Races

We've attended two races to date in 2009. The first was in Chemult Oregon, south of Bend. This has always been one of our favorite events because it receives so much community support. In spite of a lower snow pack this year, and a very fast track we had a good time. Bob did decide to skijor with only one dog due to the trail conditions. Rolo definitely missed his trail companion Simon (aka Ivan), particularly on the downhills when he was surprised to see bob catching up with him. My 6 dog sprint team did great. I really enjoy the course which has some variation to it, with some wide straight aways, one uphill and a nice winding section through the trees. Both days the team finished in around 32 minutes on the 5.5 mile course which is a little over 10 miles per hour for speed. I was really pleased with what I saw with the three pups, Pepper, Rose and Saffron, and Donner and Blizzard. Jezebel, as always helped young Rose learn the ropes of lead at a race.

On February 7-8 we traveled to Priest Lake Idaho for the 40 anniversary of the Priest Lake Race, put on by our home sled dog organization, the Inland Empire Sled Dog Association. We had a great turnout and the trail conditions were fabulous. On saturday I had one of my best runs ever at Priest lake with my 6 dog team, aided by a perfectly timed pass about 1/3 of the way around the course. The course is difficult for passing, due to its width, but that same feature also makes it very enjoyable to drive! I attach two pictures, one of my team and one of Bob's. The picture of my team is taken at the start on sunday. The one of Bob at the finish on saturday.

SNOW

Snow, Snow, Snow.....since mid December it has been doing this one day after another such that just in December 83 inches fell at our home here in northern Idaho. Our snowpack is somewhere between 26 and 30 inches as the snow falls and settles again. The snow has certainly created a wintry wonderland across the inland Northwest. It is strikingly beautiful though it has in our case put a damper on sled and skijor training.

In spite of interruption, the dogs make the best of the situation, using newly created snow mountains in their exercise yards as just something more to play in. Here are some photos of the crew and their antics.

Fall fruits

Most of the berries are gone from shrubs in our yard except for the bright red ones on the European Mountain Ash. Each day they attract many birds, Red Shafted Flickers and Cedar Waxwings are the most numerous. Black oil sunflowers in the bird feeders bring pine siskins, yellow goldfinches and an occasional house finch. Little snow fell through most of fall 2008, and temperatures remained above average. Still by the first half of December things were getting frosty and I captured some of this magic with my lens.

Sammy Play Day

On Saturday, November 29, we had a Samoyed play day at Jim and Susie Malcolm's place north of Blanchard Idaho. Jim and Susie live on 20 acres north of 640 acres of State Forest land. Our purpose for the day was to gather together a group of samoyed enthusiasts and introduce those whose dogs had never had a chance to work in harness to doing so and for those that had to get out and try some new trails. We had 2 inches of snow fall the day before which provided us with a new opportunity for those with one or two dogs to try out a kick sled. The photos show some of the activities enjoyed by all.

First Snow

This past weekend has brought the first "significant" snow to the valleys of northern Idaho, around 2 inches. The past week has brought, finally, some seasonably cold temperatures which has been encouraging for our dog teams. Thurs was thanksgiving and was was filled with a feast for both canine and human.

Friday was the cold day and Bob and I took two teams out north of Blanchard ID. The pictures to the right show both teams on the trail, Bob's with Rose and Cody leading and mine with Pepper and Jezebel. We practiced passing did several loops around this area, which is on Idaho Department of Lands, State Forest Land.

Samoyed National

Late September and early October was the Samoyed Club of America National in Topeka Kansas. There were close to 500 samoyeds enterred. The pictures above show some scenes. First is our Pepper, Dashing Chili Pepper in the Novice Weightpull. Second is Pepper again, handled by Beth Tallentire. The final picture is our Nova, Am Int Ch Sizzlin's Supernova Stardust in the BOB competition with her breeder and co-owner Beth Tallentire handling.

What a wonderful July!

Summer is about half over now, hard to believe. We've passed the longest day. Days are still very long but we have definitely turned the corner and are headed by to the equinox. In northern Idaho one can always tell mid summer has come and fall is not far away because the ninebark shrub will begin to turn. The leaves on this shrub turn a brilliant red, and are one of the first plants to do so in the fall. As I drove over through Spirit Lake last week I noticed the first ninebark leaves begin to turn, the first harbinger of fall, already in July. But this is northern Idaho.

Bob has been very busy in the back yard creating a new bed for vegetables. It is a raised bed. It won't be ready this year but it will be for next year. Today we went over to friends and picked up some manure, now a little more topsoil and we'll be ready to go. We've also "surveyed" our hay field, with our GPS, 7 acres...

Earlier in the month we visited Cedar in Old Town with his new owner Luanne. He has a wonderful home there and seems to be fitting in really well. Here are a few photos to capture some of our recent activites.