Monday 12-14

Well the summer went by like that and I(Nathan) finally got a day off work, well at least half a day. We've been running dogs pretty regularly since Oct 1st but the weather hasn't cooperated. Warm all fall and now no snow but maybe that will change this week for us. All the dogs are still running on the 4-wheeler but they are doing 14 miles and doing it well. This year has been one of the hardest years for us so far when it comes to training. We are training 42 dogs off the truck, 3 to 4 times per week. Due to noise restriction where we live, we have to get up at 6:30 get water ready and go out at 7 and water dogs and clean up poops, then we come in and eat our breakfast, get the rest of the last minute stuff ready and load the dogs on the truck at 9 am and leave the house 9:30 to 10:00. Drive over 1 hour just to get to the place we go to train, train all day get done around 5 pm, drive home feed and finish chores get back into the house around 8pm. We do this Tuesday, Thursday and on the weekends. The other three day we both work all day and on Wednesdays we have to go back to work till 1 am. It would be nice to get on a sleds soon so we can go farther.

We went and raced Montana Creek track last Saturday but we didn't go back on Sunday. The club did a pretty good job getting a trail in for as little snow as they have. The trail was very rough and it fell apart pretty quick so when Jen came back from the 6 dog we decided we'd go ahead and run the rest of the teams but we'd have to keep themslowed down withthe mat. It was also crazy getting the teams out since they had very little time in between classes. We both got back in the 8 dog class and before I even got in there were open teams already hooking up. We had less then 10 min to un- hook 14 dogs (Jen raced 6 in the 8 dog class), drop 12, turn the sled around, change lines, harness and hook twelve up and get to the line. It was also a bummer to see the purses getting cut and the fee's going way up, its going to make really hard for people to come up there and race multipul teams. But other wise we were happy with all the yearlings and the young 2 year old leaders that raced their first race in lead. All the dogs are healthy and happy and are as eager as us get to sleds and do something different. We had a litter of pups born about a week ago, there was a whopping 1 pup in the litter. Sure is going to be an expensive pup having her now when the weathers been around 0 F . Hope everyone has a good start to the season and a merry Christmas. Here are some pictures from this year. Jen and her nephew being silly after the 2009 Easter race at chugiak. Us with Ryobi (lead dog) right after Jen won the 2009 8 dog Limited North American. We made it away twice this summer to go fishing. Once at my parents cabin on the Kenai river and dip netting on the kenai the other time and we got a lot, hopefully enough fish for us this winter and into next

summer. And the new lonely pup born December 9th, her name is "Jingle".