5 Week Old Puppy Picture

5 week old Hedlund Pups.

4th of July Clean-Up

Husky Pen

Dogs were unharmed.

Three Kennels affected.

All plans were off for the 4th of July when we awoke to a huge tree down in the dog yard. The tree fell in three dog kennels, demolishing the top rail of two kennels. Thankfully the dogs were unharmed. It looked worse than it was, however four hours were spent just cutting it up and hauling it out to burn, not to mention the time taken for repairs.

Temps were in the 90s with the dew point in the upper 60s. This made for a challenging day working outside next to a massive fire. By the end of the day, all dogs were safe and happy in their newly repaired kennels.

4 Week Old Puppy Picture

4 week old Hedlund pups.

BOW Training and Fishing Launch

Sunset on Lake Mille Lacs

Beautiful evening

Getting ready to fish

One of six fish caught

Peaceful evening on the lake

This weekend was the DNR's Becoming an Outdoors Women instructor training day in Isle, MN. The day was spent discussing how to write curriculum and the psychology of how women learn and interact as compared with how men learn and interact. In a nutshell, women and men act differently in mixed groups than they do in a group of just men or just women. This interaction plays a role in the learning of individuals in each group. Generally women learn better when in a group of all women. There is less competition and more teamwork and emotional support, which supports the way women are typically hardwired.

We discovered that, although there are some very basic differences in how each sex is "hardwired" and how each will learn best and in what setting, there has been an evolution in the past few decades that has closed the gap a bit. Overall, its very important to deal with each person as an individual and tailor-make their experience based on their personality, ability and experience.

This day of training was followed by a Lake Mille Lacs fishing launch to fish for Walleye, the Minnesota state fish. We couldn't have asked for a better day. The temps were a bit warm when the launch began but quickly cooled off once on the lake. Unfortunately, the May Flies hatched a few days prior so most of the Walleye were sitting on the bottom of the lake with their stomachs full, completely ignoring the tasty leeches on our lines. The guide told us that the week before, he had launches with over 200 fish caught and had slowly seen them drop off since this hatch to the all time low of 6 fish caught, which was on our launch.

Since the journey is just as important as the destination, our bad fishing luck didn't seem to dampen the mood on the boat. We enjoyed each other's company, the call of loons and the wonderful sunset.

Hail Storm

The approaching storm

Ominous sky

Last week we experienced seven minutes of hail, wiping out nearly half of the apple crop at two of our orchards. June is a month to watch for hazardous weather in our area. Several years ago we were wiped out on the same day in June, two years in a row.

Thankfully, all sled dogs found their way to their dog houses before hail the size of golf balls came crashing down; just big enough to cause serious injury. The storm did provide a much needed respite from the 90 degree temperatures that had plagued us for over a week. The change in temps revived the dogs. Its hard to believe that some haven't begun to shed.

3 Week Puppy Picture

3 week old Hedlund Husky Pups

2 Week Puppy Update

2 week old Hedlund Husky pups.

The McKenzie/Cranberry pups are two weeks old. Their eyes opened a few days ago and they are getting more and more mobile.