WIND

He is just a 2 years old male. He is out of Janet of our Stage race Leader and Niki, one of our older dog who is directly out of Gareth Wright REX.

Wind is very crazy and noisy. We were considering selling him because he is just too crazy and work too hard. But he is a very nice personality dog and does the job on the line so we decided to hang on to him for this season and see.

If he doesn’t get hurt by working too hard we are sure to be able to train him as a leader.

He will be a great STAGE RACE dog….

Friday, October 13, 2006 6:29:43 PM (Alaskan Standard Time, UTC-09:00)     

My shipment of 2 sleds from Antipode France, should be arriving within a week.

I will have for sale a 5ft Mid Distance sled, the one Jacques, Ken, Gwen and I use last winter on the stage races.

I will also have the BRAND NEW SPRINT SLED called: SQUALL

I saw it last year but never tried it yet....

here's some action photos:

For more info visit the Antipode sleds USA web site

Friday, October 13, 2006 12:18:17 PM (Alaskan Standard Time, UTC-09:00)     

ALF

He turned 4 years old this summer he is the brother of Shrek and Scooby. He is a nice quiet dog, not crazy when not on harness and he is a fairly good size: about 60 pounds. He has a nice fur and good feet.

Since this fall I started to put him in lead and he is doing a great Job.

Last year he raced all main races with Jacques.

His name come for the old TV show Alf, who was a fury alien who wanted to eat the cat from his Human host family. Very funny show.

There is nothing much to say about him he is just a nice quiet dog in the yard and an OUTSTANDING working dog. He just does his job and you don’t even notice him he pulls all the time and rest when he need too at camp and always eat and drink, no much just a PERFECT dog….

Thursday, October 12, 2006 6:24:10 PM (Alaskan Standard Time, UTC-09:00)     

I just visit the Wyoming race web site and the 2007 schedule has been posted

http://www.wyomingstagestop.org/schedule.htm

It seems like we don't have an overnight this year but a long stage with a "stop" at Bulcher creek. I never been to Bulcher creek, Jacques already told me there is a serious Uphill to Sioux Pass....

Look foward to be in Beautiful Wyoming.

Thursday, October 12, 2006 12:09:53 PM (Alaskan Standard Time, UTC-09:00)     

Hello,

More bad news, on Oct 8th Jacques took the team lead by Memphis and Jenny for our regular 12 miles run. Shortly before the "due" time of the team Memphis arrived alone in harness in the kennel I went to her and she was on "3" legs.

She seemed hurt on her  rear left leg. Jacques came back and told me she way all fine until 1/4 mile from the kennel when he realize she was limping so he turn her loose.

As of today we can't see when is the problem, we check muscles, toes, pads etc... NOTHING and she will not tell us where she is hurt. So she is out .....

I figure this is may be a  muscle problem due to the fact she pulls like a maniac... she must has pull something inside when she went through the swamp and tusseks, but she is so tough she will not show us where she is hurt. She is on 3 weeks off... she started to put light weight on her rear leg yesterday....

I am very upset... And of course she got hurt when I was not training her and she is MY MAIN LEADER.... hrrr...

Keep all finger (Toes also) crossed so she heal up good and that I can run her in a month or so...

Wednesday, October 11, 2006 1:00:19 PM (Alaskan Standard Time, UTC-09:00)     

OK we are having a very strange fall this year. For sure warm, we had some day of frost earlier and recently very warm....

Yesterday Super warm 56f (+13°C) at 6:30am so we decided to not train and guess what this morning 28°f (-2°C)... STRANGE STRANGE STRANGE

I like cooler for sure..., 28f is still above normal for us but I take this instead of 56f anytime....

At least the warm weather yesterday gave me time to finish painting the 8 dog houses left... I will bring them inside to do the Stencil paint and if it freezes for couple more days we will install them in the kennel very soon.

The dogs are going to be happy this morning.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006 5:58:00 AM (Alaskan Standard Time, UTC-09:00)     

The pyramid of Zoser in Saqqara is getting damaged by the vibration made by the bus waiting for tourist which stay in Idle (for the air conditionning).

The Pyramid was build in the 27th century BC and it is about 60ft high.

Here's a link to the article

Saqqara Pyramid reveal Crack

Tuesday, October 10, 2006 1:24:21 PM (Alaskan Standard Time, UTC-09:00)     

Egypt

She is a small 35/37 pounds female white with blue eyes and good husky coat.

She just turn 3 years old this summer.

Her nickname is “mouick blanc” which in English “white Mouick”, Mouick is how I call the puppies when they scream/Cry all the time for attention… so you get he idea she is always TALKING for attention and love….

Her sister Pyramid is the “grey Mouick” and Simbel the “Black Mouick”….

Her mom is Memphis and her dad Runner.

She is not a very hard worker, but she is steady and very very good on long distance! On stage races I can use her everyday…. She is small so doesn’t get affected by the warm temperature like the bigger dogs.

She has excellent feet like the rest of the litter…

She is no very friendly with the other dogs, but she LOVES Shrek !!!!

But like her mom she got a mind of her own and she is really attached to me (us).

She finished Iditarod last march and she was tired when she got to Nome… but when she saw me walking down the team she started to wag her tail and started to “Mouick” !!!! She was happy to see her “Human mom” again. On races beside Iditarod she runs with me, it is like Memphis I keep them with me ALWAYS except for Iditarod when I know Jacques need them.

Saturday, October 07, 2006 6:28:11 PM (Alaskan Standard Time, UTC-09:00)     

Hello

One of this fall projects that has to be finished before the snow comes, is DOG HOUSES.

We Purchased plywood to make 12 new dog houses.

We use ½ inch plywood for the walls and floor and 5/8 plywood for the roof.

The house size is : 2ft high X 32inch wide  X 23 inch deep.

The roof is overhanging 1 inch in the front.

Then I paInt them with Deck/fence water based Paint from Behr, which is pricy but very good quality and last long.

Of course they are RED!!!!

I do 2 coats of paint and then for the fun I do some Stencils in the front!

Friday, October 06, 2006 11:56:27 AM (Alaskan Standard Time, UTC-09:00)     

We order 4 tons of dog food for this fall, so here's what so far 2 tons of Energy 4800 look like:

We use over one ton of dog food per month... so this will not last too long. This dog food is so good that we don't feed meat at all.

Thursday, October 05, 2006 11:40:53 AM (Alaskan Standard Time, UTC-09:00)     

Here's some photos of Topaz once he is on harness, to see larger version please click on the photo:

He is for sure Happy to go ! Etna next to him is wondering what the "fuzz" is all about... She is older so she knows what is up for the next months...

Wednesday, October 04, 2006 3:15:45 PM (Alaskan Standard Time, UTC-09:00)     

Couple days ago we went to work on some rough part of our winter trail. The temperature are so warm nothing is frozen, so we decided to go cut some TUSSEK.

So if there is not much snow we will be able to go on the swamps. Last year with our handlers we went when it was frozen and it was so hard to cut them with the axe, so this year we tried with the Bursh Cutter (Metal blade) and it worked fine, it is faster and hurt the back less.

Jacques took the Chainsaw and cut the stumps sticking out lower and I cut the Tussek with the mental support of Keops of course !!

Wednesday, October 04, 2006 2:54:36 PM (Alaskan Standard Time, UTC-09:00)     

Today Smallet has to celebrate is official Semi-Retirement.

We removed him from the Main Race dog training.

He will rest and then train the pups later this winter.

He has been a good honest dog for us. He got him from Andy Hutten but he is actualy from our Ex-Vet (who lives now in Arizona) bloodlines.

He raced with us:

2002 Atta Boy
2002 IRMSSSDR
2003 Atta Boy - Jacques's team
2003 IRMSSSDR
2004 Atta Boy - Jacques's team
2004 IRMSSSDR
2004 Kamchadal, Russia
2005 Atta Boy Team - Magali -
2005 Wyoming Magali's team
2006 Magali Grande Odyssée Team

This is a well deserve retirement.

Tuesday, October 03, 2006 11:03:36 AM (Alaskan Standard Time, UTC-09:00)     

Here's some photos of our trainings, we are going 12 miles now.

Click on the photo to see larger version (from our Galery)

 MEMPHIS and JENNY

 HEAD ON PASSING WITH JACQUES ON THE LOGGING ROAD

12 miles loop

Have a great day

Monday, October 02, 2006 12:37:11 PM (Alaskan Standard Time, UTC-09:00)     

Well I got some painting jobs done before the winter. But I am not done yet.

Couple weeks ago I redid all the painting on the outside of our Dog Van. Repainted the door flaps in white and the Back doors and Storage doors in "Aluminium" paint. The truck look like almost new!!

Sunday, October 01, 2006 3:04:50 PM (Alaskan Standard Time, UTC-09:00)