friday, and are finally headed back home.  I came in on Wednesday, after a LONG flight that got delayed on the last leg from Detroit to Pellston.  Oh well, I can't complain too badly, at least I'm not driving!  We still have a TON of snow here; the most we have had all winter!  I took the puppies out for a run today, and the trails are still in excellent shape.  I think we'll be running sleds into April again this year.  It sure is a big change from the grass that was showing through all around Anchorage.  All the dogs here on the home front survived just fine, in fact, I don't even think they were very excited to see me.  My parents had the last shift of "dog care", and they had everyone spoiled by the time I arrived!  Mom and dad were pretty sad to leave today and they weren't sure that I was capable of taking care of all the puppies, Nature, and big dogs.  They had them on a pretty good schedule for feeding and walks, so I'm going to have to be on my toes now!  I didn't want to clog up this journal with too many Iditarod photos, so they are all in the Iditarod Photos Page, hopefully it works!

The musher made it to Nome!

The musher made it to Nome!  Last year the first conversation I had with Ed after he finished ended with, “I’ll never do that again…”  This year it ended with, “It was fun.”.  Oh no…now what does that mean???  Anyway, he’s happy, I’m sure the dogs are happy, and Andrew is expected to arrive later this evening.  I have to pick up Ed’s dogs at the airport in Anchorage tonight at midnight.  Gimli got dropped from Andrew’s team as well, so he is on the flight with Ed’s group.  Mouse was dropped from Ed’s team in Safety (20 miles from the finish line) with a sore shoulder, and he gets to come with his team as well.  It sounds like they are having a great time celebrating in Nome, I can’t wait to hear what happens after Andrew gets in too!!

March 16, 2005

The Iditarod “ups and downs” are running their course through Ed’s mind.  He called late on Monday night from Kaltag feeling pretty discouraged about the dogs, the trail, and his wet feet.  He had to drop Boom in Anvik because he had a sore rear leg and dropped Tops in Kaltag.  Things got brighter though, because by the time he called from Unalakleet he was in a much better mood.  The dogs were running better and the areas where the winds were really bad last year were very calm this year.  It’s still really warm, but the trail seems to be getting better.  He lost the trail coming into Shaktoolik several times because it was snowing very heavily, and there was thick fog.  The reflectors on the markers didn’t show up, and he could only see the rear two dogs.  Buz and Vinnie led them through! 

When he was getting ready to leave Kaltag, a couple of vets came up to him in a panic and said that there was a very sick dog at the next checkpoint, and there was no way to get some of the necessary medications up there. The weather was pretty bad so they were unable to fly it, and sometimes dog team is faster than snow machine…so Ed had to carry the modern day “serum” up the trail to Unalakleet.  Come to find out…that dog belonged to Gregg Hickman.  Ed said that when he got to Unalakleet the vets came running up to get the package, and Ed told them that “the serum has arrived!”.

Our phone conversation from Koyuk was really positive, and the dogs are running better and better.  He mentioned Butter several times as the superstar, having so much energy that she kept sassing Buz during the storm last night.  He said that Maple had the blues and the flu during the last run, so he put him in the bag for about 5 hours during the run, and now that he is stopped again, Maple is eating, drinking, and wagging his tail.  So he’ll get to leave Koyuk with the rest of the team at about 1 am (Alaska time). 

I haven’t heard from Andrew, but his mom emailed and said that she talked to him yesterday.  He dropped Bert, who I have now as well.  Bert’s wrist is pretty sore, but I think that spending some time relaxing in the box will get it healed.  Andrew’s run times are still looking good, and he is one of only three mushers with 14 dogs, so I’m sure he’s pretty happy with his team.  Ed said that he may have a tough trail ahead because they were re-routing the trail as the mushers went because the river was starting to open up.  Ed was concerned that those behind him may encounter some really rough trail.