November 2, 1999

Hunting season has arrived! Not a good thing for mushers around here! I've outfitted the dogs with blaze oranges vests to wear over their harnesses, which should help keep us safe as we share the woods with hunters for the next month.

We had another excellent weekend of training, putting 90 miles on all the 'A' team dogs in 3 days. We even discovered some really lovely new trails!

Yesterday the dogs all got a day off to rest. I spent the day catching up on paying bills, banking, my correspondence, yard chores..... Not much rest for me :) We picked all the water buckets up on Sunday too, that means that our feeding schedule changes now. In the summer, the dogs have buckets hanging on their houses with fresh water available all the time. Feeding consists of going through the yard in the evening with dry kibble. Now that the buckets are off the houses we feed a breakfast of meat, National Energy Pack and water. Their evening meal starts off with dry kibble and vitamins and then we go through the yard and scoop out their 'soup' of meat and water. Most mushers feed their kibble soaked in water/meat, but we have found that our critters eat better if offered dry kibble first! It requires an extra 'pass' through the yard in the evening, but Mark and I both enjoy feeding time and the visiting that we do with the dogs then! Of course, in addition to all this, the dogs get fed after every run too. Usually a snack of frozen fish, lamb or beef and followed up with a meat, Energy Pack and water soup! Lately, we have been adding a little kibble after the run as I'm trying to put some more weight on a number of the dogs!
Today, I'm going to get a run in. Then I need to go into the Vet in Westlock. Seems Striker and Chester had a minor disagreement on the weekend. Even minor disagreements can be a problem when you have 2" canines! Striker got a puncture wound on his nose, nothing serious, but it is swelling a little and I want my vet, Dr. Jackson, to take a quick look at it and probably put him on antibiotics.

Well, that's the news and gossip for this morning!