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!

Thursday, May 28th, 2009 We had a spell of summertime weather last weekend, which was great for kids, puppies, and hikes to the ponds. We've hosted Memorial Day Weekend festivities for the past umpteen years so it was great to be back in the celebratory swing after being in Alaska the past two Memorial Days. This year our group consisted of Ed’s brother Mike and his family, my friend from college, Cassie, and her kids (Mike had to stay home to work) and Tim and Shelly VanderMeulen, kids and dogs. It was our first real spell of warm weather, so the bugs weren’t quite out yet, the sun was shining, and the fish were biting. We loaded everyone in the dog truck and made a trip to Oswald’s Bear Ranch to see the cubs that Pat, Julie, and I played with earlier this winter. The cubs are quite large now, but still “holdable” and pose for photos. (No mom, the kids did not ride in the truck as the photo shows, but they insisted they pose for a photo to show to their friends!) The kids, ranging in age from 7-14 loved to be on their own around the kennel and are all old enough to wander through the woods building forts and making fish spears. It’s amazing what the kids can find to do once they get out of “TV mode” and get into our backyard! Posted by Tasha



Friday, May 22nd, 2009 Ed headed down to his hometown of Ludington this week to visit with a good friend from high school, Paul Ptaszenski, who's mom passed away this week. It's certainly nice to be home this summer to have the luxury to take such important trips. There's been a string of beautiful spring days here at home, perfect for more puppy walks to the ponds. There are about 3 ponds within 1 mile of the kennel, so it's fun to take a "swimming" tour of the area. As you can see, the dogs certainly don't mind the exploring! We have a crew coming for Memorial Day Weekend tonight, I've warned the puppies that they need to rest up because I don't think the kids will leave Gremlin's pups alone! I had quite a few chores to do around the dog yard today, so I had a bunch of adults running free to "help". As you can see, Luke's job was "varmit control". He's supposed to be chasing mice instead of chipmunks, so we are still working on identification. Until this spring, Luke would never leave the dog yard if he was free, I have no idea why he's changed so much, but he now welcomes visitors who come up the driveway, explores all around the yard, and even followed me out to camp today. I guess his amazing performance in the Iditarod this year went straingt to his head and he figures he's good enough to roam now. I just looked up from the computer screen to see Big Ben, Starman, Clove, Tasha Canine, Raven, Bonfire, and Pringle chasing Hedgie who is chasing a squirrel. Better be a fast squirrel! Posted by Tasha



Monday, May 18th, 2009 It was puppy extravaganza yesterday at the kennel. We currently have three litters of puppies to romp around the woods with. Well, not all three groups are ready for romping, but one of them is. I took a lot of photos yesterday and have them posted in the racing photo gallery. Click on the “Spring Puppies 2009” link. I put the photos in there so I could add a few captions. I actually missed the best photo opportunity of the day. When I was leaving the ponds, I turned around to be sure everyone was following me, and saw an extra dog that was very bushy and red. Yes, a fox was following us up the trail! He turned and headed back to the pond when we were over the hill, but what a treat to see! “The Scientists” (born to Vixen and Cupid) are now six moths old and love to go searching for squirrels, chipmunks, and birds. The ponds nearby are great for swimming. You’ll see a few adult dogs scattered in the photos, namely Yooper and Bert. We have 24 adults here, and allow them to take turns joining us on the puppy walks. Some are better with the puppies than others (Big Ben is a bit large and tends to bowl them over) and some prefer to stick around the kennel rather then venturing into the big wide world beyond (Luke and Pringle refuse to leave the yard). The Scientists “grew up” yesterday…they are now kennel dogs living in the main dog yard. Yes, they are on chains now, but don’t worry, they still get released for their morning and evening romps through the woods. They have taken to kennel life well, already jumping on their platforms for meals, playing with each other, and sleeping under the platforms. Gremlin’s puppies, 5 ½ weeks old, are just about as cute as puppies can get. They are all very social and now come tumbling out of the puppy house as they recognize the sound of the food dish. They have finally been officially named (by Ed). Ed and I take turns naming the litters, and after weeks of deep contemplation, Ed has decided to name this litter after the 1975 Pittsburgh Steelers Superbowl Champions. Why, may you ask, did he choose that? Well, during our recent speaking tour, we spoke to several schools in the Pittsburgh area whose students suggested various Steelers themes. We also made friends with Steelers and Iditarod fans, Gary and Kathy Hogan, who are giving their full support to Ed and his youthful football memories. So, we have the “huddle” (around the food dish) with Swann, Blount, and Ham (females) and Bradshaw, Franco, Stallworth, and Lambert (males). I took the liberty of naming Caullie’s litter in a timely manner. Since my father-in-law was here kennel sitting when the litter was born, I’ve chosen to name the litter after his 5 siblings: the two females are Sally and Pat, and the boys are Chuck, Darc, and Scott. I’m not sure which is more ridiculous now that I think about it, naming a litter after your in-laws or naming them after a group of 50 + year old Superbowl champions. Posted by Tasha

Friday, May 15th, 2009 It's growing day here. The grass is growing, the puppies are growing, and soon the garden will be growing as well. We are so excited to be home to tend a garden this summer, that Ed and I already have the garden area tilled, staked, and we planted the potatoes and peas today. I hope we're not jumping the gun by planting so early, but my hope is to get a few things extra growing time before the frost returns again in the fall! Gremlin's puppies are getting quite active; eating three meals a day, wrestliing outside of the pen, and crawling up and down the ramp into the house. Caullie's puppies' eyes are just starting to open. I'm sure they will get very active soon. As I was sitting with Gremlin's puppies yesterday, listening to puppy grunting and birds chiprinig (Ed insists that we still feed the birds), I was startled to hear the rumbling of an ATV or car go cruising down the road. It may sound absurd to many of you to think that the sound of a car startled me, but we live so far from a major road that we rarely hear "road noise". Take a minute to listen to all the sounds around you, and if you can hear any traffic noise, it's time to make a relaxing trip to the kennel! The dogs make no sound when napping in the afternoon sunshine! Posted by Tasha

Monday, May 11th, 2009 Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms of Nature’s Kennel! I was thinking I would list all the mothers who have produced puppies for us during the past 15 years, but that seemed like too daunting of a task. Our first litter was born to mama Copper, on May 28th of 1994. Copper was one of Ed’s very first “real” sled dogs. She passed away last year after living a long retirement with George Rousseau and family in Belding. Our most recent litter, litter # 54 was born to Caullie. This was Caullie’s first litter, and the pups are currently about a week old. There are a few significant Mamas in the Nature’s Kennel lineage, one of course, being Momo. Thanks to Caullie (daughter of Tasha Canine), Momo is now a great-grandma. Having produced 30 puppies for us, Mo has many grandkids (and now great-grandkids) running around the yard. Tasha Canine is 1st runner-up mother, with 27 pups to her honor (with the vegetable litter, freedom fighter litter, and Cheech & Chong), followed by 2nd runner-up Raven (now retired to Lynne Witte and mother to 18 favorites like Clark, Gimli, Hairy, and Dash). Other favorite mothers include Hedgie (who sleeps on the couch and is mother to famous dogs like Arlo, Happy, and Hera) and Lady Bird (who produced the infamous Tongass, Sheep Creek and the instrument pups). We would also like to recognize one of our favorite canine mothers, Nana (aka Banana) who recently passed away. Banana was a kennel mother and grandmother, and was retired and living with Tim, Shelly, Emma, and Jake VanderMeulen. In addition to our canine mothers, we have to thanks our real mothers, for their patience and support with all our kennel craziness. And, a big congratulations goes to my mom, Joyce, who just finished 2nd in her age group (60-64) in the 10 K Fifth/Third River Bank Run! Happy Mother’s Day. (Photo: Raven & Nana) Posted by Tasha


Wednesday, May 6th, 2009 After 3000 miles, 4500 students, and 11 days on the road, Momo, Tasha Canine and Jester are THRILLED to be home (as are Tasha Human and Ed!). Our "working" vacation was a huge success, and now we are getting many emails and letters from all the excited Iditarod fans we met along the way. After a great stay in Harrisonburg (a great concert, an overnight stay with Michele Seng’s childhood “camp” friend, Kim, a side-trip through the historical Mennonite town of Dayton, and an incredible group of students at Thomas Harrison Middle School) we headed through the Shenandoah National Park to Bluemont, Virginia to the Bear's Den hostel along the Appalachian Trail. My cousin, Marie (Matchett) Wheaton, her husband, Scott and toddler Lydia are care takers as this magnificent limestone “lodge”. We did a short presentation for the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club on Sunday morning, and then spent the rest of the day and evening relaxing, hiking, and catching up on our crazy lives. It’s amazing how similar running a hostel and running a kennel are, almost every one of our stories could have been told by either of us! It was also neat to be around the hostel as many thru-hikers are coming in for a warm bed, shower, laundry and dinner after completing 993 miles of the trail. Ed thinks he’d like to spend next summer on the trail, Tasha is ignoring that idea and pressing on with other thoughts. Thanks Marie and Lydia (and Scott who was out of town) for the great hospitality. We then headed north toward home, with a layover in the Detroit area for our final presentation. We got a bit mixed up in the traffic detour on I-75 and ended up in the “bridge to Canada” lane. We explained to the woman at the toll booth that we did not want to cross the bridge, so she gave us a “Return to USA” pass to put on our dash and had us turn around. We proceeded around more cones and construction, and onto the US Customs ramp. We waited our turn in line, got to the booth, told the (ever friendly and delightful) customs agent that we had not been in Canada, but had taken a wrong turn, and really just came from Virginia. He still had to “question” our trip, see our ID and then as we were ready to pull away, informed us that we had been randomly selected by the computer for “search and questioning”. We had to park, head inside, leave the dogs in the car, sign in, wait, answer questions like “what was the purpose of your trip, do you have any fruit or vegetables, how long have you been gone”. It did not seem to matter that we never left the country, it was like they could not change the questions to match the situation. When I told the story to Marie, she said that she’s never had anyone leave Bear’s Den and be subjected to a custom’s search. Thanks. We did finally make it to Lynne Witte’s house in Mt. Clemens and got the grand tour of her beautifully decorated "kennel". Clove, Xena, Raven and the newest addition, Timber, loved showing off their yard to their canine buddies. We presented two programs on Tuesday to 7th and 8th graders at Birney Middle School in Southfied and our final presentation was to the elementary students at Christ the King school in Detroit. Unlike most of the schools we had visited, these students had not previously studied the Iditarod, but they were just as excited, inquisitive, and engaged since it was all new to them. We then made a dash for home, with Momo and TC out of control when we pulled onto our dirt road. We arrived at the kennel to find that we are now the proud owners of 6 new puppies. Caullie has been bred along the Iditarod Trail while running with Trent. We had thought her due date was about 6 days from now, but apparently she may have been bred sooner (perhaps there was some hanky panky in the dog trailer on the drive to Alaska). Regardless, thanks Mike (Ed’s Dad) for being the mid-father and taking care of mother and pups. All dogs went crazy upon our arrival and all is well at home. Thanks as well to Jim Haibach for staying here for the bulk of our trip and doing double duty as dog caretaker and home builder (Jim is building a cabin on his adjacent property). Momo beat us all out of bed this morning and has not stopped prancing around the yard…it’s sure is good to be home. Posted by Tasha




Friday, May 1st, 2009 May is bringing us good luck...we presented to two incredible schools in the past two days, Rainelle Elementary in Rainelle, WV and Thomas Harrison Middle School in Harrisonburg, VA. More photos and stories from those schools and our travels around Virginia tomorrow...the GOOD news is that Ed and I were walking down the street today in Harrisonburg on our way to the visitor's center after our program with the middle school students. We saw a posting at a local restaurant for "live music tonight". The band is Bearfoot Bluegrass...from Soldotna Alaska!!! I saw them in Juneau last summer and they are amazing, we listen to their CD's all the time. Sorry cousin Marie, we are spending another night here in Harrisonburg (with a friend of Michele Seng's who we met at the program today) and we'll see you on the Appalachian trail tomorrow! Posted by Tasha

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