It was a busy week here at Miortuk with Handler/Trainee interviews, visits to the medical clinic to remove stitches from my finger & go for the monthly supply of meat for the dogs. However, I didn't get anything accomplished on making the new dog houses. Hopefully, this week will be productive on housing project.
The puppies are growing & getting more stable on their walking. They are starting to play with each other  more & are experimenting on getting to taste their mothers food. With this method of feeding & watering Tanya with her puppies, the puppies develop their taste for solid foods  resulting in them being weaned by five to six weeks of age. When the puppies are weaned, Tanya will be placed back in the kennel.
The nights & early mornings are getting cooler with temperatures below 10 celsius. With these temperatures the early conditioning phase of the new seasons training will be able to commence in early September. 
It is my pleasure to announce that Michelle Staaf & Christoffer Gustafsson, from Sweden, will be joining the Miortuk Team for the 2014/15 season. 
Now the Handler/Trainee positions here are booked for the next two seasons.
Until next week.......... 

It was a peaceful week here at Miortuk enjoying the puppies as they started walking. Then on Thursday, they opened their eyes and they quickly started exploring their new environment. It is quite amazing how quickly develop in such a short period of time, as they just turned 3 weeks old this morning. The video above, shows they are already curious to check out a new sound of their mother enjoying her morning soup. All too soon, they will try to taste some of their mothers food when she is eating. This is a great way to start the weaning process and get the puppies use to solid foods.
It was a rainy week here, which slowed down the outside activities. However, the forest need the rain.  
Part of this week was spent cutting some more pieces for the dog houses. I now have enough pieces ready to assemble another 6 houses. With the weather forecast for sunny days this coming week, I plan to complete another 4 houses.
Frodo, Pippin & Max received their new houses last week.
There are a couple of new videos on the Puppy Page.
Until next week.......

This was a beautiful & productive week here at Miortuk.
The remaining two puppies are doing great & Tanya is being a good mother. As you can see in the video, the puppies are starting to take their first steps. It is hard to beleave that 8 months from now they will be running in a team. They grow so quickly. They are 14 days old today. There is another video on the Puppy Page showing their first attempts at walking. 
This week another four new dog houses were built & it is planned to have another four or five completed by next weekend. Once all the pieces are cut,  it takes only 6 hours to assemble two.
We had our annual party here at the Lac Charland on Saturday evening and it was great to visit with a number of my mushing friends that I haven't seen since last winter. It is hard to beleave that another season of running the dogs will start in a month.
Until next week.........

The ying & yang of life is experienced even here in this northern paradise. 
Just a week ago, we were celebrating the birth of 5 new puppies here at Miortuk. However, the celebration turned to sadness as the week progressed with the death of 3 of the puppies on three separate days through the week.
The puppies all seemed healthy! However, the three that passed this week all died at night only to be discovered in the morning. All were lying in the same place & position in the whelping house. Each pup that was the largest at that time. 
It seemed as if Tanya had done this with intention and not by accident. 
Nature has its way of protecting and preserving the strongest & fittest!
So why did this happen? 
My only guess was: first there was some type of birth defect or secondly Tanya was not producing enough milk to feed all of the puppies. Both scenarios, I beleave, was caused by the premature birth.
The positive side of this equation is that the two remaining puppies, at this point, are thriving and growing.
 Tanya is also being very motherly & protective of her remaining brood. It is also ironic the the two remaining puppies are one male & one female.
I sure hope that the tragedy of this week has passed & the remaining two survive.
We also had a week of extreme weather including a couple of brief, but severe thunderstorms. 
The final ecstasy of this week was visiting with my daughter, my son-in law and my three beautiful grandgirls who were all over here from Australia!
This was the grandgirls first visit to Canada. My daughter & her husband's first  visit here in nine years. It was a truly great way to end this week!
Until next week........