Yes We Do Have Snow Here!

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

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

Two weekends ago Shelby (who works with us) and I went to Maine for to attend Mushing Boot Camp. It was a great learning experience for me and the dogs. Even though I now have ten years’ experience working with the dogs it is always amazing what you can learn from someone else watching what you are doing.  We did a lot of passing with other teams and even some basic agility work. There were eight other dog teams at the camp so there was plenty of opportunity for the dogs to be socialized. I brought puppy Pax and Shelby brought her dog Kanzi. Neither of them participated but they had a good time being 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 New Hampshire. I had a booth with scooter demos as I have the past two years. Even though it was a rainy weekend it was still a lot of fun to hang out and talk dogs with many old and new friends. The pot luck dinner on Saturday night was 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 dogsledding and dog training by some very knowledgeable speakers.

We're back home now and settling into a steadier training pattern as we head toward winter. With the cooler temperatures the dogs will begin to increase in strength rapidly. It won’t be long and we’ll be back on snow!

Where Does Time Go?

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.

Ready For Winter

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.

Vacation Summer 09

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.

Spring Scooter Fun

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!

Retirement Isn't So Bad

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

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!

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!

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

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!

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.

Summer 2008 Dog Yard Renovations

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

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!

Spring Fling

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!