Nature's Kennel Sled Dog Racing & Adventures

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Saturday, May 18th, 2013

Nature's Kennel

PO Box 5
McMillan, MI 49853
Tel: 1-906-748-0513
Email: info@natureskennel.com

Dog Blog

Adventure Journals

Welcome to the Nature's Kennel Dog Blog! Check out the latest kennel news, stories of your favorite sled dogs, Iditarod training adventures, and more!

Wednesday, April 20th, 2011 We're leaving one of our passengers in Ft. Wayne with Aunt Michele...Nate isn't going to be making the rest of the trek with us. When we saw the grandparents last week, they begged to have Nate for the remainder of our trip. I knew that if we showed up at Michele's without him we'd be in trouble, so he's here with us now. We leave for Columbus this afternoon, and Nate will hang with Michele and get captured tomorrow by Tasha's parents. He's been a great road tripper, and is finally over his terrible cold, and is just gettting fun again. BUT, I'm sure he'd rather play at grandma's than keep driving with us. We have a few states left to cover, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, DC, and Pennsylvania. So, probably a good thing he's ditching us right now! The trip has been great, and after hearing the weather reports from Jess at home, I'm glad we are not home trying to get projects done. What a snowy, miserable mess. She's doing a great jobm though. Tuuli's pups are doing great and had their dew claws off yesterday. So a big thanks to Jess for stills snow plowing and kennel sitting! Posted by Tasha

Wednesday, April 13th, 2011 Oops. Forgot the origional reason I had started an journal entry. We are looking for summer kennel help to assist with chores, puppies, etc. There are more details under the "Help Wanted" section to the left. If you know of anyone interested...pass the word! Posted by Tasha

Wednesday, April 13th, 2011 The road warriors are still hanging tough! Nate has contracted a terrible cough and cold, but he's been a trooper. Poor kid can't handle so many non-dog germs! I think he's allergic to people. We are at my (Tasha's) parents house in Belding tonight after doing three days of program in the Detroit area. Thanks Aunt Lynne for letting us invade your house and to Xena, Clove, Raven and Timber for letting Ayn sleep over. We head to East Grand Rapids tomorrow to Ms. Anderson's class who are some of our biggest Iditarod fans. They sponsored Gus and Mad Max this year, so it will be great to share some stories with them. The it's off to Grand Haven and Zeeland. Don't foget the public program in Zeeland at 6:30 pm at the Community Reformed Church. We are going to have Ayn with us (Nate will be with grandma) and will do an introduction to sled dog racing and Ed will share his Iditarod stories and photos. It should be a really neat event. Jess has been doing great at home...collecting rocks, repairing sleds, entertaining dogs, and keeping the house running. Nate and Lindsey Demers are renting one of our cabins for the month so I know she's enjoyed having a few other humans to talk to! More from the road soon! Posted by Tasha

Monday, April 11th, 2011 Our school-program road trip is going great. We have made it to Moline, Chicago and are now in the Detroit metro area for a few days before heading back east to Grand Rapids, Grand Haven and the south to Indiana, Ohio, Virginia and Pennsylvania. Feels like we have been traveling for weeks, but it's only been a few days and we have weeks to go. Ayn is loving her relaxing days in Lynne's back yard with Timber, Raven, Clove, and Xena. Feels good to be a sled dog again! Nate has been a trooper despite a terrible cold (that's what happens when you get into the real world of germs) and he may be cutting a few molars. The kid can eat dirt, raw meat, and dog food and never so much as sneeze but he doesn't handle school germs very well! We get to see one of our old dogs, Rock, tonight as he's coming over for a visit, and then it's off to West Bloomfield tomorrow. Thanks Cas and Mike for the dinner and baseball game last night, great job Luke and cool snake, Olivia! Posted by Tasha

Tuesday, April 5th, 2011 Home, Sweet Home!!! The Alaskan journey this year was an "easy" one. Beautiful driving conditions, beautiful racing conditions, a beautiful dog team, and an unbelievable dog sled. There are many many thanks to hand out to people all over the U.S.A. that helped make the journey easier. One particular “THANK YOU!” goes out to Harry Putney. Harry has helped me build my dog sleds for the past 5 or 6 years and this year I tortured the sled we made. During the season, I made some modifications to the dimensions of my Iditarod sled and it worked out to be the nicest driving sled I have owned yet. When loaded with survival gear and a day’s worth of dog food, it drove like a dream. This is a must on the Iditarod trail because there is no easy section. Whether the obstacle is glare ice, “mash potato” snow trenches, tight trail, trees, or in a specific case this year, a re-routing at the bottom of the Happy River Steps. In the middle of the re-route I launched and hit a tree head on. The team was descending a very steep hill at the time so we were going full speed. I flew over the sled, joining the wheel dogs in total shock of what had just happened. With two bent runners, the sled still drove perfectly and it was not until two days later when I hit a rock sliding across glare ice did I notice the two cracked stanchions. Both of them were bent at about a 5 degree angle but they were still holding. This is where Harry is sooooooooooooo special. Harry hand selects the white ash wood to use as stanchions. He then cuts, planes, re-selects, matches, glues, clamps, cuts again, and planes again. Then the best of the best of these stanchions end up on my Iditarod sled. I firmly believe that it was due to Harry’s quality control that my sled held together. (I actually drove the sled for a fortunately uneventful day and a half with just a piece of trail marker and electrical tape offering some support to the angled stanchions before fixing them during my 24 hour mandatory layover.) THANK YOU HARRY! Posted by Ed

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