Chill

Windchills in the minus thirties and forties, temp at feeding time, minus ten... it feels like Alaska, but, it's not, it's Florence.  Interior Wisconsin in January, we haven't had a chill like this for awhile, but the dogs are tolerating it well and so is Julie, actually.   Dressing right, dogs and humans, helps.

Moved to the house for most of the day/night is Lillen, age 16 ;  Buddy age 14.5, Eos, age 13, Copper, age 10, and Navy (short coated) age 10.5.   They have been peaceful and well behaved, sleeping to music of the 50's on Sirius.

There are a few shenanigans, Eos chewing her line to go off to the biscuit box on the stairs (and eating what was left)... which is why she's on a leash (past experience).

The males are stiff legged walking around at times, but they do solve their conflicts, peaceably.

Cold again tonight and a bit tomorrow, then warming up to 11 above :)  I still love winter!

Not Safe, Trails; Ruthie's overnight adventure

Icy trails continue, hard and slippery, not safe for dogs, humans or ATVs.

Odd happening in Ruthie's pen overnight, will share photo later.  Her house faces East;  this morning it is turned about 90 degrees, facing South.  She must have had a critter under it . As small as she is, she turned the house by herself, it appears, trying to dig it out.

Husky tough Ruthie.

Tsunami, powerhouse and sweetest dog

Tsunami, son of Frita and Martin, age nine, sweetest dog ever and a powerhouse in wheel,
was invaded by cancer .  Such a still young and beautiful dog, he crossed the Rainbow Bridge yesterday.  We think of him running free and strong and pain free now.   True to the Alaskan Husky
his outer body showed no signs of the ravaging within him, but his behaviors gave us clues to his pain.   We love you, Tsunami, and regret losing you so soon.  Godspeed, dear, loving friend.

Snow Low

Waiting for good snow as we haven't even groomed the upper loop yet, nor out the gate.
We'll get it, but it's not timely for activities planned.  The kennel race is extended into February to
give us all a chance on good trails.   Not safe for beginners right now.

Think snow, please!

On the trails again!

We had a very busy day with a total of nineteen visitors.  Handlers today were Tanner and Jimmy, thank you, guys!!
Our first group of drivers drove four hours to get here.  Three of them drove sleds, Linda, Liz and Ben, doing very very well.
Josefina, age five, took her first turn at driving Grandma Julie's dogs, with Eos pulling her very well.  Fina did a great job!
Jennifer Loomis brought a group of skiiers to meet Navy and we hope to schedule them soon to run dogs.
Julia, Nita and Anna capped off the day bringing homemade peanut butter and fantastic cookies.

Thanks to everyone who made this a great day.

Trails

Today we'll groom the trails, very gently, as there is just enough snow for some sled runs, short ones.

There is more than in this photo, but not much.   We have two out of town sled drivers this weekend so we'll do the best we can.  More snow dancing, please.  The dogs are more than ready to run.

Snow!

While we wouldn't plan a major storm and Christmas preps coinciding, we are happy to have snow cover on the ground.   It was a heavy, wet (high maintenance) snow, but we did manage to get to each pen, fix the gates so we could get in again and the dogs had high spirited free runs, like kids out of school.