Follow our quest for a more simple lifestyle living off grid in the remote north woods of Minnesota's Arrowhead Region, working with traditional sled dogs.
It's official. Our 2009 Tuloon/McKenzie Hedlund Husky puppy, Tumac, sired a litter of seven pups that were born at Uktousa Kennel in New Hampshire a few days ago! Daisy, a half Hedlund Husky, is also a family member, being our Journey's sister.
Points Unknown will be receiving the wonderful gift of two of these beautiful pups and will travel to New Hampshire the end of January to bring them home.
Please visit Lidia's blog for photos and updates on the new arrivals.
Simple Treasures. Napkin flower that Rebecca made placed on the beginnings of our Christmas Tree.
I have to say that the past few days I have actually felt "normal", whatever "normal" means. I didn't have to wake up so ridiculously early to immediately begin what was scheduled to be yet another entire day of an insane pace of running from one thing to the next, trying desperately to meet this deadline while not overlooking that one, feeding dogs, making beeswax candles, doing appraisals, touching on the Redpaw dog food business, touching on the MN Honey Producer's proposal for next season, trying to keep up communication with family and good friends, then making sure each dog gets enough exercise and attention while sometimes ignoring what I might need at the moment. That life, although necessary at the moment, is a means to an end and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I got a taste of that light over the past few days. I actually got to enjoy what I am working so hard to have. It did remind me of the life I am working towards. "The Quest for a More Simple Lifestyle; Working with Traditional Sled Dogs" This insane pace is not sustainable and not enjoyable. Although I enjoy each and every one of the things I do individually, to combine them at their current level is indeed pure insanity. I'm doing it and will continue to as long as it is needed while slowly making plans for a much more scaled down version of most of it but the dogs.
So, what did I do that made me feel "normal"? Got some sleep, cooked, cleaned, casually enjoyed the dogs with no set schedule, worked in the beeswax candle workshop when I wanted to and not because I had to, enjoyed a wonderful holiday meal with friends who are like family to me, caught up with friends living long distance and shoveled some snow! It was heaven. What would have made it even better is if Neil had been here to enjoy it all with me.
Now that I've been reminded of what I'd like my life to be, I need to not lose sight of it and continue to work on balancing the things that need to be done with the things I want to do. It can be done! (This will be the new mantra.)
Sweet Pea elevates her foot on Rebecca's pillow. "Oh, this is all so very serious and terribly painful," she implies with her expression.
Sweet Pea came running into the house with Tuloon and the little house dogs the other night with a yip and seconds later, she began to bleed profusely from her foot. Missing toenail! Somehow one of her toenails got caught in the threshold and off it came. Toenail, ear and tongue injuries appear so much worse than they are because of the enormous amount of blood involved and her toe bled and bled.
Rebecca held Sweet Pea's paw and applied pressure and as I applied gauze, a wrap and a bootie that then remained on until she chewed it off the next day.(Sweet Pea, not Rebecca) The bleeding appears to have stopped but we'll need to watch it closely because one bump and it can open up again. She'll be able to run in a few days with a bootie if she decides to use her foot. Right now, she is milking it for all she can and limps most of the time. I will take a few weeks for a toenail to grow back.
Tumac on one of his first runs last winter. What a handsome boy!
Hedlund Husky puppies are being born as I type. I won't give it away yet but I will provide a hint. Our Tumac, a 2009 Tuloon/McKenzie puppy, had something to do with it! Tuloon is a grandma!
Trying to win over Copper while Copper just ignores him
What a cutie.
I can't believe it has taken us this long since his arrival in August to test Ari out in the house. I guess the way he reacted to White Feather and Wimzi during their introduction lead me to believe it would be a big challenge to introduce him to the little house dogs so I procrastinated. If you recall from an earlier post, Ari came in to the kennel with an attitude of "I'll get you before you get me" and met both White Feather and Wimzi with a wide open mouth as he chased them and cornered them. What would have happened after that we don't know because of my rapid intervention.
Well, Mr Mouth has now settled in nicely and this attitude now appears to be gone. Thank goodness. Now he's Mr Laid Back or Mr Cool and Easy which I like the idea of a whole lot better. When I opened the door, both he and Zala rushed inside and Ari promptly jumped up on the couch and pretty much remained there the entire evening. He did head down the hallway to meet the little dogs through the baby gate. The meeting was so uneventful I decided to introduce him to them one at a time and in the sun room. He did what most of the dogs do when they come in. He showed a lot of interest in Blueberry and sniffed and sniffed then tried to get him to play and avoided Copper altogether because of Copper's immediate posture and growl that says, "I'm little but I'll still rip you to pieces if you make a wrong move."
We've got another couch potato here at Points Unknown!
We pass this horse facility on the way to our trail head. Little did we know that the horses were providing us with a kind of foreshadowing as they surrounded the sign.
Zala LOVES to lead in the snow! We don't see her doing her happy dance in the dirt.
Zodiak, cooling off his belly.
All smiles! Hailey, Ari and Journey.
Just look at those good dogs; so attentive.
Even with a plan and routine in place, things don't always go as you planned. It was just another fall/winter training day which would begin at our usual trail head. We pass a horse facility just before the trail head and all of the horses were hanging around the sign. I thought it was so interesting as they had never all been in a huddle before when we drove by. I stopped the truck to take a photo.
The first team went out on the trail and back in and it was all very uneventful; just a good and successful run. The dogs are unharnessed on the gangling and hop right up into the truck and into their crates. We set up the cart and then the next team of dogs comes out of their crates and on to the outriggers of the trucks for harnessing. All harnessed and we're ready to go. Now we just have to shut the truck door and lock it......oh but wait. We forgot to check in with each other to make certain that one of us had the pad lock key for the truck. Well, I did, but it was now locked in the back of the truck in my jacket along with the rest of the keys and my cell phone. Shoot. Oh well, after years of the same routine and no trouble, I guess it was bound to happen. Thankfully, there was plenty of daylight so there was no need to rush.
Our nearest neighbor is the Raven Ridge horse facility so I took a walk to pay them a visit while Hailey remained with the dogs. You don't get an awful lot of exercise running the dogs on the cart so the walk was welcome and it was such a nice day. As I walked, I thought to myself, hmmm, things happen for a reason. I wonder what is in store for us during this adventure other than learning that we need to have another key for the pad lock that is kept in the cart box.
Arriving at Raven Ridge, I was hoping they would have a bolt cutter first and then a cell phone if the bolt cutter failed. No bolt cutter. But the assistant facility manager was just leaving with her two beautiful Jack Russells, Henry and Eddy and happened to be heading in the direction of Points Unknown so I asked if they would mind some company. I would go home and get my other set of keys! I hopped in the truck and shared my seat with Henry and Eddy. Actually, Henry and Eddy shared my lap. Kate, the person who came to my rescue, and I began to talk and didn't stop the entire way back to Points Unknown. Turns out she is not a winter person and really would like to learn more about different outdoor winter activities so that she might be able to learn to enjoy this beautiful and magical season. Did she run into the right person. And things do happen for a reason. We've been staying in touch and I've got a plan to introduce her to the Points Unknown sled dogs who will be certain to help change her mind about winter.
Thanks so much to Kate for the rescue! When we returned to the dog truck she came out to meet the sled dogs as I tried to unlock the pad lock but with the wrong key! Geez. Well, at least I had a set of truck keys so was able to open the truck and squeeze through the small pass-through door to recover my coat with pockets full of all of my very necessary items.
We where then able to hook up the dogs and head out on our second run before dark. Wouldn't you know, the adventure didn't end with the key incident. The darn brakes began locking up on the cart on our way back and about 3 miles from the truck creating far too much resistance for the dogs. So we did a combination of pushing and running and the brake would free itself and we were off! But the moment we needed to brake, it locked again. So the routine was repeated over and over again until finally we made it back just before dark. There is always a positive way to frame something. At least the brakes were working and we didn't find ourselves careening down the trail, dragging our bodies behind the cart to try and slow them down!
All in all, it was a very fulfilling and entertaining day.
The early lake freeze has caught us off guard. We were expecting to continue to fall train the sled dogs into December as we have in years past without the added challenge of patchy snow laden and icy trails. In the past couple of weeks we've had freezing rain, snow and ice and it isn't going away. I'm not complaining. A solid early lake freeze would set the stage for a much needed long winter season. Winter has become too short.
November 23rd lake freeze. Who would have though? More cold on the way!
Handsome Tumac
Beautiful Daisy
