Adventures With Peace Pups

Yes We Do Have Snow Here!

2012-01-26T09:51:00.000-05:00

Beautiful day on the trail

Well, despite all of the doom and gloom in the news with regard to the "winter" weather this season we have had decent conditions here in Lake Elmore. We certainly haven't had the type of winter we have in the past here and there have been many dramatic temperature swings but I have been able to make due with what we have received. I typically start grooming as soon as we have an inch of snow on the ground. This may seem silly but I find that it does begin to smooth things out and fill in the dips and ruts on the trail. My groomer does take a bit of a beating but luckily it's a pretty rugged piece of equipment and so far with the exception of a few broken sheer pins it has held up well. I have had to groom more this winter than in any winter past to create a safe surface for sledding. We have received most of our snow fall in one inch increments and with rain/sleet/snow every seven or eight days it's a real challenge keeping a nice surface. We have finally gotten to where we have about five inches of hard packed base on the trail though and that should be able to hold up to pretty much anything Mother Nature throws at us; for the time being at least. If things continue the way they have been I suspect we will have an early spring here in Vermont. As warm as it has been this winter I won't be surprised if it's 70 degrees at the end of March.

Sled view, beautiful snow!

Pax on a hike this fall

On other fronts; all of the dogs are doing very well this winter. We are feeding a combination of raw and a new kibble this year. The kibble is called Inukshuk and the dogs seem to be doing very well on it. It's a 35% protein, 35% fat food and the love the taste so there have been no problems with them eating. I'm also feeding them chicken every other night as well as their usual moose or venison stew for breakfast every day. We have the same group of dogs there that we had all of last winter so everyone is well settled in at this point. That makes things much more enjoyable for me. The only new addition is our latest puppy Pax who came here this fall. Pax is just over eight months now and has already been out for a few runs with the team. He loves running with the big dogs but won't get many miles in this year. We will wait until next year when he is going on two before we let him run each day. I'm very excited to see how much he enjoys running and look forward to many years of enjoying his company out there!

Mushing Boot Camp

2011-10-07T11:07:00.000-04:00

Fall dogsled training season is in full swing here at PeacePups. I just spend the past two weekends at dog sledding events and havebeen having a great time with the dogs. Next to winter this is my favorite timeof the year with cooler air returning, the hillsides covered with fall colorsand the anticipation of the coming snow.

Two weekends ago Shelby (who works with us) and I went toMaine for to attend Mushing Boot Camp. It was a great learning experience forme and the dogs. Even though I now have ten years’ experience working with the dogs itis always amazing what you can learn from someone else watching what you are doing. We did alot of passing with other teams and even some basic agility work. There were eight other dog teams at the camp so there was plenty ofopportunity for the dogs to be socialized. I brought puppy Pax and Shelbybrought her dog Kanzi. Neither of them participated but they had a good timebeing around so many other dogs. The best part of it all was the fact that I got to spend four full days with nothing else to think about but the dogs and my interactions with them.

Our home for three nights

Tired puppy Pax. It's a lot of work hanging out with the big dogs!

Passing practice on the trail

This past weekend was the annual Sled Dog Trade Fair in NewHampshire. I had a booth with scooter demos as I have the past two years. Eventhough it was a rainy weekend it was still a lot of fun to hang out and talkdogs with many old and new friends. The pot luck dinner on Saturday nightwas a nice addition to the trade fair and a good opportunity talk even more dog talk in case you hadn't had enough during the day! As usual there were many interesting presentations on dogsleddingand dog training by some very knowledgeable speakers.

We're back home now and settling into a steadier trainingpattern as we head toward winter. With the cooler temperatures the dogs willbegin to increase in strength rapidly. It won’t be long and we’ll be back onsnow!

Where Does Time Go?

2011-09-16T08:16:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure where this summer went but it's clearly past. With leaves beginning to turn and many even falling to the ground already it's sure looking a lot like fall here in Lake Elmore. Not to mention the frost warnings in the forecast for the next two nights!

Summer Gardens

Summer really did fly by this year. I kept busy with the garden and working on single track mountain bike trails in the back yard. The garden has done quite well again this year despite a very wet spring. Things always seem to even out in the long run and a very sunny July allowed most things to catch up. I was able to ride more than I have any summer in the past ten years and so far have logged around 1,200 miles this season. This helps keep me slim and makes it easier for the dogs to pull me up the hills; not to mention keeping me healthier. We didn't have any extreme heat this summer which is always a bonus for me. I think we had a total of three days that approached the ninety degree mark. Otherwise it was a lot of mid-eighties and many days in the seventies. Now that's my kind of summer!

We've started running the dogs again and our run yesterday brought a huge smile to my face. We have the same dogs on our teams this season that we had all of last year and most of the year before that. They all seem very well adjusted to working with each other (finally!) and with yesterday only being our second run of the year they blew me away. Granted they have a lot of strength building to do yet but what a nice straight gang line! Both leads stayed to the right of the road perfectly, everyone had a tight tug meaning that they were all contributing and it was a beautiful afternoon. All of which left me smiling and once again reminded me of why I do this.

Puppy Pax

We've had one new addition this fall. I bought another puppy from my friends at Husky Works in southern Vermont. His name is Pax and he is now about three and a half months old. He has brought a lot of joy into my life and I enjoy every minute I get to spend with him. Puppy hood goes by almost as fast as this past summer did! We have enjoyed morning walks every single day rain or shine which has gotten me out into the woods much more than I typically would and it's a great way to start the day. As a bonus this year Pax and I have found several nice patches of Chanterelle Mushrooms on our walking trail. Not only are we getting in nice walks but we're bringing home treats for dinner. Pax won't be running with the team for a while yet but he will be riding shotgun and going along on all of our winter outings so if you come to visit this fall or winter you'll be sure to meet him.

Birthdays And Bucket Lists

2011-05-04T10:09:00.000-04:00

One of the unanticipated joys of working with Peace Pups has been sharing in special moments and occasions in people’s lives. When I started Peace Pups Dogsledding I knew that I wanted to spend more time with my dogs, spend more time outside and that I wanted the business to be socially responsible and sustainable. I never imagined that I would be given the gift of sharing in so many special moments with others.

Many visitors plan their dogsledding visit in order to celebrate a special time in their life. We have had numerous “big” birthday tours; the “big” 50, “big” 60 or even the momentous “big” 80. Christmas presents, anniversaries and family reunions are a few other celebrations that have taken place with the teams.

I have even been honored to have had guests who knew their time on earth was growing short and that dogsledding was something they truly wanted to experience before moving on. I’ve had guests who wanted to propose to the special person in their life while being out with our dogs in the Vermont hillsides. There has even been discussion of having an actual wedding take place out on the trail with the dog teams.

Having moved on from my previous career as a custom furniture builder and having left a good paying job in order to find something more rewarding to do with my life all of this has been a truly unexpected bonus for me. It’s not that woodworking wasn’t enjoyable for many years; I think I had just done it for too many years. I had gotten to the point where the paycheck I was receiving for my work was not enough motivation for me to continue what I was doing. I was not finding any personal satisfaction in my daily work life. With Peace Pups every single day I get to watch the joy on people’s faces as they interact with our Siberian Huskies. I can take no credit for the dogs loving nature but I do feel privileged to be able to bring them together with people from near and far.

With an admittedly short attention span and very low tolerance for tedium I wasn’t sure if the dogsled tour business would keep me satisfied over the long haul. As with anything in life there is repetition in dogsledding but these unanticipated rewards make me quite sure that I have found something that I can spend the rest of my active life participating in. It’s certainly not a business I would recommend for making a lot of money but the lifestyle and joy it has brought into my life and others makes it well worth the effort. I would like to extend my thanks to past guests, future guests and most of all the dogs for bringing this joy into my life.

Happy New Year

2011-01-02T08:55:00.000-05:00

Another year has come and gone and we are into our busy season here at Peace Pups. So far this winter the snow conditions have been quite challenging here in Lake Elmore. I am very fortunate to have a trail that does not require a huge amount of snow to be able to run the dog sleds. As soon as we receive an inch or two I am down there with the groomer packing it down. We have been able to run every day for the past two weeks with only about eight or nine inches of snow in the woods while many trails through out New England are not open.

We have a new cabin tent and wood stove set up for our tours this winter and it has made life at the trail head much more pleasant. Thank you Vermont Forest, Parks and Recreation for the approval letter! Last season guests were often running to their cars to warm up after a run with the pups. This year folks have been lingering next to the wood stove and enjoying a hot beverage and conversation. The smell of wood smoke in the air and a warm place to warm your toes makes the tour site much more inviting.

Not too much else new here this season. Our health is good, all of the dogs are doing great and we have already had dozens of wonderful guests and have spent many beautiful days behind the dogs running through the woods. I'm thankful for the prospect of yet another season in the wilderness with my canine family and visitors from around the world. This is as good as it gets!

Take a Trip Without Leaving The Farm.

2010-08-24T10:51:00.000-04:00

I had a scary few moments here at Peace Pups Yesterday. I was just coming back up the driveway at the end of my bike ride and heard a lot of commotion coming from the dog yard. I put it into high gear and flew up the hill and into the dog yard to see what was going on. Once in the dog yard I saw that Buck who is my main, go to lead dog was laying on the ground with a large amount of foam coming out of his mouth. Panic.. This is not one of my strong points with my dogs. I tend to become a tad emotional when I think one of them is in danger. Immediately I began worrying about what I'm going to do without my best buddy Buck. I ran over to him and got him to his feet, kind of.. He was staggering and seem to have lost some of his motor skills. His eyes were glazed and dilated and he didn't seem to know where he was. I ran to the house and called my veterinarian but only reached the receptionist. Both vets were on the road but she suggested I keep an eye on him and call right back if his condition got worse. I went back out to see how Buck was doing and found that he was walking much better and had shaken the foam from his mouth but when I started to approach him he growled at me. "Buck, buddy, it's me. You alright?" Grrrrr. This is one of the only three dogs I have raised from a puppy and he has never growled at me. I'm thinking Old Yeller at this point; but it couldn't possibly be rabies, all of our dogs are vaccinated regularly. Or could it be, maybe there was a problem with the vaccine? These are the kind of thoughts that flash through my mind. I went back in the house for another five minutes to grab some biscuits then back out to the yard. This time when I returned he seemed to be back to his normal self; wagging his tail and very happy to see me. I was also very happy to see him acting like himself again. A round of biscuits and a lot of hugs were in order!

I'm still not positive what happened but I suspect it was a toad and that Buck took a little trip with out leaving the dog yard. I have had other dogs pick toads up when I have been in the yard with them and they had a similar foaming at the mouth. This seemed a lot more extreme though. It's possible that Buck ate the entire toad. I spent quite a bit of time looking around his house and the surrounding yard for any sign of body parts and found nothing so I think he must have either eaten it or it escaped the yard intact. Buck seems to be fully recovered now and during play time yesterday afternoon he was running around like nothing had happened.

Hopefully Buck has learned to leave toads alone; or maybe he will be hunting for them now.. I sure hope not, I don't want to go through that again!

Summer Simmer

2010-07-29T08:03:00.000-04:00

Wow, where does the time go?? Spring is gone and summer has been flying by here at Peace Pups. This year I decided to stay home this summer and focus on getting things done around here. During the fall and winter months I'm so busy with the dogs that I have little time to keep up with household projects.

After years of my wife doing our garden I have taken over that task. We doubled our garden space and now have close to a acre tilled and planted with every kind of vegetable you can imagine. I built a small green house and started all of my own plants from seed this year. Our berry and fruit trees are maturing and beginning to produce as well. It's so rewarding to be able to walk out into the front yard and pick dinner; not to mention how good the fresh picked food is too eat. All of our gardens and fruit are grown completely organic. I've even added some laying hens to the mix this year. No eggs yet as they are only around ten weeks old but hopefully by fall we'll be collecting fresh organic eggs. I see this entire project as a means of not only eating better but it also saving us money on our food bill. If only I could feed the dogs from the garden!


Front Yard Gardens

The flower gardens are compliments of my wife. Since she's not doing as much with the vegetable gardens she now has much more time to plant flowers and plant flowers she has! There's not much lawn left to mow with all of the new flower beds she has tilled up but that's a good thing. One thing I don't like spending my time on is mowing lawns. There are many other things I would rather be doing so the less lawn the better.

Two skin boat kayaks were on the project list for this summer. They have been completed and we just returned from a week of paddling and camping on Acadia Island Maine. Both boats worked very well and seemed to draw attention everywhere we went. They were a great conversation starter and I met quite a few interesting folks over the course of the week. I did see a couple of home built skin boats but the majority are plastic or fiberglass. This is a picture I took of both kayaks resting on the shore of Somes Sound where we paddled our first day.

Skin Boats on Somes Sound

As usual the coast of Maine was beautiful. We've never stayed in Acadia National Park before but I enjoyed it very much. There is a lot of traffic in July but there are plenty of hiking trails and open water where you can escape the crowds. We brought our bicycles and did several rides on the car free carriage roads. Of course I can't go to Maine with out eating some sea food and with our camp stove set up we were able to find plenty of that to bring back and cook ourselves.

Now that my one week vacation is over it's back to the garden and preparing for fall and winter. We usually begin fall cart training with the dogs around the beginning of September so with a little luck that is only five weeks away! We've had record highs here in July so I'm very much looking forward to some nice cool fall weather.

Off to do some weeding!

Looks Like An Early Spring Once Again

2010-03-30T08:50:00.000-04:00

As it did last year it appears that spring has made a early arrival here in Lake Elmore. We ran our last dogsled tour at Stowe Mountain Resort on Tuesday, March 16th. There were bare spots on the trail that night which begin to grow rapidly once they start. When March temperatures reach 65 degrees the snow disappears very quickly; too quickly. This leaves me sitting here wondering where the winter went. After such a intense flurry of activity it is very anticlimactic when it comes to a screeching halt. We were able to meet up with some friends in New Hampshire for one last sled outing this past weekend. The conditions proved to be less than perfect for sledding but it was still great to get out on a sled with the dogs one last time.

Other than things ending too soon we had a fantastic sledding season with hundreds of wonderful guests from all walks of life and many parts of the world. Thank you one and all for your continued support. The dogs were also a joy to work with this winter. With all of the new dogs and fall training problems I had I was beginning to wonder if things would ever come together but they did. We ended up having two very strong eight dog teams plus a couple of extra dogs to help fill in the gaps. One of those extras was our one year old Pacem who is showing some amazing potential. She only ran one run a day this season but always wanted more. She ran in lead a dozen times and seems very comfortable with the roll. She has a lot of drive and adds a high level of energy to the front of the team. I'm looking forward to scooter training with her this spring and with a little bit of luck she may become one of my main leaders next season. In this photo Pacem is the second dog to the right following Buck who is in single lead. Buck is the best lead dog I currently have and the hope is that Pacem is learning from watching him. Bucks sister Etta is laying down next to Pacem.

On other fronts I have begun building a small green house. I am taking over the garden this year with the goal of increasing our food production and decreasing the amount of food we have to buy from outside sources. I just picked up our seed order from High Mowing Seeds yesterday and will be planting this afternoon. I'm a couple of weeks behind schedule but am hoping that the green house will help make up for that. The garden work is helping me keep busy as the sledding abruptly ends . Often spring can be a depressing time for a musher. Having something else to focus on can help one get through that period. Before I know it we'll be running with carts again and looking forward to another winter of sledding with the gang!

Good News - Bad News

2010-01-19T08:46:00.000-05:00

I always like to get the bad news out of the way so I can enjoy the good news without worrying so that said. The bad news is that my main team of dogs had a run in with a porcupine a week ago Thursday while running a night tour at Stowe Mountain Resort. Coming around a slight downhill corner with a full sled at about fifteen miles an hour I noticed a dark object in the trail ahead. In the few seconds that I had time to think "what the heck is that?!" the entire team had moved directly toward the object. I threw in the snow hook and ran to the front of the team to find a huge porcupine and seven out of eight dogs covered with quills. As the porcupine slowly waddled across the trail I tried with all of the energy I could muster to hold the eight dog team from following him/her. The porcupine eventually climbed a tree and I was able to get the dogs moving forward again. The next challenge was to convince them that we needed to take a short cut down the mountain to the truck and not continue to run the return route that they do every other time. I prevailed after a half dozen attempts and we made it back to the dog truck in five minutes. We said good night to our guests, loaded the dogs in the truck and headed to our veterinarian's office as quickly as possible. Two hours later with four heavily sedated dogs we were headed home and hoping for the best.

Buck and Muddy

That's the bad news. The good news is that after just over a week the entire team seems to be pretty well recovered. Muddy and Buck who were in lead on on my team took the brunt of it. Both of them not only had a mouth full of quills but their legs, shoulders and chests were pretty well cover as well. They have both been limping for over a week but have shown much improvement in the past two days.With any luck most of the quills have been removed and we won't have any long term issues resulting from this encounter.

In other news; back in the fall Peace Pups met up with the crew and producer of an Italian television show called Donnavventura. It is a sort of Italian reality show which follows a group of women as they travel to various destinations around the world. We met with them at Stowe Mountain Resort and did a scooter outing and cart rides with them. I was told that we would be on national television in Italy some time in February and that we would be sent a copy of the program on DVD. I probably won't be able to understand any of it since it will be in Italian but hope to see it at some point just the same. In the mean time they have added a photo album from their visit to Stowe which mostly features the women and our dogs. Obviously they found the women and the dogs to make for much better photos than me so you won't find any mug shots of me.Donnavventura Stowe Photo Album . It all made for a very interesting afternoon and a great experience for all.

Ready For Winter

2009-11-26T07:58:00.007-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving Day to those who celebrate this holiday. It is my favorite holiday due to the lack of presents and shopping involved. Good food, friends and family; the important things in life.

As we near the end of November I am in that waiting for winter mode and once again done with my fall to do list. Now that is something to be thankful for!

This winters dog food is in.

The freezer is full of meat for the dogs.

The dog sleds are refinished and ready to run.

And the snow blower and snow plow are on the tractor and ready roll.

And that's just the list from the past two weeks! It seems like I've been preparing for winter for the past three months when we began fall training with the dogs. It amazes me how much time and energy this takes every year. For now it's done and we can sit back and enjoy our nice warm home and with a little bit of luck a nice snowy winter.

As we enter yet another holiday season I try to pause to be thankful for the good fortune I have had in my life. I may not have a lot of money but on this day I have my health, a roof over my head, food on my table and loving family and friends. If only there was a way for everyone to have the good fortune that I have had the world would surely be a better place.

Fall Training Begins Again

2009-09-25T07:42:00.003-04:00

Once again the leaves are turning and we're dusting off the dog carts, scooters and ourselves! It's amazing how it seems as though everyone including me forgets so much over the three months of summer vacation. This fall has been especially challenging for me due to the fact that we have a total of eight new dogs in the kennel. I have never had such a large number of newbies at one time. Five of the dogs just arrived here two weeks ago and I really have no idea how much training they have had in the past. They were given to me by someone wanting to place them as a group. They do seem to enjoy running but are pretty out of shape. We'll see how they come along as we begin to run more. I also have two young dogs with us this fall who have never run in a team before. They are; shall we say a "little" crazy. They do seem to be figuring it out though and their energy will be appreciated once they learn to point it in the right direction! These two pictures are of Thunder and Prescott. They are the two young dogs from Ontario. They're actually from the same kennel as our puppy Pacem who is not as much of a puppy any more at eight months old. I'll attempt to get more pictures of the rest of the new gang if I can ever get them to sit still long enough for the camera to capture them.

Vacation Summer 09

2009-09-09T08:07:00.006-04:00

This year we decided to do a "staycation" and stick close to home. Generally I plan a grand adventure somewhere in New England whether it's a motorcycle tour to Cape Brenton or a week long canoe in northern Maine we usually head out for an adventure for my one week off.

This summer we only drove 70 miles to Burton Island State Park on Lake Champlain. Burton Island is a wonderful state park near St.Albans, Vermont. They offer ferry service to reach the island as well as docking and mooring if you have your own boat. We bought a 1969 Chrysler Lone Star sail boat this summer. It's a small 13 foot sloop rigged sail boat with a 600 pound; four passenger rating. We loaded it up with a weeks worth of camping gear, two adults and one puppy and set "sail" across the bay to the island. It's only about a half mile from the boat launch to the dock at the island. There was no wind at all the day we headed out so we had to rely on the electric trolling motor I had rigged up on the back. I wish I had taken a picture of the boat loaded. There was barely enough space for us to get in after we put in all of our gear for the week. Good thing it was a calm day!

Once on the island we began to relax. We had a lean too for the week and brought our tent as well. The only complaint I had was that the mosquitoes where brutal! We couldn't really relax at the lean to site even with bug dope on. If you sat still for more than two minutes you were being chewed alive. We spend a lot of time at the public use area near the docks which was open and usually had a good breeze. If we weren't there we were walking on the island trails or out sailing on our boat. Having our boat right there made for some fantastic sailing days. We were able to go when ever the wind blew and got out every day we were there.

Our youngest dog Pacem spent the week camping with us. She makes a great first (second?) mate and seemed to enjoy hanging out on the water. It was great socialization for her and a good bonding experience for us. She's really turning out to be a wonderful dog. I can't wait for winter to arrive so I can get her out for some sled runs and see how she does with that.

After six days we packed it all up and headed back home again. All was well on the home front. Our house sitter didn't have any problems with the rest of the gang which is always a relief. We were well rested and it was great to get away without having to do a ton of driving. We're already debating whether to do the same thing again next summer. I have mixed feelings about that; while it was nice to not drive a lot and spend more time relaxing it is also fun to see new places and have new experiences.

Cruising

2009-07-02T08:53:00.004-04:00

Ah, am I glad to be home! June is probably not the best month of the year to visit Florida and take a cruise to the Bahamas but I had a family gathering which I felt obligated to attend. My parent's who now live in Florida were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary (congratulations Mom and Dad!) and they wanted our family and several of their friends to join them on a cruise. I am not a big fan of heat and even find summers in Vermont too hot. Along with my Siberians winter is my favorite time of the year. My first day in Florida it was 110 degrees and the next morning before the sun even came up it was already 90.

I had never been on a cruise ship before so it was a big learning experience for me. I have to admit it's not really my cup-O-Tea and it was likely a once in a life time trip for me. I'm much more comfortable with one or two people in the back woods of New England paddling my canoe than on a ship with 3,000 people on board.

This is a shot from the Nassau Harbor when we were coming back from our snorkel outing. There were four to five ships docked while we were there making for some very crowded streets.

Other than the heat, crowds and noise the cruise wasn't all bad. It was really nice to spend some quality time with my family who I don't get to see very often. The food was good with many choices at each meal. We spent one afternoon at a quiet beach in Freeport and went snorkeling one afternoon in Nassau. I enjoyed snorkeling other than the crowd and leaky snorkel mask. I had never seen a live coral reef and tropical fish in person before and it really was beautiful. I could have stayed there all afternoon watching the fish. I did get flippered in the head several times since there were so many people in the water. With five or six boats at the same location and each boat having forty or so people on it there wasn't a lot of room to move.

I really missed the dogs, especially our puppy Pacem. They were all very happy to see me when I got home but were well cared for by Lise while I was away. I did get some small doggy fixes at my brothers. He has a Black Labrador who loves to have her ears rubbed and I was happy to oblige.

Now I am back at home and working on my page long to do list as we count down the days to fall training. It was 55 degrees yesterday morning and I'm loving it. I'd be happy if it didn't get above 70 all summer but I don't say that too loud around here. Often coming home is the best part of going away; it really makes me appreciate how wonderful life here in Vermont is.

Spring Scooter Fun

2009-06-02T08:01:00.006-04:00

It's almost summer now but we have had very nice cool spring weather for most of May which has allowed us to do a lot of scootering with the dogs. Lise often goes with me on Sunday or Monday mornings and we are able to get most of the 14 dogs we currently have out for a run. We haven't been doing a lot for distance; generally only two to four miles max. It really is a amazing way to learn more about each individual dog. When we run them in teams of eight or ten it is hard to tell exactly what each dog is doing. You can see the obvious like if one of them is not pulling at all but there are a lot of subtle things going on there that are very hard to detect. Running single dogs with the scooters leaves nothing hidden. You can tell right away if a dog is confused about what to do or exactly how much they are pulling and how fast they are comfortable running. Some of the dogs have really surprised me. Orion in particular. I have always run him in wheel (position at back of team directly in front of the sled or cart) and judging by his behavior in the dog yard thought that he wasn't all that bright. When I took him out with the scooter he responded to commands like a true lead dog! He is also showing me that he is one of the fastest dogs in the dog yard. I would have never found this out if it wasn't for running him with the scooter. He likely just earned himself some time in lead when we begin regular cart runs this coming fall.

The biggest benefit of running with the scooters is that it allows us to keep playing with the dogs long after the snow is gone. Typically we would have packed things up and been in summer vacation mode by now. This year we have been running at least twice a week. It is very relaxing working with the dogs on scooters. It's rare for me to be able to spend one on one time with each dog. Usually as I stated above they are working as a team and when I'm with them in the dog yard they are all together as a group. Having just one dog out at a time allows me to focus on their individual personality.

I have found the scooters to work well in a wide range of conditions. I've been running on everything from class three dirt roads to single track trails through the woods with stream bed like surfaces. It is amazing how much control you have with the scooters. Some of the trails I have been on I have mountain bike on in the past and I have found it to be more stable running these trails with a dog and the scooter than riding them with my mountain bike. The lower center of gravity with your weight being below the wheel axles makes a huge difference. It is also much easier to step off with one foot and give a kick to hop over a rough spot on the trail. All of the scooters I have been using have disk brakes which work very well. My newest mountain bike it about five years old and still have V brakes so this is my first experience with disk brakes. In a word, fantastic! Especially with running dogs where you have the brakes on 90% of the time. It only take a couple of fingers to keep things under control.

I hope we can continue to work the dogs with the scooters right through the summer. They do fine with two mile runs at temperatures in the low 60s so I expect most weeks I can find a morning or two here that are in that temperature range. No matter what the scooters have already allowed our season to expand greatly and provided all of us with a great dry land activity!

Spring Flowers

2009-05-08T08:24:00.004-04:00

The snow is completely gone except for a few spots high up on the mountains. The mud has gone away due to a pretty dry April. It's the time of year where every new day brings a fresh batch of green to the landscape. I believe if you sat for the day and watched a tree or a fern you could actually see it growing. It is a short growing season here in northern Vermont so everything seems to be in a hurry. Our early spring flowers have been blooming here, crocuses and daffodils for cultivated plants and trillium, trout lillies and colts foot for the wild ones. Despite my love of winter and the onset of black fly season it is hard not to appreciate the beauty in everything coming to life around us.

Our not so little any more puppy Pacem is doing very well. She weighed in at 21 pounds a week ago. Just like the spring plants it amazes me how much she grows every day. I jump out of bed each morning to be greeted by her at the bedroom door and marvel at how much she grew overnight. She has been a real blessing this spring as I have been dealing with much loss and sadness. It really is impossible not be smile when she comes bounding across the yard so happy and full of life. It certainly feels like she came into my life at this point in time for a reason. As most proud parents will say; she is the smartest little dog I have ever known. She truly seems to be able to pick things up very quickly and has been a pleasure to work with.

Until next time take care and enjoy the new life and spring flowers in your neck of the woods.

Early Spring in Lake Elmore

2009-04-08T07:36:00.002-04:00

We have had a early end to the winter here in Lake Elmore this year. March is often the snowiest month of the year for us but this year we didn't have any. What we did have were a lot of forty degree sunny days. Admittedly nice for us human types to be out but a little warm for Siberian Huskies to be pulling sleds through the snow. It's a double whammy for them, not only is it much warmer than they have been used to all winter but the snow is also slushy and soft making it much harder to move the sleds. We packed it all up after the third weekend of March. Now we wait for the rest of the snow to melt and for the mud to dry up.

We have been getting out with the dog scooters a lot. I've been trying to run at least three times a week. No trail runs yet but we have been able to go on the back roads around the area. This is my first year running with the Pawtrekker scooters and I am having a blast with them. I can't wait until the woods dry out enough to do some single track trail running with them.

The other big news this month is that we have a new little one who has come into our lives. We bought a female puppy from Nduring Peace from Ontario, Canada. She has been here just over two weeks now and is really keeping me busy. We are keeping her in the house and crate training her. I hope to have this create a stronger bond between us which will hopefully help to make her more responsive for training. I need a few more good lead dogs to help keep our teams strong. It is very hard to buy lead dogs so this is my attempt at creating one from scratch. So far she is showing a lot of promise. At eleven weeks old she already loves to run, has learned to sit and is 90% house trained. She seems to be a very smart little pup. We have named her Pacem.

I will close for now. Need to get out to the dog yard to start preparing for another scooter run this morning.

Empty Space in the Dog Yard, Empty Space in My Heart.

2009-03-04T07:35:00.002-05:00

Tuesday, March 3rd 2009 will be a day I will never forget. My dear friend Dubois or Doobie Dog as he was more commonly known had to be put to sleep on that day. After two weeks of loose stools which we tried everything to curb that he was off to our veterinarian for going over. We could feel something solid in his stomach so x-rays were taken. There was definitely some sort of mass in his intestines. I brought him in for surgery Tuesday morning with the hope of removing a glove or other foreign object and a week long recovery. We had no such luck. Doobie had a massive cancer growth which had spread through out his intestines.

My dog yard will never be the same again. Doobie was a very special dog. He is one of four pups from the only litter we have ever whelped here. The mother did not care for the puppies so we bottle fed four of them with a 100% survival rate. Not an easy thing to accomplish. Doobie had pneumonia from the bottle feeding when he was two weeks old. He was on antibiotics for a week and after four days of feeding him drops of milk with a spoon his lungs cleared and he began to drink from the bottle again.
Dubois means out of the woods in French so we thought this was a very appropriate name for the little guy.

Doobie wasn’t the prettiest dog in the yard nor did he have the best gait or build. He was rather plan in his markings but he had a certain way about him that made him stand out. He was the most driven running dog I have ever had in our kennel. Whenever we were on a run if we stopped for more than a minute or two he was always the first one to start snapping his jaws and yipping to go. He was my main lead dog for the past year. His desire to run kept the rest of the team in motion. He was energetic and enthusiastic right to the very end. He did his last run this past Sunday and you would have hardly known he was sick. When I sat in the dog yard you could always find Doobie right at my side. He seemed more content to spend time sitting next to me than running around with the other dogs.

I suppose I will get over this with time but it is hard to believe right now as tears roll down my face every time I picture his big brown eyes gazing into mine. I know no other dog will ever replace him and at the moment my desire to run dogs at all just doesn’t exist. Our team just doesn’t seem right with out Doobie out in lead. Doobie would have been five years old on Saint Patrick’s Day next week. I love you Doobie and you will always remain in my heart.

Retirement Isn't So Bad

2009-02-26T09:15:00.005-05:00

Here is a photo I shot this morning of Aiko our 13+ Siberian. Aiko just retired from running tours this season and seems to be adjusting quite well to the retired life. Here he is hanging out by the wood stove with his buddy Charles the cat. It's a rough life!

Actually Aiko isn't completely retired just yet. He and I are a certified pet therapy team and we do bi monthly visits to a adult day center in Morrisville just down the road. I call it his retirement job. He really seems to look forward to the trip to town and all of the attention he receives from the people there. Sometimes he even scores a few biscuits.

Aiko is still in great health but we did some extended walks with him this past fall and found that he was getting tired much more quickly than the fall before. On one long hike we did he was became shaky and a little unsteady on his feet (I'll probably be a bit unsteady at 90+ myself). That was when I decided he probably wasn't going to be up for our tours this winter. Hopefully he will have many more years of relaxing next to the wood stove.

We are all enjoying a little down time this week after being crazy busy last week. This past weekend was the last weekend of President's Vacation week which is the busiest week of the winter for us here. The dogs did a amazing job of getting everyone out for rides. Well done; extra chicken for one and all!

Moonlight in Vermont

2009-02-06T08:45:00.001-05:00

The dogs, I and a few lucky guests had a perfect evening for dogsledding last night. We had two tours scheduled at Stowe Mountain Resort. With temperatures hovering around 3 below zero and crystal clear skies the ¾ moon lit things up very nicely. It is hard to describe the peacefulness of the experience. Running through the woods the only sound is that of the dog’s feet hitting the snow; their breathing and the runners of the sled sliding through the snow. The moonlight has a very different quality than sunlight; more subtle and soft but with the snow reflecting its glow you can see almost as well as in the daylight. The dogs stride smoothly in and out of the long shadows of the moon. Running in this setting you can’t help but feel privileged to be able to share the experience with the dog team.

There are not many evenings that the timing of the moon rise coincides with our running schedule and even fewer that it happens to be clear and cold as well. Being able to share the moment with others only makes it that much more enjoyable for me.

It’s hard to believe we are almost to the end of the first week of February already. Where does the winter go? It flies by way to quickly and soon I’ll be counting the days to fall training again. Time is a fleeting and seems to slip by more quickly with each passing day. I must remind myself each day to appreciate each and every moment. Running through the woods of Vermont with a team of enthusiastic dogs doing what they love to do is one of the best ways I have found to do this.

Good old fashion winter!

2009-01-22T08:56:00.004-05:00

What a great season this has been so far. Thinking back to our first season of tours in 2007 I remember getting in one of our first sled runs of the season around January 10th. Even that was marginal and we were running on about three inches of snow. This winter has been the best one in recent memory. We have had great trail conditions since the first week in December. Between that and the new; used Tidd Tech groomer I purchased this past fall the dogsled trail has been just about perfect. We haven’t seen a day above freezing here since Christmas. Seeing that in writing doesn’t sound like such a big deal. It’s only been four weeks but it seems a lot longer than that. I’ve become accustomed to the big temperature swings of past seasons where we have had temperatures in the 50s above zero. I guess we have had similar swings this winter but they have been more in the range of -40 to +20. Same amount of swing just a lot colder.

We have been doing well with sticking to our plan of skiing every Monday and haven't missed one yet. I've already broken my record from last season. As usual the biggest challenge is to get my butt in motion on Mondays after working with the dogs all weekend. I'm often ready for a break by Monday but getting out for a ski is a great mental break if not a physical one. Craftsbury does an amazing job of keeping their trails in top form and they are always great for skate skiing.

On other fronts all has been going well. No major break downs of equipment. The tractor has been running great so keeping our road open has been easy. We haven’t had any huge snow storms; just a few inches here and there adding up to a few feet which is much easier to keep up with. We haven’t even had any frozen water pipes in our cabin despite the record cold. Just maybe after seven years of living here we are finally getting things figured out.

No complaints from the frosty woods of north central Vermont!

We Survived The Holidays!

2009-01-08T07:36:00.004-05:00

This week has been one of rest and refueling for all of us. As usual the two weeks around Christmas and New Years are extremely busy for me and the pups. We "only" run three tours a day but six days in a row of that takes it's toll. Sometimes I suspect it is harder on me than the dogs. I figure I do about a four to one ratio of work compared to the dogs; meaning for every hour they run I do four hours of work to keep things flowing. All of the dogs have been more amazing than ever this season. I believe it is a combination of the new food we are feeding and the fact that we have two teams of honest working dogs this year.

The snow conditions this winter have been fantastic here in Lake Elmore. Apparently you don't have to drop too far into the valleys to find very thin snow cover but our trails have been well covered since early December. In fact for the past two weeks they have been as good as I have ever seen them with a nice solid base covered by a inch or two of packed powder. The nice consistent cold has kept things from becoming icy even when we have gone for five or six days without fresh snow. This week I have once again been busy shoveling, snow blowing and packing trails as we received another six to eight inches of fresh snow.

I have been enjoying cross country skiing this year with my partner Lise. I don't think we got out together more than twice all of last winter. I tend to become so wrapped up in the business of working with the dogs that in the blink of an eye the winter is gone. This year we purchased a season pass for the Craftsbury Outdoor Center and our goal is to ski every Monday. It is my one day off each week and often times last year I just felt too tired to go out again and preferred to hang out at home and rest. So far this season we have gone skiing the past two Mondays and I have really been enjoying it. I had forgotten how much fun it is to glide through the woods on beautifully groomed trails. I have also found that it does my head a world of good to get away even if it is only for a few hours. Even if things are amazing where you are it never hurts to have a little change of perspective now and again!

I wish you all a Happy New Year. There seems to be a sense of renewal and hope in the air for 2009. Let's hope things do move in a positive direction and do our part to see that they do.

Winter Again

2008-12-12T07:50:00.005-05:00

Once again we have changed over from fall stick season to winter. This is one of the reasons I love living in New England. There is never time to become bored with the weather since it is constantly changing. Of course I would like to have more control over whether we receive rain or snow this time of year. However it is an excellent reminder of how much in our lives we do not have control over. No matter how much we may convince ourselves we are in control you really never know what you will wake up too tomorrow (or whether you will even wake up). I continue to struggle with accepting the weather in my life. Even though I know there is nothing I can do about it I still obsess over it; often checking the National Weather Service eight times a day. Hey; it changes a lot... I suppose this is one of the down sides of running a weather dependent business.

This winter so far has been rather trying as we've fluctuated from -10 to +50 in the matter of two days several times already. We seem to be on some kind of wild weather roller coaster ride. The old saying "if you don't like the weather in Vermont or fill in the blank wait a minute" really rings true. One day I'm moping around because it's raining; the next I'm grinning from ear to ear because there is a snow storm on the way. Today life is good. We just received around eight to ten inches of snow overnight; our biggest snow fall of the season so far. I'll be spending the day snow blowing, shoveling and grooming my dogsled trail. This weekend we'll be back on sleds and running the dogs. Next week; who knows? Live in the moment; play in the snow!

New Dog Cart

2008-10-24T08:37:00.010-04:00

My goal with this project was to build a training/tour cart for an eight to ten dog team which could carry two passengers. I wanted to have good braking ability and a decent suspension. I started by researching parts for small motorcycles or pit bikes since the wheels for those are similar to what I have on my existing carts. I couldn’t find much for parts that wouldn’t run me more than $1,000.00 just for the wheels and brakes. That would still leave me needing a solution for the suspension. At that point I started thinking about an ATV. I thought if I could find one for $200 - $300 dollars I would be way ahead of the game. I would already have disk brakes and a suspension. I placed a wanted ad on Craig’s List and received a few responses for dead ATV s.

This is the one I ended up purchasing for $300.00. It’s a older Yamaha Banshee 350. I was told the motor did a few years ago but smoked. Even though I was tempted to try and start it I didn’t and went right into tearing it apart.

Here is a picture of the frame with all of the stuff I didn’t need removed. It only took me about two hours to pull the motor, plastic and wiring off and get down to the bare frame. At this point I was able to see exactly what I had to work with. At this point I could still turn back; once I began to cut the frame apart with the hack saw there was no turning back.

Once I had the frame cut in half at the center I did a mock up to help visualize what the final product might look like. Being a woodworker by trade I found wood to be the quickest medium to accomplish this. Basically I was trying to determine what I would need for an overall length and still have reasonable space for passengers. My existing tour cart had an overall length of nine feet so that was my target. This cart is exactly nine feet long; however it looks longer because the nine feet if from wheel to wheel. The other cart is nine feet including a foot rest with the actually wheel to wheel measurement being about a foot shorter or around eight feet.

After determining the length I bought some square metal tube and started to weld the new middle section of the cart. I used 2” tube for the flat floor part of the frame and 1” square tube for the upper parts. It’s quite possible that it is over built but being a complete novice with metal working I would prefer that over having something that might break. I set up saw horses and level beams to construct the floor frame to try and keep it as flat as possible.

Once I had the center frame welded I tacked it in place between the two halves of the ATV. Everything seemed to work well so I continued to weld. As you can see in these pictures I also added bracing to strengthen the connection of new frame to the ATV halves.

Things were going well, the suspension and brakes seemed like they were going to work fine but the steering… That was a big hurtle. How do we get from a handle bar in the rear of the cart to the tie rods at the front? It took me a few hours of scouring the internet before I came up with a source for small rack and pinions. There is a company in Arizona called Desert Karts http://www.desertkarts.com and they carry a wide assortment of sand rail/ cart parts including steering components. The owner Greg was very helpful with explaining what I would need to accomplish my goal. He had a great understanding of the product as well as the ability to comprehend what the heck I was talking about. No small feat as even I didn’t have any idea what I was talking about. What we ended up with was a nine inch rack and pinion which runs off of a straight 5/8” tube to the rear of the cart where it connects with two universal joints allowing the steering to angle up 60 degrees for the steering column/handle bars. The only issue at that point was the fact that this set up didn’t turn the wheels a full turn unless I rotated the handle bar all the way around backwards. Greg suggested shortening the steering arms which I did and this greatly increased the turn amount at the front. He also sells a steering quickener which creates a 2 to 1 ratio in steering. That was plan B for me and it doesn’t look like it is necessary at this point.

This is a shot of the completed cart. I modified some of the original plastic so I would have fenders. Some of our roads/trails become pretty wet in the fall so I wanted to have something to keep water from spraying up on the cart. I made the seats myself. My neighbor does furniture upholstery and had some foam and fake leather scraps. They have a plywood core. That pretty much did it other than a little tweaking here and there such as suspension, steering and brake adjustment. She’s pretty well dialed in now and goes great. It rolls along well and came in at less than $1,000.00 if I don't include my time. Not bad for a full suspension, disk brake cart.. I’ve been running a ten dog team with a minimum of 300 pound loads and the dogs don’t have any trouble pulling it up our hills. I do have the tire pressure up around five pounds which decreases the rolling resistance. The finished cart probably weighs around 250 to 300 lbs. I am able to completely stop a ten dog team with it; the brakes are fantastic. To hold the team I just made some low tech clips on the handle bars which hold in the brake levers. I think part of the braking ability is due to the large contact patch achieved with the ATV tires. They are much wider than the pit bike or motorcycle tires. Feel free to email me at: ken@peacepupsdogsledding.com if you would like any further information.

Early Fall Snow!

2008-10-23T08:53:00.004-04:00

Scene from our front yard in Lake Elmore on Wednesday, September 22nd. Not quite enough to run the sled but maybe it's a sign of things to come. One thing for sure; the dogs are loving it and are much happier running in these temperatures than they were at 55 or 60 degrees.

Our new to us Tidd Tech groomer arrived from New Mexico yesterday and I can't wait to try it out on our sledding trail. I've heard great things about these as a means of grooming dogsledding trails. I believe Stowe Mountain Resort uses the very same drag to groom our sledding trail over there and those trails are always beautiful.

Colors of Fall

2008-10-17T08:43:00.005-04:00

As the leaves begin to fall from the trees here in northern Vermont and we enter into stick season I have been pondering the other colors of fall. With November elections just around the corner not only are the orange and reds of the trees on my mind but also the reds and blues. Is it only me or do others feel we are manipulated by the main stream media into a us and them attitude toward our fellow citizens? The powers that be seem to want us to view each other as liberal, conservative, red, blue, republican, democrat, pro this or pro that. Just turn on your television and look at the ads that are being aired. Virtually no real discussion about the problems we are all facing; just more of the blame game. If so and so is elected we're all going to pay more. Has the cost of living ever gone down? Certainly not that I can recall. Things cost more and more every year no matter who is sitting in the White House. Aren't we all looking for the same thing? Don't we all want to live in a world where everyone has enough to eat, a roof over their head and no fear of being accosted by "evil doers"? Why then do so many of us waste our time being angry at our fellow citizens if they are not the same color (red or blue) or do not wear the same label of conservative or liberal, etc.? They want us divided because they know if we were all together we would throw them out on their butts. Is there really a big difference between either of the two political parties we get to choose from? Why have the policies of our government continued in the same direction for centuries with little difference whether there is a democrat or a republican president in office? Why do we spend our time shouting at each other over choices that really aren't even choices? Come on America, we are all smarter than that. Look through the smoke screen and see the real issues. I know it take a lot more time and effort to seek out the truth than it does to soak up the propaganda thrown at us by the main stream corporate media but isn't the future of our world worth it? I don't claim to have a answer for the problems we face but I do believe if we all started to spend more time looking at the real problems rather than blaming our neighbors because they do not wear the same label we do we could at least begin to discuss the problems with some level of intelligence. I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed but even I can see this.

I'll step down from my soap box now and turn my mind to more pleasant matters; my dogs. Fall training has been going great. The new dogs are working out very well and getting to know them has been a joy. I am already quite attached to them and it will be hard to see them leave in the spring. The new cart is up and running and works great! Building it has been a pretty intense learning experience. Being a woodworker all of my life I have never ventured into working with metal before. I find it to be quite enjoyable although as with most things if you do not have the right tool for the job it can take ten times as long. I'm very well equipped for woodworking but not so much for metal. I have been able to make due with the few tools I have and a good dose of Yankee ingenuity. Come by and visit us the next time you're in the neighborhood. The dogs don't care if your red or blue, conservative or liberal; they just like people no matter what their label is.

Fall Again!

2008-10-02T09:36:00.003-04:00

Once again it is fall and the trees are a flame with beautiful reds and oranges. It has been a bit on the warm side through out September but we were able to begin running the dogs. The forecast for the next five days calls for highs in the low 50s with 30s overnight so it’ll be great weather for running.

We have six new dogs spending the winter with us and they just arrived last week. So far that transition has gone well with very little trouble. Of course Exxon our alpha male has to be sure and let everyone know he is top dog. Once we got past a little posturing and growling everyone has settled in as though they had been here for years.

I’ve been working on my own wheeled dogsled cart and have it almost completed. One steering part that I ordered has been delayed in shipping but as soon as I get that here I will wrap up the project and get it out for a test run. I think it will be an amazing wheeled sled. It has front and rear disk brakes, full suspension with about five inches of travel and padded seats. The main components are from an ATV. I bought and cut in half. This gave me the suspension, brakes and wheels and should make for a very comfortable ride.

This is a picture from a week ago. I’ll be sure to post a complete photo when it is all put together. I hope to have it up and running by next week so stay tuned for the results!

Good Weather For Ducks

2008-08-09T07:30:00.003-04:00

It has certainly been a good summer to have our new covered doggy condos in place. Since I put them up it seems like it has rained just about every day here in Lake Elmore. The news last week said it was a record for Montpelier where they received 8.25 inches of rain in July. Montpelier is about 25 minutes south of us so we have probably had a similar amount of rain here.

All of the rain hasn't caused much damage here at our place. We did have some damage on the class four road which leads to our cabin but the town brought in some gravel a few days ago and patched it up. Other towns near by have lost entire roads due to the rain and have applied for disaster relief.

I had one exciting evening a couple of weeks ago when we had a heavy downpour. I was sitting upstairs on a Sunday afternoon playing my guitar and happened to look out to check on the dogs and there was a river running right down the center of the dog yard! The dogs were all sitting on their deck watching the river flow. I jumped up and into my rain gear and ran out to the yard in a panic. I had visions of all of the sand which I had moved into the yard by wheel barrow washing down the river. All that work gone in the matter of a few minutes... What had happened was the curtain drain which I had dug at the top of the dog yard had over flowed. The spring on the hillside above which usually only runs in the spring with the heavy snow melt had begun to flow and filled the foot and a half deep ditch. When I dug the ditch with the excavator I hadn't quite gotten through the bank to the stream so it wasn't draining like it should. I spent the next half hour digging with the pick ax until I had cut another five feet through the bank and then the water began to drain and run away from the dog yard. Once I got the water out it wasn't as bad as I had thought. Only a little of the sand actually left the dog yard. Much of it was just moved around and with some raking it was almost as good as new. I suppose it was a good test for my ditch. If we made it through that heavy rain it will probably be fine next spring with the normal run off.

That was the big excitement since my last post. Otherwise things seem to drain pretty well on our hillside. The garden is growing like crazy and we've got tons of cucumber, squash, peas and greens. There are plenty of green tomatoes but we'll have to wait and see if we get enough warm weather for them to ripen.

As August quickly slips by my thoughts are quickly turning to fall dog training. Last year we started running with the carts around mid September. That's only a few weeks away! I've really missed not running the dogs this summer.

Until next time.

Summer 2008 Dog Yard Renovations

2008-07-11T08:34:00.014-04:00

As I wrap up my dog yard project for the season I’ve decided to do a brief (?) write up. Peace Pups had a great 2007-2008 season with great snow conditions and plenty of great guests joining us for tours. I promised the dogs that I would fancy their lodging up in return for all of their hard work over the winter. With out them there would be no Peace Pups.

As the temperatures began to warm in April my thoughts turned to what I would do to improve the yard. One thing that was fresh in my mind was all of the shoveling I had to do in the yard this past winter due to the large amount of snow. It got to the point where the entrance to each dog house looked like the entrance to an igloo with a small tunnel at each. There was a point when you could not even see half of the houses and could walk right other the top of them. That’s fine for insulation and wind protection but every time we received another couple of inches of snow or the wind blew I had to go out and shovel those tunnels out again. It became a almost daily occurrence and my back was not especially happy about it. Another ongoing issue with our dog yard has been water and mud in the fall and spring. We are on a slight hill side and there are a couple of small springs above the yard. In the spring when there was lot of water in the ground we would have a small stream running right through the middle of the yard. This could also happen in the fall when we have November rains and the ground becomes saturated. Last summer I created a ditch through the middle of the yard to pull some of the water away but it wasn’t great having a ditch in the center of the yard.

My first thought was to build a dog barn. This would provide a nice dry space for the dogs. Having grown up and then worked on a farm as a teen I was familiar with the set up for dairy cows. Why not dogs? I began to look into scour some of the fantastic resources available on line for information on dog barns. They are being used in some areas such a Alaska where the weather is much colder and many mushers are running shorter coated dogs. I believe the main goal for these barns is to keep the dogs warmer in the winter. I also posted questions in regard to what I was planning and began to receive some feed back.

The first issue I ran into was tethering versus pens. Initially I was going to build eight pens to house two dogs each. The meant a very large barn and many gates to work through. I have had two kennel pens as well as tether set ups and came to the conclusion that I really prefer the tethers. To me it feels like the dogs are a more open environment and easier to interact with when I’m walking through the yard. They also have their own private space where they can be away from any other dog. I find that many of them enjoy this and are much more relaxed if they don’t have to be “on” all of the time. I also find it easier for me to do my chores. Feeding, clean up, watering, shots etc. seem to go much more quickly as I walk from dog to do without having to open and close gates and worry about anyone getting out.

It became obvious to me that staying with tethers would work better for us. That decided I revisited the barn idea. Was there a way to build a barn that would work with tethers? The only thing I could envision was a large twenty four foot by eighty foot roof covering the entire yard. One problem I foresaw with that was snow load. With roof that big in order to have it shed snow it would have to have some kind of amazing height. Another consideration was smell. I had read of others that had fully covered runs and issues with odor and dust due to lack of rain. I read about one person installing sprinklers to flush the runs out from time to time.

What about flooring? If one of my main goals was for the dogs to be drier it seemed like I really wanted a space for them to get off of the ground. As I went round and round with this there were days where I was ready to bag the whole barn idea but I didn’t.

What all of this evolved into was what we have taken to calling the doggie condos. The condos have a six foot by six foot deck for each dog. Their houses sit on top of these decks and each has a six foot by nine foot thirty degree pitch roof over it. These are light enough that they are able to be moved if need be. They provide a dry space for each dog to hang out. They provide great shade. They are very open so they don’t block the breeze in the summer and they will keep the snow off of their houses in the winter. I have them set up so it will allow me to drive my snow blower through the center of the yard to clear the snow if we have another heavy snow season like the past one.

A bonus to this set up is that for our town a building permit is not required for structures under eight foot square. The doggie condos are basically glorified dog houses.

Next is a brief photo essay of the project as it progressed over the last month.

Step one: Preparing the actual yard and improving the drainage issues. I rented a mini excavator to level the yard out so the doggie condos would sit flatter and along the same plane. We had four or five stumps in the yard which had always made it difficult to place tether posts. The excavator made short work of those! I also dug a four foot deep curtain drain across the back side of the yard to pull away and water that might come down the slope. I then had thirty five yards of sand delivered which I spread through the newly leveled side of the yard. I had filled another section of the yard with sand last summer and was very happy with the drainage and lack of mud. This is a picture of the yard leveled; evenly spaced tethers and new layer of sand.

Step two: Building the decks. I put together a lumber order and had it delivered and unloaded in our driveway which would become the doggie condo construction shop for the next two weeks. I built the units so the roof could be separate making them much easier to move. Here we are framing the decks in the driveway.

Moving the decks into the dog yard so that cars can once again pass through the driveway. The deck seem to be a immediate hit with the dogs!

The decks in place in the dog yard.

Step three: The driveway becomes a roof assembly line. These projects always seem to take on a life of their own. When I put the first metal roof on I had the bright idea of painting it to see how it would look. Well with one painted they all would need to be painted in order to match. Some of the metal had rust on it so of course that needed to be wire brushed off before painting. Before I knew it we had another two hours of labor per roof. I think the final result was worth the time though and it should help the metal last longer.

Now we are almost done. All of the roofs are on, my wife says she thinks it looks like a state park... I still need to buy 50 cinder blocks to block the corners of the decks up off the ground then do the final leveling and I think that will be it for this summer. The doggy condos seem to be working out very well. We had a rainy day this past week and we had multiple places to stay dry while hanging out with the dogs. I can’t wait for winter to see how they work with snow!

Officially Spring

2008-05-26T13:08:00.007-04:00

It is truly spring here now. The snow finally did melt off of the flower bed as it always does and now the spring flowers are in full bloom. I may even have to fire up the lawn mower soon! luckily I don't have to do much mowing here; we have a "real" Vermont lawn which mostly consist of dandelions, wild strawberry, clover and a little bit of grass. We've made a big effort to expand the flower beds and vegetable garden to decrease the lawn area. I figure if it takes more than a half hour to mow it's too big. There are so many other thinks I would rather be doing than mowing the lawn.

I'm having a lot more interest in the bicycle tours this summer and we're up and running now. I purchased a van which works great for hauling bikes and customers and I've got a fleet of brand new Diamond Back bikes from Chuck's Bike Shop located just down the road in Morrisville. The riding has been great with nice temperatures in the mid sixties. This week the lilacs, apple trees and dogwood are all flowering so the air is very fragrant as you ride along. With the new cross style bikes I bought this year I have been getting out and finding some amazing roads that I had never ridden before. I have always ridden either on the pavement or in the woods and never spent much time riding the dirt back roads of the area. I now see what I was missing out on. Not only is there way less traffic but the views are much nicer as well. Of course some of those old roads have some pretty steep grades on them but at least there aren't dozens of cars whizzing by you as you grind your way up.

I built a pair of lean too structures for the dog yard last week as prototypes and they seem to be working well. Now all I have to do is build twelve more! I don't have roofing on them yet but I did find a great deal on a load of used roofing. All I have to do is pick it up this week. The pups got a new swimming pool this week too. They've been upgraded from a four foot kiddie pool to a six foot. I'm really excited about the improvements that I'm making this summer. It will really polish things up.

That's about all the news that's fit to print from here in Lake Elmore today. Until next time!

Did I Say Spring?

2008-03-28T08:32:00.007-04:00

Well; it seems like I have been referring to spring for weeks now and according to my calendar it is "officially" but if I look out the window it sure doesn't look like it. We still have a LOT of snow for the end of March and it's snowing again this morning. What a long winter; good thing I'm into dogsledding. I'm sure there are some raging cases of cabin fever around this year. It will be a long time before our flower bed is seeing the sunshine here in Lake Elmore. In the photo below the snow pile on the left is right on top of our spring flower bed. I think it's going to take a while for that one to melt away!

In the mean time as long as the trails are good we continue to run the dogs. It could make for a short off season this year if we run through April. That will leave May, June, July and August before we begin our fall cart training again in September; not bad..

Thoughts of cycling are starting to creep into my mind as we've had a few days with sunshine and temps in the 40s. It's always hard to believe it will be warm enough for riding in shorts at this time of year but it will happen. Last year on this day I went for a road bike ride and it was 50 degrees and sunny. I don't think I'll be getting out on the bike today; in fact I have a dogsled tour this afternoon.

Spring Fling

2008-03-18T08:14:00.006-04:00

We’ve been having a little spring time fun here the past week. With the tour schedule thinning out a bit as we move to warmer temperatures I have been getting out for a few runs with the pups with out tour loads in the sleds.

Saturday one of my guides and I took a drive to Bartlett New Hampshire to participate in a 23 mile fun run/race. We both ran six dog teams and they did a great job. I ran Buck and Muddy in lead with little Fleche and Dubois in team, Etta and Exxon in wheel. The second team was Umiak and Heron in lead, Pegasus and Teddy in team and Orion and Hercules in wheel.

It was an out and back trail so there was plenty of head on passing to be done. Buck and Muddy amazed me! They have not run with many other teams or dealt with much passing at all this season but they remembered exactly what to do. We had NO incidents and every pass they did was perfect. Good boys!

I hadn’t been doing many longer runs this winter because I felt I needed to conserve their energy for tours but they actually seemed more excited and stronger on tours we’ve run in the days following the race/fun run. I think that next season I will try to do longer light weight runs at least once a week with them.

Yesterday (St. Patrick’s Day) was Dubois, Etta James, Buck Wheat, and Muddy’s fourth birthday. We celebrated with a round of Vermont made Green Mountain Dog Cookies and hot dogs for everyone. It’s hard to believe those guys are already four years old; seems like just yesterday that I was holding them in my hand. They have really turned out to be amazing dogs and they bring a smile to my face every day. Happy Birthday guys!

Spring Mushing in Vermont

2008-03-10T07:02:00.002-04:00

Ah; the signs of spring in Vermont. Rain one day, snow and five degrees the next, town meeting day, the primaries, and song birds beginning to return.

The weather makes maintaining a dogsledding trail a real challenge. Yesterday morning when I went to set up for tours there was two inches of fresh snow (a good thing) with three inches of wet slush hidden underneath it (not a good thing...). Luckily it was about ten degrees at that point so after a grooming run the slush below began to freeze up making for a very nice mid winter type trail. Sometimes we get lucky and the snow gods help us out.

Last week was Vermont town meeting. I always try to attend our meeting here in Lake Elmore. It's a great way to meet more people from our town as well as a chance to see what is going on in local politics. We didn't have any huge issues on our meeting agenda this year so things moved along pretty quickly. That was followed by a walk across the street to the Town Clerk's office to cast a vote for the Vermont primary. I try to remain optimistic about this whole election process but it becomes harder and harder each time around. Looking back over the past twenty years our prospects for presidential candidates have not been great and I'm not convinced it is looking much better this go round. With corporate America having more say than the population it's hard to see how things can improve. That said; I cast my vote and hope for the best...

Time get moving. Off to feed the peace pups and begin to get ready for a few tours. With a predicted twenty eight degrees and sun today it should be a lovely day to be out on the trail with my furry family! Every day is a blessing at this time of year. You never know which one will be the last. It could be seventy degrees and melting in a week.

Sledding Season Winding Down?

2008-03-05T11:59:00.000-05:00

It's hard to believe it's March already. Seems like I have been plugging along with blinders on all winter; nose to the grind stone shoveling snow, grooming, loading dogs, you name it. All of a sudden it's time to turn the page on the calendar and March is upon us. Where did the winter go??? If the cold season drags by for you I highly recommend getting involved in dogsledding. The winter will go by so quickly you might miss it if you blink!

We're starting to get into the time of year where we expect a real mix of weather here in Vermont. It might be 55 degrees one day and 0 the next; raining one minute and snowing the next. Of course this provides all kinds of challenges with keeping the dogsled trails runnable. Yesterday morning it was 50 here, this morning 30 with a lovely mix of rain, freezing rain and sleet. We have snow in the forecast toward the end of the week so it looks like the trail will be good to go again this weekend. We still have close to 4 feet of snow in the woods so unless it gets real warm real fast we should have snow for quite a while to come.

I've been dealing with a injured dog over the past week. Not sure what happened to the poor guy but last Monday Mycan was having problems standing on his rear legs. He had been in a bit of a scrap when we were having play time the day before but there were no apparent injuries; no bites, swelling or signs of him being hurt. Two days later he was unable to stand. He was in for xrays last week and nothing appears to be wrong there. The thought now is that he has some sort of disk issue. After a full week of treatment and acupuncture he is standing again and functioning normally. I don't know if I will ever have him work in harness again. I hate to risk any sort of re injury to his back. Once he is fully recovered I will either bring him in to live with the other two couch dogs or try to find him a good pet home. He's a sweat little dog with a ton of energy but it looks like early retirement from the life of dogsledding.

With the warmer weather my thoughts are beginning to turn to spring. On my list of spring projects to keep me busy between seasons is a dog barn for the peace pups. I am so sick of shoveling snow this winter and keeping all of the dog houses clear that I decided to build a enclosure over the whole dog yard. I'm also planning on fine tuning the bike tour facet of my business to see if I can get that off the ground this season. Biking in the summer and running dogs in the winter; now that's a life for me!

Always Something

2008-01-31T08:21:00.000-05:00

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...

Back to The Drawing Board

2008-01-29T07:42:00.000-05:00

Given that I had exhausted all of my options in regard to getting the side bridge to work I had no choice but to start thinking about a way to make a bridge straight across the stream where the old logging bridge had once been. This was a 32 foot span; how was I going to get a bridge across that? I started making phone calls to get information on steel beams, laminated beams, anything I could use to span this stream. Steel was going to cost over $1,000.00 and the beams would weight around 1000 pounds. Without the ability to get some sort of a crane up there I would have no way of moving anything like that. I decided to ask about dropping some trees to build a wooden bridge and was given permission to do that. I then got on the phone and tried to gather as many people as I could to help out. I bought more lumber and was able to pull it all to the bridge site with my Skandic snowmobile. With everything in place we arrived at the day for the project to begin. It’s amazing what can be accomplished with five or six people in a day. We had a 35 foot by five foot wide bridge 90% complete by 5:00 in the evening. It was a full day and I was so tired I could hardly see straight but we had a bridge with no corners to make; just a straight shot across!

I could hardly wait to try it out with a dog team. I didn’t have to wait long; we had some more snow a few days later and after packing the trail again we hooked up some eight dog teams and gave it a go. The bridge worked perfectly and it offers a great view of the waterfall and gorge below. With that out of the way I was pretty well set up for running there for the winter. We have had a few other minor projects such as ongoing brush work to keep the trail clear and some shoveling to fill in some washed out spots after a rainy spell we had. I hope to do some drainage work on the road bed next summer to eliminate some of those wet areas. Over all it has been a fantastic location for running this winter.

The tours have been going great and I have had the opportunity to meet a lot of really great people this winter. Besides getting to spend so much time with my dogs meeting new people from all over the world is one of the things I like most about this endeavor. I do tend to get a little cynical from listening to the news and reading about all of the discouraging things that are happening in the world and all of the wonderful people I meet through dogsledding really helps restore my faith in humanity. The pups are a amazing bridge across cultures and lifestyles. We’ve had families from the Bahrain, Columbia, South Africa as well as just down the road from here. The business has kind of taken on a life of its own and I sometimes feel like I’m just along for the ride. Where will it take me? I really can’t say but time will tell.

The Side Bridge

2007-12-28T07:41:00.000-05:00

I am loosing sleep worrying about how to cross this damn stream. I went back to the site to take another look and see about a possible reroute which might allow a straight approach to the bridge. There is an old logging trail off of the end that might work; it just has a lot of brush growing in it so I think if I cut that it might work. There is a pretty large ridge before getting back to the main trail but it might be doable. I cut the brush then asked both employees to join me for another training run. I figured I might as well have some weight in the sled since that will be the situation for tours. We approached the new side trail and I was nervous; it was still pretty tight with a pretty good bend in it plus it had a rise of about eight feet in the space of about twenty feet. Not great. We went into the spur and the dogs pulled the sled up the sharp rise until they were down side of it and the sled was on the uphill side at which point we stopped dead. It was too steep for them to pull a loaded sled up. I was able to get behind the sled and push with everything I had to get the sled over the top at which point we shot down the other side and into another corner. Over went the sled. %$#@! The corner is too sharp and if I can’t get a sled through there how can I expect my help who have much less driving experience than I do to make it? We did the remainder of the run and on the way back I was actually able to get us across the bride and through the reroute without incident but it wasn’t easy.

Now what to do? Yet another; bigger reroute? I went back to the site to look around some more. Maybe I could run the spur a little further out on the old logging road and it could work. We went back and spent another half day working on another approach trail. The following weekend I had tour booked at 12:00 and we had not yet run the new spur trail. Stress, oh yeah. It happened to be on a Sunday when my wife was off from work so she agreed to go help me and we were going to do one run with half of the dogs before the actual tour then run the other eight for the tour. We hooked up the team and off we went. I made it through the new reroute and over the bridge but it was still pretty scary. I’m once again thinking to myself that there is no way my help is going to get a loaded sled through this spot. We did the rest of the run and came back; crossed the bridge and headed into the spur trail. As we were about half way through we went around a sharp turn with a drop off to the right and I lost control of the sled. Over and down we went. I hit so hard that it sheared the laminated ash driving bow off of the sled. My wife was limping from banging her knee on something and she had scratch on the side of her forehead. We somehow got the sled up and back on the trail and made it back to the truck.

Now I have guests coming for a tour in forty five minutes; a broken sled and no safe trail. The first thought was to cancel and go home. My second thought was that they had come all the way from New Hampshire mainly to go on this dogsled ride. My third thought was that I had just enough time to run home; grab my second sled and get back here to meet them but how were we going to make it across the damn bridge? There was no way I would attempt to drive them through the spur trail after what had just happened. I decided we could sled to the bridge location; unhook each dog and walk them across the bridge one a time and hook them back up on the other side. This was time consuming but all went well and the guests were able to have a little extra interaction with the dogs.

I managed to pull this tour off but we really don’t want to be unhooking and walking the dogs across this bridge all winter long. I was quickly coming to the conclusion that somehow; some way I was going to have to build a thirty five foot span bridge seven feet in the air where the old logging bridge used to be. I had no idea how since there is not a way for equipment to get in to the site. I had also burned up another week attempting to make the side bridge work. Four days working out there and $250.00 worth of lumber and we still didn’t have a workable solution.

Early Season

2007-12-17T07:32:00.000-05:00

Early December. So much for the best laid plans. The temporary bridge idea did not pan out so well. We spent the better part of a day working in thirty five degree drizzle building a twenty foot bridge over the steam that is a quarter mile up the tour trail. A week later we had enough snow to run the dogs on the trail for the first time. We hooked up small six dog teams to keep things a little more sane for a first run. All went well until we arrived at the new bridge crossing. The angle from the trail onto the bridge was too sharp to drive even a six dog team around. I went first with my employee following. I was able to get my team onto the bridge but they then jumped into the stream which is only about six inches deep to get themselves a drink. I pulled them back onto the bridge and jumped back on the sled at which point they jumped back into the stream. We repeated this about three times until we finally made it to the other side of the bridge. At this point I new the second sled was going to have just as much or more trouble than I did. I put my snow hook into the ground to hold my sled and team and broke rule # 2 of dogsledding. I walked back behind my team to help her across the bridge. I had just gotten back there when I looked up and saw my dogs running down the trail without me! Damn; I really should know better. If you are in front of your team and they pull the snow hook loose you at least have a chance of grabbing them as the go by. If you are behind the sled even five feet there’s no way you will catch them.

I went into controlled panic mode. The dogs had never run this trail before and had no idea where they were going. There was a loop turn around at two and a half miles out but the trail also continued and split in several locations. One would take them all the way over the top of Elmore Mountain, one would take them to Lake Elmore and possible the main road if they kept going. Of course there is always the possibility that without some one controlling the sled they could tangle around a tree or other object and become injured or fight. Sometimes if dogs are injured and they are attached to another dog they will blame the other dog for their pain and lash out. All of these thoughts were rushing through my head. My dogs are like my family and it would break my heart if something happened to them because of my mistake.

I managed to get the second sled across the bridge and had my employee jump in the sled so I could drive and we took off after the second team. I knew there was very little chance of us catching them but couldn’t think of any other option at the time. The first team had a empty sled which meant they were flying along the trail. We had two people in the sled and a team with less power. I ran and pushed the sled up every hill to keep us going as fast as possible. I am in pretty good shape from cycling, hiking and other outdoor activities but running and pushing at this pace sure had my heart rate way up there. I probably had a little adrenaline running through my veins as well..

I drove on and every corner we rounded I hoped for a sign of the team but saw nothing but foot prints in the snow. We were about a quarter of a mile from the turn around where I would have had to stop because the rest of the trail was not packed and the loaded sled would have bogged down when I heard some screaming and barking in the distance. Siberians can make these sounds when they are excited to run or when they are hurt so I was still very worried but at least we were getting close. We came around the next corner and there they were in the middle of the trail screaming to go. The snow hook which was out of the sled had caught one of the two tines on something in the ground on a slight uphill and it had stopped the team. I was SO relieved! I jumped off of the second sled and grabbed my team while my employee took over on the second sled. We turned both teams around for a fairly calm run back. We again had trouble with the bridge and both of us tipped out sleds over trying to make it around the sharp corners. At last we made it back to where we started and loaded the dogs back in the truck.

Back to the drawing board; obviously this bridge situation was not going to work. More panic; it was about two weeks before I would have tours starting and I basically had no trail to run on.

Fall Training Continues

2007-11-20T08:32:00.000-05:00

It’s beginning to look a lot like winter around here. I don’t dare to become to optimistic after last year but it is sure looking better so far. We have had snow on the ground here for over a week now and evening temperatures in the low twenties. It is suppose to rain tomorrow night and the next day so that could be the end of this round of snow but maybe it will hold up and become our base for the next snow. I have our new sledding trail just about ready for the season. A little more brush work and a temporary bridge for the stream crossing and I’ll be in great shape.

We ran a cart tour for a group of elementary school children yesterday. I had a great time and I think they all did as well. I did my digital slide show here in the cabin then we all went out into the dog yard to meet the pups. We harnessed and hooked up two teams with the help of Lauren and were able to take five children out at once. We did one of our typical five mile runs but stopped at the half way point to switch passengers. The dogs did great, they are loving the cooler temperatures and the snow on the ground always gets them excited.

Today Aiko (my twelve and a half year old Siberian) are off to visit Out and About; a local sort of day care for the elderly. Aiko became a certified pet therapy dog this summer. It’s his retirement job as he winds down his dogsledding career. I am going to be doing my slide show for them today so it will be a bit more work than the usual petting session.

That’s about all that’s new around here today. Keeping busy working with the dogs, a little drafting here and there and hope we can keep up with the bills!

Getting Started

2007-11-15T05:29:00.000-05:00

I just started my day by setting up this blog. Now to begin recording the trials and tribulations of life with my family (both human and canine) here in rural Vermont.

A little about our fall training. I and the two women I hired to assist me with tours this winter have been running the dogs for eight weeks now. This fall has been very nice for training with cool temperatures being the rule. This is the first year I have had someone available to help me train on a regular basis and it is really paying off for the dogs. They are much stronger at this point in the season than they have ever been before. They are also running much more smoothly as a team. It's always a little rocky starting up with the dogs having been on vacation for a few months and new helpers. The first week brought a few minor injuries including some badly bruised shins for me (I'll save that for a later date...) and a some bumps and bruised for the help. We have around 120 mile logged so far with most of that being five to seven mile runs. We have done a few ten mile runs but I don't think we will go much higher than that for dry land training. I'll wait until we are running with sleds to bump the mileage up much more.

I'm very excited about the trail I have access to this winter for tours and training. I hope to have around fifteen miles of groomed trail for training and longer runs right at my tour location. It was a bit of a process setting up this site and took most of the summer sending emails back and forth. I had to rebuild a bridge in order to access the staging area and still need to do some work on the starting area in order to be ready for sled tours. The trail itself is in pretty nice shape but could use a little bit of brush work. I hope to get out there over the next week to do this. We could be on sleds any time now. It is raining right now but the forecast is calling for snow tomorrow!