Congressman Jay Johnson

Congressman Jay Johnson , retired, passed away in suburban Washington, D.C. on Saturday. Jay was a kind , honest and generous man, living a life of service. Two of his major contributions were through the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program and the Family Violence Center when he was a TV anchor in Green Bay, WI.
He was elected to Congress in 1996 and later became the Director of the US Mint. Jay announced his candidacy for Congress on a dog sled from Summer Place Kennel. He and his wife, JoLee, loved dogs.
We will miss this kind and caring friend.

Skinny and Sierra

While Skinny would love to run free with Sierra, I've learned to not let him do that (over and over I've learned that lesson). He always tempts me to let him go off leash, but he is too precious to take that chance with him.

He will run off and be gone for hours if I let him go. The agony of not knowing where he is is just too hard.

Sierra, however, will run and check things but will always come right back. These photos were on a walk yesterday.

Herman's Day

After passing him by for a few days, Herman got his start yesterday, wow! He runs wheel because he always has but I think he could run lead, will try him later. The trails were slippery with wet leaves.

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Three Team Day

STRAW BALE COUNT TO DATE: 13

The pictures are so misleading, all looks so easy. The field camera shows several photos of the dogs whipping around in several directions and me looking at the confusion of tangled lines. I did keep my patience, yea for me, since I was running them alone.

And I'm sore to tell about it. The first team did everything right, no hassles. (Zeus, Buffy). The second team clearly wanted to go out the gate to long trails, having done that the day before...they knew what was 'right', after all.

The third team had Copper in lead with Buffy... after a summer of screaming and hoping and waiting, he was a whirling dervish once we took off. He wouldn't leave Buffy alone, he screamed and nipped at her but FINALLY he got it under control and enjoyed the rest of his run (so the others could).Buffy endured him well. The temp was 26 at time of first run, but it warmed up a bit too much for the last run (40's).

TEAM ONE: Lead, Buffy, Zeus; Team, Medio (alone), Wheel, Matilda, (alone). Perfect run. Happy dogs.

TEAM TWO: Lead, Buffy, Zeus; Lillen (team, alone)(I expected this to be an easy run for her but the tangling at the gate was more than I wanted for her, although she took it in stride); Wheel, Matilda, Medio. But still happy dogs.

TEAM THREE: Lead, Buffy, Copper (the wild man); team, Sherpa (alone); wheel, Quattro (alone). For being a little crazy when she's running free, Sherpa ALWAYS settles down for a harnessed run... she was the best behaved of all of them, although the others were fine once Copper settled down. I think we need the Dog Whisperer for Copper. Or when I have help Zeus with Copper. But still, all happy dogs.

The rest of the day was energy zapping too as it was time to haul straw and corn, then to cover the 24 foot pontoon boat by myself with sheets of insulation and tarps. I called it a day when it got too dark. Very glad we got the good runs.

Of course, we left out some stars, like Kiddo and Ruthie and Herman, so I did promise tomorrow, a run for them.

Who's Excited? Zeus and Eos Reunion, too

Zeus and Eos had a happy reunion at the fence this morning. Eos is still recovering from her cancer surgery, but spends short times out in the pen, mostly to relieve the boredom of being a house dog. Lillen joined in, too... all three being Susan Butcher's dogs, they may have run together in the past.

Zeus took a short spin around the trails in the snow and was happy to do it.

We've hooked up the ganglines for a nice run with five or six tomorrow, maybe more, weather dependent.

Finding food in the snow

We had a wet first snowfall today. The deer are not finished with the cherry and apple trees yet, so they're right up next to the house. The trails are slippery right now. This snow will melt fast.