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June 9, 2010
The alarm sounded with CBC news at 5am, this morning. The forecast had not disappointed it did indeed frost overnight. The temperature was 3.4'c when I forced myself from my cozy bed. I harnessed the entire dog yard and the four-wheeler was rolling before 6am (I took the time to make a hot tea; that I then forgot to bring with me...sigh) The dogs were excited and so so happy to be pulling. We went on our 4 mile trail loop and were home by 7am. We saw the sunrise over the Ridge and had a wonderful quiet run. The many days of rain left behind some deep clean puddles that were a welcome refreshment stop for the dogs. It is currently 9:45am and all of the dogs have enjoyed their breakfast and are fast asleep in the sun; everyone looking content and happy (not to mention wet and muddy :-)
Today's agenda has weeding and planting on it for the entire day. Another frost in the forecast for tonight; so maybe that will allow us another cool morning and happy dogs once more.
June 8, 2010
It started raining 7 days ago; we saw glimpses of the sun throughout today between light showers. Before the "knowlesville rainy season" we had garden planting well in hand; sugar snap peas, brassicas, carrots, corn and herbs are showing themselves with many other seeds preparing their pending emergence tucked beneath the soil's surface. We have taken a small gamble and we have transplanted out a few of our tomato plants; with a risk of frost in the forecast tonight we may find ourselves re-transplanting. It is interesting to be a dog mushers and grow our own food; we are often conflicted about the weather we are wishing for. Food production needs the summer months to be warm with a nice balance between sunny and rainy days; dog mushing, of course, requires cold temperatures and loads of snow. We like to eat and we love to mush dogs, and we can't help but smile in June when there is a frost risk for the province in the forecast because we know that in the wee hours of the morning it will be cool enough to hook up the dogs and give them some well deserved exercise. Really we hope the frost is a no show, but the silver lining is the morning will begin with a trip through one of our beautiful trails by dog team and seeing the sun rise as we make our return home.
May 24, 2010
WOW! Have I been doing a poor job at posting updates for all of you faithful readers; okay that was the bad news, always good to get that behind us (smiling broadly) The good news is we have had such a grand spring! The puppies are growing, healthy and active. They are very affectionate and smart. We are astounded at the high temperatures already this season and we are certainly hoping for rain; but the gardens are being tilled, weeded, rock picked and planted. We are using our rain barrels for watering; so far so good but if the barrels run dry then we may need to re-open our artesian well in the stream blow the cabin.
The St. John River canoe trip was amazing and we hope to run it again next Spring! For any of you who considered it this year but didn't come make sure you mark your calendars for May 2011 and plan to join us. We begin the trip by getting shuttled to Baker Lake then 7 days, 113 miles later we pull out at Dickie Bridge. To offer a bit of history about the route: many many moons ago it was a route used by the first nations people during the early summer months; all of the campsites we use along the river today were the original campsites used by the first nations. Later the area was home to a few farms and many lumberjack camps. This trip is considered the "Grand-daddy" of river trips, we highly recommend it! Beautiful scenery, wild animals abound, cool nights and warm-breezy days; could you imagine anything better?
Returning from the trip was wonderful also; arriving home and digging-in to our vegetable garden planting. The greenhouse is brimming with seedlings itching to be transplanted. We had a Wwoofer with us from Germany for a week who was such a great help in getting things caught up. We planted potatoes, corn and squash. We weeded and rock picked to prepare other areas for planting, over the next couple of weeks we plan to have everything in the ground.....then we will be waiting for rain!
February 26, 2010
It is a stormy winter day on South Ridge; perfect for babies to arrive! Our super-star Mum, Yellow delivered 4 healthy puppies this afternoon. (The picture is Yellow in the mid-stages of labour, enjoying the support from Shannon who is playing the role of the midwife)
"Tired new Mum resting"
"Jeff sharing cuddles with Katie"
February 20, 2010
Well, I guess it has been more than a month since our last entry; opps apologies to those who have been reading our entries regularly. A thumbnail sketch of or past month is this: we raced at the wilderness 100 on Feb 6th. The trail for the 30-mi race was fantastic. I (Shannon) had a view of Mt. Katahdin nearly the entire race; it was beautiful. The day was perfect and our team of dogs finished happily wagging with Dragon in single lead (much to my surprise as Dragon has never been a lead dog before: but she is now - what a dog!)
Next update: Yellow is due to have puppies on 28 February. She has grown considerably and we can now feel the puppies in her belly moving and kicking. She is very happy and content at the moment.
Check out the photo of her, in the house! enjoying some belly rubs from Chelsea.
The warm weather is softening our trails, and to date they are still usable. We hope to be able to continue mushing with sleds until the end of March. Jeff has been doing trail maintenance almost daily to ensure a good trail surface. Our next race is the Can Am 30 on 6 March. We are hoping for cooler weather for good hard trails.
January 16, 2010
Eagle Lake 100 Sled Dog Race; Eagle Lake, ME USA
The NWS race team completed their first race on Saturday Jan 16. Shannon drove six of our great huskies in the 30 mile race. We were really proud of the dogs and pleased with the outcome of the race.
It is interesting how small the community of dog mushers is; we met many other mushers who knew our dogs from their previous kennels. We met Yellow's breeder; who is a long distance racer from Quebec, who had Yellow's parents on his 100 mile race team. It was really neat for us to learn more about Yellow's genetic history and meet her parents and one of her litter mates.
We made some new friends and look forward to seeing them again at future races. Everyone was friendly, helpful and welcoming to the "new" mushers from New Brunswick.
For more race photos checkout our Northwoods Survival Facebook page.
January 10, 2010
We have a new neighbour at NWS, living in our woodpile and sometimes in the headlight of one of our trucks; an ermine who we have affectionately named "Yeti". Jeff first discovered him sitting and looking in the porch; maybe munching some dog kibble. We later saw him in the woodpile and then he gave Jeff a surprise when he came out of the headlight bracket in our truck.
January 8, 2010
We always share with you our updates about our dogs and the guide service side of NWS; but we are multi-functional here on the Ridge and we have a great flock of chickens who have not been producing many eggs for the past couple of months. We have 9 hens who are all young; 7 barred plymouth rocks, 1 banty and 1 mixed-green-egg-laying hen. So, we should have a daily average of 5 eggs. What we have been receiving is one egg every second day; not a very good return. They live in a draft free coop, with windows, fresh straw, water, quality grain and a few hours of artificial light each evening. (one really cold days & nights we turn a heatlamp on) All of the right elements for happy "productive" chickens.......but still no eggs!! Yesterday I went into the coop as I do everyday to re-fill grain, give fresh warm water and vegetable scraps from the kitchen and collect the single egg. I greeted all of the chickens and counted them, just to make sure no one slipped out during the night; all were accounted for and one barred rock was hanging out in a nesting box. I paid little attention to the "nesting" hen. Today, when I entered the chicken coop there were 14 eggs in one nesting box!! HOLY MOLY! I had to rub my eyes and look again; I thought for sure I was seeing things. So, I thanked the chickens for their hard work, collected the eggs in a small bucket and hope that this is the re-beginning of our supply of fresh eggs.
"NWS chickens during the summer when they were still small"
January 7, 2010
The annual visit to the vet's office for vaccinations and check-ups was this afternoon. All dogs received a good health report.
January 5, 2010
We enjoyed our first night run of the season. Just Jeff and I am two dogs teams; and of course headlamps! It was not a clear night but headlamps and snow make for bright enough seeing conditions. It was -2'c with slight flurries. The dogs had a great time cruising around each turn and sailing along the trails. What a great way to cap off the evening.
January 4, 2010
Have you ever wondered what the inside of an adventure guide's home looks like? We've posted a couple of pictures of Jeff and I doing sled maintenance in our living room; yes it is a bit inconvenient but it is warm!
