It was a week of weather extremes and great food.
First the weather: started the week with snow Sunday Evening into Monday Morning, Snow all day Tuesday, Rain Wednesday Night, unseasonably warm temperatures on the 24th and freezing temperatures on the 25th with clear skies and a beautiful Full Moon.
We were able to run the dogs on Monday (10 mile run both A & B Teams) and again Tuesday with a shorter 4.5 mile run in deeper snow trails.
The dogs ran well and are healthy and enthusiastic despite the lay-off's.
Wednesday Angel went to her new home ( see Dogs Available For Adoption Page) were she will be in a smaller recreational kennel that is just getting started in mushing.
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday Evening were devoted to eating great suppers and overindulging in Holiday Food!
Now all the trails here are glare ice and unrunnable as well as dangerous to walk.
The forecast is for a few centimetres of snow tonight into Sunday Morning and 25/35 centimetres of snow on Tuesday and snow flurries for both Wednesday and Thursday.
Hopefully, the forecast is correct and we can get back to Winter type conditions and a regular training schedule.
The first two thirds of December has been a weather disaster for the training of Sled Dogs!
However, the dogs are all healthy with no injuries and ready to run.
Until the New Year!.......

"To Train or Not To Train, That Was The Question?"
We took the conservative route and waited for better/safer conditions.
The result was the best way for our dogs!
We have no injuries, no foot problems and very enthusiastic dogs.
I have no regrets with the decision to wait for better trails.
After a 11 day layoff, we ran the dogs on a marginal trail on Thursday with every dog booted and slower speeds on our 4.5 mile loop.
After the long layoff, it was prudent not to over tax the dogs and let them get used to running again.
We also made the decision not to train on Friday and wait for better trails on Saturday. Luckily, the forecast was correct and we received a sufficient snow for good running conditions on Saturday.
We still only ran the 4.5 mile loop, but we opened up the speed for both teams.
I am very happy with all the dogs performance!
Hopefully, the conditions continue to improve so we can do longer runs next week.
We have been receiving flurries all day so far.
Very encouraging!
​Until net week.......

It has been a frustrating week here for running dogs or should I say Not Running Dogs!
Rain with mild day time temperatures and slightly below 0 Celsius at nights made for some very icy trails. 
The conditions dictated that the dogs be laid off running awaiting for safer conditions.
Unfortunately, there is little to no snow in the immediate forecast!
The dogs have been training hard, so the rest won't hurt them and they will be ready to go when the conditions improve.
In order to make the best of the time, we Hickory smoked a Ham and Mesquite Smoked a beef Brisket with my friends Gary & Phil.
If you can't train then you might as well eat well!!!
The dogs are enjoying their R & R and anxiously awaiting better conditions.
THINK SNOW!!!!
​Until net week........

We were able to run the dogs both Monday and Tuesday before the freezing rain early Wednesday Morning that later turned to light rain. This made the trails all icy and to dangerous for training on Thursday. 
With warmer conditions and the addition of an inch of wet snow, the trail was good enough for running early Friday and Saturday morning. 
However, due to the marginal trail conditions the runs were for only 4.5 miles just to exercise the dogs.
We took the opportunity to work with leaders and placed Kira into the "A" Team.
​ Roxy was moved to the "B" Team to add an experienced leader there to help train Yoda and Tepeu. 
Kira was run at lead on Friday with Indigo and Tira on Saturday. She performed great both days and no problem adjusting to running with the "A" Team.
Roxy ran with Yoda both on Friday and Saturday. They made a nice combination running together.
The temperatures here are warming up above freezing during the day and just below through the night for the next week with no snow in the forecast until next Friday.
This is the warmest Fall with so little snow that I have experienced here in the last 15 years.
Luckily, we have been able to keep a regular running schedule. However, we need to get longer training runs in during the month of December.
Think snow!
There are some updated photos of the Puppies on the Puppy Page.
Until next week.......