I’ve been working on the Trail Diaries and really enjoying reliving the Race, but thought that an update of what is going on now at home might be in order! 

Getting better took a fair amount longer then I thought it would, but last week and I started to feel more like myself and have been tackling the unpacking, catching up on correspondence, and other chores that need my attention. 

Thanks to a few inches of snow last week, this past weekend Mark and I hooked up some teams (on sleds!! Wahoo!!). All the ‘yearlings’ (these are dogs that will be 2 this year and will be in contention for the Iditarod team next winter) got to run. I was overwhelmed by the quality of these young dogs – every one of them was keen and hard driving. I’m so excited! I’ll fully introduce these guys to everyone though the diaries over the summer and fall – but just to quickly mention their names – the new dogs coming into the ‘pool’ are:

Snickers (f), Crunchie (m), and Skor (m) – (the Grover x Snickers kids) – Snickers is looking to be the ‘star’ out of this bunch. 

Barq (m), Sprite (f), and Pepsi (f) – (Butchie x Jumper kids) – these three are amazing – but Barq gives me goose bumps, he shows so much promise. 

Hilda (f), Hector (m), and Herman (m) – the ‘H’s’ as we refer to them as a group. These guys are the ones that came to us from Bob Chlupach and Rick Outwin last summer. 

Dasher (f) – (Butchie x Kara) Dasher is scary, she works so hard. Another very exciting Butch kid! 

Batdog (m) and Holly (f) – (Odie x Kaylinn) – these two are the youngest of the group and may not stay in the training pool long, but they are working strong – especially little Holly (aka ‘CryGirl’ – gosh she is a noisy one!)

Also entering the main group is Moses, the 3-year-old boy that I got from Bob and Rick while I was in Alaska this winter. 

Add in the returning dogs from last year – Grover, Draco, Surge, Nik, Pirate, Squeaky, Orion, Chester, Loki, Smiley, Gus, Kobuk, Olena, Denali, Odie, Mannie, Kluane, Camilla, Freya, Kara, Nahanni, and Kaylinn – and I will have the strongest, best ‘pool’ of dogs to work with that I’ve ever had. 
I am tremendously keen and excited about the promise of this whole group of dogs! 

You may have noticed a couple names missing from the above list. Dancer, sister to Dasher is going to move to Red Deer to live with our friends, Jackie and Rick – as Rosie did this winter. Visa, Jumper, Joey, Cassie, and Oreo have all retired from the main string. Oreo will, hopefully, be busy being a Mom this summer, as she was bred yesterday to Smiley (puppies due June 10th). 

Well, after our fun times on the sled, I made the mistake of bragging to a friend in Minnesota that we were still ‘on sleds’. Quicker then you can say ‘SPRING’, warm winds blew in and as of yesterday, we have too much snow for a quad and not enough for a sled. I know better! Hopefully, the warm weather will stick with us and I can be back training on the quad shortly! 

Well, that’s the news for today … now back to Iditarod Journals!