Running the Grade

The grade was nicely groomed this morning, early, so in spite of our 'never run grade on a weekend', we took Ashley's 6 dog race team to Florence and back. (6 miles). Only minor hitch was coming out the gate, when a snowmo touring family stopped, interested in the dogs, as a car was coming and we were trying to get off the road onto the grade. Ashley handled that well and the rest of the run was easy. Where were those dire windchills you all told me about?

Photo Reviews

We like to review photos of runs to see how the dogs are paired, the gaits, who is pulling or not, etc. We don't get photos of all runs, but here are a few more from yesterday. We didn't get the 8 dog yesterday, it was Yeti's first run of the year in wheel, it would have been fun to have video of that. He does need some more running.

Busy Day Here and Watching Aliy, Allen and Bridgett

Whew, we started at about 8 AM and just finished now. Ashley, Dr. Pauline, our veterinarian and I put together different combos of teams so Ashley could try some dogs she hadn't tried . She also tried some new trail and taking some different turns. The dogs respond to her so well. All dogs got great attention.

In the end we also got all the pens cleaned, thanks Pauline, the gate repaired, thanks Pauline and gates chopped... wow, what a great day. It takes a village to run a dog team.
Ashley ran all four teams (8, 6, 6 and 5) and most of the handling. All coming together here.

Dogs run: Buffy, Eos, Zeus, Frita, Yepa, Yuki, Swix, Herman, Medio, Rosie, Kiddo,
Zoom, Sherpa, Copper, Quattro, Matilda, Yeti and Ruthie. Per Ashley, today's A Team is: Buffy, Eos, Medio, Matilda, Kiddo and Tsunami (not run today, resting). Yes, Zeus is not on it, he's been stressing Medio... we're working on it.

And, just checking in the Copper Basin 300: Allen was in 2nd into and out of Tolsona, Aliy not too far behind and Bridgett right up there, too. (I'm not looking at or would have it a bit more precise. ) Allen was traveling at 12.4mph, I do know that.

Amy and Ken, Where are you?

If you're out there, Ken and Amy, send your email to my new computer, please, or here to the blog. Watching the CB300 , hopefully along with you!

Hauling, a big part of kennel life

STRAW BALE COUNT...40

Once again we were hauling supplies yesterday. We picked up Eagle Power Pack dog food (forty pound bags), bales of straw and 50's of corn at Ray's Feed (30 miles?), then supplies at the grocery store. Once home it requires that we load each of those items on the sled and haul each to storage places (in winter we don't park near the house in order to save our trails). After that we hauled pails of soup to each of the dogs.

Then again, we hauled straw to houses for more protection from the windchills cranking down last night.

We also haul dog waste each day to our pit. And always we haul some feed to the deer and birds. And we haul gasoline for the machines.

Hauling is a big part of life out here. The neat part of it is that is mostly outside and always the dogs join in with cheers as we go about the routines.
Groups of them come out to go along on the various hauls. Right now our hauling trails are packed tight from grooming and hauling, making it much easier.

New Mexico Dog Sledding Pal, Eunice

Eunice from New Mexico and I took a camping trip in frigid temps with Aliy and sister, Kaz, just as I had turned sixty and Eunice 65. We've remained good friends since then. She surprised me with a call yesterday. She's off to a bow hunting adventure, but we discussed Aliy's kennel's race and which dogs we sponsor, etc.
So from distant places, Aliy, Allen, Bridgett, we're watching! Go Bullet! (Love, Frita) And Nutmeg, and Moonpie, and all SPK dogs.
(See profile photo below for photo for the Frigid Four post camping trip).

Copper Basin 300 this weekend

Aliy Zirkle's kennel, Skunk's Place, will have three teams in the Copper Basin 300 this weekend. Allen will run the main team and is a three time champion of this very challenging race. See above for Aliy/Allen blog for updates on the race.
Aliy will run a team of young ones to give them race training/readiness for future Iditarod. Bridgett will run with our favorite Bullet in lead and a great team of veterans. Even with 3 wins, this race will be challenging for Allen, especially because this year they are running it backward. He comments that his sprint training/racing is a factor in his success in this complex and fast race.

www.spkdoglog.blogspot.com for uptodate coverage on this weekend's race. We'll be following it online all weekend.