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.

Saturday, October 31st, 2009 The resutls are in...the winner of the 2009 Nature's Kennel Halloween Contest is...Pat Moon as Superman (see contest photo below). It's been a wet, damp, chilly, week, great for dog running and ducks. We often hope for wet fall weather so there are puddles on the trails, but it's certainly not a concern this year. We have a muddy fleet of guides and a muddy fleet of four wheelers. Ryne and I picked up three new, used Honda ATV's last week when we were in Wisconsin for some school programs. We've found that the old (1985-86) Honda 250's are the ultimate dog training machines. They seem to start well in cold weather, are light weight enough for 10-dog teams, and if they all match, are easy to stock parts. It's great to have the guides running independently, especially since I'm not too keen on bouncing around on the back of an ATV. Consequently, we are selling our non-matching Arctic Cat 400 4x4, so if you are interested, let us know. Posted by Tasha

Saturday, October 17th, 2009 I was trying to figure out how to combine several events into one journal entry, but just could not seem to find a way to make things mesh together. We had a couple of bittersweet days here this past week. Badger, our 13 year old, 5 time Iditarod finisher, best lead dog ever, had to be put to sleep due to kidney failure. Badger had the privilege of living his last few years of life as a “free range” sled dog. He wore no collar, got to “manage” the kennel, steal food from dog’s dishes, eat meat scraps laying by the freezer, live in a huge straw bed, and spend his days wandering free. Badger was Ed’s first true lead dog, and during his prime, trained nearly every dog in our kennel to run lead. He and his brother, Hawk, were true favorites. Badger was last of our dogs who has been with us from the start, living in Ludington, Duluth, and now the U.P. In his lifetime, he logged well over 15,000 miles of racing and training. He never adapted to “house life” as he preferred to live his entire life out side, where “real” dogs are supposed to be. Early this week we found that he was not sticking as close to the house as he usually does, and had “moved” himself out to camp to live in the pine trees. He knew it was time. We took him to Dr. Tim to confirm that he was failing, and after two days on IV’s just to be sure it was not a curable infection, he is now resting in peace in our pet cemetery next to his brother, Hawk. He is already missed, as he was the first dog that came wandering up to us when we went out side. We are all up and running dogs in the snow this morning, which I’m sure was sent from Badger. It was, after all, his favorite thing. Our So Mush Fun weekend is off to a great start, with the four wheelers running, teams barking, and a bit of white to keep us all smiling. Maliko is teaching lessons in cart training, Doug, Ryne, and Sam are taking people for four wheeler training runs, and I’m supposed to be out feeding puppies with Ed. Ahh, another day in doggie paradise. Posted by Tasha


Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 “If you ask me anything I don't know, I'm not going to answer.” Yogi Berra I am training our new Guides this year. Yes, this is Ed. And, yes, I am training our new Guides, not Tasha. Some of you are laughing right now and that is understandable. You see, historically I have been known to be excessively anal about standardization and not always sympathetic to human's weaknesses. My mouth sometimes spews phrases such as "everything in rows of corn", "if you can't take care of yourself, you can't take care of your dogs", "the best way to warm up your hands is to move your feet", "you have stated the problem, now what is a solution", well, you get the idea. Over the summer Nature's Kennel scribbled what we will call the "NK Restructuring and Reform Act of 2009". In effect, creating a kinder, gentler Ed. (All of you Objectivist should not worry. I am still direct and hold people accountable. I just say things with a smile on my face now.) So how is all of this working out you may ask? Wonderfully! Ryne and Sam are already running 10-12 dog teams solo. Well, I should say they are actually "training" dogs not just "running" dogs. The two of them will be with my main string of dogs for most of the year and both are planning on qualifying for the 2011 Iditarod. Doug and Maliko get to work with the younger crew and semi-retireds. They get to use some veterans such as Big Ben and Yooper to train the future superstars such as Carver and Leaky. Off to go play in this wonderful winter-like weather.....20 degrees and snow! Yeah!!! Posted by Ed


Friday, October 9th, 2009 Just when I think I'm up on journal updates, I find myself slacking. The days just go by so fast! Ed and I took a "vacation" this past weekend to Detroit. I dropped Ed off at a friend's house so he could enjoy his annual "boys" weekend with a group of high school friends. They went to a Tiger's baseball game on Saturday, which, unfortunately, was not a winning game. I helped my dad with rock and mineral sales at the national Science Olympiad conference in Dearborn, and then spent time with a few college friends. It’s getting to be that time of year when road trips become scarce as dog training takes precedence. The weather this week has been fabulous for training both the dogs and the new guides. While we were on vacation, they entered the Newberry Octoberfest parade with a giant dog on a scooter, pulled by three “huskies”. The photos are on their Nature’s Kennel Facebook page. We do have a few groups of puppies to entertain ourselves with this fall (that’s actually where all my time goes!). We purchased a bred female, Tuuli, from Jon Little earlier this fall, and now pups Enzo and Bolt are winning the cutest puppy contest here at the kennel. They are obese puppies, thick coated, and look more like woodchucks than sled dogs. A friend gave us a hand made mini-dog sled and we did a photo shoot with the pups a few weeks ago…how adorable is that!! The guides have been taking the older pups on field trips to Lake Superior. This process involves loading 12-16 puppies in the back of the pickup, driving 20 miles to the lake, releasing the pups, and hoping that they all make it back into the truck for the ride home without being arrested by any DNR official for disturbing the peace! Oh, and then hosing out the back of the truck from any of those who may be car sick. (Sam learned that it’s not the best idea to ride in the back with the puking puppies). Our guides have quickly learned how life can “go do the dogs”. In Nature’s Kennel news from around the world…Krister and his dog team of Art and Harry took 1st place in a 2-dog bikejoring race and 3rd place in the cani-cross race at a New Hampshire dryland event last weekend. That makes them the first official winners of races this season. And, in news just in today, Opal Krout, owner of Nature’s Kennel puppy, Nikishka, was invited to do an official “photo shoot” in Austin, Texas for the Lance Armstrong LiveStrong Campaign. Lance Mackey was in Austin for the photo shoot, but they needed dogs for the photo. Opal lives in Malvern, Arkansas, but was contacted by the production company and Lance, to submit a photo of Nikishka for the event. Needless to say, she was selected, flown to Austin, paid to sit pretty for the photos, and flown back home! Opal has done a tremendous amount of training with Nikishka so she was very well behaved and loved by all, hopefully all the fame hasn’t gone to her head! Posted by Tasha



Friday, October 2nd, 2009 Question: What is currently the most common question asked of Ed? Answer: Are you running the Iditarod this year? And the answer is...no. Due to less than ideal family planning, Ed will be "racing" me to the hospital in March to deliver a real human baby. I'm pretty sure he'd rather be signed up to race in Alaska instead of along M-28 during the middle of a snowstorm coming off Lake Superior as we drive to Marquette, but that's not going to change now! Fact of the matter is that we are both very excited, and eventhough Ed will not be racing Iditarod, we will still have 32 dogs make their way to Nome. Trent Herbst has a crew of our young dogs out with him in Idaho and Pat Moon will be running his experienced Nature's Kennel team. Ed will still fly up for the start in Anchorage but will then fly home instead of flying down the trail. So, the journals will now be filled with a bit of baby news along with the dog news. So far, there's not a lot to report except that I've consulted mushing friends (especially you, Colleen Wallin) who have assured me that I can run dogs as much as I wish, keep up with chores, and still have a great winter. However, we have made sure to tell Ed that all of those come with the understanding that I get to play the "pregnancy card" at any time. And yes, I have used that wild card already to my advantage, choosing to stay in bed until 7 am instead of being up at 5 to train dogs with him and the rest of the guides. Afterall, I'm sleeping for two now! Posted by Tasha

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