Happy Birthday!

Seventeen years ago yesterday, a little baby was born in the wee hours of the morning.

That little baby was me!

Yesterday I celebrated my 17th birthday.

I'm yet another year older and (hopefully) another year wiser. lol

My friend and I spent the day baking pumpkin pies, boiling caramel apple cider, making manacotti, and then devouring all of the above.

That's one of many things that makes me glad my birthday is in the fall; I get to eat yummy things like pumpkin pies and caramel apple cider.

Other things that make me enjoy a fall birthday are the beautiful fall colors, the crisp fall air, the start of fall training, the activities you do in the fall such as making pumpkin pies, hay rides, picking pumpkins from a pumpkin patch and then carving them. Fall is really a great time of the year.

When I was little, my dad used to tell me that when the geese flew South, my birthday was not far off. So, every time the geese flew over our house, my dad would take me outside so I could see them.

Now the migrating geese are a constant reminder of my upcoming birthday.

I thank God for every year he has given me. I wouldn't trade any of them for anything!

So Happy Birthday to all of you Octobers. Have a wonderful day!

Of course my cake had something to do with dogs. lol

Peace, Love, Sled Dogs

The Joys of Fall

The temps are FINALLY down in the low 50s and 40s to stay! After a week of 75 degrees F this is a wonderful change! We can now get on a regular training schedule instead of running in a sporadic pattern.

Training is going well and the dogs are doing fantastic! I couldn't ask for them to do any better. We're doing about 3 miles each run now and our goal is to be doing 5 miles by January. So we're not doing too bad!

Not only does fall come with training runs, it comes with lots and lots of kennel cleaning/preparing for winter and raking, raking, raking, those pesky leaves. They look pretty when they're still attached to their trees...but then they fall. :P I think I'd actually rather shovel dog poop than rake leaves.

Ah well, it won't last forever. Soon there should be snow on the ground! The weather people here are calling for a harsh winter this year so Michiganders; get out your shovels!

We're hoping for lots of snow to make up for the lack of it the past 2 winters. Hopefully no races will have to be cancelled!

Stay tuned for the 2012 racing schedule!

Peace, Love, Sled Dogs

Happy Harvest!

The title says it all! Hope everyone has a great season!

Peace, Love, Sled Dogs

Fall Training Begins...

Ahhhhhhh yes, it is that time of the year again! Time for lower temps, falling leaves, shorter days, white knuckle rides on the bike with the dogs that usually come with crashes, blood, and bruises.

Yes, my friends, it is fall.

We've already gone on one training run (which went so smoothly I began to wonder if I had dreamed it.) and we can't wait for more!

The first run, like I said, was absolutely flawless. I took out 3 teams of 2 with the bike and everyone ran perfectly. We ran at 6am to catch the cold temps (which were still a bit warm so we ran short and slow). I don't know if my neighbors agree but it sure was nice to hear the dogs scream in anticipation of the first run of the season. I miss that sound during the summer. :P

I have high hopes for this racing season so we will have to work hard this fall! Speaking of that ....I think its time to go run dogs!

Melanie Gould was found alive and well but is the compassion showed by the people who followed her story dead?

*Originally posted on June 12, 2011*

As some of you may or may not know, Alaskan musher Melanie Gould, mysteriously went missing on June 1, 2011. Her absence was discovered when she did not show up for work at the Roadhouse in Talkeetna. Melanie left behind her kennel of sled dogs which were later taken care of by friends and neighbors.

Eleven days after her disappearance, Melanie was found alive and well. She is now recovering in a hospital. No details are being released.

Many people are expressing their opinion on Melanie's strange disappearance. Many are not being nice about it either. It's been said that she "abandoned her dogs" and "just wanted time off of work". The Animal Rights activists are trying to turn the story into an animal abuse case.

Well, you want to know what my opinion is? WHO KNOWS? Who knows what happened out there besides Melanie? NO ONE. Last time I checked the troopers in Alaska were searching for one woman and one woman only. She is the only one who truly knows what happened out there.

Opinions based on assumptions are not opinions at all but fantasies. We can't believe all that the media is saying. When it all boils down, the media is nothing but a fancy way to gossip.

Remember playing the game Telephone when you were a child? When people stand in a line, the person at the front of the line thinks of a word and whispers it to the person next to them, who whispers it to the person next to themand so on. Finally, the word reaches the person at the end of the line, they say it out loud, and it ends up being something totally different from what the first person said. That is because someone along the line didn't hear the word right so they just say what they think they heard. I see the same thing happening with Melanie's story.

All in all, we need to be happy and thankful that Melanie was found alive and well. What ever happened out there is frankly none of our business.

I will leave you with this quote for the day. "It is a mistake to theorize before one had data. Inevitably, on begins to twist facts to suit theories instead of theories to suit facts." ~ Sherlock Holmes