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.

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009 (As Vanessa): I hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas! For us at the kennel Christmas isn't big but we did have a little celebration on Christmas Eve. Each of the guides got a little gift from Ed and Tasha and also from Ed's mom! Thank you Phyllis! The guides pooled together all their pennies and cents and got Ed two sets of Boxing Gloves and a key chain for Tasha. We also got Tasha a pregnancy test. We weren't quite convinced that she really is pregnant and not just getting chunky....but she assured us that she really is pregnant so I guess we'll take her word for it! We'll find out in March whether she was bluffing or not! :-) Speaking of that, we all have a bet going on Tasha's baby. What day will it be born, what sex will it be, and how many pounds will it weigh! $5 buy in if anyone is interested. Chad, Ed's brother is up here from Southern California for a visit! If you haven't met Chad, imagine Ed's energy level times five and you get Chad! Ed, Chad, and Ryne drove back to the kennel today while Mike (aka The Captain), Tim V, and I stayed at Boyne. The rides are fully booked here so all is looking dandy. We had one couple today that got engaged at the halfway point on the hour ride. How romantic. Alrighty then! The Captain, Tim V, and I are about to chill out and watch Inglorious Basterds so good night to all and to all a good night. Posted by Tasha

Saturday, December 26th, 2009 Merry Belated Christmas! We all actually tried to take a couple days “off” for Christmas Eve and Christmas. Ed and the Boyne crew came home the evening of the 23 so we were all together for a couple of days. Pat Moon headed home to surprise his family for Christmas and will be gone for about a week so we celebrated his birthday (on December 28) a few days early. All our guides’ families are quite a distance away (from Pennsylvania to South Africa and Durango to Malaysia) so we had a Christmas Eve celebration here for everyone. Brian Wisebaum joined in the festivites as welll, he came up to help at Boyne, visit with the dogs, and try his hand at snowshoeing with Maliko. Ed and I got to spend a little time together, walking puppies, playing games with the crew, and sleeping in late (the last Christmas that may ever happen again!). I'm a bit modest about my growing belly, but we've had quite a few requests for photos...so there's the 27 week belly on Christmas morning. We had a bit of the freezing rain that hit most of the state here on Christmas morning, but overall the trails are still in great condition and we still have plenty of snow for the tours which start up again here at the kennel tomorrow afternoon. The Boyne crew left last night, and had a full schedule of rides for today and will be very busy through January 3rd. The trails held up well there as well, thank goodness we all had a good base of snow before all the nasty weather hit. We are all supposed to get a few inches of snow here and there all week so it should keep all the trails in prime condition. Vanessa has taken on the “photo girl” position of Boyne, taking action photos of all the guests as they come flying down the hill. We had talked for a couple of years of taking photos to sell, and it appears to be a great new venture for both us and the guests. The dogs get two one-hour breaks from giving during the day, and as you can see, Emerald takes full advantage of her rest time by choosing to lounge in the sled instead of on the snow! My crew here did some tour prep today, re-stocked camp, repaired harnesses, scraped the driveway down, AND did some snowboarding. Yes, Doug actually hooked himself up to Yooper and Sally Ride and made it around the 2 mile puppy loop, on his snow board, WITHOUT falling!! Looks like he’ll be entering the Tahquamenon Race-Exhibition Sport Division-Snowboard-joring. Here are two videos of Doug's snowboarding experience! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ve0ycdPgI8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQkau2EbUNs&feature=channel Posted by Tasha




Monday, December 21st, 2009 Vanessa warned me about the "mistaken wife pregnancy post" before she put it on the journal today. My only concern with the mix up is that Vanessa must be eating WAY too much down there to be looking like she's six months pregnant! We had a great tour here with the Fagerlin family, all 14 family members drove their own dog teams, had lunch at our winter camp, and sledded home. Momo is so exhaused (from entertaining) that she's snoring by the fire. If any of you are still searching for a great last minute Christmas gift, I just received our new Nature's Kennel hoodies and t-shirts. Let me know, and I can send one out asap. Hoodies (kids size large through adult size XXL) are $30 and t-shirts (kids size small through adult size XL) are $15. Posted by Tasha


Monday, December 21st, 2009 (as Vanessa): So here's a great story for you! As you know I am at Boyne with Ed and Ryne at the moment. The rides have been going well and the guests have been loving it! As these things go, there is a lot of small talk with people and lots of llittle tid bits of information are exchanged. One of these little tid bits of information is that Ed is not running the Iditarod this year beacause Tasha is pregnant and due around March. Now for some incomprehensible reason, two seperate groups of people actually thought (now get this) that not only was I Ed's wife but that I was expecting a baby in March! FANtastic! One guy came up to me after the ride and says to me "So I hear congratulations are in order..." and I couldn't for the life of me figure out what he was talking about. I tried to think what Ryne might have told him on the ride but nothing sprang to mind, so I asked a little dumbfounded for what he was congratulating me for. He says "Well I hear you are pregnant and due in March"! HA! Yes, yes, very funny! I corrected him of course and he did seem a little embarrassed, The other group of people also thought I was Ed's wife, thus implying that I was pregnant. So either Ed looks younger than his age, I look older than my age, OR people think I am the mail order bride from South Africa...there must be slim pickings up the the UP....who knows!? Of course it has turned into the running joke and I even had a dream that night that I was pregnant! It's obviously messing with my head! Do you think I should stick a note to my forehead saying "Not Ed's wife!"? Oh, we all got a good laugh out of that one, and will do for some time to come, I expect. At least Santa did not make the same mistake. We gave Santa a ride to the country club yesterday morning. It was a hoot. The kids loved it, but I was actually amazed at how many kids were very apprehensive about petting the dogs. It is a pity that there are a lot of children who are afraid of dogs, especially such friendly ones that we have. I think every kid should grow up with at least one dog. Today was another fantastic day, We had a busy schedule but I got to go snow boarding today! Lots of fun!! Brian from Chicago joined us last night and is just here to hang out and help whenever it is needed. The tours at the kennel have been going well and we are so happy we finally have a Christmas tree up! Proud of you, Tasha and Pat Moon! And Ed, Tasha, I have a suggestion when choosing a name for your baby: Go to the back door and shout it out a couple of times. Posted by Tasha


Sunday, December 20th, 2009 It's the holiday season here at Nature's Kennel. Pat and I decided it was time for Project Christmas Tree Procurement. Pat, being the Chicago city kid that that he is, grew up purchasing perfectly groomed trees from the local Christmas tree lot. Not so around here. We headed into the woods (about 100 yards behind the puppy pens), tromped through the snow a bit (with Lady Bird, Hera, Bolt, Enzo, Momo, TC, and Hedgie), shook the snow off a couple of trees, cut down a lovely 8 ft. tree, and drug it down the trail to home. Pat as appalled at the “Charlie Brown-ness of the tree”, and the fact that we had to trim to top off to get it in the house and trim 2 ½ feet of branches off the bottom so it could fit in the area between the couches. However, once we got it inside and shimmed into the tree holder (it didn’t get small enough for such a small tree) and decorated with lights and ornaments, I had Pat convinced that it looks just as good as any professionally trimmed tree (or at least almost as good). Meanwhile, as we were singing O Christmas Tree, Ed was delivering Santa by dog team to the Boyne Country Club near Boyne Highlands. He, Vanessa, and Ryne are giving rides this weekend and will be back home on the 23rd to celebrate Christmas. Doug, Maliko and Sam successfully led their first overnight tour of the season this weekend. We had a great trip with Rick and Katelyn of Mt. Pleasant. They spoiled the guides (and the dogs) as they were such great tour guests and incredible sled drivers. Tomorrow we have the Fagerlin family (all 14 of them) coming for a day of mini-drives. It was ironic that all our teacher friends and families with kids were looking forward to the start of Christmas vacation this weekend because we realized that our vacation was over and the work was just beginning! So far, we’re off to a great start for the season. Posted by Tasha



Saturday, December 19th, 2009 (as Vanessa): Tasha got some great pictures on one of the puppy runs on Thursday. The runs went much smoother than on Wednesday and the puppies are all doing great (as always)! Ok, so now that my daily bragging about how awesome the puppies are doing is out of the way, this is what has been going on the past coule of days. Yesterday morning Tasha and I drove to the Boyne Highlands Ski Resort to meet up with Ryne and Ed who had left the day before with a truck load of dogs. It was a beautiful day here! The sun was shining bright and it all looked very picturesque. It was employee appreciation day so Ryne and Ed got to take some of the Boyne employees on rides. They all loved it and were raving about it afterwards. Tasha had a fantastic idea for the Boyne tours this year. We are going to take pictures of the guests on the sled and print it out for them to buy if they would like to. The pictures were a great hit with the employees so I think that the guests will love it too. The highlight of my day was my little skiing adventure yesterday afternoon. Ryne took me out on skate ski's and we had a fantastic time. Ryne was actually lying on the ground at one point, laughing so hard at my attempts to stay upright on the ski's that she almost peed her pants. I did look a little awkward, especially next to Ryne who used to race on ski's. To my credit though, it is really hard to keep focused when you're laughing so hard that you don't have any strength left to try get up off the ground after falling. I am glad there was no one else out on the trail at the time to witness this...I added some pictures for your entertainment though. Tomorrow we will be taking Santa on a sled ride. That should be great fun! It sounds like the Boyne rides will be pretty booked up this season which is always welcomed news. Tara joined us this morning to help us out again this year. We had a great start to the day and an amazing breakfast. The first tour back at the kennel is going on right now so everything is in full swing. Christmas is just around the corner and we still don't have a tree set up at the house. Fun Christmas fact for the day: Did you know that the first state to recognize the Christmas holiday officially was Alabama? Thank you Alabama! Posted by Tasha



Wednesday, December 16th, 2009 I did make it back home to the winter wonderland (as you can tell from Vanessa's entry) but thought I should post a photo from the Frosty Fest. The dogs did a fabulous job looking cute, although somewhat exhaused, as around two thousand kids and parents came to pet, coddle, and love them. Timber was the star of the show, and was very interested in the reindeer who was in the tent next to ours. The girls survived the long weekend, and even got to ask Santa for a special Christmas gift! (A brief Santa note...this particular Santa practiced his sled driving skills while working for Princess Cruises in Alaska driving a bus in and out of Denali National Park. He was quite familiar with sled dogs and thought Timber stole the show as she cuddled on his lap!) Posted by Tasha


Wednesday, December 16th, 2009 (As Vanessa): Today I learned what life at the kennel would be like without Hedgie. Tasha and I decided it was time to try out the Aunts and Uncles again, seeing as they have now spent a week in the kennel and should be used to their collars and chains by now. We ran a 6 dog team and had at least three adults in our team each time (so they could keep the puppies in line if need be....ha! Little did we know....). The first run around the puppy loop went great. Hedgie was in lead with Bert, and Sally did GREAT on her first run.She was so proud walking back to her platform in her little harness. On the second and third run we decided to give Hedgie a break and put Bert and Jade in lead...oh boy! Those two are such clowns. It's like putting two naughty school boys together and you can just see the mischief they are planning. Once we are on the trail and moving they are fine, and good leaders, but trying to get them to stand out and hold out the team in the kennel while hooking up the rest of the dogs is just asking too much. So on the last run we thought it best to put Hedgie back in lead to get some order into the team again, and of course it worked like magic. Good, old, perfect Hedgie! Bert looked a little sulky that he and his partner in crime had been seperated. On the other hand, all the puppies were fabulous!! Much better behaved than the adults today. And I am so proud of the Aunts and Uncles. They did so well! A couple more runs and they will have the hang of it! I have a feeling that this group of pups will make an awesome team for the Iditarod some day. Other than that, Ed and Ryne are prepping and packing to leave for Boyne tomorrow. I will be joining them on Friday and we'll be down there till Tuesday. Maliko, Doug, and Sam have their first tour here this weekend, and Tasha spent half of the day in the kitchen baking delicious cookies and quiches for the guests, and the other half she was helping me with the puppies. Fun fact for the day: Did you know that a cockroach will live nine days without its head before it starves to death? Lucky we don't get too many of those up here. Posted by Tasha

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009 (as Vanessa): Our first practice tour went great! Maliko, Doug, and Sam were the guides and each had a guest to take care of. The tour went smoothly and any glitches that we had are all being smoothed out today. It was a lot of fun and we had a beautiful run in the fresh snow. It felt like driving through Narnia, a winter wonderland. The tour loop is just stunning! When we got to camp we made some delicious Hobo Dinners over the fire and had a good time chatting and laughing. We went to bed early and slept cozy in a warm tent. I was in a Wiggy's sleeping bag I borrowed from Ed, and I was actually too warm at one point during the night, which is saying a lot coming from someone who wears 9 layers of clothing. Tasha is back from the big city with TC and Mo. TC and Mo look exhausted from all that fun with the kids and have been sleeping next to the wood stove the whole day, snoring soundly. Tasha also brought back a packed car loaded with groceries and we always welcome Tasha back with open arms, especially when she has a truck full of food! Tonight is movie night so we are trying to get all our work done in time to make "A Christmas Carol" in Newberry. Should be a fun night out with the whole crew. Tours start this weekend so there is still a lot of stuff to get done, but we are on top of it!! That's all for now! Have a great evening! Posted by Tasha


Sunday, December 13th, 2009 It's a mess down here in the big city. Momo, TC and I are in Port Huron and have to head to downtown Detroit this afternoon for an outdoor presentation for the Quicken Loans Frostyfest. It's 36 degrees and pouring rain. Lovely. I'm sure we are not the only ones dissapointed with the weather...the reindeer and Santa are going to be bit damp as well. Yesterday we were at the Great Lakes Maritime Center in Port Huron for a day of kid crafts, mini programs and some cart demonstrations. Lynne brought her wheeled cart up and gave a the kids a ride around the parking lot. Tasha Canine was beside herself with the fact that she had to actually "work" and help pull the cart. She tried to get back into the building at every entrance she went by. Luckily, Michele Seng showed up just in time with Ivan and Flood, who could step in and take over for Tasha. We were all exhaused by the end of the day and crashed in bed while watching the Polar Express. Ed has everything under control at home (or so he reports!) The guides are leading a "mock" tour this week, with "guests" Jon Brown, Vanessa, and a friend of Sam's who is coming to visit. The tour trail is groomed and ready and the dogs have all successfully been running on the trail. Ryne and Sam have been doing a bit of Iditarod training in addition to preparing for tours. It was -14 on Friday night, so Ed, Pat, Ryne and Sam slept out in the kennel overnight. Ed had them all up at 6 am to feed their dogs, grab a bite to eat, bootie their dogs, and head out on a run. He didn't tell me what he did after they left...I'm guessing he went inside to have a cup of coffee! Iditarod trainer does have a few advantages over Iditarod musher! Posted by Tasha

Friday, December 11th, 2009 (As Vanessa): The star of my story today is Hedgie. For those of you who have never had the pleasure of meeting Hedgie, she is one of the "house" dogs here at the kennel. I put "house" in quotation marks because Hedgie still comes on the puppy runs with us. She is a fantastic leader and role model for the pups and they know not to mess with her. I would describe her as a no-nonsense dog! Discipline and order are high up on her list of qualities...if she were human she'd be a German. Hedge is about 10 years old and after working hard as a sled dog and being mother to quite a few litters of puppies, she has now adjusted quite beautifully to life on the couch, the cushions next to the wood stove, and the bed upstairs. She does, however, take her job as puppy overseer very seriously and she will never miss a puppy walk. Sometimes it does take a little convincing to get her up from next to the wood stove but once she's outside with the pups she is in her element, always making sure they don't step out of line. That doesn't mean Hedgie doesn't like to have fun. It's surprising how agile and full of energy she still is. You would never think that when you see her lazing around the house, but she loves to run and play with the young ones (as long as they know who's boss). Hedgie is one of those dogs that it take a while to warm up to...or rather it takes a while for her to warm up to you. She doesn't give out affection easily to just anyone. With Hedgie you have to earn it, and let me tell you, its hard work! It involves a lot of puppy walks, puppy training runs where she gets to be in lead, and some food scraps here and there. Once you have earned her affection though it's even more rewarding when she does finally come up to you for some love, or gives you a tail wag when she sees you. When I first got to Nature's Kennel, I wasn't sure what to think of her, but she has fast become one of my favorites here, and never fails to make me laugh. What a great dog to have around the kennel. Such dogs are always irreplaceable! We are all glad to have you, Hedgie! Posted by Tasha


Thursday, December 10th, 2009 (As Vanessa): WOW! This is definitely the most snow I have ever seen! Coming from South Africa, and having lived in Alabama for four years, snow is still a novelty for me! Everything is white! When I took the puppies on a walk this morning the snow came up to my knees...and the snow is still coming down. Watching the puppies hopping around like bunnies in the snow and at times completely disappearing in it always makes me laugh! They seem to love it and have even more energy than they usually do. Yesterday Ryne and I came into the kennel on our day off because we couldn't resist finally getting onto the sleds! It was the perfect weather for a first run on a sled...lots of soft snow to cushion a possible fall (and by the way we did not fall). I must say, I was a tad nervous before I got onto the sled. Not having spent much time in the snow, let alone doing any snow activities I didn't really know what to expect. Will I be able to keep my balance on a sled? Will I be able to stop the dogs if I need to? Will I be able to hold on when I fall, or is my instint to let go going to take over? But after all those nerves, I got on the sled, gave a thumbs up to Ed, who was in front of us on the snow mobile, pulled the quick release, AND OFF WE WENT! Like the wind!! Man, what a great feeling that is! Up until now I have been helping Tasha with some of the puppy training and going on runs with the steelers. So after being used to the four wheeler, being on a sled was just such an amazing feeling. Instead of the roar of an engine in your ears it seems so quiet and peaceful. I can definitely see what attracts people to this sport! Today is a busy day at the kennel! Ed is training us on the tractor to snow blow, and also on the snow mobile. Maliko, Doug, and Sam are going on their first sled run shortly and are all really excited! It will be a long day at the kennel but we are all spending the night in the guide house tonight (for the first time), so we don't have the 30 minute drive back to Newberry. Plus we don't mind the long days because now is when the fun really starts!!! Posted by Tasha

Thursday, December 10th, 2009 I'm off to the big city of Detroit this weekend for the last of the school programs for the season. Looks like the storm has calmed enough for me to get through! We now have a TON of snow, so instead of losing sleep because we didn't have enough snow, I'm now losing sleep because we have too much! Better too much than too little in this business though. I'm making at stop at Boyne on my way down to get the trail set, as they have a ton of snow as well. I'm usually worried that there isn't enough there, but they've had more snow than us! Bring on the fun... Posted by Tasha

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 "Better three hours too soon than a minute too late." Billy Shakespeare Winter has arrived! We are wiping the dust off of the sleds today and trying out those sledding muscles. Vanessa and Ryne even called to ask if they could come in "to the office" on their day off to run dogs with sleds. It is a tough job here at Nature's Kennel, the Guides even have (or should we say want to) to work on their days off. Posted by Ed

Friday, December 4th, 2009 Winter is definately on the horizon...there is a nice dusting of snow on the ground now, with more snow forecasted all week. We are ready! We did a bit of a kennel expansion the past week or so, adding 22 more posts and houses. Ed spent a few long days with chainsaw in hand and butt on the tractor to transform my old garden into the new kennel, "the muscle girls", Ryne and Vanessa, pounded posts (Ed did as well, but the girls probably outworked him), and Sam constructed platforms today. The crew has also been working hard on their guide house, and have a projected move in date for next week. I'm sure they will be thrilled to be finished with drywall, painting and floor covering. We are still running dogs with the four wheelers, and even though the ground is getting harder, there is a nice snow cover right now. Ryne, Sam, Doug and Maliko have each had their own teams since fall, and now Vanessa has "graduated" to her own puppy team. I've been helping her with training, and since everyone else has "their" teams, we had to scrounge for a few puppy-orthy adutls to help us with training. We pulled Hedgie away from the woodstove to be our all-star leader, accompanied by Bert who was injured last season and just doesn't seem to be recovering, and Pringle, who is 10 years old and arthritic but seems to be able to run 5 miles. The Steelers are still quite amazing, all running lead (at 7 months old) and all getting along great. The only "discussion" we had was with Hedgie who refused to run lead with Pringle who was being a !#!. Vanessa and I gave in to Hedgie's request that she will do this puppy training job, but she will not put up with the old lady. Posted by Tasha

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