Cookbook Orders

Kara here... again

Geesh, I hate it when the musher goes out of town for things because I'm stuck maintaining the blog. Blah, blah, blah, Q got points, pfft. May I point out that I ran in the Iditarod FIVE times and I'm a champion?? By the way musher, you'll be pleased to know that you won a turkish lottery and all I had to do was give them your bank account information so the winnings will be there when you get back.

Anyhoo, since I made following the blog easier, I also made buying one of the musher's totally cool, and very tasty cookbooks easier to buy. Ok, when I say tasty cookbook I do admit to nibbling on the edges of one or two, and the paper is indeed high quality and tasty, but the recipes that are inside are even better!

The musher is taking pre-orders to determine how many copies to get, and it'll help cover the cost of printing. You won't be sorry when you try some of the very tasty meals in this cookbook!

Well, we are ready to start taking pre – orders on the NorthWapiti Cookbook “When Kibble Just Won’t Cut it” – and we will be very grateful if you preorder. It will help us determine how many cookbooks to print for our initial order and help cover the costs of printing!

The cookbook will feature pictures, stories and over 160 recipes with over 36 folks from around the world contributing! There's human foods and even dog foods and treats in this cookbook!

Not only will it become a staple in your home, but its also a great gift for the holidays or birthdays or just any ol day.

I've sent up buttons to help you humans buy them through paypal. Shipping is included in the cost. There's a button for humans buying in the United States, and a button for those of you shipping anywhere else.

If you want to order more than 3, then get ahold of the musher or Helen and they'll let you know the cost.

If you want to pay with a cheque, make the cheque payable to:
Karen Ramstead
and mail it to:
Karen Ramstead, Box 9, Perryvale, Alberta, T0G 1T0

All proceeds go toward my Dentastix habit... I mean... supporting the musher when she runs another Iditarod.

Blog Updates Made Simple

Kara here!

I was napping on my cloud the other day when I was disturbed by the muttering of my musher. There's nothing worse than having a perfectly good cloud nap interrupted by a muttering musher, except for having a good Dentastix chew interrupted by a muttering musher, but I digress.

It seems some readers were having problems with finding the blog, remembering to check the blog, and not knowing when updates were posted. I can see how this could be frustrating. Humans typically have to work and don't have the time that I do to spend cruising the Internet for Dentastix sales and catching up on the latest news on Twitter or Facebook. As a popular, Pretty champion and 5 time Iditarod veteran, I have quite the fan base and know how to market myself on the Internet, so I try to help my musher since her Internet skills are lacking... pathetic actually.

"I need something SIMPLE" she told me. Fine, I'm all about simple, especially when it comes to humans. For a bunch of people that can accessorize and tie their shoes, they sure can't fathom RSS and readers, so I enlisted the help of faithful North Wapiti list Reader Laura S. to write up an easy method for getting blog updates. Unfortunately, although it made perfect sense to me, along with easy to follow pictures and step by step instructions, it would probably be way too complicated for most humans. I will be posting Laura's instructions at a later date for those who want to subscribe via a "Reader", but I needed an even simpler solution for those who were... challenged in the way of the Interwebs (hehehe, little geek humor there).

So, once the musher and musher guy were asleep, I took over the computer and instead of signing my musher up for spam like I usually do, I enabled her feedburner and added a widget and ... ok, I probably lost most of you already, so in a nutshell, here is how you get updates, the SIMPLE way:


See that box on the right hand side near the top that says: Enter your email address? Click your mouse in that box, type in your e-mail address, click the subscribe button, then sit back and wait and all new posts will be automatically sent to your e-mail address.

Simple enough? I thought so, now send me a bag of Dentastix!

Oh, and if you have issues, just leave a comment on the blog. All comments are sent to my many minions who will be able to tweek the system or help you with your problems, but it'll cost you some Dentastix.

Kara

Holding Our Breath

This past Monday was the 13th birthday of our 'Muppet Litter'.

Their birth was a memorable one for me as it was one of the very few NorthWapiti litters that I was not around for the birth of. In those years I was working as a track photographer at the Grande Prairie racetrack after my shift at my regular job was over. I had no backup and was expected to be there every Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday night. Mark sat home with Ginger and called at regular intervals to give me updates. A little black and white girl, a piebald male, another piebald male, a black and white male.....
Of course, they grew up to be some of the best sled dogs I've met - including one, Grover , that remains the very best sled dog I've ever known.

But thousands of memories and miles have passed in 13 years. Grover passed away 2 1/2 years ago, Denise phoned last month to say that Gonzo had passed....but I know Colleen was celebrating Smiley's birthday with cake, party hats and presents.
Here we were just holding our breath. See on Friday Gus (aka NorthWapiti's Mr. Snuffleupagus) had a bad day. He didn't eat dinner and was unsteady on his feet. We took him out of 'Geriatric Park' and put him in a kennel of his own. He didn't seem in pain, he just seemed ...well....old. He did eventually eat his dinner and settled down for the night. Saturday was better but I was still only cautiously optimistic. Sunday, thankfully he was almost back to himself and Monday, for his birthday he went back into G Park.

I know it pretty much only mattered to me that Monday was Gus's birthday - or maybe it was just that I was just grabbing for a few more days, a few more memories. Letting go is always so hard.

Former Anchorage Daily News reporter Craig Medred wrote a wonderful piece last month on this bittersweet time in a dog/human relationship. You can read it at http://www.adn.com/outdoors/craig_medred/story/832192.html Make sure to grab a Kleenex before you do though.

And for the record Camilla continues to be doing great. She is as bouncy and happy as always. Gus too - I'm holding my breath hoping he makes 14 now!

Karen

"When Kibble Just Won't Cut It"

Please note, as of 20 January 2013 the cookbook is currently sold out, we will be taking orders for it again in the near future, please stay tuned to the blog for more details.

Well, we are ready to start taking pre – orders on the NorthWapiti Cookbook “When Kibble Just Won’t Cut it” – and we will be very grateful if you preorder. It will help us determine how many cookbooks to print for our initial order and help cover the costs of printing!

The cookbook will feature pictures, stories and over 160 recipes with over 36 folks from around the world contributing!

Look for such recipes as –
‘Mark’s Away, Karen’s Cooking for Herself’ Pasta
The Best Brownies…Ever
No Bake Cookies
Wild Rice Salad
Dill Pickle Soup
Boursin Mashed Potatoes
And Killer Shrimp
And for the Canines such recipes as –
Kibble Brittle
And
Hair on a Doorknob (for growing coats on showdogs!)
Cookbooks are $20 each ($25 Canadian) or $15 each ($20 each) for 2 or more cookbooks. Shipping is $3.00 per book anywhere in the US and $5.00 per book for Canadian and International Orders (email me for shipping quotes on volume orders!)
Payment may be made via Paypal (northwapiti@xplornet.com) or by mailing a cheque to me at Karen Ramstead, Box 9, Perryvale, Alberta, T0G 1T0

Karen

A Blog Contest

I thought that we would hold a little 'Blog Contest'. No raffle tickets to buy, no bids to place for this one. Just email me (northwapiti@xplornet.com) the answers to the following 4 questions. The first ten folks to get the answers correct will get their names tossed into a 'hat'. I'll draw one name from the hat and the winner will recieve this lovely signed Jon Van Zyle 2004 Iditarod poster.

Blog Contest #1 Questions

1.Last December, what gizmo did I say was like "Bell Bottoms and tunic tops"?

2. What date was Bet 'officially' introduced to the Blog?

3. Last fall I nicknamed 2 of my leaders "The Junk Brothers". Who are they?

4.What was 'The Crisis of Epidemic Proportions" I wrote of last July?



The answers are all in somewhere in the old blog entries!!

Good Luck to all!!

Karen

Congratulations to the 2 Deb's !

A Drum Roll Please...........

The winners of the raffle are:

Deborah Custer winning the 16 x 22 print (raffle number 212)
Debra Bowles winning the 16 x 20 print (raffle number 33)

It was a very successful raffle thanks to everyone that participated!

Favorite Things - Headlamps

I thought I'd do my first installment of 'Favorite Things' on one of my most commonly asked questions - what headlamp do you use???

Now understand that headlamps are one of those rapidly changing technologies. Every month it seems that there are smaller, lighter, brighter ones on the market. A musher could go broke trying every one that comes out - and a great number of them are useless for the sport anyway. But if you have the time and the money to try them all - go for it!
Mostly I'm speaking to you if you are using one of those horrid old headlamps with 4 ridiculously heavy D cell batteries in a red battery box. If you are, there are a ton of options out there that will save your neck and back - as well as do a better job!

When I head off on a long training run or a race I am packing 3 headlamps in my sled. One Cold Spot Feeds headlamp (which I don't think they are selling anymore) and 2 Mammut TX - 1 headlamps.
The Cold Spot lamp paired with a Xenon bulb and 2 - lithium D cell batteries (I use the disposable packs from Batteries Plus) is really the brightest thing I've found, but the lithium D cells are expensive (the alkaline ones are ridiculously heavy) and cords to battery packs are a pain on a long distance adventure.
The Mammut lamp is one that I saw alot of mushers using during the '08 season, but as I said, I don't rush out to buy the 'newest and lightest' headlamp each time one comes out! Then I found one lying in the middle of the Iditarod Trail. I played with it a bit before I was able to track down it's owner (Kelley Griffin) and was very impressed. Last season I played with one in training and then I used one of these on well over 85% of my sled runs.
The Mammuts TX - 1s are bright, light and require only AA batteries to run (I use lithium AAs as the battery life is longer and the performance better in the cold), no bulbs to mess with plus no annoying cords or battery packs!

For a 16 dog team on a really dark night I find the TX one to lack a touch of power (it is adequate, but that's it), but it is more then enough for a 12 dog team and the white LED light is GREAT for picking up reflective tape on trail markers.

So there you go - one of my favorite things - the Mammut TX - 1 Headlamp!

Karen