Deer

We'll stop feeding the deer as soon as the fields are green, but for now they come running in looking for their dessert, each evening. I put out the feed and call them and they come running.

They don't mind the house dogs being with me.

Lady Sulatna

Sulatna looks like such a lady (and she can be) but she is a mighty leader (retired), hunter,

scavenger. She occasionally chases off (as yesterday ) and sometimes comes home with a piece of deer hide. She caches her finds out on the trails as well, sometimes a dog biscuit, sometimes an animal bone. This Spring I had to haul off two deer legs which were cached by another animal. She's very crafty . I would love to know what breeds are in her background as she is very fast, smart, sensitive , pretty and TOUGH. She is from Susan Butcher's Poppers and Emmitt Peters' Yukon. She has a regrowth of her aggressive cancer but it is not yet bothering her too much. She is 13 and acts like a 3 year old.

Photo: Sulatna, on the hillside during a walk yesterday

Hazards of Spring

Skinny woke up with an eye infection, with the third lid covering his eye so another trip to vet. He'll be on eye drops for a week.

Last week Yeti went to the vet for having chewed up a Jolly Ball and having a semiblockage. He stayed overnight on an IV. Needless to say, we try to avoid having to go to the vet, but both trips were necessary.

Dogs who live alone can have a toy , but the penned pals are too competitive. They swallow whatever is available , playing "keep away" from their pen partners. They particularly like to steal gloves, handkerchiefs, bungee cords (hard to swallow, thankfully). Liller buries anything she finds next to her pen, so when others are out they try to dig up what she buried.

Dogs are free running every day on a schedule, of sorts. They know when their turn is coming and all others are the cheerleaders. The risk, of course, is that they'll run off. If they do run off, they don't get another chance for awhile. Mostly they're very good.

Last night after feeding and calling in the deer, I took a short walk and just over a rise met a fox feeding . Sulatna took after her and while I doubt a fox would hurt a dog, the porcupines and skunks are out there. She came back with a strong fox musky smell , into the house. L(

And, the ticks are out. They'll last until mid July. Also, we've had a couple of thunder storms. The fields are very dry , always fire danger, but we did have a nice rain. The Pine River is very low, our favorite kayaking spot.

And yet another " hazard", I have a large blister on my foot from wearing lighter socks while walking.

It's great that we can use hoses for watering (not hauling pails) and we're getting the straw cleaned up, bit by bit. The dogs are enjoying sunbathing.

Photo: Skinny's eye; Herman, son of Skinny and Liller, free running.

Pam Flowers

We had a chance to hear Pam Flower's presentation on her solo trek across the arctic with 8 dogs. Very interesting and great slides. The group had good questions... in answer to what would she do differently, only thing was take more lines as they frayed.

She met many challenges, worst of which was early melt on the ocean ice, requiring her to stay put in a village for 5 months.

Her books are: Alone Across the Arctic and a childrens book about her dog, Anna. She is a very honest and interesting speaker. I also bought her video of her trip with 3 dogs to the Magnetic North Pole. It is very interesting and shows a clip of a polar bear visiting her camp site.
She said the Inuit's say: Leave a bear alone and it will leave you alone, which is exactly what she did. Very interesting.

April 12th

Buffy takes her turn in running laps.

The new routine is to let as many as possible take free runs in the mornings. The few dogs who need to be on leashes go in the afternoons.

We had about 4 inches of snow on April 12th. 23 dogs ran free, including Glory, Power, Balto and King from the back pen (older dogs). Like kids out of school .

The Spring that Isn't

And the winter that wasn't!

Yesterday all had dried out and frozen again, but in the night we've had about three inches of new snow and still snowing. Tomorrow it will be in the 40's and next in the 50's so back to mud and shoveling .

The deer are coming right up to the house these days. When I go out, they watch me as I walk around. The dogs are very accustomed to them standing around. Soon they'll have better places to feed but for now they're enjoying the new grass and I see them eating some of the tree buds. They go into the trees when the dogs are free running.

A mama fox ran by in the early a.m.... her belly was covered with mud. Looked like she had been out hunting and had crawled out of her muddy den, maybe young ones in the den now.

We had 23 dogs free running on Tuesday, 15 yesterday. We keep a chart to make sure all get their turns. Quattro will have to wait a bit for another turn as she took off for an hour yesterday. She would run back in to tease everyone, so I knew she was ok, but no one else could be out while she had her fun.

The neighbors are clear cutting their land right up to our East borders. Will be putting up a fence to keep it safe for dogs . It was a dense woods with much wildlife. Just a few pines left standing, all the rest slashed. Would like to see that through an animal's mind, their habitat vanished.

Wind

Still windy and cold enough for some of the older or short coated dogs to wear their coats. And cold enough for the human to go back to my fur ruffed hood and down jacket.

Quixotic weather... one day 70 degrees, the next windchills below zero and snowing. Still very glad we didn't get the twenty five or more inches of snow of our neighbors to the North.

More shoveling... had the concrete pens all chopped out and had to redo them. Sulatna has found some deer legs on the front 40... a stash from some animal.

Photo: Timber (coat), Chena, Evalina and Sulatna. Front 40.

Walking bored dogs

This weather is a bit boring to the dogs so, of course, I continue to walk them in small groups.

Liller spends nights in the house, but she was out walking with Chena and Sulatna yesterday.

She is a very tough girl, has run Iditarod, and knew the Alaskan landscape well. She is sometimes too tough with the house dogs but she has learned to take peaceful walks out of harness. She is one of two best leaders we've ever had, so she's used to telling the others where to go. The free running was hard for her at first, but now she gets in the spirit of exploring, although she does hang back on her own.

Chena and Sulatna do keep their distance from her. Her look is very intimidating and they heed it.

Storm

The wind gusts were strong enough to almost knock me over yesterday as I brought soup to the dogs. While many around us are having a blizzard, we at least didn't get the large snows.

And, this snow is far preferable to the icy rain we were having.

All day I wanted to catch a photo of the wind blowing effects, but not too lucky at doing that. Took this one on a walk with three dogs. Liller is having some problems and I wanted to see how she did on a walk, which was very well.

Needless to say, it's back to all the winter garb. The dogs are energized by the colder weather, running with lots of vigor as they free run, clamoring, 'take me!', as I let them out to run .

Spring?

The snow started yesterday with some of the largest snowflakes I can remember. It came down in sheets and plops. Today we expect winds in the 40 to 50 mph range. For all of its startup fury , it accumulated only enough to be icy/slippery, about one to two inches, I think.

I'll be taking down the few tarps I had put up as they're covered in ice. Back to hot soups for the dogs. I did put some new straw in some of the houses yesterday. This looks like it will last into the next week.