Black Hole Kennels

Mary's Grave

2010-08-23T21:15:00.003-06:00

White tulips and daffodils on Mary's grave. A couple months ago.

Me Again

2010-08-18T12:10:00.002-06:00

I did not mean to fall off the radar for so long. I have lots of pictures to share. I will try to get them on here soon.

Upside Down Puppies

2010-06-22T22:44:00.002-06:00

Caramel

Nougat

Fudge

Truffle

Starting To Play, Third Week

2010-06-16T21:58:00.002-06:00

All eyes are open.

First Steps

2010-06-14T13:30:00.001-06:00

Two weeks old.

Sunny Daffodils

2010-06-05T23:29:00.002-06:00

We have had two solid weeks of rain, but these cheerful daffodils brighten the landscape. Note to self: do not expect daffodil blooms in May next year. After our shortest, mildest winter ever, these blooms starting opening around June 1st.

This huge rainbow was too big to capture in one shot with my camera. It is the first rainbow I have seen in two weeks of rain, which just goes to show how little sun we have seen.

Nursing Puppies, Second Week

2010-06-04T18:05:00.002-06:00

Only four puppies - lots of room at the milk bar.

Happy momma dog.

Sleeping Puppies, First Week

2010-06-02T20:41:00.000-06:00

Puppy Pile

2010-05-20T23:30:00.003-06:00

The three males all have a spot on top of their head.

The lone female has her head under the pile.

There she is ... on top on the right.

The two black and white males looked nearly identical at birth, but the one on the left has a bit more white.

All pictures at two days old.

Newborn Puppies

2010-05-14T00:45:00.003-06:00

Abba and her puppies on their first day. April 8th, 2010.

Bird In The House

2010-05-12T23:31:00.004-06:00

Nesting season means that the birds are looking for nice, cozy little shelters for building their nests. Unfortunately, our chimney, with its neat little hat on top, looks like such a place to them. Once inside, they fall down the chimney and cannot fly back up, so the only escape is out the wood stove and into the house. Last week I had a blackbird in the house.
This week it was a bluebird.

Hello Again

2010-05-10T11:32:00.002-06:00

My Mother has prompted me to start this blog up again, so here goes. I stopped posting last summer when a lightning strike fried my computer, and somehow I just never got back to it. I spent the winter helping a pair of junior mushers learn to be better dog drivers. The snow has melted (almost), and the tulips and daffodils are starting to poke up through the ground (barely). Spring came early this year because we had incredibly low snowfall this winter. Mike just found a job after almost eight months of unemployment, and we have four new puppies after four years of no litters. I have a new friend who will be taking me horseback riding, so now I can look forward to summer instead of just feeling sad about putting the dog sled away. I have spent the last year learning a new instrument (the violin) and practicing an old instrument (my pedal harp). Soon the season of brushing out the dogs and spinning their hair into yarn will be upon me. As you can see, I have lots of interests and lots of things to do. I have not decided if I will try to garden this year; that may be too much to take on.

Iris

2009-08-01T21:51:00.002-06:00

These flowers were blooming when Mary died. I think I will transplant some over her grave. The previous owners of the property planted a lot of them around various evergreen trees which have long since grown over the top of them. The second picture shows some flowers that are tangled in the branches of a pine.

Fortune cookie: Opportunity is knocking on your door - answer it tomorrow.

Tulips

2009-07-28T23:57:00.007-06:00

These pictures are from last year, just before the ground squirrels snipped all the flowers off. Notice the one white tulip. I would like to plant some of these on Mary's grave if I can find some.

Daffodils

2009-07-24T13:09:00.004-06:00

With her nodding ears and bashful demeanor, Mary was a bit like a daffodil.

Fortune cookie: A friend will soon reveal an exciting secret to you!

Goodbye Mary

2009-07-20T11:20:00.003-06:00

My dear, sweet, gentle Mary passed away last night. She was over 15 years old. Mary came to us eight and a half years ago. She was the mother of our foundation litter, which includes my number one leader Current and our overall best dog Charge. I am going to do a tribute to Mary, so look for another post in a few days. Meanwhile, the next few posts on flowers will be in her honor.

Domestic Flowers

2009-06-24T23:45:00.010-06:00

The grape hyacinths are in bloom now. These bright blue flowers are all but hidden in the grass which is growing up tall from all the rain we have had this month.

This is how my tulips looked two years ago. This year, the doggone ground squirrels are snipping the blooms off before they open. They don't eat them; they just leave them all limp and dying on the ground.

Fortune Cookie: Someone is speaking well of you at this very moment!

Dinner

2009-06-09T23:09:00.006-06:00

There is nothing quite like fresh home-baked bread.

Sparkle says "where's my dinner?". She likes that dog crate because sometimes she gets good things in there, like a fresh caught mouse that Eggnog brings in.

Fortune Cookie: Your lost possession will be found within the month.

First Harvest

2009-06-04T21:47:00.004-06:00

My rhubarb plant is so thick and crowded that I am harvesting stalks even though they are still quite short. Yum!

Norris Geyser Basin

2009-06-03T22:23:00.004-06:00

Yes, that's a big snow drift around this geyser, left over from winter and beautifully carved out on its inner surface by the hot steam. (The pictures were taken several weeks ago.)

More Canyon Shots

2009-06-02T18:59:00.005-06:00

Here is a better look at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

Fortune Cookie: You will make a change for the better within the year.

Canyon

2009-05-28T23:28:00.006-06:00

This is the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone with its spectacular "Lower Falls". The name of the falls refers to its position on the river, not its height.
Fortune Cookie: Take that chance you've been considering.

Old Faithful

2009-05-22T23:58:00.006-06:00

We got in to see Old Faithful on the day the park opened, April 17th.
The parking lot was nicely plowed out. This is Mike next to the snow berm.

We watched Old Faithful from the truck while we had a picnic lunch.

This is the plume from Grand Geyser, way, way off in the distance.

Fortune Cookie: You will take a chance in the near future, and win.

Picky Eater

2009-05-21T23:38:00.003-06:00

This solitary buffalo was nibbling at this bush last month in Yellowstone Park.

I guess it wasn't very tasty. What he really wants is grass.

Fortune Cookie: You will soon be crossing desert sands for a fun vacation.

A Walk in the Park

2009-05-13T22:03:00.002-06:00

These buffalo were taking a walk in the park last month.

Sandhill Cranes

2009-05-12T22:28:00.003-06:00

See those two black dots between the fence posts? Those are sandhill cranes. They arrive long before the snow melts. While I can see them during the day, I mostly hear them at night.

Fortune cookie: You will soon receive a letter from a loved one.

Parked In The Yard

2009-05-10T14:00:00.006-06:00

My last post may have given you a hint, but here is a perspective from the house that will leave you with no doubt. I am now parking in the yard! A strip along the driveway has melted down to bare ground, so I can now drive straight on in.

True, I am not able to park right in front of the house yet. That spot is still inhabited by deep snow and a partially buried dogtruck. Nonetheless, I am excited! When I can park in the yard, then summer is very near.

Fortune Cookie: Do something unusual tomorrow.

Please leave a suggestion in the comments as to what I might do tomorrow that would be unusual. I am coming up blank, and I don't want to mess up my very first fortune!

Jackpot

2009-05-07T22:15:00.004-06:00

Today I scored about 800 lbs of boneless, skinless chicken from a wrecked truck. My neighbor runs a towing business, so I only had to go across the street to pick it up. The truck was carrying chinese food. I also scored a couple boxes of broccoli and a box of fortune cookies. I can hardly wait to see what my 350 fortunes are. The dogs already know that their fortunes have improved! Mary, the skinny old dog who has become a picky eater, was happy to eat as much chicken as I would give her.

Coyote

2009-05-05T23:58:00.001-06:00

I saw a couple coyotes during opening weekend in Yellowstone Park. They appeared to be in fabulous condition and did not linger on the road but went briskly about their business.

Hawk

2009-05-04T22:19:00.001-06:00

The ground squirrels are emerging from their long hibernation, so their predators, the red-tailed hawks, have also returned to the area.

Winter Is Leaving

2009-05-03T21:35:00.004-06:00

Some people think that it is winter whenever there is snow on the ground, or if snow is falling from the sky. But I have always said that spring begins when the snow is consistently melting. By either definition, winter is definitely on the way out. Look, there is a bit of green (well, brown, actually) showing in front of the shed door. I no longer have to shovel it out every day to get to the dog food. Because the wind always blows here, the snow tends to funnel around the sides, which is why you see a steep bank in this picture.
In past years, we had a raven or two show up in the spring, but this year they were seen around the house all winter long.

Making Socks

2009-05-01T22:22:00.002-06:00

One of the things I have been doing this winter is making dog hair socks. These are so soft and warm, they feel absolutely decadent. I love to wear them while lounging around in the house

They are also amazingly warm for tromping around in the snow, but alas, the pure dog hair is not very durable. I have been experimenting with reinforcing the worst wear spots with a strand of wool, and so far I am pleased with the results.

If anyone would like to buy a pair of these luxurious socks, you can contact me at chugach at peoplepc dot com.

Unusual Tree

2009-04-30T23:19:00.003-06:00

Yellowstone Park opened for the summer season on April 17th, and Mike and I were there on opening day. I have lots of pictures, but most of them are still in the camera. Here is one of a rather odd looking lodgepole pine at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

The Season For Sharing

2009-04-21T23:48:00.003-06:00

I have not been able to get a good picture of them sharing their double decker doghouse, but here are Rose and Mary sharing the couch.In honor of the season, here are some Easter balloons.

Old Mary

2009-04-11T23:06:00.002-06:00

My old dog Mary is still trucking along. She lost a lot of weight last fall because she stopped eating. Turns out she just didn't like the food (a new brand). Now I've got something she'll eat, and she has gained the weight back, but because of her age, she still looks rather bony. She is about 15 years old now.

Mary is actually doing better this winter than she was in the fall. Last year she was having a lot of trouble getting up the stairs onto the deck. Now with the snow here, she just walks straight onto the deck from the top of the snow. Even at the back door where there is a gap in the snow, there are only two steps left uncovered, and she seems to have no problem with those.

First Pansy

2009-04-10T15:49:00.002-06:00

First pansy of the year. Okay, so the plants have been growing in the house since last fall, and only one out of four show any desire to flower, but with the snow still four feet deep outside, it is still neat to have a flower.

Melting

2009-04-08T12:35:00.002-06:00

Warm temperatures are starting the meltdown process again after last week's brief delay. This is not the sharpest picture, but I hope you can see the interesting melting pattern outside my window. You are looking at the snow on my deck with the tips of trees showing above (and behind) it. The light spots below the top of the snow are actually gaps. What is causing this?

The topmost layer is dense ice created by melting snow that drips off the roof and then refreezes into a solid layer. Underneath this dense ice is snow deposited during the last snowfall or blown in by the wind. When the afternoon sun hits this side of the deck, it melts the porous snow much faster than the ice, and these fanciful gaps result.

Snuggling Indoors

2009-04-06T23:51:00.003-06:00

Sparkle and Eggnog have found a comfortable spot on top of my Carhartts. How ironic that the Carhartts are now covered in cat hair rather than dog hair. While Eggnog looks much bigger than Sparkle, she actually weighs one pound less, so both cats are quite comfortable the way they are arranged here.

The wet, heavy snowfall has ceased for the moment and clear skies have prevailed. The sunny days are warm and beautiful, but the nights do get quite cold. We were down to minus 5F last night.

Double Decker Doghouse

2009-04-03T22:12:00.002-06:00

This doghouse sits near my front door where it is convenient for the house dogs to use. I added the second story last fall, but this is the first year that the lower house has not been completely covered. Mary and Rose, my two oldest dogs, are sharing the bottom story.

Making Paths

2009-03-31T23:37:00.002-06:00

We are getting a lot of snow this week. It is a dense, moisture-filled snow, so I only sink a few inches as I tramp out the paths on my snowshoes. Pictured is the path from the back door to the kennel.

Buried Truck

2009-03-30T22:54:00.002-06:00

My dog truck is buried. You are looking at the back end of the truck in the middle of the picture. I have included a picture of this same truck below so that you can see how tall it is.

By the way, this has been the lowest snow year we have ever seen here although the truck does happen to be parked in one of the higher drift zones due to its proximity to some trees.

Snow Movers - The Bison Hump

2009-03-29T22:54:00.002-06:00

This informative sign is located at Old Faithful in Yellowstone Park. It explains why the bison has such a large, prominent hump, giving this animal its distinctive profile. Bison live where there is very deep snow in the winter, so to reach the grasses that they eat, they must move a lot of snow. They do this by putting their heads down and swinging them from side to side to push the snow away. If you have ever tried to lift too large a shovelful of snow, then you know how difficult this task is. The buffalo needs massive muscles attached to his head and neck. The large hump is there to provide a big anchoring area for those muscles.

Spring Blizzard

2009-03-05T23:56:00.003-07:00

I seem to have gotten out of the habit of posting to the blog. There were a couple glitches with my phone service last month which helped knock me off my routine.

We are having a warm blizzard right now - lots of snow and extreme winds, but the warm temperature means the wind chills are only in the 20 to 30 below zero fahrenheit range. The highway has been closed and will probably remain closed all night.

The doghouses are getting filled with snow as the wind swirls around them and blows the snow in from every conceivable angle. Some of the dogs hold their ground and thus maintain at least a dog-sized space in their house. Others exit their houses which then rapidly fill up completely with hard, wind-packed snow.

Sometimes a drift will form so fast that a doghouse will be buried before the inside has a chance to be filled with snow. The dogs in that situation will always exit their houses and sleep in the snow. I rescued several buried houses today. One of them took me a while to find because it was a full foot underneath the snow. That means that the snow had risen three feet in that spot since yesterday. If the wind quits tomorrow, I will start shoveling snow out of fifty houses and putting in fresh straw.

Great Race

2009-02-21T23:44:00.004-07:00

Sorry if those last posts sounded a little whiney. The Canadian Challenge is over for this year, and it looks like it was a great race, and I am truly sorry not to have been a part of it. Every single musher in the 12-dog class finished for the first time ever in the history of the race. The times were fairly fast, too, indicating ideal conditions.

Here is a typical scene between Prince Albert and La Ronge, Saskatchewan. Some of the trail runs in the ditch beside this highway. Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures of the lake running, which is really scenic, especially Lake La Ronge with its hundreds of islands. When I was racing, it was way too cold for a camera to function.

Here is a typical scene right after the race finish. (This was my handler from 2006.)

Ideal Racing Weather

2009-02-18T20:57:00.002-07:00

Just as I expected, now that I am not racing, the Canadian Challenge is experiencing near perfect weather - cold enough for the dogs to do their best and warm enough for the mushers to be reasonably comfortable. They are also reporting excellent snow conditions.

Here at home I am dealing with wind, snow, and sleet. I think I will just stay inside.

Following The Races

2009-02-16T23:52:00.003-07:00

My husband did not want me to race this year, so for the first time in many years I am at home and able to follow the Yukon Quest on the internet. I will be glued to the computer for the next week and a half, following all the updates and articles and photos. I am what you call an armchair fan of the Quest and the Iditarod, but it does make me yearn to follow a trail through the wilderness myself. In a couple days the Canadian Challenge will be starting, and I am sad to be missing out this year. There will be more bush trails and lake running, and I bet it will be warmer this year.

Fruits Of Summer

2009-02-01T21:55:00.002-07:00

Wild gooseberries turning colors as they ripen.

The ripe ones are purple.Here is my friend Cathy Blair enjoying a ripe gooseberry.

Thinking Of Summer

2009-01-31T23:45:00.001-07:00

Sometimes, despite the fun of skiing, dog mushing, snowshoeing, etc, my thoughts turn to summer. Bare ground, open water, green grass, trips in the park ... you get the idea.

This picture is of my friend Tom Blair in a picturesque high mountain lake in Montana.
This is Wade Lake, which is near the continental divide and less than twenty miles from Alaska Basin.

Alaska Basin

2009-01-30T23:51:00.003-07:00

The valley shown below is known as Alaska Basin. It is called this because of the extreme cold temperatures and wind chills that it gets in the winter. During my first winter here, I ran my dogs through Alaska Basin quite frequently, and I encountered a few blizzards. The winds can be ferocious.

I vividly remember one night when the sled and I were tipped over sideways by the wind despite the perfectly flat terrain. A little later, I was standing by the leaders to reassure them during a particularly strong gust when they suddenly moved several yards ahead. I thought they had pulled the snowhook out, but I discovered that despite my flat-footed stance and heavy boots, the wind was sliding me backwards down the trail while the dogs were standing still. This was in soft snow which was not the least bit icy! The sheer force of the wind was less of a problem for the dogs than for me, but they could not see a thing with all the blowing snow.

The photos below were taken from the floor of Alaska Basin during a very dry November, and it shows more typical weather for the area. Alaska Basin is part of the larger Centennial Valley in Montana. Snowfall is minimal in the area, and the fierce winds often blow the snow off the road, leaving the dirt exposed. For this reason, I have not done much running there the past couple winters.

Spiderweb In The Snow

2009-01-29T21:17:00.004-07:00

This is an old photo which I took to show the traffic backed up on the highway due to an accident. It was a snowy day, just like today. I like the perfect spiderweb overlooking the dogyard.

Barking Blog

2009-01-25T23:23:00.004-07:00

Skijoring In The Sun

2009-01-23T20:46:00.005-07:00

After an unprecedented week of sunny weather, the forecast now shows snow for the next five days (or longer). However, after a couple inches of snowfall yesterday, today was inexplicably sunny again. Come join me on an outing with Meadowlark.

Are you ready?

Let's go.

And we're off.

Zipping along.

That was fun. Can we go again?

Give me some lovin!

While I cannot get a picture of myself with the dog, I can capture my shadow skijoring. Here I am with Sox next to a trail marker (the tall pole).

This open field gives us a good view of Two Top, a popular playground for snowmobilers.

A Tribute To Switch

2009-01-17T22:36:00.004-07:00

Today is the one year anniversary of a very tragic event. At the time it was just too painful to blog about, and even now, a year later, I still cannot write about this without tears. During a training run, my team was struck by a car while crossing a road. High snowbanks which reduced visibility, and a very icy road surface were contributing factors. My team was stretched completely across the road, and although the car struck square in the middle, only one dog was injured, my dear, sweet Switch, who died at the scene. The driver did stop to help and transported Switch back home for me.

Here are some photos from previous years. This first series of shots from a 60 mile run show Switch at the back of the team. I sometimes put her there because she was small and agile and able to handle the tight turns and steeper tugline angle at the wheel position. Switch is the white dog on the right. She is running next to her best friend and sister, Breaker.

The next photo shows her in lead on a different day, again with her sister Breaker beside her. She was a good command leader, and I usually ran her in lead or swing. As a swing dog (right behind the leaders) she had the rather nice trait of never trying to overrun the leaders if they slacked up. Swing dogs who are too eager are continually getting tangled as they jump across the lines of the leaders whenever they slack up to take a turn or to poop or whatever. Switch was always my first choice for a swing dog because she would avoid stepping over the lines and would stay in her position. As a leader, Switch could really string the team out as she was the fastest dog in the kennel, and she never got distracted by loose dogs or people. She was also my choice for training puppies since she was never bothered by their antics behind her.

This next shot shows Switch leading at the start of a 350 mile race. My fantastic leader Fresca is having to work hard to keep up with Switch.

Finally, here is Switch as a puppy back in 2001. She was one of the brightest, liveliest pups in the litter, always the first one out of the box. As an adult, she was still sweet and playful. I miss her terribly.

Two In A Row

2009-01-16T20:58:00.002-07:00

Two glorious sunny days in a row! Here is a view of Sawtelle Peak from just inside the tree line, about a mile and a half west of my house.
The next views are looking to the northeast.

Sunny Day

2009-01-15T23:01:00.002-07:00

We finally had a sunny day! I went out skijoring with Sox. I did not want to take my camera since I wanted to concentrate all my attention on Sox, so here is another scenery shot of some hills to the northwest.

December Harvest

2009-01-14T23:57:00.004-07:00

Our growing season is too short - just 30 consecutive frost-free days last summer. Soooo, I have a few things in pots. Here is a hybrid bell pepper which is purple when "green" and turns red when ripe. It is pretty small, but that is only a three inch pot that the poor plant is in.

This is another type of sweet pepper, a cubanelle.

I put the ripening bell pepper and cubanelle in a delicious egg and sausage scramble that my husband and I enjoyed during the Christmas holidays. Nothing like fresh, homegrown produce!

Fireworks

2009-01-13T19:44:00.002-07:00

This past weekend was Island Park's annual Winterfest. They started it out on Friday night with an outstanding fireworks display. This was staged at the Hungry Bear Market, which is directly across the road from my house. The dogs, of course, were terrified and hid in their houses, but I enjoyed the show.

Warm Heads

2009-01-12T18:18:00.003-07:00

Every summer they hold something called the Mountain Man Rendezvous in West Yellowstone. They have events like tomahawk throwing, archery, etc. I have not been to see any of these events, but they also feature vendors with all sorts of folksy mountain man stuff like knives, guns, beaded stuff, jewelry, and lots of furs and leather products. It is not that I am so fascinated by this sort of "nostalgia" (I am, but only moderately so), but rather that I am interested in the practical aspects of stuff that can help me in my chosen sport where I am forced to be outside in the intense cold. Forced, I say, though some would dispute that ... but I digress. Suffice it to say that I squandered, er I mean invested, some of my precious savings in buying a couple fur hats. One was for my husband who I knew coveted a buffalo hat to go with the buffalo overmitts he had bought the year before. Here he is in his facial debut in this blog - my husband Mike Kane.

I made him smile for the photo. Here is how he really looks:

I also got a beaver hat for myself to go with the beaver overmitts I got the year before.

I wore those beaver mitts at 45 below in the Canadian Challenge last year, and I was still cold, but I know I would have been a lot warmer with a beaver hat over my dog hair hat.

In retrospect, the photos would be a lot better if we had stood outside with the snow as a backdrop. Go out in the cold and the wind just for a photo? Not likely!

Warm House

2009-01-11T23:47:00.002-07:00

I keep my house cool in order to conserve energy, but if I really want to be warm, I fire up the wood stove. This sits in the corner of the living room and was our only means of heat - besides electric space heaters - for our first two years.

Aspen Trees and Mountains

2009-01-10T22:59:00.002-07:00

The sun came out for, oh, maybe half an hour this week.

Two Pups

2009-01-09T22:56:00.003-07:00

In spite of the extremely late start to winter (six weeks late), the snow level has reached the normal height for this time of year. Three years ago I had the seven puppies in the puppy pen, and they were climbing over the remaining one foot of fence and coming up to the house. Here are Smoke and Soot.
Not being let into the house right away, they ran round and round on the deck. Our deck goes all the way around the house, so they could just keep going round and round and round until someone opened the door.

Smoke had loads of personality. Unfortunately he died of parvo a few months after this picture. I named him Smoke because he was the same color as the smoke from our chimney. We were heating exclusively with wood that winter.

Mountains

2009-01-08T19:40:00.005-07:00

Hmmm, well, doing a picture a day not only depends on getting on the computer every day, it also depends on the blogger site and the software working every day. Not always gonna happen, but I will do my best. This is just a general scenery shot taken out in the woods. We have not had much sun, but there were a couple days last weekend with minimal clouds.

The second shot is a picture of the Centennial Mountains, running west into Montana. I love the shallow hole in the clouds.

Cold Hands

2009-01-04T20:43:00.003-07:00

It is very cold here. Last night got down to minus 29F. While feeding the dogs today, my fingers got numb even though I was wearing wrist gaitors under my gloves. These wrist gaitors are made of dog hair from my own dogs, and I wore them last year during the minus 40 temps at the Canadian Challenge.

Staying Indoors

2009-01-03T20:14:00.003-07:00

This picture pretty much tells the story of what I have been doing for the past two weeks ... looking out the window at the blowing snow. We have had a tremendous amount of snow and wind, starting with a terrible blizzard three weeks ago. There are now a couple drifts that go all the way to the top of the kennel fencing (five feet).

Seven Puppies

2009-01-02T21:49:00.002-07:00

This picture is from three years ago. The three black pups in the photo still reside at this kennel. From left to right, they are Soot, Cinder, and Sox. The two white pups were Kindling and Smoke, and the two brown pups were Spark and Flame. Sox is unrelated to the other six. She was born four days before they were.

A Picture A Day

2009-01-01T21:43:00.003-07:00

A picture a day drives the doldrums away. To start the new year off, I am posting a picture a day. Some will be new, and some will be old. This one is my cat Egg Nog. Very appropriate for this time of year, I think. (Yummy drink not available the rest of the year.)

Egg Nog is about eight years old. We got her as an adult from the pound about six years ago. She is very sweet and snuggly.

Dog Food

2008-11-24T17:53:00.006-07:00

I have noticed from reading other blogs that mushers like to post pictures of their truckloads of dog food. I guess this is supposed to impress non-musher-types with how much it takes to feed a working kennel. Back in October I got a delivery of two tons of dog food, some of which is still residing, neatly stacked, in the food shed. At that time, it was still possible to drive through the back yard to the shed door for unloading. In November we are normally snowed in, but this year we have all of one inch of snow on the ground.

To get you thinking ahead to when I will need to have more food delivered, I am showing you this picture from last year at a time when there was about two feet of snow on the ground.That was 100 bags of food (two tons), all transported from the drop off point to the shed on that black plastic sled by yours truly. That is why I love to fill the shed as much as possible before the snow flies.

Training Has Started, Finally

2008-11-18T19:43:00.004-07:00

Training the dogs was postponed this year for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was the lack of a properly functioning ATV. Finally, one of the ATVs came home from the repair shop, all fixed and ready to go. The other ATV is sitting in the yard, and we'll see about getting it fixed next year.

I did not take a camera with me on our first run, so here is a picture of one of our last runs last spring. This is the "puppy team", which is a long way from being puppies now. The youngest is two years old, but I don't have any younger dogs in the kennel right now, so they are still the "puppy team". The leader is my awesome dog Ghost. He is 12 years old. You would never guess his age from his performance on this short 8-mile trail. He did a masterful job of navigating this open field without any tracks to follow, executing my commands flawlessly.

I have 47 dogs on my training list right now, which I have broken up into five teams of 8 and one team of 7. Four of the teams have been out so far, and they are all looking great.

Here is one of the four retired dogs who won't be running at all. Mary is 14 going on 15, and she is going downhill fast. Her health is excellent, but she is getting very weak and wobbly. I take her for walks on a leash, but she likes to go very, very slow. She is a real sweetheart, as you can see here. That dirty looking patch on her shoulder is from lying too close to the propane heater and getting her fur singed.

Antelope

2008-06-26T22:14:00.000-06:00

The antelope are back for the summer. Here is the view from my deck.
Here is a closer look at the antelope. I love antelope, and it is great having them so close to my house.

Grizzly Bears

2008-06-19T22:26:00.003-06:00

While traveling in Yellowstone Park last month, we saw three grizzly bears - a momma with two yearling cubs. They were attracted to the thin strip of grass between the road and the snowbank. This was near the continental divide.

Catching Up

2008-06-18T23:15:00.002-06:00

Looks like I have a lot of catching up to do on this blog. Here are some pictures from last week. We got about half a foot of snow. None left now, of course.
The cheerful daffodils were not the least bit fazed by the snow and cold winds.
I was not expecting to see the plow out on the highway in June! It is amazing they have any tax money left to pay for it after the long, snowy winter and spring.

The Big Meltdown

2008-05-22T17:41:00.006-06:00

The big meltdown has not only begun, it is almost finished! This first picture shows the start of the meltdown, nearly two weeks ago now. You can see that the kennel fencing is two or three feet high, making it less convenient to step over the top.
In the backyard, the big tractor tires and the electric meter emerge and cause the melting to accelerate. Note that there is a ground squirrel next to the meter. The poor ground squirrels just could not wait any longer to come out of hibernation, so they tunneled up through three feet of snow and started running around on the surface.This snowmobile is shading the spot that it is sitting on, and so it ends up high-centered and lopsided as the snow melts around it.

The second snowmobile shows even more melting.
Snowmelt out in the field has started a stream and the beginnings of a lake on top of the snow. Total snow depth is still about two feet here. The snow disappeared the soonest around the edge of the house and shed. The ground squirrels loved these low spots.

Here is a closeup of the bold little tyke.

The rhubarb started growing almost before it was uncovered! The little orange dots at the bottom of the picture are new rhubarb stalks. Look at it growing right next to that three foot snowbank!

The hardy tulips are actually growing right up through the snow before it has melted all the way yet! I took this picture a scant two days ago!

Young Dogs

2008-05-08T23:58:00.006-06:00

Here are some pictures of the young dogs I have been training this spring.
The brown leader posing nicely for the camera is my super leader Ghost. He is eleven and a half years old and retired from racing. He is doing a fantastic job with these youngsters, though. He still has the speed and desire to keep these talented young dogs strung out for the five to ten miles that we are running.

The other dogs are all getting their turn at lead. On this run it is the yearling male Thorn. His tug line has been shortened so that he is a few steps behind Ghost. This makes him less nervous about being up front at such a young age. It also makes it easier for Ghost to keep him in line and heading down the trail.
Side by side are yearling sisters Fern (brown) and Thistle (black).
Thistle has a very alert and curious personality while Fern is more mellow and all business in harness.
Then there are the two year olds Cinder (head up) and Soot (head down).
The sun is going down as we turn for home.

I was trying to get a scenic shot here of the sun-washed mountains in front of us, but the dogs were pulling so hard that the brake would not hold, and the shot came out blurry.
Here is a better look as we come out of the trees. You can see from the fence posts that we have lost about two feet of snow.
Home is just another mile across the field.

Snow Level

2008-04-30T22:34:00.001-06:00

I messed up and lost the pictures that I took when the snow was near its highest level. Therefore, these pictures that I took four days ago will have to suffice to give you an idea of the snow level here. This first one shows the picket line where I put the dogs when I am getting ready to run them. At its highest, the snow was at the top of the posts, and the chain was completely buried but still able to be pulled up on top of the snow when I needed to use it.
This is where I walk the dogs across the fence. The gate panel is six feet tall while the fence is five feet tall.
Here is the southwest part of the kennel, looking towards Sawtelle Peak. The fence line is completely visible now.
This is the northwest part of the kennel. Part of this fence line is still buried. Look at all those lovely houses, though! In spite of the high snow level this year, I was able to keep all the houses lifted up on top of the snow as it rose!
Heading back to the house as the sun sets. This part of the yard is one of the high spots, roughly six feet of snow. It is a steep, slippery slope down to the door of the little shed where I keep the dog food.

The snow is melting fast with the long daylight hours. We are down a whole foot since last week. However, it snowed most of the day today and should snow again tomorrow.

Yellowstone Is Open

2008-04-28T21:04:00.000-06:00

Yellowstone Park opened a week ago, but we did not take our first trip in until this past Friday. Leaving our house in a snowstorm, we passed a kite skier or two. You cannot tell where the snow ends and the sky begins. The snow level has dropped considerably in the past week, revealing the tops of the fence posts.

Here comes the plow, returning from Targhee Pass. There was less snow here than in front of our house.

The snowbanks in West Yellowstone are still pretty high but have come down considerably in the past two weeks.
The spring meltdown has revealed the side of this truck.
The animals in the park have had a tough winter. They say it was the most snow in several decades. This pregnant elk is quite bony.
Not everyone made it. The dark blotch next to the river is a buffalo carcass covered with flapping ravens.
Buffalo have their calves in April. The nursing moms look very gaunt this year.

The males are a bit better off but still thin.
A snowman appreciates the extra long winter season at Old Faithful.
The geyser is getting ready to spout.

Old Faithful reaches its peak but is largely obscured by steam in the cold, snowy weather.
The boardwalk running around the hot pools in the Old Faithful geyser basin provides enough insulation from the warm ground for a thick layer of snow to survive. The snow disappears when the boardwalk ends.
The elk appreciate the relative warmth of the area.
An unusually light colored elk still sports last year's antlers.
Swans have found open water in the Firehole River.

Now we are heading back out of the park, and we see that the buffalo carcass has attracted a bald eagle. It is perched on top, and the ravens are now lurking around the edges.
It starts snowing heavier as some buffalo block the road.

Someone Likes The Wind

2008-04-25T21:49:00.000-06:00

This has been a hard winter with fierce winds almost every day. Hard on me and hard on the dogs because of the wind chill and the constant blowing snow.
Look at how tattered the flag is. That was a brand new flag just a few months ago.
Someone likes the wind, though. Kite skiing has become quite popular across the road from us. There are about a dozen kites in this picture, each one attached to a skier or snowboarder. These pictures were taken back in December when the snow level was much lower than it is now. The weather today, however, looked just like these pictures. Most people are not thinking about skiing this time of year, but I did see two or three kite skiers today, nonetheless.

Up and Running

2008-04-21T15:48:00.002-06:00

Wheeee, I am back online. I am also still running dogs on the sled. I am mostly training the young dogs to give them as much experience as possible before the summer slow down. I have three yearlings and three two-year-olds. Okay, technically I have four two-year-olds, but the fourth one is about to turn three and already had extensive training this year, including running the Fairfield race.

Cat Nap

2008-04-21T15:17:00.002-06:00

Rose, age 12, weight 37 lbs, curled up in a cat bed.

Yeah, so?

Sorry For The Silence

2008-03-25T16:24:00.001-06:00

My computer will not boot up, so I am at the library. I do not know if I will blog again until I can get up and running at home again. We have lots of snow, but I cannot show you any pictures. Sorry. I came in fourth at the Canadian Challenge, and the team looked terrific. I could probably have been less conservative and come in third, but I took lots of rest early on. It was a very cold and challenging race this year. Definitely one to remember.

Blogging Silence

2008-02-09T18:13:00.000-07:00

I do not have time to really write much because I am trying to get packed up to leave for the Canadian Challenge. Thus, you will not hear from me again until after February 20th. A series of difficult incidents and a really hard winter have combined to leave the dogs less trained than I would like, but we should still be able to complete the race. Perhaps we will get the red lantern like last year. (I hope not!) I will fill you in on various details when I return. I have some good pictures of the snow level (highest ever) to show you.

Soldier Mountain Quest, Conclusion

2008-01-31T14:28:00.000-07:00

On the second day of the race, I was up early to see if the truck would start. Some clouds had moved in and brought a little snow overnight, keeping the temperature warmer, so I had no trouble getting the truck started. The race start was earlier than the day before, so I got quite a bit colder out on the trail even though I dressed warmer on the second day.

The trail had been freshly groomed and had set up nice and hard, so the trail conditions were fantastic. I left the chute first, but the second place team, Kate St Onge, caught me while we were still going uphill. My team got all excited to chase and stayed on her tail over the top and all the way down through the switchbacks.

I had done my best to tie my drag track on more securely, but trying desperately to control the team on the downhill caused the broken side to come loose again. Nevertheless, we made it safely to the river bottom and passed back and forth a couple times with the other team until I hooked down in order to try to tie the drag track back in place. I had another motive for stopping, and that was that I did not want our two teams to be at the tiny little turnaround loop at the same time.

Kate got about five minutes ahead of me, and there was nobody at all close behind us, so I had the turnaround all to myself. It was a good thing because I had all sorts of trouble this time. The dogs just did not understand what they were supposed to do there. At first they tried to visit the trail help. The trail help got them headed the right way, but they were all tangled up. Then the trail help thought they should untangle them and could not seem to hear me hollering at them to come back to the sled and stand on my snowhook. It was a tangle that only a musher can undo. These things always seem to take forever, but it was probably less than five minutes, and we were blasting back down the trail.

Once again the head-on passes went very well, and the rest of the race went smoothly. I did not see Kate again, but I finished only ten minutes behind her. This left me well ahead in the overall time, so I was the winner of the first Soldier Mountain Quest.

They gave me this beautiful hand painted gourd as a prize.

Pictures From The Race

2008-01-18T23:36:00.000-07:00

Hey, I can finally post pictures again! I could not take pictures during the actual race, so I hope my title did not get you too excited. Instead, I have some pictures from the high school where they gave me a nice army cot to sleep on.

Here is something I found in the girls locker room. It is a sign made from duct tape.

It reads:

DETERMINATION

IS LIKE DUCT TAPE

IF IT DOESN'T WORK

THERE ISN'T ENOUGH

I believe I mentioned that the High School in Fairfield, Idaho has the nickname of the "Mushers".

A couple banners in the gym, and a painting in the entryway.

This is a sign above the bleachers, indicating where people should sit. I got such a huge kick out of this.

Soldier Mountain Quest

2008-01-05T21:32:00.000-07:00

The Soldier Mountain Quest was a new race this year in Fairfield, Idaho, near Sun Valley in the south central part of the state. They had a 12-dog class which ran 30 miles and a 6-dog class which ran 17 miles. The trail was run two days in a row, and the times were added together to get the total.

I was supposed to take two 12-dog teams to the race, but since Mike got stuck at work and could not get home, I went by myself with just one team. I thought about rearranging the teams to take my best 12 dogs but decided to stick with the team I had originally planned to run. This included some of my best dogs but also four rookies who had never even seen another dog team. I was hoping to give them some good race experience at a friendly, low-key race.

Fairfield, Idaho is about 250 miles away, and I arrived there at 9:30PM on Friday, December 21st. The winter solstice seems like an appropriate time for a sled dog race. The local high school, whose nickname is the Mushers, had opened up their gym for us, and there were army cots for sleeping on.

There was a mushers meeting bright and early on Saturday morning. The in-town start that had been planned was judged to be too dangerous due to low snow conditions, so the start was moved to a trailhead seven miles out of town. To give everyone time to adjust and also allow some people to participate in a small ceremonial run in town, the start time was delayed until much later in the morning.

The temperature had dropped well below zero overnight, and there were no outlets for plugging in my truck, so I had a great deal of difficulty getting it started. It was lucky that I could wait for the day to warm up some before I had to be at the trailhead. The truck finally started, and I got myself up to the start and ready to go.

I was scheduled to start fourth, and the National Guard was on hand to help get the teams to the starting line. When my turn came, I released the sled from the truck and rode the brake while several burly Guardsmen held onto the gangline to direct the dogs up to the starting line. Almost immediately I felt something give way, and I looked down and saw to my horror that my main brake had broken completely in two.

At the start line, I put down a snow hook to stop the dogs, and I mentioned my broken brake to the race marshall. He said there were some switchbacks "after you get over the top", but he thought if I could ride my drag, I would be okay. I use a piece of snowmachine track as a drag, which I stand on if I need to slow the dogs or tighten up the lines to keep the team strung out. My drag is attached to the main brake, and because of where the break was, it was now only attached on one side. I have had my drag come undone on one side before, so I felt I had the experience to ride it lopsided. Besides, there was no way I wanted to abort my race, so they gave me a countdown and sent me on my way.

The race was on a wide groomer trail, but the snow conditions were very soft. Normally I would ride the drag to keep the dogs under control and prevent injury in these conditions. Unfortunately, the drag was only about half as effective as normal, so I had to trust to my dogs to keep themselves safe. Luckily, all our training runs in the past two weeks had been in deep, soft snow, so I felt hopeful.

The trail rose gradually for a few miles, and I passed two of the teams who started in front of me. There were also a couple cattle guards which were not completely covered by snow, and I cringed as I saw a few dogs punching through. No one got hurt, though, and I made a note to watch carefully for any more cattle guards. Then we rounded the shoulder of a hill and started plunging downward. It did not seem as though we had gone high enough to be "over the top", but as we started around some sharp switchbacks, I knew that we must be. This was a big relief because the trail was really not that difficult, so I knew everything would be okay from then on.

The trail leveled off and followed a river bottom for the rest of the way to the turnaround. There were more cattle guards, and without a main brake, I could only slow the team somewhat and hope for the best. I passed the final team in front of me shortly before the turnaround.

The turnaround was a bit of an adventure since there was no defined loop but merely a wide spot at a fork in the trail. My dogs headed for the right fork but turned so sharply when I said "haw" that the turnaround crew exclaimed "look at that!" Unfortunately, my leaders thought I meant to take the left fork and ignored my command to come around. They were halfway down the left trail before I could get my snowhook down to stop them. The turnaround crew helped me get them turned back the way we came with minimal tangles.

The return trip was an adventure because I now had to do head-on passes with all the other teams. Dogs do not usually move to the side of the trail when they see someone coming the way people do. Instead, they like to head straight for each other like a game of "chicken" and then veer aside at the last instant. If they do not veer aside, then you have a tangle or a pile-up. I had to crouch down holding a snow hook ready to instantly stop the team if they did not pass cleanly. Luckily, my dogs did great and got by everybody cleanly, even those teams that were tentative about passing or wanted to visit my dogs.

The only other tricky part was a steep downhill with a sharp switchback a couple miles from the finish line. I crashed the sled there but managed to hang on. At the finish line, the burly marines were ready to hang onto my sled to get us stopped at my truck.

I checked all my dogs over for injury and was really pleased that my lack of braking ability had not resulted in any problems. I fed and watered the team and then put them away in their boxes where they could rest and stay warm.

It took a long time for the next team to come in, which surprised me. It turned out that I was in first place by almost half an hour. This was a formidable lead to take into the second day.

Happy New Year

2008-01-03T21:41:00.000-07:00

Happy New Year, everybody. I am always hopeful that each year will be better. Seeing that the new year comes in winter, I am always thinking of the success of my sled dog training and racing efforts.

I wrote a message about the season's first race, but I had left it unfinished, and when I returned, all my programs had been closed, so the message was lost. Now I have to hunt for the time and energy to recompose it. Perhaps tomorrow.

Today I took my main team for a 40 mile run, the longest so far. It was a beautiful sunny day, and not very windy for once. My husband also got his snowmobile out for the first time this year.

Loud Blowing Snowstorms

2007-12-29T23:34:00.000-07:00

I am unable to post pictures at the moment, so my kind, patient readers will have to be content with text. Last week we were treated to loud blowing snowstorms every day. In fact, a 40 mile stretch of the highway that runs by my house was closed. This is generally due to poor visibility or the inability of the plows to keep up with the drifting snow.

The highway closure forced my husband to stay with some coworkers overnight since he could not come home. We were both going to go to a sled dog race last weekend, but he could not get home in time, so I went by myself. In my next post, I will tell you all about the race. It was quite the chore getting the snow blown or shoveled out enough to get my dogtruck onto the highway. Luckily they had reopened the highway before I needed to leave.

One chore that had to be done before I left was to lift up each and every doghouse on top of the drifts. The amount of new snow and drifting meant that the houses would have disappeared from sight before I returned from the race if I did not raise them all at the very last minute before leaving.

White, White, Everywhere

2007-12-18T21:42:00.000-07:00

I look out my window and see nothing but white, except for my trees, dimly seen through the blowing snow. We have been getting a lot of snow and wind this week and last. The level in my yard is close to two feet now. This is the settled amount, not how much has actually fallen, which is probably closer to four feet.

Every morning I snowshoe out my path to the kennel, the path to the highway, and the path from the kennel to the snowmobile trail. This week I have found that these paths are completely drifted over after I have had my breakfast and gone back outside to actually use them. This year I have marked my paths with a few stakes so that I will know exactly where to step to stay on top of the packed surface underneath.

The good news is that I have made light work of keeping the dog houses lifted up on top of the snow. Lifting all the houses every other day, or even every three or four days, has been sufficient to keep them all above board, and the task is easy enough to complete in less than an hour.

Winter Is Here

2007-12-14T21:28:00.000-07:00

November was a free month this year. Free in the sense that we could park the vehicles at the house and find or work with anything in the yard. While there was snow on the ground for the last week of November, it was not enough to prevent me from continuing to run the dogs with the ATV. All that changed on the first of December.

We got all the vehicles moved except the dog truck. It was the last one to be moved, and by the time we got to it, it was too late. So, it sits by the house until we can get the guy with the monster snow blower to clear a path out to the highway.

All this snow forced me to switch to the sled, but with the extra month on the ATV, the transition this year was a snap. Because the gates were open, the dogs were already accustomed to running the winter trail, and I did not have to reduce my team size for the first sled run. Because trucks and ATVs had been driving on the trail, there was a hard packed base underneath the new snow. The new snow amounted to two feet or so, which gave us some tremendous drifts to flounder through in the windy spots, but the dogs did an admirable job of navigating across the open field.

Mailbox Run

2007-11-30T18:14:00.000-07:00

We got some more snow, but I haven't taken any new pictures, so instead I am going to show you the mailbox run. This is a run which goes from my house to our rural mailboxes, almost three miles away, and returns. Here we are heading north towards the mountains that border Montana and Idaho. The wheel dog on the left is my toothless piebald Nutmeg. Notice how he is just a step further back than his partner. That is because one tugline is shorter than the other. This is an old gangline, and when one tugline broke, the new replacement tug turned out to be a touch shorter than the old ones. If I have a dog who does not pull consistently, I will put him on the shorter tug so that he has the illusion of trying to play catchup with his partner. Dogs usually pull better if they are behind because they naturally love to play chase.

The STOP AHEAD sign is meant for snowmobiles in the winter. That is why it is on such a tall post. In a high snow year the level will eventually reach the bottom of the sign. In a low snow year like last year it may only be halfway up the post. There is a road crossing at the top of this hill, but for the mailbox run, I turn right, before the road.

Here we have made the turn, and another turn around the mailboxes, and we have stopped for a breather. You can see the mailboxes behind us, nicely protected by a three sided shed.

Notice how my little leader Meadowlark is standing ahead of her coleader Charge. Someone chewed one of the leader tuglines in half, and instead of throwing it away, I just tied a knot in it, which of course made it quite a bit shorter. Now I put the most confident dog on the longer tugline, and I can train a new or less confident leader on the shorter tugline. Don't you just love the way I turn an equipment problem into an asset?

The brown dog on the left is Cinnamon. She is Meadowlark's aunt and Nutmeg's sister. She is standing to the side because she has no neckline. Yup, somebody chewed it, and I chose not to replace it. Now I use that position to train dogs to keep lined out and run where they should without being forced to stay in position by a neckline.

Snow At Last

2007-11-26T23:56:00.000-07:00

The prayers worked because we did get some snow last week. It was not much, but still ...

Snow at last; snow at last; thank God Almighty, there's snow at last!

West Yellowstone got about a foot, but I only got perhaps 2 - 4 inches. The weather turned cooler, though, so I still have most of it left. This is not enough for sleds, so I am still running the dogs with the ATV. They opened the gates to the winter trail, so now I am able to go 20 miles, and the dogs are ready for that distance, so this is great.

We had some gorgeous sunny days, and I found myself running in the late afternoon with the sun at my back, painting the fields golden, and the full moon rising over the mountains directly ahead of me. I did not have my camera with me, so you will just have to imagine it.

Winter Is Late

2007-11-18T21:30:00.000-07:00

Bare ground still. Our church today prayed for snow. How many places do they do that? We should normally be completely snow covered by November 1st, so this is very, very late.

Here is a shot of my training trail about half a mile from my house, heading north. We are about to pass the holding pens for cattle. They were all shipped off at the end of October to their winter grazing grounds. The dogs paws are still in great shape because we run on grass and dirt, not gravel like we had in Three Forks, Montana before we moved here.

Here is another shot about half a mile further on. Those beautiful mountains are only five miles away. On the far left you can see the gap that is Raynolds Pass, the lowest pass over the Continental Divide anywhere in the Rockies!

You may notice the double fence posts on the right. The larger posts are permanently in place while the smaller posts have the barbed wire strands on them and are held up with a simple loop of wire over the large posts. This is so that the entire fence can be laid on the ground for winter so that snowmobilers can ride through the fence line without hooking their skis under a strand of wire. This photo is not a recent one as those fences were all taken down nearly three weeks ago.

Toothless Wonder

2007-10-31T21:10:00.000-06:00

This is Nutmeg. He lost most of his teeth and had to have the remaining ones removed this month. They were only able to save his four canine teeth. It is a mystery why all his teeth went rotten at only three years of age. The vet said that his jawbone is perfectly sound. His sister Cloves also had all her teeth go rotten at the same time and likewise had to have them removed except for the four canines. The other two dogs from that litter are okay so far. Interestingly, both Nutmeg and Cloves are piebalds (white with black or brown patches) while the other two littermates are solid colored.

Nutmeg and Cloves can still eat just fine since kibble is not normally chewed anyway. It is rather amusing to watch Nutmeg tackle a biscuit, though. He basically gums it until it turns soft enough to break into pieces that he can swallow.

Fall Rains

2007-10-07T23:14:00.000-06:00

Fall starts the wet season again. First rain and then snow until next May when the dry season starts again. Fall rains bring mountain snows, as this picture of Sawtelle Peak shows.

Helium is doing well. His stitches have been removed, so he is ready to get back into training again. His hair must be growing back some because the patch around his eye already looks less dark.

Fall Wildlife

2007-09-30T23:27:00.001-06:00

The ground squirrels have gone into hibernation, but there are still lots of other wildlife to be seen. The bull buffalo are impressive after a summer of lazy eating, and they are looking to join up with the females again.
The little calves are getting bigger and less frolicsome. Perhaps they sense that eating is more important than playing with the cold weather coming on.

A bull elk keeps a close eye on a group of cow elk.

Here is another common species seen in the park in the fall; the photographer. This one is much too close to this bull elk in rut. Lucky for him, this guy seems secure and unthreatened with his harem nearby.

Two momma elk with their calves.

A mule deer with the largest ears I have ever seen.

A group of pronghorn antelope on a stormy evening. The male is in the rear, telling all the females to get moving. The males seem to be drivers, not leaders. This is probably true of many species.

This coyote seems contented. It must have been a good summer of hunting.

A bald eagle perches by its nest on a dead snag.

Fall Colors

2007-09-29T23:09:00.000-06:00

The fall colors this year have been outstanding. This first picture shows a clump of aspens with a lot of orange coloring. Right in the middle, between trees, you can see a patch of blue which is Henry's Lake.

This next picture is from the same area but looking away from the lake and towards the mountains. This clump of aspens sports orange and red coloring.

There are a lot of native mountain ash shrubs growing wild in this area, and they are likewise putting on a great show. Here is one that shows a progression from green to orange to dark purple, all in the same bush. The gas station in the background is Robin's Roost, which is a mile and a half down the road from my house. Like the one across the street from me, this one is also a small grocery store and lunch counter.

Helium Loses An Eye

2007-09-27T23:32:00.000-06:00

Helium had to go into the vet last week because of what looked like an eye injury. There was blood just under the surface but no sign of what had caused it. The vet determined that there was no vision in that eye and sent me up to Helena, Montana to an eye specialist to have it double checked and then removed. Now he is back home and sporting a nifty plastic cone to protect the surgery site.
Here is a closeup shot. The dark patch is his skin pigmentation since they shaved the hair off around the surgery site. Who would have thought he'd be black under all that white hair!

The odd thing about this picture is that it looks like there is a gold colored eye in the middle of the dark patch. However, they sewed his eyelids shut, so there is definitely nothing there! It must be some funky glare with the plastic cone or the camera lens.

The eye specialist sent some tissue samples off to a lab to see if they could diagnose the problem. The results came back, and there was a malignant tumor inside the eyeball. Hopefully the cancer will not pop up anywhere else. Helium is one of my top dogs who raced with me at Ashton this year.

First Snow

2007-09-24T23:47:00.000-06:00

We had our first snow on Sunday night, the 23rd of September. It was just a tiny skiff of snow. It had been raining all weekend, and then pretty much stopped by the time it turned to snow. This was a little bit later than the first snow last year, but not by much.

The footprints are from the cat, escaping out the front door to hunt mice under the deck. We try to keep her inside to avoid any tragedies with the dogs or the highway, but she knows there are mice out there, so she is always trying to get out.

Frost And Smoke

2007-09-14T23:23:00.000-06:00

As I reported in the previous post, we had a hard freeze this week. It got down to 21F and has been in the 20s for most of the nights since then. I covered one tomato plant with a bucket, and it survived, but all the others perished. The corn and potatoes were also killed. I got half a dozen ears of baby corn, though! The edible spuds from the potatoes are in the ground, so of course they did not freeze with such a paltry overnight frost. I dug up the bounty from just one plant and found 25 spuds. Most of those were teeny, tiny, but there was one large one and half a dozen moderate sized ones. Success! Okay, I know that potatoes are supposed to be a natural in Idaho, but given our high elevation and short growing season in Island Park, my husband thought I would get nothing from my garden, not even potatoes.

On another front, this has been a particularly bad year for fires in Idaho and Montana. We have been fortunate not to have any closer than 15 miles from our house, and our valley has been remarkably smoke-free compared to many surrounding areas. However, there have been a couple weeks when the smoke blew in thick enough to make me stop training the dogs. Thick smoke can cause lung damage if you try to exercise in it. This week we had several days of thick smoke that made the mountains dim and fuzzy and left a strong smell in the air.

Here is a shot from last week, showing a team getting ready to leave the yard. The enthusiastic dog in the rear is Current, my main race leader. I do not use her in lead at this time of year because I like to train other leaders who have less experience. Her brother Charge is the white leader who is looking back at me.

Summer Is Over

2007-09-09T23:16:00.000-06:00

Goodbye summer; hello fall. It is not that I am unhappy to see the summer be over. I hate hot weather, and this year was the hottest ever. The irony, though, is that just as we are about to get a hard freeze (tonight), I spot the first blossom on my tomato plant.

This was one of the few plants in my garden that was not munched to the ground by voracious critters, and yet it grew so slowly that it has now run out of time for growing. So sad.

Those hot, sunny, T-shirt days of summer may have gone by, but usually there are some beautiful days in the fall as well. Here my husband Mike is enjoying the view from the bank of the Yellowstone River in Yellowstone Park. I expect at least a couple more weekends of picnic weather yet to come. (Translation: weather that is dry and warm enough to sit outside with ungloved hands.)

As a matter of fact, I have already gotten a good start on fall training with the dogs. I started the first week of August but was limited by the heat to two-mile runs. Now we are doing a five mile loop. Here is one team on the picket line, waiting to be hooked up for a run.

Short Growing Season

2007-08-29T23:54:00.000-06:00

The last frost in the spring was June 26th, and the first frost in the fall was August 25th. In other words, my frost-free growing season was a scant two months this year. Not that it mattered much. Critters (ground squirrels, birds) ate almost every plant I tried to grow in my garden.

Montana Traffic Jam

2007-08-27T23:55:00.000-06:00

I took these pictures just north of West Yellowstone back in the spring. These are two separate herds just a couple miles apart. They are saying goodbye to their winter grounds (near town) and heading for their summer pasture (in Yellowstone Park).