Nature's Kennel Sled Dog Racing & Adventures

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Sunday, May 26th, 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!

Monday, November 29th, 2010 Happy Post-Thanksgiving! Ed, Nate and I actually went on the road for Thanksgiving, I think the first time in well over 10 years! That’s how babies change things, they make you feel guilty for not taking them to the relatives for holidays! So, Nate and I talked Ed into a road trip and we headed to Ludington to see both of our families. The girls did a fabulous job of holding down the fort at home, and even had a bit of snow to deal with! Ed headed back home on Saturday morning, and Nate and I are going to stay in Ludington until Wednesday when Ed’s dad will drive us back up. We delivered Sally to the airport in Traverse City today as she is headed to New Jersey to be a pet/skijor/ bikejor dog. She was our guest for the holiday weekend, and was just a charmer. She loved my5-year old niece, Ellen, and adapted to house life very well! She thought it was great to be the only dog around to get all the turkey scraps. She will do great in her new home with kids. I’m working on office “stuff” this week—winter press releases, tour booking information, emails, etc. It’s amazing how much time it takes at the computer to run a sled dog kennel. It seems like a conflict of interest! Posted by Tasha



Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010 Get ready…Nature’s Kennel will be featured on Channel 9&10 News from Gaylord/Petoskey this Wednesday, November 24 on the 6pm News. The news crew was here a few weeks ago to feature a “Unique Northern Michigan Family”. There should be a bit of footage of training dogs (please disregard the pouring rain and mud, it was not the best day for a camera crew), there should be some clips of Nate (on his best behavior I’m sure) and a few short interviews of myself and Ed. I’m a bit nervous about the whole take on things...it was not the normal visit to the Iditarod kennel in the winter to see about mushing adventures and sled dogs. At least they didn’t come during meat chopping time…I’m sure a broadcast of Nate standing in a bucket watching Mallory and Maliko wield axes near his head would have made National news. Now that’s unique! (Oh, and for those of you following the Stinky Saga…he’s back in the kennel spinning around like a crazy man on his chain…guess he just needed some extra TLC and a few nights in the house. He could have thought of a cheaper way of letting me know that.) Posted by Tasha


Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010 Check out this video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMVws_3yS7Y !!!!!! This is Sam who guided for us last year. He is now in the Denver area and, as you can see, is making a difference. Let's all give Sam a "power clap". Posted by Ed

Sunday, November 21st, 2010 "Stinkey Feet" is on the road to recovery.... again. He received a heavy dose of antibiotics, a lot of rest, and some specially cooked food which seems to have him making a full recovery. Dr. Chevy warned us that his recovery could be temporary but we are hoping for the best. Posted by Ed

Friday, November 19th, 2010 Oh Stinky Feet is sick again...Nate and I are at the library in Marquette as we await word on Stinky. He had major intestional surgery a couple of weeks ago and now appears to be having problems again. On the brigher side, the Marquette Library is awesome and Nate LOVES the train table, the fish tank and watching the kids in the playroom. He said he'll volunteer for the Marquette trips from here on out. At least he adds a smile to our day! Posted by Tasha

Wednesday, November 17th, 2010 Just a quick note to let you know that we are offering something new to help newer mushers get some great bloodlines into their kennel. Prancer and Leakey have both been bred and are up for sale. Prancer was bred to Gus and Leakey to Chong. Both Gus and Chong have been two of our main racing leaders for the past few years. If for some reason the breeding does not take we will guarantee another breeding in the future. Please see the "for sale" tab for more info. Posted by Tasha

Monday, November 15th, 2010 It's opening day of rifle/deer season here in the UP. For those of you who don't know, rifles and sled dogs don't mix. So, we are taking the day off from running dogs, giving everyone (the caninies) their vaccinations, and playing with Nate. Amy did some sketching to commerate the day...I'm sure there are a few deer in the woods who would feel safer with a sled dog team than romping through the forest! Posted by Tasha


Thursday, November 11th, 2010 Despite the warm weather, we are still banking on the fact that wiinter MUST come eventually. Ed and the crew (and Mr. V.) prepared the kennel for snowblowing this week. They moved all the dog houses out of the way, Ed graded and crowned the kennel, and then everyone got moved into new running teams. The dogs LOVED being moved to new locations and played and wrestled with their new friends all afternoon. The sunny, dry weather has been great for grading. Now the ground had better freeze fast before the dogs start digging again! Posted by Ed


Monday, November 8th, 2010 We completed our first “campouts” of the year with the dogs the past two days. Nate and I were support crew, delivering straw, water and lunch to the weary campers. Ok, they were not so weary, but we had fun on a picnic. Ed and Mallory ran adult teams on longer runs and Jess, Maliko, Kristin, and Tim VanderMeulen ran yearling teams on shorter runs. We all met up along a snowmobile trail where the dogs got parked and napped in the sunshine. The dogs “camped” for 3-4 hours, Nate and I played around on the blankets, and then we all headed home. It’s been beautiful weather for such an adventure and Nate loved hanging out in the woods with dad. It’s great practice for the young dogs getting ready for tours, and for the older veterans to show them what to do. The dogs will all have a couple of day off as we level the kennel, they rest up, and we all get ready for winter! Posted by Tasha




Sunday, November 7th, 2010 We lost a couple of good canine friends this week: Summer tour guide, porch sentry, food guard, puppy walker, best friend. After struggling with a heart condition diagnosed in early January, Rosebud has left us. Though the diagnosis gave her six months to live, Rosebud was tenacious and remained with us for four months longer than anyone thought she could. After her diagnosis, she quickly took up residence in the house, sleeping by the fire with the rest of the house dogs, scarfing down canned food with Teton, walking puppies with Momo and TC, and guarding the dog food from those pesky pups with Hedgie. Rosebud will be dearly missed here at the kennel and it has been a mournful morning for all of us. Rest in peace Rosebud, we love you. We also had to say goodbye Emerald, a great sled dog and mother to some awesome pups. We purchased Emerald two years ago from Zach Steer. She had pups this spring (the "Alaskan Ranges", Aluet, Chug, Eli, Kenai, Susi and Tal) and was also mother to our two year old "Jake Puppies", Babie, Love, Etan, Garbage, Sheldon and Stinky Feet. Emerald had several mammory tumors that we had been keeping an eye on. They started to grow pretty large and fast so we decided to have Mallory's dad, Dr, Matt Sturmer open her up to take a look. Emerald followed Mallory everywhere around our yard, and had even taken a couple of off-site field trips with her. However, as soon as Mallory opened the car door at her dad's house, for some crazy reason Emerald jumped over Mallory, leapt out the car door and bolted down the road. She was spotted hanging around Matt's kenenl for a few days, and would eat the food he left her on the porch. However, late last week she was found about 30 miles up the road, and had been hit by a truck. We'll never know what caused her to do such a crazy thing and will miss her. (The photo below of Emerald in the sled is one of my favorites, it was taken at Boyne last winter when the dogs were on break. Guess who the smarty pants was...forget laying in the snow when you can reach the sled!) Posted by Tasha


Thursday, November 4th, 2010 Nate and I are on a working vacation this week. We are in Charlevoix at Great-Gramdmas and cousin LeRue's in Kewadin. We did some major shopping in Petoskey to get groceries at Gordon Foods, did some miscellanous shopping at Wal-Mart and got the brakes fixed on the car. We then headed to Charlevoix for a visit with my sister and Nate's crazy cousins. He wasn't too sure about all the action in the house! We are at LeRue's today doing some playing and office work. We made sure we stuck around home long enough to vote on Tuesday. With only 165 people in our precinct, it's pretty obvious if we don't show up! Nate was the hit of the voting booth, and got all the attention from the workers as we voted. Ed and the girls are holding down the fort this week, running lots of dogs, making sure the pups are all in line, and finishing projects before winter arrives. I spend the last few days at the kennel harness breaking 29 pups. It was like being in kindergarten all over again! They are all naturals and it's so exciting to see new dogs coming into the kennel. Posted by Tasha

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