Holiday week frustration....

 UGH! My few hours of babysitting...and my road is iced over...not enough time to drive somewhere and cannot run the team here on iced hills.... SAD!

Tarps down....

The past few years I have taken the tarps down a few days too late, after a snow has fallen and stretched the tarps out with weight.  Not this year!  Right on time, and a snow the next day!!

6 miles at good old Hill Village

I went to Hill Village for the first time this year.  It's not a weekend, so I could go.  NH Musher's Association agreed to ban mushers on weekends before noon at Hill Village/Profile Falls and also Shaw Cove.  From what I understand it was explained that this was due to several incidents between sled dogs and hunting dogs.   Which I find strange....considering the hunting dogs are breaking one of the only rules that is posted right on the Army Core of Engineers website and if they were on leash as they ought to be probably no issues would occur.

Grumbling aside....
It was lovely and very quiet due to the weather (wet and cold).  We passed hunting dogs a few times, might have been the same dog each time.  Bells!  The dogs were psyched to go somewhere so easy, nearly flat, and they flew through the first 3 miles.  After that their wind was a little gone, and we took several rest stops to allow them to continue to work hard.  Their wind will come back, it's early days yet in their training.

There were a lot less puddles than I hoped, with the recent rain I was hoping for lots of big splashy puddles for them to cool off in.  At the second watering stop they were still pretty thirsty so next time I have to bring more than 2 gallons of water.   It takes about 1.5 gallons to water 10 dogs on each stop.

Twinkle ran lead with Bodhi.  They are a nice pair.  Twinkle never poops in harness, and Bodhi has a great signal he gives when he wants to stop to poop.  He jumps high into the air!!!  Of course the two have other great qualities up front, hard driving and mostly taking commands.  Twinkle ran for years next to Bodhi's mother (Rainy) and they were the perfect lead pair, always taking commands right away.  Twinkle has run with Tula the last few years but the dynamics between the two biggest bitches in the kennel don't work very well for taking commands, neither seems to want to push or pull the other...so they often just stand there looking numb.  I am hoping that Twinkle will get back to her clever self with her new partner.  And Bodhi is very smart, so he should pick up commands very easily.  He is a nice obedience partner and earned his Rally Novice degree this summer.

Also on the team were:
Rainy and Pema at point
Java Bean and Turbo
Hakka and Tula
Bridget and Pearl at wheel (spelling the bigger dogs who usually run at wheel)

Pearl has always been on the A string but this year I bumped her back to B.  Smudgie has a sore foot though, so my sweet Pearl is back with the A string.  She is a great dog, always doing what she should and never doing anything naughty.  Only this year she is not pulling very hard!!!  She is only 8, no where near retiring age!  Though she is a great housedog, a true luxury companion.  Always clean, cuddly, fluffy, and super hugable.

Well that's all...I should be cleaning house!

Ice!

I woke to the sound of ice this morning.  I headed to the kennel and things were indeed covered by a thin sheen of ice, quite slippery on smooth surfaces like the patio blocks, but OK on the rocks in the play area.  And the gravel driveway seemed ok too.  I loaded up both teams and headed to my training spot.  I decided to run the B team first, in case things were more slippery than they seemed.  Well...they were.  The team struggled up Poole Hill rd, only to zip down it on our way back.  We were sliding around, ass end of the ATV trying to spin.  The ATV also acted funny.  I ran the engine for extra hold back, only I had to jump it to get the engine going and the gas would not work. I decided not to run the A team, and fed everyone at or in the truck.
Thankfully Terry happened to be at the townhouse working on the Bean Hole Beans new building.  He pull-started the ATV for me and I got it back on the trailer.

I sure hope we have better luck tomorrow.

The teams are in training!

We've been out for our first few runs, hurray!
We've been using our home trails and the dogs are already getting tougher for it.  Today, a warm and humid training day no less, we bumped up the miles a little.  The dogs did great.  Bodhi and Twinkle led the whole run. Recent rain left lots of mud puddles and the  dogs charged right through them, cooling off and getting seriously BROWN!

The old old old days!

A two dog team on the old baby-blue rig.  Anuk and Siepa in their youthful glory!  Siepa still works but Anuk has long since retired to the house.

This is a real oldie.  Sasha and Siepa at the truck.  A very old dog truck by the way...we still have that truck but not the boxes,

Nikka and Siepa in their GLORY

Nikka and Siepa are aging...Nikka a little more so than her brother Siepa.  Here are some photos from a race long ago in Meredith with my step daughter driving.  Nikka and Siepa look awesome!  Nikka has always been the most responsible and smart leader, one you would have no issue loaning to a newbie musher.  She has taken care of lots of people!