Little Earl's a Lead Dog...

 When we got Little Earl (My Name Is Earl, 11/17/21), we were told his parents were both leaders. While that was good to hear, you never really know much about a new dog until you try them out. March is when, if you haven't already, you try new things in the team. So this was Earl's time to be a leader.

Earl on the left in lead, heading home from the last rest stop. That's when you'd usually put a new dog up front for the first time, cause they know they're on the way back to the dog yard. 

Here's Earl back in the yard. Missy with Gus behind her, cooling off by laying down in the snow. Mac and Earl look like they're ready to go some more! Earl's less than a year old, we're not sure when he was born, late spring we think, but he's still likely the youngest dog that we've ever tried in lead. Pretty amazing how well he did.

The Ides of March and a New Leader?

The saying "beware of the Ides of March" didn't hold true this year, at least not for our dog team. When Mac was a pup,  the woman we got him from thought he'd be a good lead dog cause his mother was a natural at skijoring and he was the most fearless of her pups (Here and Gone 6/28/20). Andy often took him for walks and when he was old enough to fit the puppy harness, at 3 months, he pulled right from the start.

When he got a little older, I had to take over the walks because he pulled so hard, Andy couldn't control him. The first time I went out on the 4-wheeler that fall, I didn't take him, so he broke his collar, then chased us down the trail until he caught up, so we had to turn around to bring him home.  But without a proven leader last winter, he never got a chance up front. So this past week, it was his time to lead.

Mac, on the right, running next to Missy who has really blossomed out as a leader this winter. But she's going on eleven, so may not have many more years left in harness. Having Mac ready to run up front with Gus would be a real bonus then, a leader for the Ides!

Wanted to get a photo of Mac in front of the team, but the youngsters are always barkin', bitin', and bangin' to go, so took this one in the dog yard after we got back today.

Overflow..

 Running the ten mile loop, you have to cross the dreaded overflow gulley. Not so bad as previous years (Overflow 2/16/19), but it's still a hazard to navigate twenty to thirty feet of sloping ice.

Heading back for home, the dogs still running great. It was almost thirty above, so kind of warm for these fuzzy guys.

Taking a rest before crossing the ice again, it's a treat to finally get out on longer runs.

Down the Trail...

Finally had some nice weather this past week, sunny and warm, well above zero anyway, great weather to run dogs.

But then it clouded up and snowed again today, so it made for slow run.

It's a rare time when Gus and Missy will both lay down for a rest, they're usually banging to go.

Crossing the pond before the bridge, they usually pick up speed here, so it can make for a little excitement as we go flying over the bridge.

More of the Same...

This winter we've had lots of snowfall followed by cold weather spells. Feb hasn't changed that. We had nearly a foot of snow over the past week and plowing snow has been the main activity.

The hardest part of plowing is to find places to stack the snow, now that the berms are 7-8 ft high and largely immobile, so have to find some new spots. Andy took this pic through the window during the fading light, so not the greatest, but better than nothing.

With all the snow, the trails are in great shape and we're running the dogs across the valley now.

The bridge crossing the creek is back in use after my neighbor resurrected it last year. He even shoveled off most of the snow, what a star!

Free Run...

On the days we don't get the dogs out on a sled run, we let them off for a bit of free run. Here's some pics...

When they first get loose, they race around the yard chasing each other. Missy, as the senior dog,  keeps out of the mayhem and just watches from her house.

Andy keeps them hanging around with a pouch full of dog biscuits.

And Mac still likes his belly rubs.

Winter stuff...

This time of year, the days are short, maybe five hours of daylight, and it's usually too cold to do much outside. But this year's different, seems like we've had as much warm weather, well above zero at least, as sub-zero cold. So this is what we've been doing...

Running dogs again, now that the trail's finally back in after the big rain/snow storms around Christmas.

After shoveling moose holes on the trail, we got a nice shot of the setting sun reflecting off the clouds in valley...

 Fixing the Ski Doo, the third time in the last four years it's broken down. When you spend more time working on it than riding, well maybe it's time to look for a newer one?

And of course the sunsets are great this time of year with the low angle of the sun...

Just maybe, in a few weeks or so, it'll be warm enough to not dress up like the Pillsbury doughboy!

New Shoes...

Well not exactly, but finally got the new (for me) slightly used snow shoes finished. While the problem with the first shoe was grinding off the old rivets to replace the front decking, the reassembly went fine. The second one was the opposite, the old rivets came off easy and new ones went in, well not so much.

Here's the finished snow shoes. The pile of scrap in the middle of the bench are the wasted rivets; it took maybe two dozen rivets to fasten the ten holes. For some reaosn, the head wouldn't expand sufficiently to hold the washer on the bottom of the shoe. I did the first few just by holding them in place by hand, then used C-clamps, and finally vise grips. Not sure why they didn't expand enough. Anyway, the shoes are done now and I'll try'em out tomorrow.

I did get a new pair of boots last month and here I'm trying them out on Jack Black. While most of our earlier cats, like Ruty, loved to get their belly rubs, Jack usually takes offense and can attack with claws and teeth. No cats or boots were harmed in this exercise.

Snowshoes and Miscreant Moose at Twenty Below...

After all the big snows ended, we got about 4 1/2 ft for the month, it was mostly plowing and shoveling snow for a week or so. Then it was time to put the sled dog trail back in. I did get the dogs out for one run on the sled before the big rainstorm hit, but since then there was nowhere to run them with all the ice and snow covering the trails. Tried to get out on the Ski Doo the other day, but my neighbor came by, told me his truck was stuck in the road, so spent the rest of the afternoon helping him. Then the temps dropped to well below zero, the Ski Doo is hard to start when it's real cold, so figured it'd be easier to just snowshoe the trails in. Well that was a good idea maybe twenty or thirty years ago but not so much now. After three days on the snowshoes, I'd only gotten a half a mile of trail in. But the worst part was that every time I went back out, the moose had wandered down the trail, stomping tracks (post holing) the trail. When I went out today, not only did they stomp in what I did yesterday, they apparently followed behind me and stomped in some of the trail I'd fixed today. I think I'm done with this for awhile.

So this is what you look like after snowshoeing at twenty below. There's probably better ways to spend your time; I think I'll look into it.

Snow, Rain, Repeat...

 A couple of weeks back we got almost a foot of snow. That was ok, cause we hadn't had too much up til then and we needed it. I was able to break out the sled trail and got the dogs out after a short cold spell ended. But then we got another dump, close to a foot of snow followed by a couple inches of rain.

This is what you'd look like if you chose to plow snow for maybe four hours during a rainstorm. Next time I'll wait until it stops. Now they're forecasting another storm event starting today with rain and snow. followed by sub-zero cold. I can't wait! Read about it here...

https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/weather/2021/12/27/interior-alaska-storm-wreaks-havoc-as-highways-temporarily-close-and-thousands-remain-without-power/

Cold!...

Been down below zero F since last weekend, the highs, when we get one, have been in the mid twenties below and the lows near forty below. But the end appears to be in sight as the weather bureau is predicting near zero tomorrow.

Here's a pretty sad looking fellow taking a selfie when the temps, according to the frog, are thirty something below. That's cold enough to mostly keep me inside, except for feeding dogs and getting firewood. It's a good thing there's a lot cut and split, cause we're going through it real fast at these temps. Been rebuilding an old pair of snowshoes I picked up last summer, so will post some pics when they get further along.

So here's the snowshoes, the one on the left just about finished, the other in the original condition. When I went to look at them, the seller was very apologetic, said  he hadn't realized that the green plastic had some severe cracking, so gave them to me for free. I thought it'd be easy to replace the bad part with some UHMW sled plastic, but didn't realize how hard it'd be to grind off the rivet heads that held it on. But now one's almost  done,  they'll both get new bindings, then just have to do the other. Should have'em ready by spring time!

Little Earl ...

Well Little Earl has grown into the dog yard in more ways than one. He plays with all the dogs, tho most of them would rather not, and he gets picked on by Mac, which he seems to enjoy. So any anxiety over moving into a new place is likely gone. His feet have gotten a lot bigger, so hopefully the rest of his body will follow along. As far as running him, he's doing just great in the team.

Had to make Earl a new harness, since I'd given away all the smaller ones except for one too small puppy harness. Fortunately there was enough scrap webbing and polar fleece to cobble together a harness that'd fit him. Even used  pieces of his old orange collar, which we had to cut off him cause it was too small, for part of the x-back. Pretty snazzy!

And it warmed up to twenty above F today after a couple weeks below zero, so that was pretty good too.