Winter Has Broken!

Well, summer 2009 was wonderful, full of dog yard projects, whitewater canoeing and kayaking, long walks with loose dogs, other activities, and too much work work. I got a lot done, but never enough. Carol thinks that all I did was move some dirt around (it was a LOT of dirt), but I also:

• Removed 25+ boxes of books from various storage locations around the house, including the living and dining rooms, as well as myriad other boxes of other stuff to Value Village. Included getting rid of a ton of stuff from the garage.
• Got a door installed to the rear utility room that lets the back space stay heated. (Big thanks to Andy Reynolds, master carpenter and amazing paddler, for that work!)
• Filled about 15 gajillion holes in the yard all summer long . Also spread many wheel barrows full of pea gravel in muddiest areas.
• Removed most of the front dirt pile from the driveway area, used as fill, where snow needs to go during the winter.
• Covered hole between front and side yards, at NE corner of house, where dogs used to try to climb through.
• Built an "Onyx planter" to stop the slope from eroding in the dog yard at the SE corner of the house.
• Composted poop. This was not overly successful as a first attempt, but good enough to save us a lot of trips to the transfer station.
• Thoroughly cleaned the inside of the refrigerator (ick).
• Fixed the loose shower knobs once and for all (so far).
• Fair amount of work after initial set up of Carol's Web site and blog.

Yesterday we ran dogs for the first time. A bit late, but between the late snow and my heavy travel schedule the last few weeks, it was the right time. Besides, with all the loose time our dogs get during the summer, they stay in reasonably good shape, so we start with a pretty good level of fitness.

We took out two teams with the 4-wheeler down to the dike between Fairbanks and the Tanana River. We didn't go very long, but both were great runs. The first, slower team was Robin and Loon in lead, along with Chanel, Borax, Casper, Kiche, Raja, and Izzi. Robin and Loon are always solid, dogs we can just count on. I was thrilled with Casper. Usually we can't train him with the 4-wheeler because he isn't comfortable on slick surfaces, but the soft, flat dike was perfect for him (although he wasn't really stretching out...need to watch that). Kiche was a wonderful surprise too. She is a Second Chance League rescue dog, who has been very spooky. But she did great, running on those short legs of hers. And Izzi is always a joy to run with.

The second team was faster, but we also took them fairly short. I was pretty surprised when Carol put Chance in lead. Chance is one of my main skijor dogs who does great, but we really haven't run her much in lead in a larger team like this. She did beautifully! Jenny was also in lead, two very pretty, very cool dogs working well together. I used these two dogs in the last leg of the Race Across the Valley last year, and blazed through the course. The rest of the team was Shaman, Misty, Blackberry, Millie, and Zorba. Very strong, fast, experienced team. A little hesitant at the turnaround, but came through beautifully.

I also went skiing today for the first time, prior to my first Nordic Ski Club lesson on Thursday. The temperature was in the single digits with a light snowfall, trails were decent if thin. The good news is that I remembered how to skate ski, the bad is that I have stuff to work on. I also had my first real moose encounter of the winter (besides those who come around the house all too often), when two large moose came out on the trail maybe 10 feet in front of me. Fortunately, they did the right thing and ambled down the trail, and I decided that I wanted to go another direction anyway.

Bring on winter!