Well November is nearly ended- and we have been very fortunate, as we have had some of the best conditions that I have ever seen. Our daily average temp has been near -10c, with a few nice days closer to 0.

Dad, Mom and Sara went to Dawson Creek this weekend, as i my great Uncle George and aunt Florence had a 50th anniversary wedding party. Dad said it was a good time, with nearly 250 people from all over western Canada attending. they all took the dog truck, and dad picked up 3000 lbs of pork liver, 800 lbs of pork fat, plus 50 bails of straw. He got home yesterday afternoon. Mom And Sara picked up a new vehicle, its a 1/2 ton Chevy, long box, that Terry will use for his summer ice business, its a 4x4 so it will be used in the winter for our handlers to get town supplies.

While they were gone we continued with training, on Saturday I got the itch to run a big team so I combined the 4- 10 dog teams and made , 2 teams of 16. 1 team of 2 year olds and others went 16 miles, and the yearling 16 dog team went 10 miles. It was nice to have a long string hooked up, the biggest team hooked up here this year. They all went well, and after wards we runa team of 10 dogs who were bumped off the teams.

Sunday was our main stage race dogs, after 3 x 20 mile runs, they went 23 miles, their farthest of the season. It was warm, -5c at the house, but over the higher areas it got to +5c.  All dogs did really well, and we run 2 groups of 2 teams. Lina and did lots of passing, like 8-12 passes per run.

Now that the dog truck is finished for hauling supplies and such, we will put the dog box on today. I am anxious to see how the new frame and deck modifications look. I will post pictures when completed.

Also yesterday was the first of 4 Sundays till Christmas, so keeping with our Swedish tradition we lit the 1st of 4 Advent candles.

Today we will look at alternate trails in our area, I think it will be nice to run some other places, and it gives the dogs some new terrain to cover.




Less then 1 month till Christmas, and it has arrived at our house, we will get a tree up soon.



pic of our living room.



Chelsey X Eddy litter- they are now 3 months old and loose run 3 x per week.



This is our Christmas card we are sending out, so merry Christmas everyone.



presents are arriving... this box of joy was sent from mamma in Sweden, there was gift for all 3 of us...



Pancake breakfast.



health food.... Swedish meets Canadian christmas- Advent candles, plus Canadian bacon


best friends, Sally and Reese, having a hard time dealing with the Rough riders loss of the Grey Cup....

Main teams went 20 miles on Monday, and again today- they are running very nice- we are working 43 dogs for the stage teams- we will need 32 total, so once we cut to that number, we are going to have 2 very powerful teams.

Lots of leaders running, Main leaders are- Myia, Eva, Heidi, Chelsey, Balto, Thelma, Troja, Oats, Gucci, Willy, Blaze, Leif, now we have Lowry stepping up and doing very well. we are rotating daily, so all get their turns up front- we usually do 2 passes or so each run, might try and sneak a few head on passes in with our smaller loops.




Lowry- 3 year old- 50 lbs- Hard running leader, run 20 miles in front of our best 12 dogs, never blinked an eye, kept to his right the entire run.



Picture taken today- at 3 mile mark, trail is in good shape-



We are having a problem keeping the dogs slowed to our desired pace of 15 mph. it take an incredible amount of mat pressure to reduce the teams speed- in-fact, we switched drivers, so now its Terry and I, (the 2 heavy weights from the open class), who start the runs, then switch Lina on to one of our sleds at the 10 mile mark. Lina is to light, and is having difficulty keeping the speeds down.



I had to add some colour to our white paradise- so i dug into the archives and found this beauty from a few years back.
Green , green and more green- and I ain't talking about our 2010 race earnings.

OK, so I am running out of words to describe our training and conditions. I am sure you get the point, pictures say 1000 words so I may just add pictures from day to day, with a few notes about each one.

Lets see, Sara had a birthday on Friday, Lina and I took a cake over I baked, and we visited for the afternoon. Lina ha also been making some sweet treats, and has made some real good ones, both Sally and I love them....

Lina and I went to the clinic, we both got our H1N1 vaccine. It is now ope to everyone in BC. We both had sore arms the next day, but Lina was having lots of pain, and i just felt6 irritation. The following evening I had a quick onset of the flu, it hit me fast, I was sore, cold and headache, but i rested up and ate healthy, and Sunday morning I was feeling very good. My arm is still tender where I was given the shot, but otherwise OK>

Mom is due home from Vancouver today at 4pm, Lina and i will have the family over for dinner, let mom tell some stories, and not worry about food or clean up.

Main dogs have 3 - 17 miler runs on them, they are all doing great, we are running 44 dogs, I am driving 2- 12 dog teams, and Lina is running 2 x 10 dog teams. we have been running many different leaders, a slots of 2 year olds are taking too it, problem is its hard to get them all the time the need up there. we will run a new loop today, and hopefully it will add just enough to make it a 20 mile run, we are avoiding the hills, as we know we will be running them later. Also I know too many runs in the hills only slows the team down, we are averaging 15-`16 mph.



An important part of baking is sitting in front of the oven. Here both Sally and Lina keep an eye on the Saffron Buns.




How do you feel today Lina???



Homemade Pizza- made from scratch- googled easy pizza- and 20 minutes later it was done. mmmm.


pic by- Marc Lafontain- 2006- Quebec- Dee and Neena in lead. 18 dogs- 12 mile race. I nearly held my breath for the full run. Thanks to our sponsor- Holiday Inn Express




Iris and NASH- 2002 Fur Rondy, I found this pic in Men's Journal, advertising the Iditarod, I guess with the 100 teams starting that year, they couldn't find 2 dogs driving like this.


Terry Streeper 1997 ONAC in full control of 24 dogs- crossing College road- and now on the slough-



Picture By- Magali Phillip- 2006 ONAC- thanks to our sponsor- Holiday Inn Express

We received a small amount of snow overnight, so it will improve our trails, they are still very good, but this will add some cushion.

Main teams went 16 miles yesterday, over the hills , they all did very good. Lina and I have been running a steady pace of 16 mph, they all want to go faster, so we do have to apply lots of weight on the mat to control their speed.

Mom is on a small vacation to Vancouver, she flew out at 10 am yesterday, and will be home on Monday. I'm sure she will have a good time even though its typical Vancouver winter  weather. Rain Rain Rain.

Young dogs today, various distances. One group, which has a a few 2 year olds and a couple yearlings are running 12 miles. But most of the young dogs are running 6-8 miles.

we did break a litter of pups. They have now run 4-5 times, its amazing how fast they learn, as they now know whats expected from them.

snow in the forecast, a few more inches would be nice , but not to much....



Pictures below are from Fur Rondy 2009. I found them while searching the web. very nice pics.
Pictures taken by: go2moon.com


Day 3, back trail


Day 1 start.




day 2- coming up cordova.


Nice day 1 start- no Little dee up front- makes the driver look a bit nervous.

Mid November now, and we have not seen any colder weather, its been above normal nearly everyday. But nothing above freezing, so we have been able to maintain our trail, and run early in the day.

We run 15.5 miles yesterday, with main teams. we run over some new section where even our oldest race dog, Myia - 6 year old main leader, has never run. it was funny as many of the 2 year olds were a bit confused when passing the large round hay bales in the turn-around field. Many of them put their ears up, and started barking as we went past. It does show you that its important to run on new trails and let the dogs see different things.

I am also attaching some pips of our main dogs. Many have been running in lead, and I am hopefully going to be able to race some of them this winter, that is if Lina lets me....


Oats- 3 years- main race team 2009. led 10 dog team for Lina at Tanacross, avg 20 mph.  Oats is really looking good this year.



Leif- 2 years. out of Lance X Rome- very nice dog from a strong litter of 7, all dogs are running well, and we repeated this breeding and have 8 more in puppy pens.




Balto- 2 years old, raced all races with Lina's 10 dog team 2009. raced 2 days of Onac with ur B-team.  He is out of Lance X Birch- a litter we repeated this fall, and have 4 more like him, nursing on their mom. Very good dog, has shown lots of promise. time will tell if Lina lets me run him or not.



Gucci 4 years old, from Seibolds Kennel. Very nice dog, good leader, Dad raced her front of 18 dogs in Kotzebue in the April race their last season. Super fast, and fun dog to work with.



Myia- our oldest dog in the main teams, she is now 6- but can still set the pace. Very good dog- 3 x winning leader rondy and track record holder in 10 different places.  I am hoping to get a year or 2 more out of her, afterwards she will be retired to our breeding pen, as she has some awesome 2 year olds running now.




Eva- 4 years. Main leader 2009. very good, smooth running, she will lead us up the hills in Wyoming, as she is a strong puller who can set the pace.




Silly Sally. please touch me.....



training run with yearlings on a very good trail.

Still sitting pretty here. awesome trails, nice temps and happy healthy dogs.

we've been steadily bumping our mileage, the main stage race teams are now running 14.3 miles, which includes some alternate trails that run up and over some hilly sections. a in a 4 mile section you have a long gradual pull, then a couple sharp ups and downs before a loop, and returning down hill. all dogs did a great job in this area, and we will continue to run them periodically through this area.

we are working with some great lead dogs. lots of 2 year olds who are passing and driving past other teams and obstices. we should be able to field 2 very strong teams this winter in the longer races, as our core dogs experienced, proven and naturally gifted.

Yesterday was Chicken Grind - 2009 edition. we received a horse trailor full of 2200 whole laying chickens, 400 were de-feathered, which we will use later this month when preparing our main race diet for the winter months. so we started after lunch and about 90 minutes later we had fed nearly 10 000 lbs of chickens through the grinder, in to buckets, lidded and stacked in freezer, for use at a later date.  This is probably the best dog food available. considering quality, results and cost. there is a video from last year in the video column, this gives you an idea of what we are doing.

link to video of winter food mix 2008- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE1hQ7Cplno


picture is the grinder we use for the chickens, 2 people throwing 40 chickens per minute, can keep up to this machine.



what nice horses the dogs get to run past each run. yeah right, these buggers escaped there pen 2 days ago, and walked the trail for 2 miles. 6 horses x 4 hooves = 1 destroyed trail. later that day, Lina, aka- the horse whisperer, got control of the herd, and re-pended them.



in this shot, Lina drives her team past mine. each ruin we try to do a few passes, great practise, and mixes the run up.

Pictures taken on Saturday, we are now running 12.4 miles, with the stage race teams, and the remaining adults are still running 105 miles. Temps were warm, -5c at start and 0c at some locations higher up on the trail.  Were running 3 - 12 dog teams, and 3 -9 dog teams.

Yesterday was Austins birthday party, so we all went over to Sara's house at 2, and had cake, and watched the gift opening. He did pick up some really cool toys, and mom and Sara made him a very nice cake, it was shaped like a Ken worth Truck, painted blue, his favourite colour.
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Winter has arrived, and it has brought over 12 inches of snow. we received the heavy snowfall over the weekend, in 1 continues dump starting on Thursday and snowing hard through Saturday. ON Monday temps dropped to -20 c, and now the trails are very firm and in perfect condition.

We switched over to sleds, and are now running full time on them since Monday. Main race teams are in 10 dog teams,and we run 3 groups of 2 teams, and the yearlings are in 4 teams of 10 dogs.
On Monday Morning, Dave and Sue loaded there truck with 27 of our best yearling, and a few reliable leaders, and departed north to their home in Tagish. This years group is very nice with dogs represented from the 2008 litters of: Nome X Lance, Zora X Torpa, Heidi x Lyle, Iris X Lyle, Jenna X Peo, Macy x Casper.  in this group there is 15 males, and 12 females. they were running 6 miles when the left, and since then dad talked with Sue, and she said all is well,  they have 5 inches of snow, and are running all dogs 6.5 miles.

We bumped our mileage to 10.6 miles, and have now done 2 runs at this distance. we are averaging 15.7- 15.8 mph, with 1 stop of 30 seconds. ( Terry and I switch drivers, and he runs the team for the last 1 miles. We are running 2 teams at once,  dad leads the 2 teams with snow machine and packer, i follow, then right after Lina gives chase.
 
Obviously with the trails in such great shape, and the dogs feeling so good, we need to apply lots of mat pressure to restrict the speed. as our goal and main race this season is the Stage Stop in Wyoming. there we will need to be ready to run 6 days of continuous racing of 40-60 miles. this race starts February 1st and runs til Feb. 6th.

Good news, we have our kennel help for this winter, as Airiane Jasmin will be managing the home kennel for the winter months, she arrived 2 weeks ago, and has been very good addition, she is a hard worker, lots of experience, and really enjoys working with sled dogs.

some birthdays to announce, Uncle Fast Eddy turned 50, he is now closer to 100 then 0. and Austin turned 4 yesterday, but don't tell him, as his party is not tell Saturday. Aunt Karen and Uncle Barry our celebrating their 32nd anniversary today. so all the best to you.

hope this finds everyone well. and consider this n open invitation to all, if you want to run on some of the safest most well prepared sled dog trails in the world, point your outfit to Fort Nelson.