Nature's Kennel Sled Dog Racing & Adventures

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Wednesday, September 8th, 2010

Nature's Kennel

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

Journals

Adventure Journals

Welcome to our life of adventure! Check out the latest kennel news, stories of your favorite sled dogs, and more!!
For more journal photos, click on the racing photo gallery.

Friday, July 24th, 2009 Since Ed and I are back home and have no exciting adventures to share. We thought you would be interested in those who are "out there": Somewhere along the Yukon river there is a canoe, and in that canoe is the mighty madman Trent Herbst. Yes, folks, Trent Hebst is at it again. Traveling 1,000 miles in a not-so-comfortable mode of transportation. Trent had barely stepped off the Iditarod trail and proclaimed that he was going to return to Alaska to participate in the Yukon 1000 canoe race this summer. We tried to get him to do some training with Aunt Lynne, but he insisted he was "praciticing" on his own with a teacher friend, and that they would conquer the wilderness through trail and error. Trent is still in the race, moving along nicely, and I'm sure he's wishing he had that seat cushion Lynne had offered to loan him! Trent used a sled for the Iditarod that his students made for him, we sure hope he's in something a bit more stable now that he's traveling on water. (Trent sent us the photo below this spring. His students made their own boats in preparation for Trent's race). You can follow Trent's progress at http://www.yukon1000.com/ Now for the professional category of canoeing, Lynne Witte is about to enter her 30th (yes, 30th) AuSable Canoe Marathon, http://www.ausablecanoemarathon.org/ This is an incredible event in which paddlers will canoe 120 miles (non-stop for 16 hours) from Grayling to Oscoda, Michigan. Ed and I have both followed the race, and it's much like following the UP 200 race or any other overnight dog race. You race from view point to view point, down some crazy back roads, following a bunch of other race fanatics, watch the racers go by for about 10 minutes, and drive to another view point, down another back road, to catch of glimpse of your team. As the night wears on and sleep deprivation sets in, the party gets bigger, the heckling louder, and the races more delirious. Sounds like fun!! Good Luck, Aunt Lynne!! Posted by Tasha


Monday, July 20th, 2009 *“My life is better than your vacation.”* --written on a bathroom wall in a Skagway restaurant (hopefully by Jake or Andrew) Our business trip up North has been wonderful. First and foremost, the dogs look great! At the beginning of the summer Tasha and I were a little apprehensive about sending so many dogs up to Alaska without us. In addition to us not being there, Andrew and Jake wanted to work for a different company than we had worked with in the past. All the worry was a waste though because the boys are keeping the dogs happy, well fed, and muscled up. The new company is at a gorgeous location and they provide a high quality dry dog food. (Note for Sheldon, Barbie, Matt, and Paula: The boys are making a ton of money too, a lot more than I did when I worked on the glacier. I don’t know how much of it they are saving though, as they still have time for town fun at the end of the day.) A few of my main race team members (Jade, Chong, Superior, Cupid, Arlo, Ayn, Max, Gus, Jekyl, Coach, Jasper, Kar, Vixen and Boom) are up with Jake and Andrew and I was thrilled to have them go CRAZY when they saw me. Superior was probably the craziest. Jake has him at Iditarod weight and when he jumped up on me he almost knocked me over. Ayn is losing her puppy yearling looks and is starting to look like a veteran. Arlo was kind of calm. We had him neutered after Iditarod and maybe it was my wishful thinking but he seemed more relaxed. Jasper gave me a head butt. Jekyl and Gus told me they are going to be my main leaders this coming season. Coach was trying to talk but was so excited that he couldn’t finish a sentence. Jake is living at the kennel in this cute little log cabin. There is a waterfall rich mountain stream flowing about 100 feet away that lulls one to sleep at night and gets you out of bed in a hurry in the morning to go to the bathroom. There is also a salmon stream about ¼ mile away that was full of salmon. Ryan, a good friend that is also working at the camp, caught four salmon in about 15 minutes the day before we left. Tsunami and Happy, the two dogs Jake took with him from our kennel (in exchange for taking two college classes) are both at the camp and are doing well. As usual, Happy gave us a big smile when we arrived. We tried to get a picture but she was too quick. Andrew is living about a mile away at “horse camp”. He has the use of our truck for the summer so it is just a quick commute to work. I was proud of Andrew as he even swept the truck out and removed all of the garbage from the cab for us when we arrived. Andrew’s dog lot is part way up the mountain and has a stunning view of the Dyea River Flats on the way up. The flats are famous for being the staging area for the Chilkoot Trail, the pathway to the Klondike Gold Rush in the late 1890’s. There was a town of nearly 10,000 people at that time and now there is nothing. Not even a single building! Our young dogs are developing into true NK muscle hounds. The “Freedom Fighters” look physically ready for my main team as do the “Instruments” but they will be dropped off in Idaho on their way home to spend the winter training with Trent Herbst. Trent is going to take another group of our young superstars to Nome in the Iditarod at a 13 dayish pace. This gains the dogs much needed experience in order to build their heads along with their bodies. The new puppies we have up there are adorable! Emerald and Rosebud are both being great Moms. They get held by hundreds of people every day so they should be socialized little buggers as well. It was hard to leave knowing that I will not see them again for another two months. As you may have noticed, I am not signed up yet for the Iditarod. Tasha and I are still going over our options. It was fun to be around Jake, Andrew, and Ryan and talk Iditarodese. The conversations regarding the horrors of the trail from last year definitely got the competitive juices flowing and I would love to run again this year. Jake even offered to work for me for free for the next 10 years if I beat the team he is training with Zack Steer this year. You will hear more soon as we will keep you updated. Posted by Ed



Thursday, July 16th, 2009 We have added "trip to dog yard" on our morning vacation routine. We headed out again this morning to hold all our puppies before the tour guests arrived. Emerald (a new dog from Zach Steer) has six puppies, and Rosebud (a new dog from Jon Little) has one pup. They are about 3 weeks old, and of course, adorable. Jake is the "puppy man" at camp, so is in charge of walking the older puppies and caring and feeding ours. He fed the little ones their first meal today, but as you can see from the photo, I don't think they were too interested! We spent more time lovin' up the big dogs, and took Lady Bird and Hera for a hike up the mountain. Everyone is so excited to see us that it's hard to leave. I guess it's not too much different than walking into the dog yard at home when everyone is trying to get our undivided attention. But, I know we have to leave these guys again...and it's going to be so hard! I've borrowed my mom's camera for a few photos. And yes, Pat, it was the good one that was stolen. Bummer. Here's Lady Bird calling home to check on her friends and Chocolate getting a well-deserved belly rub. Posted by Tasha


Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 We made it to see the dogs today, yeah!! Everyone looks GREAT! Some (for example Superiror and Hoover) are a bit on the chunky money side, but better too chubby than too skinny! The terrain is beautiful as the dogs are all in the woods near the streams and waterfalls near Dyea flats just outside of Skagway. The pups all went crazy when we walked up and as soon as they could smell it was us, they were out of control! We spent some time brushing and lovin' them all up. I'd love to post some photos, but my camera is currenlty "missing". It first disappeared after our ferry trip yesterday and I have a feeling I left it sitting a bit to accessible and tempting for someone walking by. I'm lucky that that is the only thing missing. Luckily I had just downloaded the photos onto my computer, so I've added them into the photo gallery. It's much cooler here today and a bit overcast. Everyone is wishing for rain, and I never thought that happened in Southeast Alaska. It's very dry and dusty and people are even watering their lawns. We are off the spoil the boys (Jake and Andrew) for dinner. Posted by Tasha

Tuesday, July 14th, 2009 Here's a quick Alaska update with more to come...We are currenlty in Juneau and getting ready to take the ferry to Skagway today to see the DOGS!! It's been great to be tourists in town, rather than guides on a day off. We are up here with my parents, who can pretty much run us into the ground on vacation. We hit the streets running (literally) by 7 am AST. (Of course, Ed reminded us that that it was 11 am EST, so we really weren't up all that early). After that, we took a short (5 minute) break, gobbled some snacks, and walked to Douglas Island to hike up to one of the forest service cabins. In fine Juneau fashion, the hike and views were spectacular. And in rare Juneau fashion, the weather was beautiful, in the upper 70's and sunny. It's been extremely dry and sunny here this summer, and I never thought I would hear locals begging for rain in this (usually) damp climate. When we flew into Seattle to switch planes, we had commented on the amount of dry, brown grass and were surprised at how dry it appeared. It seems that Seattle has been hit with the same drought that is striking the rainforest up here. Jake said they canceled the running protion of the dog tours again yesterday due to the hot weather, I think this is the third or fourth time that has happened in the past few weeks. Unbelievable. Us tourists are complaining too much, but it certainly is rare to see the sun here. Lynne says all the dogs at home are suviving just fine, and loving the cool Michigan weather. Momo is following her everywhere and I'm sure misses us already. I haven't asked but am sure Tasha Canine has pulled some bizarre stunt on her and that Hedgie is continuing to keep the chipmunks at bay around the yard. Jim Winell takes over for Lynne toward the end of the week, and then Jon and Steven Brown will finish off the last couple of days. Thanks babysitters!! Posted by Tasha

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 *"Sometimes being a brother is even better than being a superhero."* Marc Brown I quick boast about my little brother, who by the way is a superhero, and the volleyball team that he coaches. They just competed in the JVDA National Championships that were held in Louisville, Kentucky. Out of 82 teams from all over the U.S.A. they finished third! Congrats ladies and Brother on taking home the BRONZE!!! Posted by Ed


Friday, July 3rd, 2009 Yeah, Fruit Loop finds a home (again). Fruit Loop headed to Chicago this past weekend to explore city life with Cathy Moon. Fruit was previously adopted by Dan Pond when he worked on the Mendenhall Glacier with her last summer. Dan fell in love with Fruit Loop, re-named her Mendy for the glacier, and headed to New York with her. They got along great, but Dan called this spring and said he was headed to Hong Kong for the summer and that he needed to find a home for Mendy. We always sell dogs with the agreement that they can be returned, so we told him we’d take her back and find a new home for her. Dan and Mendy took a road trip out here in early May, and Mendy was reunited with her siblings Count, Lucky and Cheerio. Dan did a fabulous job socializing her, teaching her to sit, and giving her a ton of attention. It certainly wasn’t easy for him to leave her, but was certainly in her best interest. Since Dan was unsure of his plans for the future, we told him we’d work on getting her a new home. Enter: Cathy Moon. Cathy has been bothering her son (Pat) for some time to see if she could get a house dog from Nature’s Kennel. Pat warned her that these were sled dogs and not house pets. Cathy persisted, came up for a visit earlier this summer, and fell in love with Fruit Loop. Fruit is now learning proper behavior around cats (it’s going quite well), is walking using her new “Yuppie Puppy” anit-pull harness (to great success), and is starting to wag her tail in the house at Cathy. Thanks Dan and Cathy for taking such good care of such a good dog! Ed has been working hard in the kennel to get things set up for the fall and the return of the rest of the doggie crew. The dogs tend to dig monstrous holes in the sand under their houses, so a couple times a year we have to grade and smooth out the kennel. I have been working on planting in the garden and along our rock walls. We’ve been collecting perennials from friends and today Lynne and I made a trip up the road to the free “daisy garden”. The wild daisies are very resistant to puppy paws and seem to transplant really easily. The persistent cool weather is great for yard work. I’m sure all the July 4th tourists don’t think so, but hey, it beats swatting mosquitoes! Posted by Tasha


Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 It's Canada Day today. And, in case you wonder how I knew that, remember the past journal entry regarding our nation's brilliant switch to digital television? Well, when I turned on the TV tonight to see what was going on in Canada (thanks to their continued analog broadcast) I found out it was Canada Day (formerly known as Dominion Day, until 1982). The New York Times ran a short article today, Our True North- Canadians living in the United States share what they miss most about home. Here is my favorite: “I miss the snow. Yes, I know the United States gets snow, but to my Canadian eye, American snow is like American health care: sporadic, unreliable and distributed unevenly among the population. In my hometown, Exeter, in the heart of Ontario’s snow belt, punishing squalls were a fact of life from November through mid-April. One time, 39 inches fell on the town in three days — and school wasn’t even canceled. And it wasn’t just the quantity of snow — it’s the speed with which it arrived. When I was a child, it wasn’t unusual for my 15-minute walk home from school to begin under clear skies and end in a blizzard. I remember once, when I was 8 years old, stumbling into my house, my hair covered in powder and my eyelashes frozen together, and screaming, “Why do we live here?!” My mother took my face in her warm hands and said, “Because it’s where people love you.” At the time, that struck me as the lamest statement ever uttered by a human being. But today, as I sit under the California sun, it only strikes me as halfway lame, and maybe even less than that.” — TIM LONG, a writer for “The Simpsons” Speaking of winter, I’m sitting next to the fire tonight. NO, not a summer-time campfire, a real heat-up-the-house fire. It’s 49 degrees outside. Gee, feels like I really am in Canada. Posted by Tasha

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