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With everything else happening I forgot to mention that the race team along with Hank, Ward & Leah left for Minnesota to run the 400 mile Beargrease last week. Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate and they ended up scratching 130 miles into it, when freezing rain hit and turned the very hilly trail to a skating rink. The dogs all ended up piled together coming down one hill and Hank said enough was enough. They were all very disappointed as they were having a great run. You can learn more about the Beargrease at www.beargrease.com. The next race they will leave for in a week and a 1/2. It is in Marquette Michigan and is the UP200. Hopefully that will be the second and last race to qualify for Iditarod. You can follow the teams progress at www.up200.org. Go team go!!!!
More TV, this is starting to go to some of our heads!!! The Haliburton Highlands Dogsled Derby is on this weekend and along with a visit from the Jamaican Dogsled Team sponsored by Jimmy Buffett we have also just found out that Rick Mercer is coming to film a segment for his show. He is going to be taught by us how to run a team and than is going to take Lily, Stinger, Jasmine & Belle in the 4 dog race. This I have got to see!!!! The show will air on the Rick Mercer Report on CBC on February 5th.
Wow what an early morning today! The lights in the kennel went on at about 2 am with a bunch of dogs being loaded into the truck to head to Toronto to be on City TV's Breakfast Television. I choose to sleep in!!! Logan, Dustyn, Hank, Tanya, Michalea along with Leah, Adam and Fraser all headed down. When the dogs came back they said it was a very strange run, absolutely NO SNOW in Toronto, poor folks, we'll have to send them some!! Tonight we be on TV again on CHEX out of Peterborough, they came up last Friday and took some footage of the race team running and they even went out on a run with Fraser and us. `
Race season has begun! Hank the race team (Max, Snoopy, Aster, Hosta, Loretto, Foxy, Jay, Granite, Pearl, Gem, Ebony, Saphire), Tanya's brother Ward and Jim Cunningham all headed to Newberry Michigan last week to runt the 300 mile Seney 300. Despite extremely warm temperature that melted most of the snow leaving the team running in water, mud, ice and some snow they finished the race in the required time to use the run as an Iditarod qualifier. We are very proud of all of them and can't wait until they get home! One qualifier down, one to go!!!!!!
Merry Christmas everyone!! What a beautiful time of year, everything looks perfect snow hanging on trees (and tons of it!) and everyone ready for the holidays. We hope this finds you enjoying the holiday season and we hope to see you on the trails this year! From our family to yours all the best in 2008....
What a difference a month makes!!!! It hasn't stopped snowing here in the last week and we currently have clost to 2' of snow at the kennel and even more at the trail!!!! It is more snow than we had almost all winter last year, needless to say we are all VERY excited!! Hank and Tanya told us that the trails are already groomed in and we are starting tours this weekend (December 1st)!!! The puppies are getting bigger for sure and
are barking and playing tons. Leah and Adam took Lily's litter outside the other day and got some pictures of them which I have posted below, they are sooooo cute! Will try and get them to take Candy's litter out soon for some pictures too. Sorry for the quick update but I've gotta go play in all this snow!!! Talk to you all soon.....
Candy & Lily have allowed pictures of their babies finally! Candy's starting opening their eyes today, all are healthy, fat and doing great!
Lots of activity around here today as the new wood furnace for the kennel is being installed. Up until now we have had an oil fired boiler in the kennel which provides the radiant heat through the cement floors and keeps us nice and warm in the winter when we come home at night (it also works great as a nice muscle relaxer!). Hank & Tanya wanted to change the system for a couple of reason's though, first off being global warning!! If anyone should be concerned
it's individuals like us who love and depend on winter for our living. For that reason we are trying to go as carbon neutral on the property and in our business as we can. Wood is considered a carbon neutral fuel source so that will save on about 9 tanks of oil for the kennel alone every year. Second reason is with the Tornado that went through last year we have a supply of wood laying on the ground for at least 5 years!!!!
Tanya and Hank have also put a primary wood heat source in the house this year to further reduce our dependancy on oil and reduce our green house gas emissions. The next step that is planned is to convert the property to solar power but that will cost quite alot so will take several years to complete. Now if only there were big trucks on the road that could move all of us and not run on Diesel we would be almost completely carbon neutral!!!!
Talk to you all soon, there is snow in the forecast for next week and is supposed to be -9C tonight!
Another new baby!!! Tanya, Hank, Logan, Dustyn & Michaela welcomed a new baby daughter/sister into the family today. Jessica McKinley was born this evening at 6:35 pm at 8 lbs exactly, everyone is doing great. We all can't wait to meet our future playmate & musher!
Just a quick entry to let you all know the babies have arrived!! Candy had 6 puppies, 4 girls and 2 boys throughout Tuesday night, all are healthy and doing great! Lily also had her 5 puppies (4 girls and 1 boy) on Tuesday but she had to go to Dr. Laurie's and have a C-section, but her and all the pups are great. I'll get some pictures up as soon as I can!
Happy Thanksgiving to all our Canadian friends! Fall here is in full swing with the leaves being at their peak color, and nice cool mornings. This is a big week here as all of us get to start running!!!!! The temperatures are finally going to be cool enough to allow for runs during the daytime. We will start out with just short 1 or 2 km runs as we are all pretty out of shape!!! I have included a couple of pictures of the race team training. No new puppies yet, Tish and Dare didn't end up having any pups, the next 2 that are due are Lily & Harley's litter and Candy & Hosta's litter all on the 15th of October. Candy & Lily went to Dr. Laurie's last week for x-rays and she said Candy should have 6 babies and Lily 5!! Candy and Lily are quite happy with their new beds Hank built them in the Maternity Ward (it's very close to my pen so I will be able to keep you up to date!), they are also thrilled with the new puppy yards that have been built this summer right outside their pens so they can go straight from their pens to the yard out a special door. Gotta run (literally!!), I'll keep you posted on the puppies!
Hi Folks, hope this finds you all well and having a wonderful summer!!! While we have had some hot, humid days all in all this summer has been very pleasant for us with heavy coats. The last few nights have actually seen temperatures cool enough that we could start fall training (less than 10C) and Hank is busy working on our training trail. He told us last night that the race team (no.... I'm not on it), might get a first run in Friday morning, that will be the earliest we have ever started training and is the kennel excited!!!!! The race team will be doing 3 or 4 mid-distance races this winter, the Seney 300 mile in Michigan, the UP200 mile race also in Michigan, and hopefully the CanAm 250 mile race in Maine. We hope to start a seperate page for the race team this fall so you can follow their adventures as well. In other news Lily & Harley, Candy & Hosta and Tish & Dare are keen expectant parents with puppies due in October. We are also all very excited to be hosting a YTV show here in the next couple of weeks, it has teenagers taking an adreneline challenge and one group of them will have to learn to go dogsledding with one of our sleds on wheels, I don't know when the show will air yet but will keep you posted. In the meantime enjoy the rest of your summer!!