Hard to believe but the Beargrease is only four months away!!!  Mark was the 23rd musher to sign up for the marathon.  A special thank you to Kevin and Maryellen Kervina of Twin Ports Amusement for paying his entry.  The marathon is limited to 30 teams this year and there is already three teams on the waiting list.  You  can check out the Beargrease website for more information.

Fall is officially here Off The Beaten Path.  Yesterday there were actually a few snow flakes falling in the hills of Hovland and it isn’t even October yet!  We had another great training run with Mark running yearling Red(coat) in lead the whole way.  Again, she did awesome.  On tonight’s run we will again try two younger dogs in lead.  I will let you know next week how Devil(fish) and PJ run.

Moose season opens this weekend so we are expecting to see a few more hunters around.  We are hoping that the big bull we have seen the last week makes it through the season.  Both Mark and I think the set of antlers we found this spring might be from him.  We both thought the rack on the moose we saw looks like “our” set.  We know the secrect spot where we found the set this spring, so we are hoping to find the same set next spring!

Have a great weekend and don’t forget to check out the previous post regarding BL.A.C.Klub.  Our first adopted family has come on board.  ACMU will be choosing their dog next week.

Happy Trails!

I thought I should write a post about what we have been doing here off the beaten path.  First off, I have to say we are currently ON the beaten path since ruffed grouse season opened. The last two weekennds, we have had five groups drive by before 8:30 a.m. We are in an area that is loaded with the winged creature, but do you think we have had time to go out an try to get one or two for dinner…

We have been busy training and have had some of our yearlings running lead already.  Blue(gill) ran the whole six miles and I put Red(coat) in halfway through.  Both of them were awesome!   Just about nothing makes a dog musher more proud than when we see puppies that we have raised ourselves growing up and maturing into fine adults.  Since I never had children, I guess I take the pride a parent must feel about his or her children feel and associate it with our dogs.

I had to include this picture of Scooter.  We think he has a love/hate relationship with his dog house.  When he gets excited, whether it be feeding or hook-up time, he will grab the side of his barrel with his mouth and start yanking on it.  Most times he will get it all the way out and have it laying in his circle.  He loves laying in his barrel so he doesn’t care whether it is in it’s stand or not!  I bet we have to fix it for him at least two to three times a day. 

We also think we have our phone working properly again.  Last week we got a new antenna and cable, but the phone was still acting up.  The only thing we didn’t replace was the little piece that plugs into the phone and runs to the cable.  Monday, I bought the $12.99 part and our phone is working again!  Next time we will try the cheaper part first!  No matter, we finally have reliable communication with the outside world. 

We have been busy getting things ready for winter here.  This morning’s temp at 4:45 was 27 degrees.  We are slowly getting our stockpile of firewood cut and split, and are going to be building a bunkhouse/handler cabin in the next couple of weeks.  We are really excited to have a live-in helper coming to stay with us for the winter again this year.  Theresa (“T”) is finishing up the season with Voyageuer Canoe Outfitters at the end of the Gunflint Trail and will be going home for a couple of weeks to spend some time with her family until the end of October when she will travel to Off The Beaten Path and help us with the dog chores. She will be a great addition to the kennel and her help will be tremendously appreciated by Mark.  Last winter he spent the weekdays alone training three teams and doing all the daily chores of living in the bush, so hopefully this winter he will be able to get a little more sleep!   

We hope you are enjoying our little web journal, let us know if there is something you would like to see posted.  We hope you are having a great fall and enjoying the fall colors.  They are fading fast here in the Arrowhead so be sure to take the time and enjoying the colors while you can.

Happy Trails!

As promised from a previous post…here it is.

When we travel to schools, churches, nursing homes, etc. the question we get asked most often is “How do you remember all their names”?  First thing I ask a classroom full of eight-year-olds is if they know all their classmates names.  I tell them it’s the same as remembering all the kids’ names.  Each dog looks different and they have their own personalities.  However, it isn’t always that easy coming up with names when we generally have approximately 40 dogs at any given time but I can tell you how all of our dogs got their names and let you in on a secret of the mushing world…

When it comes time to name a littler of puppies, most sled dog kennel owners come up with a “theme” for a litter.  For example, last year we had two litters that were born on the fishing opener.  The females were named after lakes in the area; Olga, Esther, Devil(fish), No Name (yes, there is a lake No Name) and Red(coat).  The males were named after fish; Wally (for Walleye), Trout, Brown (Brown Trout), Blue(gill).  Not all “fit” the theme and can have a name that fits some other characteristic.  For example, there are two more males in the “fish litter”.  Fuzzy was named because his coat was so fuzzy when he was a puppy and PJ (short for Pokey Joe) was named because when we’d take the crew out for a free-run behind the ATV he was soooooo slow. 

Other themes we have had-The Seven Summits; Denali, Everest, Kila(manjaro), Elbrus, Acon(cagua), Vinson, and Carstenz.  (We found out later that Carstenz isn’t actually one of the Seven).  As little puppies, these guys loved to climb.  In 2004 retired Minnesota Viking, Matt Blair, ran a team of ours in the Beargrease 150 to raise money for Special Olympics Minnesota.  While at the Two Harbors checkpoint Ruby and Johnny decided it was a nice spot for a romantic interlude and the “Vikings” litter was conceived.  We of course had to name one Matt, the other two are Studwell and Foreman.  Then there is the “Beer” litter, Mich(elob), Bud(weiser), Leinenkugel, Guiness, Coors and Amber…named for our favorite beer, Alaskan Amber.  A couple of years ago we bred our old leader Innoko (out of the Alaskan Rivers theme) to a dog named Caesar.  Now we have Athena, Cleo(patra) and Hercules.  A litter split with a friend of ours that same year was the two-wheeled litter; we have Deuce, Scooter, Indi(an).  The only other whole theme we still have is the brother duo of Starsky and Hutch.  We bought them as unnamed six-week-olds from famous sprint musher, Eddy Streeper. 

Some of our older dogs are the only ones we have left as their littermates have gone on to retirement to other kennels or as pets.  Ophir and his litter (Ruby, Rohn and Rainy) were born while the Iditarod was being run so we named them after Iditarod checkpoints. Olive and her crew (Bozeman, Dillon, Lincoln, Butte, Helena, and Sidney) were named after towns in Montana.  Olive was the last one named and I had to get the map out to find another female name.  Olive’s sister, Helena, is enjoying retirement as a house dog with our website re-builder, Tone Coughlin.  Willie and his crew were named for country singers…we had Waylon, Garth, Travis, Reba and our sadly missed, Naomi. 

The rest of the dogs we bought from other mushers and were already named when we got them, but a few were also from a theme.  From Doug Swingley there is Tucson named for large southwestern cities and Zena the “Z” litter.  From Eddy Streeper there is Erin, each puppy named for someone in the famous mushing family, The Redington’s and Emma named by Eddy’s daughter Chloe for friends of hers at school.  Johnny and Ranger were bought from Eddy and we aren’t sure of their theme.  Of course I can’t forget our kennel mascot/couch potato/mighty bunny hunter, Roxy.  Roxy is named for her father Rex who was the legendary Don Juan Dog of Fredenberg Township in Duluth.   

Last, but not least, of the dogs we still have in the kennel is The Noodle.  Noodle came to us, again from Eddy, and was named Pepsi (the pop litter) when we bought him.  Our good friend Geoff who was helping us with the dogs when Noodle came to live with us always said that petting Pepsi was like trying to pet a wet noodle….and well you can only guess the personality on that. 

I couldn’t finish this journal entry about naming sled dogs without mentioning our most famous dog, Butthead.  As mentioned in a previous entry, Butthead was a term of endearment.  Butthead came to live with us as a six-week-old puppy from another musher.  Butthead was the product of an unplanned breeding in the kennel and the musher wanted the lone male to go to a racing kennel to see how he would turn out (his sisters went as pets).  Butthead was the only puppy we had at the time and spent most of his younger days running free around the yard or in the house.  Mark first named him Buster after heavyweight boxing champ, Buster Douglas.  As Butthead grew up, we started calling him Buster Butthead because he was such a screwball.  When Butthead was about six months old, we bought an adult dog named Buster and we couldn’t have two Busters.  It’s hard to rename a five-year-old dog and since Butthead was already used to being called Buster Butthead, Butthead he became.  Little did we know how prophetic that name would be…

(stay tuned and keep checking the journal for the continuation of How Sled Dogs Get Their Names, The Story of Butthead)

 

 

 

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 As most of you may know, we are in the process of having our website rebuilt.  We apologize for it taking so long, but it’s hard to do when you don’t have power or internet at home.  My postings on the journal are usually done between 5:30 and 6:00 in the morning before I start work. 

I would like to say a huge thank you to Tone Coughlin for taking on the rebuild and for being patient when trying to get information from me.  He has a couple of pages up and I think they look awesome.  Thanks Tone, I will keep getting the information to you.  If anyone out there has any suggestions, please let me know.  Hopefully by the end of the month or early next month, we will have most of it up. 

Remember to let us know that you have been here.  Just log into the site and leave a comment.  We have had a suggestion that we should have the local weather on either our website or the journal.  Since we don’t have that anywhere yet, Karl I thought I would let you know it was 26F this morning with a few clouds.  (Mark worked with Karl this summer and now he is back in Poland keeping up-to-date via the journal).

Remember to join the BL.A.C.Klub (BLack’s Adopt a Canine Klub).  Check out yesterday’s post for the inside scoop on becoming a Klub Member. 

Happy Trails!

Have you always wanted a husky of your own, but for one reason or another can’t?  Here’s your chance to “adopt” a sled dog for the season.  We would like to introduce you to BL.A.C.Klub (BLack’s Adopt a Canine Klub). When you join the Klub you will choose which dog you would like to “adopt” and will receive an adoption certificate, a plaque with your name bolted above the door of your dog’s house and other benefits depending on which dog you choose.
Puppy Klub ($100) members will receive:
*One 8×10 signed and framed photo of your dog
*Recognition on our website Sponsor Page as a Puppy Klub Member
*Listing on the top of your dog’s bio page on our wesite as it’s sponsor
*Monthly e-mail updates from your dog

Team Dog Klub ($200)  members will receive:
*One 8×10 signed and framed photo of your dog
*Recognition on our website Sponsor Page as a Team Klub Member
*Listing on the top of your dog’s bio page on our website as it’s sponsor
*Monthly e-mail updates from your dog
*A set of four booties used by your dog

 

 

 
Lead Dog Klub ($300) members  will receive:
*One 8×10 signed and framed photo of “your dog”
*Recognition on our website Sponsor Page as a Lead Dog Klub Member
*Listing on the top of your dog’s bio page on our website as it’s sponsor
*Monthly e-mail
updates from your dog
*A set of four booties used by your dog
*Your dog’s harness used in training
That’s it!  Either call or e-mail us for the list until we get our new and improved “Athletes” page up and running on our website.  Race season is approaching soon…don’t be left out of the Klub!!!