Early Fall Snow!

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

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.

Good Weather For Ducks

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.