We did it!

Well, we did it! We finally made our move up to the remote north woods of Minnesota's Arrowhead Region where we're living and working entirely OFF GRID using solar energy. It's been a long and complicated journey to get to where we can begin living more simply.

Having just finished a very successful winter season for Points Unknown in our new location, we are looking forward to putting our efforts into creating another exciting set of dog sledding experiences and adventures for our guests for next winter!

What projects, additions and excitement do you have planned for 2014, you ask?

• Once mud season disappears in the dog yard we'll begin installing our new kennels! When we made our move, we had to move quickly so smaller temporary pens were constructed to get us through until we could take the time to plan the permanent ones. Each pair of dogs will get a new kennel that will be double the size of their current kennel and they'll be configured in such a way to provide more privacy with less neighbors, sharing two sides with other kennels versus three. They will also be more play areas added!
• More dog houses will be made.
• We're looking into having an Open Dog Yard for summer tourists to come up and meet the dogs.
• More trails will be added to our existing system of trails.
• Our current covered porch will be transformed into a four season porch which will be the perfect spot for the dogs to pass through before coming in the house. During mud season this will allow muddy feet to dry before tracking mud into the rest of the house. In the winter, this area will house a number of crates so that our senior and more vulnerable dogs have a warm, yet not too warm, bedroom of their own. It can get too hot in the main part of the house for them during the winter. In the spring, it will be the perfect place to frisk them of mosquitoes before those blood suckers can hitchhike their way into the main part of the house on the dogs. This is also where we will set up our whelping box when we have a litter of puppies in the future, with a doggie door going out to a fenced in area for mom to get away from it all.
• AND we hope to add two puppies from a frozen artificial insemination between Phoenix and one of our Topa/Oken 2011 puppies, Chetan, who now lives in Alaska. Frozen Phoenix will be shipped over to Thom Swan at Star Dancer Historical Freight Kennel at the right moment and they'll take it from there.

Follow us to hear about our progress! You can also check us out on our Points Unknown Facebook page. Be sure to "like" our page!

Happy Spring, everyone!