There’s been a plethora of 4 letter words around here since J went home.

Words like snow, sled, snow-hook (ok, I know that’s 8 but as the hook bit is the important part, that’s what counts).  Most of those 4 letter words are contained in sentences that begin with phrases like – have you been out on the $#@* yet or does your h**% hold ? Common everyday talk to likes of you and I, possibly distressing to others. And my answers have always been,  no, and no.  Because the second “no” means that whilst fluffy, dry powdery snow is lovely to look at and play in, it has all the holding qualities of runny custard. And that means you have no way of stopping a team and getting them to stay in place whilst you fix anything. So, the sensible me has refrained from running the s&*d ——  until now.

Hooking up the dogs for a sled run

I suppose we should get into the spirit of all things American, ensconced as we are deep in the Last Frontier.  However, it is still one of the things that we are finding “different” – and the many good wishes and “have a happy Thanksgiving” greetings we receive are still novel enough to leave us a little unsure of the proper response. I’ve resorted to a cheery wave and a mumbled retort. Despite trying to avoid the place as much as I can, I do still find myself somehow, in Walmart, being accosted both on the way in and the way out by the person who possibly has one of the most soul destroying jobs around – the Walmart greeter.  I’m not sure why they are there and I don’t need to be welcomed into any kind of shop, especially not one that I don’t really like going into, but end up in, because, well, it’s just convenient. I’m Scottish – we don’t really talk to strangers unless they are cute and we’ve been drinking.

My handler wife has gone back to Scotland for a visit, to see family and to find out if she’s homesick yet.  I’ve told her she isn’t. Of course, this means I’m in charge and have discovered that 28 dogs is actually quite a lot of work. The way the yard has developed, we actually have it split almost in two, so J has been dealing with our 11 “original” dogs, I have the 12 “new” dogs and the 5 house dogs get a bit of both of us.

It has also been a little chilly – previously, I had recorded a low of -25F, well, we had several nights of it getting down to -33 F. That’s a cold, cold, cold -36 C. The upside of that (there’s an upside to everything) is that when it warmed up to 0 F, it seemed lovely and mild. A few days later, it got back up to 15F and the layers all had to come off again.

We had had no new snow till the night before Thanksgiving, when just short of 6 inches fell. It’s very fluffy, powdery, light snow that makes walking through it quite a slog. As I had dinner plans, I left the snow clearing for another day. However, that is a chore that does need done regularly, otherwise we’ll get stranded. So, I have learned a new skill.

The snowplowmobile

I quite enjoyed running the ‘blade (as we professionals say) and think it could possibly be a new career. I already have a business slogan in mind……….   We may not be very good, but we’re very fast.

Right then, you can ignore that previous post where I bleat about the weather and how cold it got.

We’ve been here just over 3 months and are slowly finding our feet and have been getting out training with the dogs. As the previous photo showed, it’s been dry and very un-winterlike. Well, that was until this week.  Wednesday morning we woke up to a light and steady snowfall.  The ground was already covered and it continued to fall, for several hours. By the end of the day, we got 11 inches – I measured.  Not bad for the first snowfall of the season.

Of course,  seeing as we’re only here for the dogs, we just had to go for a run out in all that powder.

There was so much fluffy snow on the ground that several of the dogs were already have issues with “snowballs”  collecting between their toes just from running around the yard. So our first snow run was also our first time bootying the team for quite a few years. That was quite the performance – Oak and Quiz have never had boots on, I reckon, so they took a bit of persuading that these things going on their paws were actually worthwhile.  All of the other new dogs are experienced running dogs and bore the indignity of our fumbling with their feet with a calm patience. Mermaid had to be rebooted before we left – she proved quite adept at removing her front booties until we had a quiet chat about unacceptable behaviours. If only she had known, there was every chance that her boots would, in all likelihood, be joining the others that we lost on this run.  I’m going to blame a lack of practice for just how many boots fell off. We actually lost 2 boots before we even left the yard.

The snow had eased off just as we were leaving, and we were the first people to hit the trails. Teague and Fina ran lead and did a fantastic job of both breaking trail and following their turn commands.

Our dogs running alongside the Parks Highway

About halfway out, I switched Fina out and put Avery up beside Teague for the rest of the run home. Little Avery did an awesome job, plowing her way through the snow that was almost up to her chest. There was one other minor adventure during this run. The photo above shows our team running on the trail which parallels the main road. The plow truck was clearing the road and sending a wall of snow off the plowblade onto the trail. There was nothing we could do but get the dogs as far to the left of the trail as possible and hope that the snow was soft. Which it was – it was a cloud of powder that engulfed us – the dogs did look a little worried as they saw the wall of snow coming but they just turned their shoulders into it and emerged out the other side still pulling.

Heading home, Teague and Avery leading.

Back at home

After the run, the dogs weren’t that interested in their usual post run drink, preferring to roll around in the snow. We removed the remaining boots and checked feet. We also made our first bootie chain of the season.

Oh yeah, that was the plus side of winter – the slightly less plus side was the plummeting temperatures that arrived the next evening. I know I had mentioned that -5 F was a record low for us, and it had seemed rather cold to us and the dogs.

Well, we’ve now had -25 F, (a frigid -31 C ) and boy, was that cold. Lots of straw, lots of meat and the dogs still looked like they were cold.  They will adapt, but just now, all I can do is feed them well and provide shelter and care.

Drip drying booties

So, you know all that stuff I wrote about how mild and unAlaskan the weather has been, and that we were wondering if winter would ever get here……..

Well, it did and boy, did we notice. Seems like one day it was the usual pottering around 0 C and then one night it got cold and stayed cold. Or got colder. That week we saw our lowest nighttime temperature of -5.  Now before you say that’s not that cold, I should point out that was the temperature in Fahrenheit – so for us Brits and Canadians, that equates to an extra pair of socks, glove wearing, woolly hat chilliness of – 20 C.

The dogs too found this a little cold and we had several pathetic examples of huskies trying to stand on one leg whilst keeping the other 3 off the cold ground. Fortunately, we had finally had our freezers delivered and had laid in a supply of meat for the dogs and so we were able to add in extra beef and fat to their feed as well as giving them warm meaty soup. We were already starting to see a big difference in the coats of the dogs, it’s almost like they put on a puffy down jacket.

The other thing that I did for them that made me their instant hero – fresh straw. It really is the cheapest and best way to a dog’s heart – it never fails to bring a smile to my face, watching their reaction as you walk in the dogyard carrying a bale of straw. There’s always a queue of dogs waiting to climb into a freshly strawed box, roll about in it and bury their noses deep into the sweet smelling stuff.

We have also finally managed to get into a regular training routine, following all of the disruptions of getting settled, getting my truck here and hurting my back again. We have a pool of 18 working dogs at the moment, and everyone is rotating round the teams.  3 of the new dogs we bought have been leading for their previous owners and hopefully, once I feel they are 100% settled and happy here, they will  lead for us. At the moment, Harry, Ruya, Teague and Fina have been doing the vast majority of the leading.

OK, maybe we’re a little over-excited considering this is Alaska and it is known for it’s long, cold, snowy winters. However, the Duncan effect has been in full flow since we got here. Summer was warmer than normal, much more sunshine than normal and autumn (or Fall, if you prefer) has been incredibly mild and un-Alaskan. Most mornings it is barely below freezing and recently one of my neighbours was telling me that this time last year, they were already running sleds.

So, it was lovely to wake up and look outside to see the dogyard covered in snow. Barely covered admittedly, but it’s a start. The forecast for the coming week is cold but sunny, so it may not stay, but hey, we’re Scottish, we’re used to that.

Introducing the final pair of dogs collected during the trip, 2 more Seppalas from Deer Creek Sleddogs.

Oak is a delightful, friendly in a very “in your face” kind of way – provided she likes you. When I first met her at Tabby’s, she wasn’t at all happy to see me and the whole world knew it. Over the thousands of miles we travelled to get from Wyoming back to Alaska, I think I won her over – and the proof of that, for me, was when she slipped her collar at one of our rest stops on the Alcan.

Middle of nowhere, chucking it down with rain, 7 dogs on drop chains and she is running round loose only a few yards from the road. Fortunately, my wife has trained me well (she’s a great fan of dishing out doggie treats) and I had got in the habit of having treats on me and also placing them in the dog box everytime the dogs got put back in.  The pups, Rimi and Hop especially seemed to like this idea and I actually had trouble sometimes stopping them trying to get back in their box. Anyway,  deep breaths, calm demeanour,  and sprinkle a biscuit or two about. Oak darted here, there and everywhere, visited all the other dogs before deciding I wasn’t so scary after all and could be investigated. She got her treat, and several more besides,  and since then, she has been openly affectionate and very well behaved.

Quizno or Quiz as he gets called here, is another from Tabby. He’s a young male and like Oak, was a little unsure of me at first. He too has come round although maybe not quite as openly affectionate as her, he loves one on one attention and is a real wriggler.

Oak of Deer Creek

Deer Creek's Quizno

New dogs numbers 5 and 6 came from TJ Schrader’s Cold Canyon Sleddogs kennel.

I’d been writing back and forth with TJ almost as soon as the litter was born. From an early age he was full of praise for these pups, and has high hopes that they’ll develop into being as good dogs as their parents, Boogie and Blaze. Once we had agreed to take 2 pups, it was the tricky matter of trying to decide which dogs to have – from 3000 miles away. So far, it seems to have worked out well !

I was planning on having the pups flown up as I figured that at 18 weeks old, the long truck journey might be a little too much when they had never met me. However, TJ has had the pups going on camping trips, long truck journeys and eating on tethers and he was sure they would be fine. And how right he was. The two I took away with me never caused me any concerns on the trip and the only thing I would say about them was that I felt bad that they never got enough “playtime” on the road. They’re making up for it now tho’ !

As for names, well, the boy is called Rimini – not after the Italian resort but a Colorado mine apparently and the little girl was called Whopijaw – an old time Colorado word meaning out of whack, out of kilter, squint etc. I was never sure how that was pronounced and TJ was calling her Whopi – I called her Whoopi, Wop, Wopi and Whopi and in the end, I gave up and decided to call her Hop.

They have settled in really well and are playing wildly with Fionn and Ciara. Rimi also has a rather disgusting habit but I’ll save that story for another day.

Cold Canyon's Rimini

Cold Canyon's Hop

and introducing  Junior……….

Wild Wind's Junior

Junior’s a big boy and should fit right in amongst our big guys. He has behaved impeccably so far, ate and drank like the seasoned traveller he is during the long drive with me from Minnesota to Alaska.  Aaron and Natalie of Wild Wind Siberians did a fine job with training this guy and I’m truly grateful to them for letting Junior come live with us. They did “warn” me about a couple of Junior’s slightly less endearing habits – he is a bit on the amorous side – but our girls have managed to fend him off so far without causing lasting emotional damage to either party.

Lightfoot,

nope, not a superfluous reference to the fabby 70’s film, but in fact the name of another of the dogs that now calls Gealach Mor their new home kennel.

Lightfoot is a delightful, bouncy, friendly, outgoing, hardworking 4 year old female. When I saw her working during my visit to Jedeye Siberians, she seems to just float down the trail, very light on her feet. Blake told me that she has always been that way, even as a puppy, which is how she came by her name. It only took her a couple of days living here before she showed me her party trick – she loves to run and jump up into your arms and be cuddled.

Jedeye Lightfoot of Manitou

Avery is a 3 year old female, also from Jedeye Siberians at Manitou Crossing.

She was the sole female pup from a litter between 2 of Jedeye’s famous dogs, Trekkie and Fiona, and we feel very fortunate to have Avery come live with us. She was initially a little reserved but she is such a sweetheart that on the journey from Minnesota to Alaska, she decided I was ok  and worth getting to know better. She had been training with the Jedeye main string dogs earlier this fall, and is well ahead of the rest of our guys in terms of miles this year.

She is a bundle of fun and little pocket dynamo.

Jedeye Avery of Manitou