Nature's Kennel Sled Dog Racing & Adventures

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Thursday, May 23rd, 2013

Nature's Kennel

PO Box 5
McMillan, MI 49853
Tel: 1-906-748-0513
Email: info@natureskennel.com

Dog Blog

Adventure Journals

Welcome to the Nature's Kennel Dog Blog! Check out the latest kennel news, stories of your favorite sled dogs, Iditarod training adventures, and more!

Friday, January 28th, 2011 The drop bag saga continues...Fed Ex does not come to Newberry everyday in the winter, so the bags were re-schedulded to leave Newberry today, between 2-4 pm. Ed and Michele took the bags to Rahilly's IGA late last night so they could be in the deep freeze before shipment. They went in to town this morning to build the insulated shipping crates, which are approx. 4'x4'x6'. Yes, quite large! While they were at Michele's working on the crates (which is 1 1/2 blocks from the IGA), Fed Ex called me to let me know that they would arrive at 1:15 pm to pick them up. Meanwhile, my tour group here at home came a bit early, so I was on the trail running dogs and did not get the message to Ed and Michele. So, the drop bags got loaded onto the truck (by the driver and Joe Rahilly) without the shipping crates, but just put on a pallet and wrapped. OH MY!! Luckily Michele the logistics coordinator and Ed-supporter was in town, helped call Fed Ex, and her and Ed are now somewhere along M-28 meeting up with the driver to load the boxes onto the truck and possibly pack the drop bags in them. It's 7 pm and I have no idea what connections have been made. Idiarod madness has begun. Photos: Nate loved helping...until he saw how much we had to do, and then he thought hauling dog food was a bit tiring. Posted by Tasha


Tuesday, January 25th, 2011 It's drop bag week here at the kennel and that means that over 500 lbs of beef, 2000 dogbooties.com dog booties, 18 neck gaitors, 400 lbs of Nutrisource dry dog food, 79 lbs of chicken fat, 36 pair of chore gloves, 144 hand warmers, and what seems like a TON of other gear is getting packaged up for shipment to Tacoma, WA. From Tacoma, it will be put on a barge to Anchorage (thanks to a race sponsorhip from Horizon Van Lines) and then sorted and flown to all the Iditarod checkpoints by the volunteers of Iditarod. It's a massive undertaking not only for the race, but each individual musher. And, not a cheap one either. It's about $900 to ship the gear to Tacoma, and about 60 cents per pound. Some of the gear Ed can return in his "return drop bag" (like gloves, dog blankets, booties) if not used, but all perishable goods (meat, dry food) gets donated to the local villages for theri dog teams. Ahh...the fine madness of running the Iditarod! Posted by Tasha

Sunday, January 23rd, 2011 Thanks to all the tour guests at Nature's Kennel and the Boyne Highlands guests for toughing out the COLD weather this weekend!! The dogs LOVE cold temperatures, so they were crusing down the trail. Luckily we had lots of extra Nothern Outfitter boots for the guests to wear, and thank goodness for handwarmers. The cold weather brought beautiful sunshine for great photos and smiling dogs! TV 6 of Marquette also thought it was good timing for a story on dogs and weather, http://www.uppermichiganssource.com/news/photos.aspx?id=571297 Looks like the snow and warmer weather return tonight...so the trails will again be picture perfect! Posted by Tasha


Saturday, January 22nd, 2011 It’s Iditarod drop bag week (I believe they need to leave here on Thursday or Friday) so it’s going to be bit crazy around here. Packaging food, booties, meat, dry food, and a ton of other things I can’t remember right now! The bags will head to Tacoma, WA by truck and then be transported by barge to Iditarod headquarters in Anchorage, and then by bush plane to all the checkpoints. I’m tired just thinking about it! Claudia Nowak of Traverse City won the Idita-rider auction for Ed’s sled this week. So, for the 6^th year, she will be the “smile on his sled” during the ceremonial run through Anchorage. Below are a few links from our “press week” last week, I’m always so embarrassed to watch myself on TV! Tasha Canine was pretty pathetic and was drug around by her daughter, Ayn. Guess TC is too much of a house dog for the camera now! And, I do think Ed needs some “city gloves” instead of his “green apes”, but otherwise I think we were successful! WZZM 13-Grand Rapids—web clip Fox Detroit—web clip Posted by Tasha

Wednesday, January 19th, 2011 And they are off! Pat Moon and 14 of our superstars are on their way out to Maine where they will meet up with Krister and Chase. Krister and Chase have the kennel set up, the trail is ready, and rides will start this Friday at Sunday River Resort in Bethel, Maine!!!!!!!!!! The 14 superstars include Big Ben, Gimli, Kar, Chong, Ham, Lambert, Bradshaw, Einstein, Enzo, Pat, Bolt, Scott, Chuck, and Darc. All of these guys have already done multiple days at Boyne Highlands so they know what it is all about. In addition to having fun giving rides, Krister is also going to run them in the Can Am race in March. I love Michigan but I have to admit I am a bit jealous, Sunday River is a gorgeous resort and the Can Am is a race that I have always wanted to compete. Have fun Krister! Posted by Ed

Friday, January 14th, 2011 Jake, our former guide WON the 300 mile Copper Basin, one of most prestigious mid distance races in Alaska. We are really proud of him! His main leader was Prancer and Vixen's brother, Blitzen (son of Curry, who is also at our kennel). Jake worked for us for three years and ran our young Iditarod team in 2008. He recently purchased Jon Little's kennel and is doing a fantastic job with his new dogs. Way to go, Jake! Read more from the Anchorage Daily News. Posted by Tasha

Friday, January 14th, 2011 The media tour has been a great success so far! We've had a great time meeting up with our friend from Pure Michigan, Kirstin Borgstrom. Thanks Kirstin for lining up all the events!! We had a great in-studio interview with Catherine from Take-5 at WZZM, Grand Rapids. The dogs had to wait their turn in the "green room", where we met Bridgette, a fashion consultant from New York. We got on the topic of "fashion" and Ed mentioned he did not have a collared shirt to wear for his TV interviews. She could not believe he didn't own such a thing and wanted to know what he wore if he went out to dinner at some place “fancy”. I laughed…Ed at a fancy place, now that is funny! We stopped in at Mrs. Anderson's classroom at Wealthy Elementary in East Grand Rapids to say thanks for all the support her class has given Ed for the Iditarod this year. They are Mighty Mutt Club sponsors of Mad Max, so we took each student a (very smelly) dog bootie. A lot of them even had on their Mighty Mutt patches and gave Ed a hugh poster and good luck cards. We then headed to Johnson Park in Grand Rapids for a “demo” of dog sledding with Tim from Fox 17. Tim was very enthusiastic about the Iditarod, more enthusiastic than Tasha Canine was to run the short loop around the field. What a lazy dog! Hopefully Ayn is not learning any bad habits from her! We made it to Detroit very late last night, where we met up with my dad and Nate. (Thanks mom and dad for the babysitting all day on Thursday.) This morning we were at Fox 2 Detroit where Ed was interviewed live by Kam and Anqunette (“Q”) rode the sled with our outstanding sled dog Ayn and cranky dog Tasha Canine. There’s great snow here in metro-Detroit so it’s a perfect setting for sled dogs! We are “relaxing” today (answering emails, updating the website, making Iditarod packing and shopping lists, returning phone calls and entertaining Nate) and have one early morning interview with WXYZ- ABC Channel 7. Then, it’s off to the kennel tomorrow where it sounds like we are returning to buckets of snow!! Posted by Tasha




Wednesday, January 12th, 2011 NK Media Blitz 2011...We are headed to the big cities of Grand Rapids and Detroit this afternoon for some on-air sled dog broadcasting. Be sure to tune in to: WZZM ABC 13-TV Grand Rapids, 9 am hour on Thursday's "Take 5" Program (1/13/11) WXMI FOX 17-TV --Grand Rapids, 6:15pm and 6:40 pm on Thursday (1/13/11) FOX 2--Detroit 9 AM news hour on Friday (1/14/11) WXYZ Channel 7-Detroit Sunday morning news (1/16/11) Posted by Tasha

Monday, January 10th, 2011 Mike Varley sent an emaiil with a post-race wrap-up and I thought it was worthy of a post: Sportsmanship – Jon Brown for picking up his son for a ride, even in a hotly contested race. Volunteer (or indentured servant) Award – Ben for having to play handler, team handler, starting line holder, kennel manager, and armchair musher babysitter and doing it with a smile! Best Kept Team – Tasha for always mothering all those dogs AND her own kid AND shepherding all the other kids safely around the loop for their fun race. Big Stones – Nate for 2 skis and 2 dogs and 12 miles. Only in my dreams….. Special Recognition to: Da Boss Amy – for using the whistle and authority with great restraint T-Shirt Tasha – those have to be worth $30 – $40 each! There’s a fundraiser! Race Sponsor and Organizers – Ed and Tasha – thanks again. --Mike Varley Posted by Tasha

Sunday, January 9th, 2011 We've all recoverd from the big race, some better than others!! For those of you still following our old hander and Iditarod musher Jake Berkowitz' progress, he is doing great in the 300 mile Copper Basin Race in Alaska. Jake has a new kennel of dogs that he purchased from John Little this summer and is doing great with his new team! More Thrilla photos are on Nature's Kennel Facebook. Posted by Tasha



Saturday, January 8th, 2011 The official results are in, thanks to chief timer Shelly VanderMeulen. #1 Nate Demers, skijoring 51:33 #2 Maliko "Asian Invasion" Ubl-6 dog 52:28 #3 Tim "Lightening Bolt" VanderMeulen 52:30 #4 Smokin' Joe Guotwski 54:30 #5 Jess Wally Wallstrom 54:55 #6 Blaine "The Pain" Danley 56:30 (Note: this was NOT with his Malamutes) #7 Mike "The Spike" Varley 58:25 #8 Speedy Jon Brown 1:05:35 #9 Emma "We should not make her nickname public" VanderMeulen 1:04:10 #10 Lead Dog Tasha Stielstra (leading Jake V.) 1:13:15 #11 Jake "Get off My Spaceship" VanderMeule 1:35:25 Photos will be posted soon...we are all too tired from the big race and sitting around the fire after our post-race potluck. Posted by Tasha

Saturday, January 8th, 2011 Ok, enough heckling to the journal-updater for not getting a journal posted in a timely manner...I'm back. Today is the Thrilla in McMilla--a showdown between Jon Brown and Mike Varley on the race trail. The Tahquamenon Race in Newberry has been postponed to next weekend due to poor trail conditions around Rainbow Lodge. However, we have snow at Nature's Kennel, so the show will go on. We would have postponed the showdown as well, but the dogs are all busy next weekend with tours and Boyne. So, we are having the "race" here. We have about 10 teams ready to take off at 11 am for a 12 mile fun run. Race results will be posted early this afternoon, providing that no one gets disqualified for disorderly conduct on the trail. Posted by Tasha

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