Always Something

All has been well on the dogsledding front; the dogs are in amazing shape this winter the trail conditions have been great and we have been very busy. The past week has thrown some obstacles my way however. It started out with the clutch on the tractor failing as I was snow blowing the road. I just spent over $3,000.00 to have the engine rebuilt on the old Massy Ferguson over the summer and had hoped it would be all set for another fifty years after that. That was not meant to be apparently and off it went back to the shop for another major repair. We have to have the tractor to keep our road open. It’s a class four road so the town does not maintain it so we have almost a quarter mile to keep clear. So far it has been four days at the shop and we have not had any major snow luckily. If all goes well I may be getting it back today or tomorrow. Right after I had the tractor trucked to the shop for repairs I noticed transmission fluid leaking from my dog truck. I had just taken it in a few days before for a recall and apparently they messed up the rear seal on the transmission. I was advised not to drive it since there is no way of telling what the fluid level is on a Toyota Tundra. This prompted yet another call to the wrecker service. They are making some money on me this month... Of course no truck means no running dogs as I have no way to move them. We had tours booked at Stowe Mountain Resort but were unable to run them because of this latest issue. With a pretty full weekend of tours coming up I sure hope the truck is fixed today and I am able to get it back. I hate to cancel tours and disappoint customers.

So far this winter I have not had to cancel any tours. We have really been lucky with the weather. Each time it has been warm and rained it has been during the week and by the weekend things had cooled down and the trail has been fine. We are expecting one more round of mixed precipitation tomorrow (Friday) that is suppose to finish off as snow overnight so with any luck we will have good conditions again on Saturday.

On top of all of this I came down with my third cold of the season. I guess the timing for that couldn’t have been much better. With no truck and no way of going anywhere I had little choice but to sit at home and rest. I’m feeling much better as I write this and should be in great shape for the weekend. I’m not sure what is going on with my system this winter. Last year I was not sick once all winter long. This year I have been sick three times within a span of five weeks. It could be that I am pushing myself a little too hard with all of the tours I have had. I do typically have down time though so I’m not convinced that is the problem.

I’ll close for now and wait to hear about the tractor and truck. Not much else I can do...