Brrrrr.....

So we knew the temps were starting to get back to *normal* (read: freakin' cold!!!) so stepping outside to -30C at 7:30 am today was a bit of a shock to the system. The dogs agreed. Lucy laid claim to the doggy bed last night... it seems each day a new dog discovers this wonderous addition to the cabin.

Our next scheduled (sorta) run is not till tomorrow... too much work and woodcutting (damned cold!) going on right now. Plus we had a bit of a *tiff* in the yard last night, so once again... recuperation time!! Every once in a while, the old girl, Kate decides to steal some other dogs food right out of the bowl, or she'll actually just grab the bowl with her mouth and drag it off to a corner. I feed them all loose, and they are usually pretty good at sticking to their own bowls. Kate however, had taken to stealing Gabes food a while back. And Gabe would just let her - he's not one to fight back (a good thing usually!). I watched that for a while, and even tied her up while feeding. For months she was fine... until last night when she made the bad decision to go for Rippers bowl, and Ripper wasn't gonna have any of that crap! I had just walked around the corner, and heard the mayhem, but in the 3 seconds it took me to get back to the pen, it was over, and Kate and Ripper were both limping. Kate was yelping a bit still and obviously hurt. He got her in the nose as it was swollen later that night, but the limping stopped. They were buddy-buddy in the cabin and playing around an hour later (why can't people be like that? Then again... we usually don't beat the crap out of old ladies for snagging a piece of food off our plate...).

On Wed. I may aim to take all 10 (+ Kuna) out... that'll be a first, because I've never taken out more than 9 in the team last year since that's all I had. I've driven 10 dog teams before though, and the jump from an 8-dog team to a 10-dog team was always significant to me. I always felt most comfortable with 8. 6 and 8 dogs are similar, but you add those extra two, with limited snow conditions... ah hell, I just may go for 2 teams of 5...we'll see. Then *they're* predicting snow (as *they* often do and it NEVER comes), for Wed... so I may be safe to do a 10-dog team by weeks end. Well, at least I'm on the sled. Our last run went so well, that it was almost too good to be true! It's usually much more chaotic, and I must remember that!! I also had significant weight in the sled (passengers make a difference), so I may chuck in a couple bags of dogfood, which is over 80lbs. Most importantly is getting across that highway safely. We cross it to get to the 10 mile+ loops, and I have visions of oen of last years horrendous road crossings. Granted, we were just starting the crossing thing, and I was changing it all over the place (not the smartest thing to do on the sled), so the dogs were confused. But they hit the highway, and started running DOWN it... they must have gotten fedup with our crossing through fresh snow, confusion, tangled lines, and realized how easy highway running is! Woohoo! They were off! Luckily it was late and no cars were out. It figures that I tripped trying to run beside the sled, but thankfully hung on and was dragged on the pavement on my knees for about 20 ft....ouch! Luckily they stopped before my knees were shredded (can't say as much for 3 layers of clothing though....), perhaps my screeching helped. Anyways, I hope to avoid situations like that! However, this year, we've been working on commands and hwy crossings like crazy! So I'm hopeful.