Off The Beaten Path Weather Report, 7:00 a.m.: 18 degrees, 80% humidity, mostly clear skies, calm winds.

Weather Underground Forecast:

Today
Partly sunny. Highs 27 to 32. Northeast winds 10 to 20 mph.
Tonight
Mostly clear. Lows 13 to 18. Southeast winds 5 to 10 mph becoming south 10 to 15 mph early in the morning.

All the dogs did awesome yesterday when we bumped up the miles. We ran all three teams together with Mark leading, Lis playing pig in the middle and my bringing up the year. It was kind of fun for me to be the caboose since I am usually leading one of the handlers around. What’s also nice about following another team is that it’s a great time to try young dogs in lead as they usually do better their first time if they are chasing. Yesterday, Jango got the honors and did great.  I should have brought my camera with but of course I forgot it as I was charging the battery after taking the pictures to post yesterday morning (sorry Mom Lambert). Today it’s going to be a testosterone run as all three men are taking the teams out while Lis and I stay behind.

After the guys get back from their run, we humans are heading into town for a local mushers social as part of the North House Folk Schools Winterer’s Gathering. Even though we have a ton of stuff to do around here, we thought it would be nice to let the handlers meet some of the other mushers they will be seeing on the trails this winter.

We are resigning ourselves to the fact that we more than likely won’t be getting the garage up this year. The ground is freezing fast and we don’t have anything to dig the post holes with. Last year we were supposed to get this room that I am currently sitting in done, but ran out of time and it had to wait until this year. That snafu was our own fault as we didn’t start the construction until it was too late. This year, we had our plans all in order in July, but due to the delay in the well drilling, here we are again. If we get a warm-up and the back-ordered tire for the backhoe comes in, we might have a short window of opportunity. We’ll see what Mother Nature gives us. It’s not the end of the world if the garage doesn’t get up, but it sure would be nice.