Dear Glory

We said goodbye to our dearest Glory on Saturday. Having a regrowth of a stage IV tumor, she lasted with good heart and happiness for 8 months following the original surgery. We miss her so much. She's been living in a pen close to the house since her surgery and has had a great time running free each day, revisiting her old pen occasionally. She is the last pup of our original Scuba, no more lineage back to Scuba and Tanni now. She had the savvy of her Iditarod veteran mother, Scuba and the sweetness of her recreational leader dog, Tanni. Scuba died of cancer in 1998, the year Glory was born. Tanni died last year from an accident on the road. Glory raced with me, in lead, in Nicolet Sprint and she, the deep snow dog, broke many trails at SPK over the years. Godspeed, Glory dear (or as I called her, Glory, Glory, Hallelujah).

Weather is not our friend so far this winter. December 12th and it's raining. There is snow cover and the trails have a base but a few more days of this and we'll be on square one. It's too icy to run the ATV, way too early for sleds (although they are in ready position).

Snow

We had a bit of wet snow over the weekend, just enough to be messy and it is warming up to 50 degrees on Thanksgiving.

Whitetail deer, rifle opener, Michigan today; Wisconsin, Saturday

Rifle season for whitetail deer in Michigan (one mile away) starts at daybreak. Wisconsin season starts Saturday. We have posted the land, again, and see a blind nearby , just off the dog trails, so we're not going to be running trails for awhile. All dogs are ribboned with their orange, so hopefully it's a safe season for our dogs.

The beautiful young (think it's a two year old) buck hasn't been spotted since Saturday (seven points)... we hope he's just deep in hiding but bow season has been active out here. No one hunts on our land, it's an oasis in the midst of all the other hunting land surrounding us.

Winter at Summer Place

It hasn't been cold but we have had some snow, mostly the nonfunctional kind, although it will do the ground water a favor as it was wet and heavy. Today it will melt down, but we did use it for a trail base, so some of it should hold. We were overly enthusiastic getting the sleds out, but every winter prep is a good one.

We took a short trip to Marquette, MI yesterday and spotted what looked like a small wolf or large coyote booking across the four lane highway out of a wilder area outside of town.

Storms coming, here and in Alaska

The storm approaching the Bering Sea Coast sounds ominous, so we hope all of our Alaskan friends will stay safe and sound.

Wisconsin has a storm coming too, a predicted 5 to 9 inches, the first of the season. It could also come in the form of rain. Tomorrow we'll see.

Racing is On, Congratulations, Tanner!

Tanner, our helper/handler, raced another kennel's dogs in a two dog scooter dryland event today, placing second behind another friend of ours, Ken Castaldi, who took first place.
Congratulations, guys!

Three Teams Today

Give something to a busy kennel to do and it will get done. We ran three teams today, pretty smooth, and easy runs.... Dogs run were : Leader, Buffy, Ruthie, Eos; team and wheel, Kiddo,

Herman, Matilda, Rosie, Sherpa. Buffy is still trail leading, trying to go out the familiar gate and we've taken to going a different route, new trail, to get her to change that habit. Tanner Johnson was today's handler and sometimes driver, and he does a great job. Plus he cleaned the pens AND covered the pontoon, multitalented :)