Ahhh... At last.

Perhaps you can sense my good mood, or maybe you heard my dogs barking and howling way over there where you are.

Our cool temperatures have moderated somewhat. Our week last week was lows in the -30's and highs that never made it much above -18 Celcius. It was awesome, too, because it was about the only nice clear, calm and sunny days we have had all winter. The sun was bright, the sky was blue and the air was crisp... and I was stuck at work thinking about how nice it would be to be running back to the truck with a happy and strong team of dogs, my new sled and an anorak that dares to be challenged. As it was, we warmed up considerably last night: by seven this morning it was -11C and it continued to climb to a high of -3 today.

Taiga

I wasn't about to let this warming up deter me from my perpetual daydream, so I loaded the strong, happy dogs, the new sled and yes, the anorak, too into the dogtruck. Jenn and Hunter were not long following me out of the house. They were also eager to get out and enjoy the day.

Once we were set up, we started hooking up the dogs. We took ten this time and man! they howled and barked and screamed their excitement non-stop until I finally pulled the hook and we were off.

Before I get into how our take off went, let me first say that the new sled is two inches wider than I am used to, and the runners are only an inch and three eighths wide and are equipped with brand new, super slick plastic. Also, let me add that the foot grips are experimental and the handle bow is slippery plastic. So, with all of this as a disclaimer, how'd the take-off go? I just - and I mean JUST - managed to grab the handle as the sled shot out from under me. I pulled the hook and stepped to where I am accustomed to finding a runner but this time, I found only snow. A frantic, reactionary flail with my one hand managed to find the handle bow and latch on and before I could even take stock of the situation, I was being dragged on my upper knees down the trail.

Jenn, not aware of what was going on behind her because she and Hunter were in the basket, asks: "How's the new sled, hon?" What was I to tell her? We were a hundred or so yards down the trail and I hadn't yet driven the thing. Finally, my composure reestablished and control firmly back in my hands, I stood on the runners of the new sled and marvelled at how different, how responsive and how ours the sled is. It handled great; it is effortless to steer, the wider stance is more comfortable and is it ever sturdy. We managed to bash it over a few open creek crossings and a couple of frozen ones, too. I'll have to let my friend know how great it is.

Moxy

We ran on a trail that I used extensively last year. It was nice to be back in the bush again, but it was also a reminder at how behind I am in conditioning the dogs. We ran to a lake that parallels the trail for a while; this lake was just part of the scenery last year as we zoomed past it on our way to distant trails and longer runs. It was easy to see that the dogs were getting tired as we neared the truck today. It was a lot of new work for the dogs because this trail is rather hilly, but also because the trail surface was like beach sand and anyone who knows what loose beach sand is like to run in can symapthise with the dogs.

All of the dogs were great, and Baby continues to impress me. Jenn wanted to put him in lead for the last half kilometer or so, just to see how he'd do, so I switched him with Chili and after a few false starts and a couple of looks back, Baby was as focused a leader as you'd expect for an 18 month old puppy; maybe even moreso.

Baby (l) and Horton (r)

I decided to wear the anorak because I have been dying to do so since I got it. It will be great in the cold weather. It was a bit much for minus three, though. I really like how easy it is to put on; I managed to pull it over my head as we were on the move. Originally, I had stopped the team to get the anorak from the sled, but they wanted to keep going and even though I had my foot on the brake, which was as deep into the snow as it could go, that's what we did: we went. With my anorak over my head and my arms half-way into the sleeves.

Lastly, if you notice a difference in the quality of the pictures, it's because Jenn has a new camera. It's hard to get it out of her hands and she is forever taking pictures or videos with it. It's a Canon A650 IS and it takes great, high quality, high resolution photos. Our old camera, a Nikon Coolpix 2500, also takes great pictures, but the resolution is comparitively lower. I say all of this because we have decided to make the Nikon the DangerCam and by this we mean that we'd rather use the Nikon around potentially damaging or misplacing situations. At least, until we figure out how to comfortably chain the new camera to our wrists.

I love how the dogs stick their noses out of their box-holes, so here are some photos Jenn got today:

Chili

Dora

Hope

Indulge me, a little: these are some more photos of the sled, now that there is daylight to shoot them in. These will likely be the last sled-only photos, so bear with me as I wean myself off the newness of it all. It just about has a new-car smell.

Still waiting.

Yesterday, I wrote about how nice the night was and how much I wanted to get out and run the dogs in such a beautiful night. I'm still waiting.

This wouldn't have been a big deal last winter, since I was employed in a seasonal-work situation, but this winter, I have a full time, year round job and it kind of sucks. I can hardly wait until I have enough seniority or vacation time saved that I can start taking winters off again. Mostly December, January and February. That's not too much to ask, is it?

That aside, however, I decided to write a new post so that I could put on the video of Hunter in our chicken coop. She's chasing chickens around, trying to catch them while Jenn's mother's new Poodle (or, if you are Hunter "Ploodle") puppy, "Jack Frost" looks on. Hunter named him, too, and I have to say I'm a bit jealous. Afterall, when she named our puppies, we got 'Baby' and 'Triangle' but 'Jack Frost' would fit nicely in our yard. The name, not the dog.

There is also a video of Jack Frost meeting some of our dogs. It's a two-part video, but it takes forever to upload these longer files, so I will have to save it for later, if at all.

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!

Tonight it is absolutely cloudless, the moon is almost as bright as the sun, it seems, and is casting shadows over nearly ten inches of newly fallen snow. There isn't a hint of wind and the night, although cold -- it's 33 degrees below zero -- is completely still. I am so sorely tempted to break this stillness with the sound of excited dogs as I load them into the truck to go for a night run. I've got the clothing (look for my dorky picture in the previous post), and now, I've got the sled.

When we moved back to Ontario from the Yukon, almost all of our winter gear and equipment was left in our cabin just north of Carcross because we had expected to return. When we didn't, we faced a winter without a sled and proper clothing. We begged or borrowed the clothing that we needed from family but it was pretty difficult to find a sled, so I phoned our one contact here in Ontario who runs dogs like we do: over marginal trails for long distances. Surely he'd know of someone with a sled to borrow or buy. As it turned out, he didn't; but, he offered us one of his training sleds. That was three years ago.

The following spring, I went back to our cabin and collected all of our remaining belongings, including a sprint sled. Now, we had two sleds; one, we used on long runs where we could either pack people or gear; and the other, the sprint sled, we used to whip around our property or to give visitors the thrill of driving a small dog team

I was supposed to build a sled for us the following summer, but for one reason or another, it never happened. So, winter number two was spent on the back of our friends loaner sled. I have to admit, I was getting pretty comfortable on it, too. This past summer, I ran into a mutual friend and since I was having a difficult time contacting the lender of the sled, I mentioned to our mutual friend that I'd like to buy the sled and could he pass along the message.

A few weeks later, the phone rang and it was the sled lender. "I'm really sorry," he began, "I can't part with that sled. I wish I could sell it to you, but it's more valuable to me than the money I'd get for it." He felt bad for not being able to sell it to us and I felt bad for having borrowed it for so long, so we set about arranging how we'd return the sled to him. In the meantime, I spoke to another friend who used to build sleds for a living and owned a successful sled and harness shop in Southern Ontario. He promised to build me a sled as long as I was there to provide input.

Today was that day.

Sitting out by the dogyard now is our new sled. I know it was dark when I pulled in the driveway, and it didn't get any lighter as I fed the dogs, however, when I was done feeding, I just had to take pictures of the sled. Here it is, and believe me, more photos will follow.

How I spent my winter vacation.

Even though everybody claims to enjoy the holiday season, when it comes right down to it, they are all stress cases with a short fuse and a list of things to do that is longer than the paper it's written on. That is why, when we found out that we wouldn't be having everybody come to our house for the holidays, Jenn and I decided to pack up a few dogs and go on a dogsled/visit-her-family trip. Originally, we were just going to take a dozen dogs, our sleds and gifts and such and make Lindsay our anchor point for the week. Originally. Try to find a dogsitter who is willing to stay at your house over the holidays. In the end, we just said what the hell -- we'll take 'em all. As the day of departure drew ever closer, I finished putting the sides on the trailer, packing the necessary gear and food. Jenn had emailed the Haliburton Forest to see if we'd be able to run our teams there since it was not too far from where we planned to stay. The nice people at Winterdance Dogsled adventures or whatever the heck it's called summoned up all their holiday spirit and said "no." The reason given was because they had 'problems with other dogteams in the past'. I can understand how this would happen, too, because the Haliburton Forest encompasses a paltry several thousand square hectares: far too little a space to run dog teams in. Thanks, Winterdance. I hope we can return the favour.

It was a week before Christmas, a Tuesday, and it was the day that we were to have our truck looked at and the brakes done when I got a phone call at work from Jenn. As she was pulling out of the driveway to go to the truck appointment, our engine blew a sparkplug out of the block. Normal? Not unless you drive a Ford with the Triton V-8 made between 2001 and 2004 - but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Jenn asked me if I thought it was safe to drive the truck the 40-some kilometers to town. "Go slow, I guess." I said. Jenn limped the truck in to the dealership and received the first bit of bad news: this happens to this engine all the time (same plug, even) and the repair isn't cheap. The repair involves removing the head, re-machining the threads for the plug, inserting a spacer because in re-machining the threads, the hole is too big now, putting the head back on (complete with new gasket and oil) and then putting the plug back in. Jenn was understandably shocked at this news since the very same thing happened to us last year and we were helped out by a local mechanic in Verner who took twenty minutes and used only a new plug. We were on the road with change from thirty dollars. This time, however, we were looking at about $2,500 worth of work, just to re-install the plug; the brakes hadn't even been done yet. The worst part about it all though was that the head mechanic didn't think the truck would be ready for Friday, the day we were supposed to leave. And if it wasn't ready Friday, chances were good that no mechanics would be working on it Saturday, Sunday, Christmas eve day and certainly not Christmas. Our plans to spend the holidays dogsledding around the Kawarthas and taking our nieces and nephew out for rides were over.

Understandably, Jenn was crushed. She went to work that night with eyes red from crying and when it was discovered the reason for this, her friends got together and rented us a truck, which made Jenn cry even more. It was such an incredibly generous thing to do and Jenn kept saying "they don't know what they've done; they think that they've just rented us a truck." But it was more than that; it wasn't just a rental of a truck. They had given us the ability to spend the holidays with family and our dogs -- the two things that Jenn most wanted.

It turned out that we didn't need the rental of a truck. The mechanics at Ford stayed late and worked overtime to get our truck ready by late Friday evening. We were packed on the road by 10h30 Saturday morning.

When all of our travelling was done for Saturday, we were in Lindsay for 0h30 Saturday night/Sunday morning. We'd visited a friend and made an appearance at a family dinner, but for the most part, we were on the road that day. It's an odd feeling, driving through downtown Brampton with a truck and trailer load of dogs and dogsleds strapped to the roof. You certainly don't have to look hard for your truck in a parking lot.

We spent the next two days running the dogs around a farm field on a trail we put in ourselves, with the help of our lead dog, Risk. We ran in the rain because it seemed sort of foolish to have brought our entire kennel down only to be sidelined by poor weather. Perfect conditions does not a hardy musher make. Risk was flawless: she was faced with an open farm field about forty acres in size and she took directions well enough to put in a figure eight trail that used two different fields.

Then, as if downtown Brampton wasn't enough, we loaded all the dogs up and drove down to Oshawa for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We parked the dogs on a subdivision street and, when we dropped them to feed them or pee, took up a lane and a half. Yep, we certainly turned some heads in Oshawa. We even had the across the street neighbour taking pictures of us and a cop stopped by 'just to chat'.

On Christmas day, after all the presents had been opened, we set up in the small park across the street from Jenn's sister's house and let the neighbourhood kids take turns on the dogsled with Dora and the ever-tolerant Ruby.

We packed up early that night and headed back to Sudbury at around 21h30, arriving at our house in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

It certainly was a busy trip, and one that nearly didn't happen but for the thoughtfulness and hard work of some people.

I'd like to tell you that I have lots of pictures of the whole thing, but I don't. Jenn was given an awesome new digital camera for a gift and she was so excited that she had the memory card full within the hour. We couldn't download the pictures (and make room for more pictures) until we got home.

Triangle and Baby, our two 'puppies' running around the back yard in Oshawa

Hunter, skating on our driveway. It rained enough to make it a literal skating rink.

The obligatory pose for the camera in my new Skookum Brand Anorak. (!)