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Rant and Raves - January 2008 thru Current
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April 2008:
After more than 800 miles in training with our team this season, KOBE has gone back to live with the Carey-Block family. He is a different dog from the day he first arrived. If we were not anticipating a litter and he just a few years younger, KOBE would be staying. He's got a good base under him now and will slot right into a 30-60 mile team. His departure opened up one of the tie out areas in our yard. JASPER and CURLY now occupy that space and are learning to maneuver a swivel and sleep in separate dog houses.DHARMA is not walking as gracefully as she typically does. A good sign that she is pregnant. March 2008: We did it!! The team completed the Can-AM 250; the toughest, and longest sled dog event on the East Coast!!! 
New England dumped so much snow this season, MISCHA was able to snack from the bird feeder.
Speaking of Mischa (our mascot/namesake), this month we celebrated her 14th birthday along with JELLO's 10th. Participated in the Bartlett year end fun run. Unfortunately it was overcast with rain clouds and mushers this year were not able to enjoy the breathtaking view (something Rhonda was looking forward to). Bred TK to DHARMA. This combo is admittedly a departure from the Kodiak/L'Epiphanie/Sepp-Alta that we've become known for. However, both of these dogs have shown exceptional intelligence and performance in harness and sometimes you just have to breakout of your comfort zone and try something new. TK is presently our fastest male; and Dharma lead the Can-Am team over both the start and finish lines. February 2008: Over the past few weeks we have had the pleasure of introducing a few friends to the sport of dog mushing. Chris who typically runs a much smaller team, along with his friends from Somerville, MA came up to the Dawg House and trained with us for a weekend. We finally got Pete and Karen on the runners!!  And for Rhonda, the highlight of the Stratford Sled Dog Race, was when she and Mike Bennett, Pres of the Stratford Nighthawks Snowmobile Club took an 8 dog team out for a ride down the railroad bed.Back in January, a fellow musher wished to pull his entry from the Stratford Sled Dog Race because his leaders were a bit rusty. Rhonda suggested with the rain date 30 days out, not to be so hasty. Alot can happen over the course of a month. Well wouldn’t you know? Not only did Scott Isabelle have success with his team, we had a breakthrough of our own. ASPEN who we had up for sale,  decided to squelch concerns we harbored regarding running dogs of a smaller stature. She has since earned a spot as an alternate for the Can-Am 250 team and no longer runs with her tail up!Alternates are not B string dogs by any means. But ASPEN as a young, inexperienced yearling would be ranked a B if someone like TK is unable to participate on the Can-Am 250 team. We have diligently worked this season to keep the dogs healthy and prevent injury. Bob did not push the dogs hard at Eagle Lake or Greenville and we limited our race schedule, all with the sole purpose and goal of the Can-Am 250 finish line in mind. Now with less than two weeks to go, we are dealing with a bug that we can only assume the dogs caught at Greenville,  and we are also facing the possibility of taking TK off the team.
He has a shoulder injury that may require more rest than we have available. As a puppy we were questioning whether he’d be any good in harness. Boy was we surprised! TK is a valuable player and a dog that our team greatly needs in the years to come. Its breaks your heart when he jumps up and down to be harnessed when the rest of the team is headed out, but we have to keep the future and his greater health in mind. Speaking of B string dogs, JELLO who we thought for sure was going to be sitting on the retirement  bench with RAVEN this year has totally impressed us. During a training run this month, Rhonda had JELLO and ENZO in lead. For a good portion of the run, she had to stand with both feet on the drag while the team moved along at speeds 15+ miles an hour. Clearly JELLO has decided to postpone his retirement until next season! A few folks had wondered how we were going to field both a 12 dog and 8 dog team at Can-Am this year. Well, we had been holding out for the opportunity of borrowing a few dogs from our friend  Spencer’s Call of the Wild kennel. Earlier in the season, Rhonda took TOSHI (one of the Zen kids) and DAWSON (TOSHI’s son) out for a training run. Spencer has built himself a tremendously strong dog team! The infusion of just one of these boys on our team would have been awesome. It looked for awhile like the plan was set. But Spencer being the busy guy that he is, even now in retirement, training for long distance just was not in the cards; this year. Instead, he introduced his grandson to the sport and they participated together in a few NY fun runs. January 2008: Although Rhonda has finally overcome a trepidation of running a 10 dog team, she suffers from a condition called Raynaud's. As such, we've decided it would be best for the overall welfare of our team at the unassisted checkpoint, for Bob to remain as the driver for the upcoming Eagle Lake 100. 
Speaking of Eagle Lake, we've got 12 potentials for the team. GRANITE is now running along with the main group and is really quite impressive in the position of lead. The other siblings in his litter are maturing a bit slower than we are used to. Like fine wine and cheese that take years to mature into something exceptional, we may be kicking ourselves later for putting ASPEN up for sale.Our kennel has two new faces. We are pleased to introduce (from the ROCKY x EMMA litter) CURLY and JASPER (previously referred to as Mo). Back in December, Automotive News analysts were quoted as saying, "Automakers might not be building cars, designing cars or even engineering automobiles, but the auto business is alive and well and serving America. For dealers, it's business as usual." With the price of gasoline fluctuating between 3 and 4 dollars a gallon, the Nation facing a recession and massive layoffs across various industries, fewer people have the need to even drive their car, never mind purchasing or repairing one. On the 16th of this month, we received word that the Chrysler dealership where Bob was employed, shut it's doors. Being on unemployment can be a time of great stress and anxiety. Rather than worry about the financial implications, we are considering this an unexpected gift. Our mantra for the season has been adopted from Lance Mackey: "Excel, Don't Dwell". |
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