Backstage Iditarod, a new book

For all of us who love to read about/go to Alaska, there is a great new book, written by June Price, "Backstage Iditarod". It gives a glimpse into all that goes on behind the scenes in preparation for and in the running of the race. It is available for pre order on www.amazon.com
or at June's website: http://sunhusky.blogspot.com/.

June's website is a great link to reading about Iditarod and Alaskan living. She retired from teaching in Florida and moved to Alaska several years ago.

Shelter from the Storm

Sierra, a rescued Elkhound who has lived with us for 11 years and 13 year old Sulatna, from Alaska, are both scared in thunder storms. Last night we had five dogs sheltering in the house from the wild storm that thrashed trees to the ground. It was a wonderful deluge of rain, so needed.

Sierra and Sulatna comforted each other on the softest sofa in the house. The power went out for an hour and it was a bit frightening for them. The outside dogs all headed for their houses when the first thunder clap boomed. One pen was very flooded afterward and I moved the dog for the night (Yo), but since the ground is so porous, the water quickly drained in most places.

The best outcome was reducing the fire danger and watering down the dust that was getting so deep, the bowls were getting buried.

Sled Dog News

Well, first, we ran two dog teams yesterday, first of the fall training. My daughter and granddaughter were great handlers. Skinny won the honors to lead the first seven dog team , along with Buffy; then Ruthie, Lillen; Herman, Rosie and in wheel, Quattro, for a two mile run. All went very well with each dog.

The second team was led by Ruthie and Medio (Medio taking good commands in trial lead);
swing dogs, Sherpa and Yuki; followed by Herman, solo, and Kiddo in wheel. They did well, too, looking just slightly less polished than the A team. We did not take Matilda but will on the next run, in lead training.

Trent Herbst was in 0ur area, but fire in his kennel area sent them home early. He had to move all dogs and lost some personal property in the fire, as I understand it. We had planned to have a kennel visit but their hurried trip through took precedence, of course. Too much fire!

No rain. Predictions seem to be all off. But last word is that the Herbsts are fine/dogs fine.

We do have a fire plan here, we'd have to load and truck the dogs to the Brule River cabin, but with enough lead time we could do it safely.

Triplet Fawns in the Brown Fields

Find five deer in this photo (or at least four). Even though the fields are brown and crunchy, this is a nice oasis for wildlife as the upper 40 is kept wild all summer. We do train up there starting in the fall and then in the winter, but the animals have the berry patches and apple trees pretty much to themselves until then. The Brule river is across the highway and is the closest water source , unfortunately, so the animals must cross over the highway for water in this dry summer. Even the swamp/pond has dried up.

Low River Level

This is the Brule River at my usual kayak put-in point. Obviously, no kayak is going to do too well at this entry point. This is the lowest I have ever seen this river. Rain is expected , possibly tomorrow, but only about 1/4 inch predicted.

Rain and Berries

We had enough of a rain on Saturday to at least refresh the pens just a bit. It was accompanied by thunder which scared the dogs, but the short rain was a brief respite. Back to hot and humid again on Sunday, but this morning is 40 degrees and fresh, some hopeful clouds in the sky!!

The cherry trees are really quite beautiful.

Dry blackberries

The blackberries looked to be in good shape until this last extended hot spell... not looking so great now.

For some reason, the choke cherry trees are resplendent , dripping with loads of cherries, the trees look red in the distance and now are starting to ripen to their deep purple.

But the forecast says some relief is in sight. We had a few drops of rain yesterday, nothing measurable.

Fires in U.P.

There is a very large wildfire in Luce County, Upper Peninsula of Michigan, at about 18,000 acres right now. It is near the land of several mushers. We did hear from the Stielstra kennel that they are OK for now and that they have had rain, but fires are about five miles distant .
Hopefully, the rains will come again. There are 220 firefighters, 6 helicopters and much equipment. They are dropping water bombs as well. Sounds like the Alaska type of fires.

A little bit of color, relieving the drabness

This batch of flowers hides under the big cherry tree for now.

The sunflowers droop at the end of each day and are watered, hoping they'll hold out for fall and give some nice color then, as well. Even hearty cosmos are having trouble blossoming, but they're almost there.

Here comes the sun! again!

The relentless sun, as I've come to call it this summer, rises at about 5AM and dries and burns all day long, every day. It is beautiful in the sunrise and in the sunset, but the in between hours are merciless. It isn't just the heat and the humidity, but the days of drying out and dust, dust, dust that are the challenge. The grass crunches and I run sprinklers/hoses all day long when I 'm not filling pails and pools. We do seriously need rain. Even the back well is sputtering.

Each time I refill the water pails they are covered with a layer of dust within minutes. I know my lungs feel it so the dogs certainly do as well. The best of the worst days are the ones with lower humidity, fewer flies/gnats, etc.

We're treating for various summer maladies: allergies, hot spots, ear infections, one has a chronic cough (dust); they eat grass and it plays havoc with their digestion and they're just plain bored and hot. While they protest their baths, they do seem much happier after they are bathed.

Retiree Walks

This is a great photo because each of these tough female dogs holds her own in a dominance challenge, yet they trail run peacefully , side by side.

Sierra, the little Elkhound , was found in a dumpster and brought to us as a rescue (age 11); Liller, leader from Iditarod 2001 (age 12); Chena, Queen of the house and a rescue, (Lab) (age approx 14/15) and Sulatna, (age 13)wonderful and spirited 'gazelle' and leader... they tolerate each other well on trail walks and enjoy sniffing out wildlife scents together. Each of these dogs has some health challenges but they are doing fairly well and enjoying life. Each of these is a good house dog as well.

Surviving Summer with "Showers"

Songs that come to mind: "Where have all the flowers gone?" (into the shade) and

"All the fields are brown and the skies are gray, " ( now if only the sky were gray!)

We're using every means we have to keep down the dust, the heat, the bugs. This summer is very labor intensive as , without rain, I am the rainmaker. I schedule my time away from the kennel to be late day, if at all.

For all the stress on them, the dogs are doing very well. They still come out for their free runs in the mornings, shortened, but free. We still take our trail walks, but also shortened and early before the relentless sun is too hot.

So the days are about feeding early, cleaning and filling water buckets, cleaning and filling pools, repairing tarps, moving sprinkler hoses around , hosing down dust, bathing dogs and being thankful when the sun goes down!! Ice cream is their favored late day treat.

Another wrinkle is that both of my dog food suppliers ran out. This is fully unexpected.

More of the same for the next few days, whew, enough already! Soon I'll start on rebuilding dog houses, but for now it's just summer survival.