Spring has Sprung

As I sit here today the leaves are budding on the trees and green is showing everywhere, especially on the river hill and I remember my Grandma always saying it was time to plant your potatoes when the leaves budded on the river hill. Guess I better pull out the cultivator and get on that. The weather here has been unseasonably warm and so the dogs and I have not been running. Now that I know my dogs better I have been letting 4 at a time loose in the dog yard to play and relax for the day. They seem to really enjoy hanging out together and choosing which dog house they will lay by. Spring work needs to be done now..it's time to clean the straw out of the dog houses, rake up the yard, fix any problems in the fence, fill holes and hanging new water buckets. It's also the time of year to curb their boredom with some well deserved LARGE leg bones from the local butcher. They love these and it sure cuts down on the digging and chewing. I also have a few tricks up my sleeve that I want to try this year and will post pictures at a later date. We did manage one spring run a couple weeks ago before it got REALLY hot. Aimee and I hooked up 8 and let Cha Cha run free. We took all new trails and I wondered why I never ran this route last fall it would have been a beautiful run. This year for sure.

The trail to the right leads down to a place we call the Snake Pit. Yes, there are real snakes there. The garter snakes hibernate on the south facing hill above the river and all come out in the spring to breed. Sometimes if you can catch them at the right time there are hundreds of snakes. We can't go down there with the dogs though, the trail is too dangerous but the view is AWESOME.

Ahhhh..Refreshing

Running along the creek

Another puddle stop. This helps the dogs cool down as they can lay down in it and get a drink.

The end of our run we are approx 1/4 mile from home here. Cha Cha leading the way.

My neighbour met us on the road and I took her daughter for a spin. Nice moving team. Jazz and Lucy in lead, Thunder and Jitterbug in swing, Fox Trot and Prophet in team and Siboon and Ochocco in wheel.

We recently added a new member to our family as well....

This is Cricket. He is a Bichon Frise/Yorkshire Terrier Cross and should mature around 6-8 lbs in weight. He is fitting in well and the kids loooovvve him. They have really missed having a pet dog since our Shadow went missing last November and we seem to not have very good luck with outdoor pet dogs...enter Cricket.

We will keep you updated on Crickets progress as well as all the spring/summer goings on in the dog yard. Until Then....Happy Trails and Wagging Tails.

A quick look at our only Spring run. It's hard to video and steer at the same time.

Watch Thunder in swing when I ask them to go haw...Good Dog..he's "showing" my leaders the right way.

Winter Wind Up and Springing Ahead

We started our winter wind up with a group of Dog 4-H'ers coming for some sled dog education and a ride. I began with a short talk about equipment and how it's used and commands you use out on the trail and then came the fun part. There were a few comments on how quiet they were while we were harnessing them and I snickered to myself and said "Just Wait". Of course with only nine the volume level is nowhere near what it's like in a yard with 40 - 50 dogs but they can still kick up quite a fuss. I loaded the sled with the first 3 kids and off we went

Look at my old man Prophet, 11 years old and still the one screaming and banging his harness.

We ran a mile and then switched kids..this time I had 4 and they were much heavier...ok..lesson learned when the snow is soft in late afternoon and you have over one hundred pounds in your sled and half of that is sitting, pretty much, right on your brush bow expect to spend a lot of time pulling your sled out of the ditch. All in all though it was a great experience and the kids were great.

Next we had a celebration for my Grandma who is 98 this year. Lot's of family came and my aunt and uncle form Three Hills were here. Auntie wanted to come see the dogs and take a ride. Both of these tours were only 2 miles and for this one I had Aimee hook up Thunder and Ochocco and run in front of us. It was getting pretty muddy out there by this time and I wondered how much time I had left before we would be off the sled and onto the quad.

Auntie Kaye in her cocoon ready to go. My snow hook isn't really hooked into anything that's just for effect.

The hired dog handler that was working here for the winter getting the Iditarod Team ready had asked me to come take pictures of this run. What a fun day with a group of young dogs and great people.

If you look closely there are 3 people and a dog in that car. I asked why Phoenix wasn't running with the team but apparently she is to good to be a sled dog anymore. Hee Hee.

The Arctic Winter Games were held in Grand Prairie this year and I spent 2 days watching the Dog Mushing competition. The winter games are for youths aged 11 - 17 and this competition in particular was a sprint dog race. It's a shorter track 6 - 8 miles, less dogs and they go top speed. I only got pictures the first day as, silly me, forgot to put the battery in my camera. Here's a few of my favorite shots.

These Hounds were on of my favorite teams from Alaska..Leaders are father and daughter

Former Bezanson sled dog, Mighty Mouse, running with his new team from Nunavut

Musher Kicking his team to the finish.

Finally came my turn to take two of my best friends out to enjoy the complete dog sled experience.

We ran 15 miles and 20 miles respectively and Aimee ran both times with a three dog team. What a great experience for her as well. Our 20 mile run was a workout as we were quickly running out of snow and I had to push the sled over some lovely bare ground and mud.

Aimee and I with our teams.

Aimee with her team of Thunder Ochocoo and Jazz.

"Freedom Baby"... love this gal.

Then Aimee took over the video taking..a little wiggly but neat perspective.

Aimee with leader Ochocco on our 20 mile run....the smile says it all.

When I say my friends get the complete dog sledding experience I mean it...I let them do it all including driving the team on their own.

I believed this run was my last on the sled but Mother Nature had other ideas and gave us a nice dump of snow so I did one more tour after this one and then that was the end of the season. We have been busy with other things and yesterday was my first run in a while but here we are..10 miles on the gravel treadmill

Thunder and Ochocco , Jazz and Jitterbug, Lucy and Fox Trot, Prophet and Siboon

It was a great run. The dogs were excited to go and it was nice and cool yesterday snowing when we left home but that soon stopped. This is the first time since January I have run all the dogs together and that felt pretty good.

We have sprung ahead now and spring running will continue off and on for a little while and when we can no longer run with the quad we will be doing many free runs.

Until next time

Happy Trails and Wagging Tails