-35 at the house
-41 on the lake.
Iditarod food drops
-41 on the lake.
Iditarod food drops
The food drop bags have been labeled with my name (ZOYA) for over a month, thank you Judy. One thousand dog booties-- all sorted, counted, powdered and bagged for 16 dogs, 4 paws each. Thank you Judy! The girls are working with food drops today, chopping and sorting pork rinds, cutting salmon, bagging herring and chopping more of that tasty stuff (50/50 pork) from Delta Meat and Sausage. It's cold today and nobody is whining. The frosty smiles and white frozen coated hair tell a different story. These girls are tough!
Hansel and Stone are running free in the yard and Brianna will run the pups out on a longer run toward Paxson this afternoon in hopes for warmer temperatures. Henry and Naknek will lead the way with Cinnebar in swing and brothers Jon and Obie in team. Henry is doing so good this year and having more fun now than ever, no race pressure this year and he is all bright eyes and big smiles. The dog just loves to go and has great big patience for those young pups who know very little. I really need to get more pictures of these dogs for the journal.
Bright and early this morning we held a kennel meeting over some wicked coffee, oven roasted almonds, and toast with jam....for the following 7 day outlook--kennel goals, top priorities, the running schedules for the teams in training and wrapping up food drops for the Iditarod. We have a small window of time for some of these tasks and everyone is working hard to meet the needs of these race demands.
Did I mention how great my crew is?
We're going about our business here as normal as we can and getting ready for Iditarod which is coming up fast. The only thing different right now ? For the next few days, I'm not able to run anything longer than a short 6 mile run but this should change soon after the next doctor appointment. The 6 mile run is sure great fun and I'll take what I can get.
I'm resting more .....physically speaking that is...sitting and working on other projects is resting for me...and hey, we're getting lots done! I look around and have time to notice things like....the mail, eeek....I need to look at last weeks mail! the dishes...oh god, I could do them! and the living room windows.....they need a cleaning...nah, I will leave that to our house cleaner!
John is running my team on longer runs for the next 4 days, thank goodness. The dogs ran a 23 last night and after John got in, we went through the run mile by mile. Seems like Motta wasn't into the run, breaking trail until the return leg home.
She's a funny dog this way...she isn't excited to go out but once she's out there with her team she has fun with it and her working ethic is solid. This little running break is nice, giving me more time to work on other things that need my attention But I sure hope to make a trip to Maclaren and back with the team next weekend feeling the runners beneath my feet and cold breeze on my cheeks. I am feeling better and we're anxious to see the Doctor. I've never been this anxious to see a Doctor!
Summer is coming and we should be ready. Normally we go full speed ahead until mid April and then scramble to open for business by mid May. As the majority of our dogs go to a well respected tour company each summer ----Alaska Excursions in Skagway, AK
That leaves us with about 10 dogs and room to board others. So our summer business is changing up as we grow and evolve, with our new compainion business, Denali Highway Tours & Cabins! The new business venture needs some love and nurture, but we're giving it what it needs! It's so exciting to see our ideas come to fruition! Our website will be up and running soon at: http://www.denalihighwaytours.com
Although, the sitting and typing takes time and time is something I haven't had since I was born! (or so it seems!) We're concentrating our focus this summer exclusively on Alaskan-style, luxury cabins rentals as well as exclusive in -house kennel tour available only for our visiting guests on the Denali Highway.
The past four summer seasons, we've been running a nice laid back operation that has been growing slowly. From summer tours to gift shop to cabin rentals....and I have spent much of the time talking to lovely people on Princess Bus tours 4 days a week from May-Sept.
I feel it's time to do something a little different this year with the hopes of expanding my knowledge in other areas of interest...such as yoga, dance and writing. I'm looking into 3-5 week programs for the fall after our fishing time in the bay. We're both very excited about the changes in our life and business in hopes to have more time and freedom each summer while learning new things.
Change is so exhilarating, change brings new opportunity, new challenges and new direction. The Alaska Wholesale show is coming up next weekend in Anchorage at the Eagan Center. This is an excellent time and place for shop owners to browse and find wonderful authentic crafts, unique art, hand made jewelry and cards, hand crafted soaps, hand dyed scarves and clothing, and many quality goods made by Alaskan's....we were there 2 years ago and met all kinds of lovely people while selling our jewelry and such.
Brianna will be heading up that way to have a look for our gift shop this year while we keep dogs moving and wrap up food drops. My Iditarod dog team has 20 picks as of today, I'll narrow it down in the next 3 weeks.
Bridle, Sebe, Sadie, Galen, Robin, Probe, Mambo, Bongo, Bligh, Storey, Naked, Peak, Bonnie, Motta, North, Djembe, Dude, Trapper, Hunter and Streak.
Zither and Cookie are out only because they are the oldest (7 yrs old) and they don't have as much pizzazz (they have been there and done that knowing the routine) as some of the younger dogs. They like to go just fine and they finished the Klondike 300 in good order but lack the top end speed...when you have all kinds of younger dogs raising their paw for the job, it's tough to justify taking some of these older guys along.
They are super dogs with mental & physical talent and will continue to train. They will be ready to go just in case they need to fill in the shoes of another dog last minute. Bonnie has really become a top dog in the team running with the big dogs effortlessly or so it seems, she's doing everything like a pro as if she's been doing this her whole life. It looks to me like she just may be ready to go on a 1,100 mile journey...she is tough. She is young but she is showing me things that tell me she is ready.
She's much like a younger version of Sebe.. I saw the same thing when Sebe was 12 months old and since then, that little dog has worked wonders. We'll keep training and we'll see what happens.
Some good books...
I want to mention here before I go----the bookstore is a definite must-stop for me when we're in the big city and a small luxury I can't live without, a very dangerous place for me to blow lots of cash.......
" Being Caribou " - Karsten Heuer
"Your Aura And Your Chakras" - Karla Maclarn
"Born On A Blue Day" - Daniel Tammet
"Persian Girls" Nahid Rachlin
It's warming up today to -20. A good time for me to head out and hook up for a short 6. :))
zd
