Wolf Moon Dogsledding

Location: Armuchee, GA
Time - 10:02pm Eastern Daylight Time
Temperature: 72 degrees F (22 C)
Conditions: Cloudy, rainy
Forecast: Thunderstorms tonight and tomorrow. Highs in the 80s, lows in the 70s

Things here are going well. I will post some recent pictures and news tomorrow. In the meantime, here are the (so far) 60 entrants in the 2010 Iditarod. Looks to be an exciting and interesting race!

From: http://www.iditarod.com/race/musherlisting.html

1 Comment »

Location: Armuchee, GA
Time - 11:06pm Eastern Daylight Time
Temperature: 79 degrees F (26 C)
Conditions: Partly cloudy, humid
Forecast: Partly cloudy today and tomorrow. Lows in the 60s, highs in the 90s

Well, to “celebrate” Summer and our muggy temperatures, I am posting some pictures of something much colder! Jim Benson, who handled for me in the Beargrease 150 sent me these pictures the other day and I wanted to share them. I knew they had been taken but most of these I hadn’t seen until last week! They are of our finish in Tofte, Minnesota last January. Oh I miss the snow! The above picture is me and my team coming into the Tofte finish line.

Getting my sled stopped at the finish. I am braking and putting snowhooks in the snow. For those of you who don’t know, snowhooks are like anchors and (sometimes!) keep the dogs from running away with the sled.

Bag check at the finish line, to make sure I have all my required gear in my sled. The dogs looked great after running the 150-mile race!

From left - Jim, me and Dave at the finish line. Jim and Dave handled for me during the race and forced me to stay warm! Before I left the checkpoints along the trail, they insisted I wear every warm clothing item they could find! The result is that I felt like some giant jet-puffed marshmallow - but I also felt warm, even at temperatures that were reportedly down to -35 F. I am grateful to their help.

Erin, my other handler. Erin was a great help along the trail and always encouraging and upbeat. If I may say so myself, I think I had the best handler team on the trail! I could never have done this race without them. Race handlers are the unsung heros of sled dog races and the tales they tell are as crazy as the tales of the mushers themselves.

If you haven’t before, check out my original post on the 2009 Beargrease 150 at http://sleddoggin.com/blogs/wolfmoonsleddog/2009/01/31/red-lantern/ Be sure to read Dave’s comments at the bottom of that post!

4 Comments »

Location: Armuchee, GA
Time - 7:41am Eastern Daylight Time
Temperature: 70 degrees F (21 C)
Conditons: Cloudy, light rain
Forecast: Thunderstorms today and tomorrow. Highs in the 80s, lows in the 60s or 70s

Calypso and Susan chilling out

I hope everyone had a good 4th of July. We spent ours relaxing and doing a little work outside. I say a “little” work because the humidity really got to me yesterday. Even though it was cooler than it has been, the muggy-ness just saps energy and makes one feel cruddy.

And then, in the afternoon, I decided it would be a good idea to get a workout in. So I took my bike out and hit the hills. Excellent workout but once again, the humidity was terrible. I miss Minnesota!

So today I am happy to report that we are getting some much-needed rain. This year has been wetter than past years but when I rode by the creek yesterday, there was no water in it. Oh the joys of Summer in Georgia.

I have decided that I am not going to do this again. I am not going to do another GA Summer. Spring, Fall and Winter are OK here but next year this time I hope to be in Alaska or at least still in the midwest or somewhere that isn’t 90 degrees and muggy. I’m really aiming for Alaska though, at least for the Summer.

Speaking of Alaska, the sign-up for the 2010 Iditarod has started (see http://www.iditarod.com/race/musherlisting.html ). Blake has entered, which is great news! We were all incredibly disappointed when MCK had to withdraw prior to the 2009 race but we know it was best for the dogs. This year, however, we hope to avoid excess Vitamin A and to put a great team in the Iditarod. It is going to be exciting working with Blake, Jen and the dogs this Fall and Winter!

And last, but not least, I am verrrrry excited to report that I have a new car! Okay, it isn’t brand new but it’s new to me! I have a Subaru Outback (it’s red!) and I love it! I’ll try to get some pictures of it up soon.

4 Comments »

Location: Armuchee, GA
Time - 7:23am Eastern Daylight Time
Temperature: 67 degrees F (19 C)
Conditions: Mostly clear, slightly cooler
Forecast: Mostly sunny today and tomorrow. Lows in the 60s, highs in the 90s

Well Summer is officially here and so is our new swimming pool! Okay it’s a kiddie pool for the dogs but I am VERY pleased because it is a nice new one and has a picture of a scuba-diver on the bottom. And if it helps the dogs stay cool…

We have had AWFUL temps here this past week. In fact today is the first morning in quite a while that hasn’t felt unbearably hot. I was *almost* tempted to go scootering.

Below are some fun pictures of me and Calypso attempting to fill up the new swimming pool.

Calypso shall fill up the swimming pool (or at least eat the hose)

“Give me the hose, Calypso!”

“No! MY hose!”

“Hah-hah! I squirt water at you!” (Calypso loves playing the get-squirted-with-the-hose game for some bizarre reason)

2 Comments »

Location: Armuchee, GA
Time - 9:03pm Eastern Daylight Time
Temperature: 82 degrees F
Conditions: Mostly clear, muggy
Forecast: Partly cloudy tonight and tomorrow. Lows in the 70s, highs in the 90s

Susie claims her favorite spot in the house - my bed!

Well I was going to write about the new doggy swimming pool I just put in but I had to tell a story about this afternoon first.

Susan’s favorite room in the house is my bedroom. The big, open living room still makes her a bit nervous but my room has a lower roof and is smaller. She loves it! And her favorite place in my room is my bed! She will lie there with her chewy bone for as long as she can!

Anyway, this afternoon Susan was on my bed with her chewy bone and Calypso joined her. Only Calypso was convinced (as Calypso always is) that her long-lost black and yellow squeaky ball was on top of my dresser. She believes this because she saw it up there about two years ago. It was up there then, therefore it is up there now. That is Calypso’s logic.

Today she was actually halfway right. I had a basket of doggy toys on top of the dresser and Calypso could see it! Knowing that if I didn’t do something right then, I would have Calypso jumping up on my desk onto my notebooks and computers and posters (that I really need to put on my wall except that the house is utterly devoid of thumbtacks right now), I took the toy basket off the top of the dresser and set it on the floor. I handed Calypso a chewy bone and she proceeded to throw it across the room.

Anyway, I went in the living room to do something (I don’t remember what) and Calypso followed me. I heard some noises from my room and suddenly had visions of Susan standing on my desk and stomping out strange messages with the keyboard.

I hurried back into my bedroom and discovered that Susan was on the bed with a chewy bone in her mouth. Only it wasn’t the one I had given her. The bone I had given her lay on the bed next to five others and a tennis ball!

While I was in the living room, Susan had been hopping off the bed, snatching toys out of the toy basket, hopping back on the bed and depositing them there. She would have had to make several trips and she would have had to make them very quickly.

Little sneak!

3 Comments »

Location: Armuchee, GA
Time - 10:45pm Eastern Daylight Time
Temperature: 78 degrees F (25 C)
Conditions: Partly cloudy, muggy
Forecast: Clear tonight, thunderstorms tomorrow. Highs in the 90s, lows in the 70s

From left to right: Wilson, me, Calypso, Susan and April

No Comments »

Location: Armuchee, GA
Time - 4:10pm Eastern Daylight Time
Temperature: 86 degrees F (30 C)
Conditions: Partly cloudy, humid. Severe weather alert
Forecast: Thunderstorms today and tomorrow. Lows in the 60s, highs in the 80s

Above is a picture of what I am missing! While I am down here in GA, the puppies in MN are growing and going for fun adventures! Photo is from Bonnie Lundberg (of Little Mountain Siberians) who was visiting Blake, Jen and the dogs.

Anyway, what I wanted to share was my infamous “Killer Puppies From Mars” video that I made last April. You’ll notice I’ve made a new YouTube account. The reason for this is that “Killer Puppies” is not exactly in keeping with my more serious films. I figured I could have two accounts, one for the serious stuff and one for the non-serious stuff.

So, ladies and gentlemen, here it is KILLER PUPPIES FROM MARS - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpt2eFMb1Ck

Enjoy!

2 Comments »

Location: Armuchee, GA
Time - 11:15pm Eastern Daylight Time
Temperature: 72 degrees F (22 C)
Conditions: Partly cloudy, wet
Forecast: Partly cloudy tonight and tomorrow. Chance of thunderstorms. Highs in the 80s, lows in the 60s

I took some pictures outside this morning, before the afternoon storms arrived. The pictures look nice but it was a sticky, hot morning. The rain is entirely welcome.

Susan and Calypso are well, as you can see. They are both shedding out so I find myself armed with my favorite comb much of the time. Susan loves to stand on top of her house and gets very excited when I walk by. She can’t contain herself! I am pleased to report that she has been eating a lot and now has good weight on her.

Unfortunately, due to the warm weather we haven’t been able to run much. It was cool enough yesterday morning but we had to take Wilson the hound to the vet for a dental (he got a good report though, so that was good!).

However work on the Great Wolf Moon Dogyard Expansion Project is going really well.

The yard will be approximately two and a half times as large as it is now and as I have probably mentioned before, I am very excited about it. All the posts are in and we have most of the wire up. Now what remains is to attach and bury the rest of the wire.

2 Comments »

Location: Armuchee, GA
Time - 8:39am Eastern Daylight Time
Temperature: 67 degrees F (19 C)
Conditions: Clear, humid
Forecast: Partly cloudy today and tomorrow. Highs in the 80s, lows in the 60s

Last month at MCK

This was posted a month or so ago by Jodi Bailey and I thought some of you would get a kick out of it. I certainly did!

So you want to be a Musher: ..

1. Burn a $100 bill—right now. Preferably while standing outside in freezing temps. No freezing temps, then just burn the money and move on to step 2

2. Visit your local butcher and pay to sit in the walk-in freezer for a couple of hours.

3. Soak your gloves and begin storing them in your freezer. Don’t worry you can defrost them in your pants and work with bare hands for at least ½ hour daily in freezing temps.

4. Fasten a tight, wide-rubberband around the top half of your head before you go to bed each night.

5. If you wear glasses, begin wearing them with glue smeared on the lenses.

6. Slam your thumb in a car door. Don’t go see a doctor.

7. Find the nearest ice rink and walk across the ice several times holding two leaping, lunging, screaming, 80 lb. Sleddogs by the back of their harnesses.

8. Take a large amount, like 40 pounds, of meat and defrost it in your living room or kitchen every day.

9. Buy a new pair of gloves and immediately throw one of them away.

10. Plan a romantic vacation that you know you can never take.

11. Go to your local feed and gear store and just give them your credit card.

12. Fill a blender with ice, hit the pulse button and let the spray blast your face. Leave the ice on your face until it melts. Let it drip into your clothes. Do this in a walk-in freezer if possible.

13. Dress up in as many clothes as you can and then proceed to take them off because you have to go to the bathroom. Again do this in the walk in freezer if possible.

14. Do all your chores outside in the cold and dark. Acceptable chores include carrying 2 full five gallon buckets of water, carrying 2 full five gallon buckets of poop, carrying 2 full five gallon buckets of cooked rice and fish, chopping 50 pound frozen solid blocks of meat into even neat little snack sized chunks. Spill anything and you must start over.

15. Eat only foods that are already frozen solid or can be cooked with just boiling water.

16. Have at least one conversation daily with each of your friends about poop, diet, and digestion.

Repeat all of the above every day for a month, if your OK with it then you just might make it as a musher.

Below are some additions that others added to Jodi’s post.

17. Don’t forget to put a 5-gallon bucket of fat blend just inside the door so you can trip over it all winter. Your guests will enjoy the pleasant, um, scent when they walk in the door.

18. What about being dragged head first into knee deep snow so cold it takes your breath away, start to get up, only to be dragged down again by the same bunch of wild banshees. Repeat 5 times.

19. Dip your gloves in fish oil, touch every thing you own, and then try to wash the smell off of your hands. Repeat daily.

20. Stand out in the cold, pouring rain and chop up semi-frozen meat with an axe. Then pick up chunks of said meat until your hands go numb. Then eat trail mix or cheese flavored crackers.…

21.Buy a bunch of babie socks, soak them, freeze them and then attempt to melt and separate them. Spend hours each day carefully examining them and hanging them up to dry.

22. Also spend hours each day trying to get these “socks” on wiggling dogs’ feet so that they will not fall off. Then take them off yourself.

23. Smear mud all over your clothes.

24. And then if you want to be a malamute musher times all those weights and workloads by four… per dog.

25. Do all of the above but on 2-3 hours of sleep a night in the walk-in freezer if possible. . .

26. You tell your patient’s mom that you know that the kid’s poop is ok….looks just like your dogs…

27. And the said patient’s mom says….have you been fishing? this is in the middle of winter, and you were sure that you didn’t smell like dead fish anymore…..

28. You ask all the local restaurants when they cut their meat, can you have the scraps???? and they think that you are crazy….but it helps cut down the food bill at AFW and it is people grade good stuff.

29. You can recognize 25 dogs by their voice and can yell quiet from inside the house….and they all listen….

30. Go to your local dog park and pick up every piece of poo you can find. Take the poo to the infamous walk-in freezer and scatter it all over the floor. Once it is stuck in the ice, chip it out with a hoe (preferably in the dark, wearing a headlamp). Remember to keep your mouth closed.

2 Comments »

Location: Armuchee, GA
Time - 6:27am Eastern Daylight Time
Temperature: 67 degrees F (19 C)
Conditions: Wet with light rain
Forecast: Showers today, sunny tomorrow. Lows in the 60s, highs in the 80s

Well, as you can see, I have some pictures from the Working Dog Symposium in Bristol, TN last weekend. The event was put on by Siberian Husky Assist. Read more about the event here: http://www.siberianhuskyassist.com/info/news

3 Comments »