Shadowbox Kennels

I love puppies! They are so much fun! The four black boys look a lot alike. So do the two grey girls.

The puppies are so cute! They’re starting to show different personalities now, and we can finally tell them all apart!

Plus, it’s snowing! We have so much snow now, it’s awesome. Almost a foot here, and we’re supposed to get more. Yah! Soon I’ll have to snowmachine out, and we might give the dogsled a try soon. I can’t wait!

In chicken news, we got a rooster. His name is Rocky, and he’s an Americauna. He’s a very pretty boy, and likes his new home. I’ll try and get a pic of him soon.

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I had hoped a friend of ours would help run today, but unfortunately, she couldn’t come. And with Jess still sore (apparently she sprained something), that didn’t leave me with much help. But I haven’t bikejored for a long time, so I thought, hey, let’s give it a shot! So I took Slate bikejoring for his first time today. He did so good! I knew he would, and have been wanting to take him. We didn’t go far for his first time, maybe a mile, but it went really well. He pulled hard the whole time, and most of the time I had the brakes on!

The puppies are doing good. They’re getting so big! They’re almost four weeks old now, and are eating three meals a day. I might start them on a fourth meal soon. Tomorrow I’ll likely deworm them for the first time, and give their yard a good cleaning. I’m still considering keeping one, and I’ve narrowed it down to two. But I can pretty much tell them all apart now. I still have trouble with two of the black boys.

Here they all are, coming out to eat.

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The puppies are so cute! We started giving them soaked dog food, all mushed up. Some of them are taking to it really well, and some don’t seem to care. They’re only three weeks old, so I’m not too concerned! We usually start them at this age, and they’re pretty much weaned around five weeks. A couple of the puppies just love the new food, and eat and eat and eat! They’re so cute! We’re starting to be able to tell the difference between them. It’s easy with the grey boy, since the other two grey ones are girls, and they’re more black than grey. But I can’t tell the difference between the two girls. As far as I can see, they’re identical! Of the four black boys, one is noticeably bigger and has only a few white hairs on his chest. One has a little bit of white hair on his chest, one has more and some white on his toes, and the last one has a lot of white on his chest, and white toes. We haven’t really decided who gets what name. We started with the grey boy, and he’s Harm (Harman Rab Jr.). The two girls are Kate and Meg, but I can’t tell them apart anyway, so it doesn’t matter. The fat black boy is Bud. We haven’t figured out the other three yet. They’re adorable! I’ll get more pix soon!

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Today is an awesome day for running, overcast, 0*c, and nice and dry. We just took one team out, since Jess is still sore. Apparently she’s a bit more sore now, but hey, no pain, no gain, right? Sorry bout that, Jess! 8-P Mom said next time I should get someone else to help, so Jess can actually heal. But we just took three dogs, Ruger, Slate, and Blacky. There were all happy to get out. We’ve given Blacky a break from lead the last few runs. Usually I run him up front with Slate, but last time we ran Mufasa in lead, and this time Ruger. They all did good. Blacky ran hard and pulled with all his might, as usual. Slate did too, and did awesome in lead. Ruger, well, pulled most of the time, but I had to keep on him. He’s gotten away with slacking, but no more. When I run him with Sierra in lead, he doesn’t really pull, and she’s not a very hard-driving leader. She does much better in team. But with Slate actually working hard, if I slow down enough, Ruger has to pull. He just needs a bit of reminder! He’s such a big dog. His harness is huge, and I still think it could be bigger. It’s hard to tell, with all of his fur! But overall the run went very well. I’m very pleased with how Blacky’s coming along. He pulls great in any position, and is doing much better standing in line. Slate’s amazing, and a real workhorse. Listen well, too. Blacky and Sierra listen well, and seem to know what I want. Ruger, well, doesn’t really pay much attention to me unless I have food. He’s a good dog though. I like him.

I went to visit the people that have Rainy last night, and she was so excited to see me! I took her for a walk, because she was all hyper and wouldn’t stay still. After that, she calmed down and was settled when I left. She’s so cute! She loves being a house dog though.

The puppies are growing so fast! They’re all growling and playing in the dog house. None of them have ventured out on their own yet. They come about halfway out of the house, and then decide it’s too cold, or bright, or scary or something, and turn around. But we’ve taken them out to play with. They’ll be three weeks tomorrow, so we might start to try weaning them. I know Foxy would appreciate it! Poor girl, just gives me this look as she tries to make room for them all to nurse, like, ‘pity me!’ That’s when I look at Blacky and say, ‘you’re the one that did this to her!’ He doesn’t seem to care. I gave Foxy some milk and syrup the other day, and she grabbed the cup and started carrying it around. Here’s a pic:

Isn’t she cute? Four of the boys will look a lot like her. Same colour, anyway.

On the chicken front, we got eight eggs this morning. Not bad, eh� Usually after a year they only lay every couple of days, so twelve chickens laying eight eggs isn’t bad. Yesterday we got seven. We’ll likely get twelve laying chicks in the spring, plus two roosters. Seems to be a good number for the coop we built.

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So, I finally got some pix. Here’s one of the chicken coop we built inside the drive shed.

And you may wonder where all the chickens are. Well, they’re attacking my boots!

I’m not sure why, they had some weird fascination with them. All twelve of them were trying to get at my feet. But here’s a pic of them after I fed them.

Here is the lonely egg I found this morning. Jess already collected a few, and then got a couple more later on. Not bad for some old hens, eh?

I like the chickens. They’re entertaining, and easy to keep. And the dogs appreciate the eggs!

Speaking of dogs–puppy pix! This is all of them, or rather, at least part of each of them. Three are grey and four are black. Two of the grey pups are girls, and the rest are boys.

Here’s one of the boys. They’re so fat! They’re going to look just like their mommy–in colour, anyway.

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If I look out my window right now, everything is white. It’s amazing! I love snow! The roads were a little dicey driving home from work yesterday, but it’s definitely worth it.

The chickens have settled into their new home.� It’s been cold the last few days, but they seem to be handling it fine. Must be the nice house I built for them!

The puppies are so cute! I’ll get some more pix of them later this morning. They’re not coming out of their house yet, but they’re starting to play inside the house, and growl and stuff. They’re adorable!!!

Rainy is doing awesome in her new home. She’s mostly an indoor dog, and absolutely loves it! She spent the first few days getting used to it, but now she’s starting to show more of her character. Darren just loves her. When he came home from getting her, his mom said he ran in the house and started telling all the animals that they had a new dog, and was jumping on the couch and basically bouncing off the walls. He’s so cute! I’m glad they like her. His dad does some sledding every once in awhile, and she’ll likely get out with him a few times this winter.

We decided to name the pups after ‘Jag’ characters. The two girls are Kate and Meg, and the boys are Jag, Harm, Mac, Bud, and Austen.

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The other day a lady called and asked if we were still looking for laying hens, and we were, and she had some she wanted to sell, so yesterday we went and picked up a dozen rhode island red laying hens. They’re pretty cool, I mean, if you’re interested in that sort of stuff! I’ll get a pic up of them in the next few days. Right now they’re busy settling in to their new coop. But we’ve gotten seven eggs since yesterday afternoon, so that’s not bad! I got them so we could have a continual supply of eggs for the dogs. My sister (who is also my handler) wants to sell them. So hopefully they lay lots of eggs!

A friend of ours was looking for an ‘indoor’ dog, so after they dropped off the chickens for us, they took Rainy home with them. She’s technically a birthday present for their soon-to-be three yr. old son. He absolutely loves her, and Rainy loves being an indoor dog. Of course, she still spends time in the dog yard when they’re gone, and I’m sure she’ll do her share of sledding. Their son already has his own plastic dog sled. It’s pretty cute.

My sister hurt her back the other day, so I can’t really do much until she’s better. Unfortunately, I’m quite dependent on her.� But once I’m finished my house-sitting, I want to try doing some bikejoring. Maybe I can get together with some local sledders and we can head out on some trails.

After the last three weekends of house-sitting, I’ve learned two things: one, I drink a lot of tea. Almost constantly when I’m inside, actually. And two, I can’t drink tetley. It has to be red rose. So I went out and bought my own package of red rose orange pekoe, and bring it with me every weekend. And if we were to add a third, I eat a lot of ice cream. But I have a very active job and lifestyle, so I don’t need to feel guilty. At least, that’s what I tell myself . . . .

So I was talking about the poultry I’d like to order next spring, and other random livestock, and my mom says to me, ‘We don’t live on a farm!’ To which I replied ‘We will by the time I’m done with it!’ So this summer we had turkeys and pigs, which we plan on getting again next spring. Add to that the laying hens, which we’ll also get more of, plus meat chickens, and possibly pheasant. Random, I know, but we’ve got to do something different, right� And the only thing stopping me from getting a meat cow this fall is that I didn’t have anywhere to keep it. But now that the pig pen is empty (and the freezer is full!) I thought, hey, we could put a calf in there for the winter, and then move it to the back in the spring! I just thought of that this afternoon. I’d have to convince my sister, as she’ll be taking care of all the animals while I house-sit for six weeks from end of February to beginning of April. But it wouldn’t be that hard. Just give it water and feed, and clean out his shelter every once in awhile. Or I could do it when I come home to run the dogs. It’s something to think about, anyway. I thought it’d be cool.

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First off, I’d like to thank Christian for providing this blogging venue. Very cool that we as dogsledders can have our own blogworld.

So far fall training has been a bit sporadic. We’ve had a few good solid runs in, despite having been house-sitting for the last few weekends. This weekend will be my last for awhile, so that’ll be a nice break. Our last run, we tried Mufasa in lead. She did so good! I was so impressed with our little girl. That’s a pic of her below, resting after the run.

Foxy’s pups are getting so big! They were born Sunday, Oct. 21, 2007. She had eight pups, but unfortunately one didn’t make it. So we have two girls, five boys! The part that blows my mind is that she was one of two black pups in her litter of seven, and the dad was the only black pup in a litter of eight, and all the pups were born black! Three have lightened up to be grey and white, and the other four are black with tan markings, just like the mom. The grey three look like the dad’s brother. For such a little girl, I didn’t expect that many pups. I was in shock for the next few days, walking around mumbling ‘eight black puppies’. Here’s a pic of the group of them in their house at a week old. They’re just over a week and a half now, and they’re starting to open their eyes. I love puppies! We haven’t decided on a theme yet. We were thinking about the Snoopy comic, since the mom’s litter was Foxtrot, or characters from Jane Austen’s books, or my sister wants to name them after characters from ‘Jag’. So we’ll see. I don’t know how we’ll tell them apart anyway!

We’re hoping to get in at least one or two runs this weekend. I’m going to try Mufasa in lead again, with Slate. Dakotah hasn’t been out yet, so I may take her too. We may end up running in three small teams, to make sure everyone gets out. But to do that, we’d have to run a set of lead dogs twice, so I don’t know. I want to start bikejoring with the lead dogs in the morning before work.

Speaking of work, it’s likely about time that I get ready. Another day of pooper-scoopin!

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