Been spending a lot of time doing free play this winter. The snow is all icy and wind blown, makes dog sledding next to impossible. But our night time free runs are starting to be expanded to mornings now too. We are all very restless. This morning, despite the hard crusty snow was beautiful. The dogs could feel the calm too. Suzie was feeling especially playful.

Blue Mountain Sled Dog Race!

Its Official. I have gone off the deep end.

So last year I started thinking while running dogs.... sometimes its a wonderful thing. Since my role in the dog sledding community has changed over the years to just recreational instead of competitive racer, I wanted to give back to my racing friends. I started attending the local snowmobile club monthly meetings. It was way more interesting then I thought it would. So of course by the end of the season I was elected as a board member. So I am now the secretary of Blue Mountatin Snowdusters! It was a shaky first few months since there have been a lot of board member changes but I did work up the courage to proposed a sled dog race on the club trails. Well. They liked the idea, a lot. SO we are in the planning stages of the Blue Mountain Sled Dog Race! It will be held February 18, 2018 at the Grantham Recreational Fields. We have to formalize a few things but it town approved and we have permission from the neighboring club, Blow Me Down Snowriders, and of course the landowners Bardo Farm. It will be a mid distance race and within the next few weeks I will putting together an entry form so Stay Tuned! 

Friends are wonderful!

A little gift from my friend!

Yesterday I went on a playdate and my friend gifted us with BAGS of treats! She bought a house from a past dog food distributor and they keep getting awesome things delivered to the house! So YEA for us! Ill attempt to review some of them.


So far I have added Pro Plan Focus Daily Health to the sled dog's food and they Like it! The first ingredient is duck and it clearly taste food. Im always looking to get add yummy things to their kibble and this was well received! It is advertised as a treat and not a supplement so a small handful put in the food bucket was just the right amount to spice things up.

The other product we tried is Zuke's Hip Action. Since both my house dogs are now officially Seniors... Ellie turned 10 on Sunday! YIKES! I think this will be our morning treat for a while. Deklyn pretty much will eat anything so the true test is Ellie. These are super moist treats and very smelly ( in a good way) so very palatable for my girl. There is no corn, wheat or soy  so it is made with rice, oats and barley. I was a little said to see Maple Flavored Syrup since these guys are from New England they are used to the real thing. Looking forward to see if there is any change in the house dogs!


Thank you again Heather for your support! These dogs are SO spoiled. I also want to mention that The BARDO Project from Croydon donated a FREEZER load of bones and organ meat this summer too! The dog's teeth have never looked so clean and their coats are wicked nice right now. I only had to bath them once this summer. They blew their coats with no issues this year meaning the guard hairs were not damaged and allowed the fluff just to release, a huge benefit when you have 5 dogs to groom.

March Storm Stella brought us just over 2 feet of snow so we got out and have been enjoying it everyday since Wednesday! Today William wanted to get some time on the runners. We started by riding out to the main trail, then he rode tandem for a few miles. We attached Ellie for a while and then did tandem up some BIG hills and then Down some Big Hills Will was super brave and did a great job learning when to use the brake! On the last mile we hooked up Ellie and he ran her the rest of the way home including the super tight and narrow trail back to our house! Super Proud mom right here. The little one hasn't been feeling so great and just enjoyed the nice weather and a little nap in the sled. 

Mom Life!

I know I am a terrible blogger. Its been so long since I updated. Last winter was a bust. We only got out twice on sleds due to terrible snow conditions and nothing on our trails at home. This summer my husband worked on creating a trail out of our yard to the snowmobile trail!! Its amazing. My oldest son and I have been working all fall on building his skills to become a musher. W is about to turn 4 in February and over the holidays I got him on his own sled with his dog twice. the first day was a 2 miles and then the second time out was almost 3 miles. He did great going though some really tough terrain. He did get a ride home on the snowmobile and I put his dog back in my team, I mean he is still 3 and did some work driving his little sled ( which was graciously given to him by Christine Richardson of Seal Cove , a truly inspiring woman and amazing dog musher).  We also have started helping out with our local club the Blue Mountain Snow Dusters. Lee has been out a few times building/ maintaining trails and I have done some work with their facebook page.

Below are a few clips from our adventures!





We also have been doing a lot of kennel updating including a run in for two of the dogs! We removed a TON of trees too. Always a work in progress but they are super happy about the changes!

Here is a clip from us leaving from our yard!

I also started jogging with the dogs 2 to 3 miles 3 days a week over the non snow months to keep them in shape

William running with Ellie. I am not sure who has more energy a 3 year old or a husky!

The Team fall training. We put up signs this year on the BMSD Trails!!

Life in NH

We are staying to settle into our new home here in Grantham NH. The best part is that the digs have a cozy barn that they go in at night, bad weather or when they need a break. We have set up half of it with crates, straw and our equipment and plan on doing lots of improvements this summer. The previous owners had a bunny, and the hutch is big enough that we took the door off and the digs like hanging out in the elevated space. When wet first got here we had a digg house up against it but had to move it when we discovered Suzie was jumping on the roof of the hutch and then getting on the roof of the barn!
   The ground was frozen when we moved in so we used fence panels that we brought from the old kennel in Vermont to make a temporary yard for the winter. The dogs are enjoying their new space. The big evergreens shade them from heavy snow and wind.

   Right now we are only running on the weekends since we are not familiar with the talks yet and part of the trails go by a fenced game reserve. I have been told that sometimes the wild boars get out and can be dangerous! I am going to be constructing a holster to hold my shot gun for next winter so I can run at night.  I will post some video once I can figure out how to do that from my phone.

See you on the trail!

We are Back!!

We are back! After a long time off we are starting to get back into the swing of things. We had a baby, have moved to NH and are exploring our new back yard. There are trails everywhere here and the little 4 dog team and I are having a blast discovering where we can go.

 The dogs are also enjoying their very own barn and new dog yard.

Ellie is officially a house dog and enjoying her time on dog beds and watching over our son

The other three, Henry, Suzie and Carmine came back to us after time with Christine Richardson at Seal Cove Journeys. We missed them while we were moving but it was a great experience for them. Thank you Christine and Kip! Our new focus for the team is going to be just having fun and growing as a team. We are planning on participating in the Wonalancet fun Run this season and maybe more if we get some good training runs.

 See you on the trail!