Skijoring in Wakefield

We had an other good day with Marley. It will most likely be our last skijoring event of the season as I don't think there are any other races being organized close to home.
It was the last race but also the toughest and the most fun one we entered, a roller coaster skijor. If Marley is still keen to run next year, I will not miss this event.
It was organized in the Wakefield hills, a fantastic location where to enjoy a warm winter sunshine.

We waited a long time for our turn. I was surprised by the 5 minutes laps between teams and thought it was a little long...until I was on the course and understood how inconvenient it could be to pass someone while screaming down a steep hill, across a narrow bridge or a tight corner. We left tenth, so Marley had to hold her horses for fifty minutes, a challenge for an exited puppy.

Marley is becoming quite famous for her controlled starts. The routine is clear, she knows she's about to run and is happy to sit and concentrate on a final "stay". I think she figured out the countdown, she now gives me a brief look and slightly lifts her bum of the ground when it starts.

And off we went threw the gorgeous rolling hills of Wakefield for a 4 mile ski/run. Up, down and around...what a ride. The snow was fast and Marley happy to run. If only I could stay on my feet we could do great. I unfortunately passed a few gravity storms, most of them on fast down hills. For some reason, each time I realize we were picking up speed I ended up feet above head.

The down hills went on for ever. It seemed to me like we were going down, down a little bit up and down again...to much down. I little alarm triggered as some gain and loss rule is quiet clear about having to go back up as much as one went down to get back to the same point. Nasty hills...walls I'd say. It's not fair to have to go so much up when your legs are about to give up. They close to the end of the course, someone had some nasty fun setting up this trail, probably giggled making us go threw that...oh well, isn't challenge what it makes it fun?

I did have my giggles on the course too. On most intersections some Christmas trees had been layed down across the trail to be avoided . I would see the intersection soon enough to instruct Marley on which way to go. Close to the end of the course in a wooded area we came to a split which I didn't notice as the Christmas tree wasn't laying across but planted in the middle, hiding the trail and looking fine in a forest setting. I didn't give any instruction to Marley and she picked the wrong trail. All goes fast, but when she realized her mistake, Marley ran over to get back on front of me and our line, now tangled in the branches, threw the tree on the ground between Marley and I, and over our tie. I felt somewhat silly, tangled with my dog in a Christmas tree on a race.

I was asked why Marley picked that trail with a tree in the middle of it. Well, I believe this confirms what I have suspected in previous races. Marley follows her nose. She was slightly to the left of the trail, the side of the wrong trail and even though it wasn't physically wide open Marley saw a scent highway, just like we had been following, the tree was meaningless to her.

Typhaine and Sam were there again, they had there adventures too. Typhaine's harness broke and she had to finish holding on to the line. Nice style :)

Well, this is it for racing this winter but as long as Marley is happy to do it we keep skiing and biking together. She needs to burn her energy some way.

Back to the weekend hikes now.

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Very short hike and boring pictures

Mark took the day off Friday to go for our weekly hike. We planned to say hello to mount Ester and White face as they are neighboring peaks but ended up skipping White face. The forecast was for light flurries which is not ideal for good view but not bad for good hikes. The weather turned to aggravate to become miserable wet snow. We are hiking for fun and not to be cold, wet and grumpy .

As if the crappy weather wasn't annoying enough the trees were extremely aggressive. They kept stealing my hat, poking my head and whipping my face...boy was I ever grumpy. A good husband sure knows when it's time to turn around and head to subway.

We ended up doing 11km, our shortest Adirondack hike ever. I don't know what was in the air, seems like the mountains just didn't want us there that day. Even Marley got particularly joyful when we turned around.

Moon eclipse

What a wonderful show. Only one complaint to the organizers, why not have this happen on a warm summer night. It was way too cold. Apart from the temperature, the weather did spoil us though with a very clear sky (and one more opportunity to play with my camera).
For the event we pushed back our bed time and went for a late dog walk. Happy Marley. The strangest of the eclipse, and I'm not sure it's noticeable in the city, it's how a bright full moon evening slowly fades into a rather dark night.

Legend say we should see an old man on the moon, I see a rottweiler.

Two days of racing in Kemptville

I am feeling pretty soar this morning. Marley and I worked hard at going fast.
The Eastern Ontario dog sledding championship is held in Kemptville, 20 km away from home, so there was no way I wasn't going to enter. The race was two sprints of 4 miles run Saturday and Sunday with cumulated times. The 4 miles, were brought down to 3.8 mile and I'm not even sure it was that long. What ever, we run for fun and the trail is the same for all.
For a Bouvier, the shorter is better. Marley is very fast and powerful at the start but slows down (from very fast to fast) after about 12 minutes.
I slow down after 5 minutes, drag myself after 10 and dream of collapsing before 15. I really do this for the thrill and the intensity of that short time working hard with my dog and my dog working with me.

Marley seems to become more intense as we do more races. She now anticipates, her level of excitement increases throughout the steps leading to the race. As I get changed, suit her with her harness, clip in my skis... by the time we line up she's ready to go.
Both Saturday and Sunday she started like a bomb. I'm going to have to find a good starting position for myself as each start feels like my hips are ripping apart from the rest of my body. Seventy pounds lounging forward at full speed gives a good choc.

These first pictures are form the Sunday race. As we were waiting for the two minutes lapse between teams, people are asking me questions about Marley, someone asked what was her name. I answered that in these circumstances she likes to be referred at as the " Fluff Bullet".

The fluff bullet literally flies through the first stretch. The start goes so fast, it's pure fun.

Typhaine was at this event too. She came ahead of everybody on Saturday with a good advance that maintained her in first place for the overall results. Sam ran amazingly on the first race.

The tough thing about the end of the race is that you know everybody is looking at you, and they are all taking pictures. It's the last sprint and even though all you want is to double pole, let the dog do the work there is the ego pushing to concentrate on a nice skiing so you do your best.

It seems like most dogs do this, they're either scared of the flag, the line, the crowed...they all slow down or even stop before the line. A poor girl with a dog sledding team had all the dogs stop just at the line, it took her 45 seconds (over an 11 minute race) to get the dogs to cross. With the skijoring the nose of the dog has to cross before the tip of the skis to not be disqualified, so you can not pull the dog threw.

First move after the finish line, drop in the snow and cool off. We take a few minutes to get our legs back, reward our racing partners, comment on the trail, compare how many times we fell and head over for a coffee while we wait for results.

Typhaine arrived first at on Saturday and third on Sunday. I arrived fourth on Saturday and second on Sunday. For the overall, final results Typhaine came in first and I came in third. We have great dogs.

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Marley, the fluff bullet

Great is the best word to describe it. The weather was great, the trails were great, the race organization was great, I felt great, but above all Marley was the greatest.
I entered this race with a bit ambivalence, I was afraid I was going to have to do all the work, or even worst, have to drag the dog along.
Marley has been a little picky lately about what she will pull or not. She will put all her heart and soul into keeping the bike going fast but my stubborn puppy (I have called her that a few times now) rather trot along when it's time to pull me on skis or on a sled, sometimes she won't even budge at all.
All my hopes were on Marley's competitiveness and, once more, my black fluffy devil demonstrated that dogs can get in the racing spirit. It didn't matter anymore what I asked her to pull, she was there to go at it hard and fast.

Superbe est le mot qui convient pour decrire ce dimanche. La temperature etait super, le sentier etait super, l'organisation de la course etait super, je me sentais super mais surtout et par dessus tout Marley a ete super.
Je me suis presentee a la course avec une certaine d'ambivalence, je craignais d'avoir a forcer plus que ma part, ou au pire, je craignais d'avoir a trainer le chien pour les 5km de la course.
Marley a ete quelque peu difficile c'est dernier temps quand il s'agit de tirer les skis ou le traineau. Il est prete a mettre corps et ame pour faire avancer le velo a des vitesses affolantes mais mon chien tetu (je pense l'avoir qualifiee ainsi plusieurs fois maintenant) prefere trotter nonchallement quand je l'accroche au traineau ou suit en ski. Parfois, il lui prend l'idee de ne pas bouger du tout.
Mes espoirs misaient sur son instinct de competition, et une fois de plus mon demon poilu m'a prouve que les chien on tout un esprit de course. Ca n'avait plus d'importance ce que je lui demandait de tirer, elle etait la pour aller vite et fort.

The Ottawa fun race is, like the name says it, a race for fun. It was a good one to start. All three, Typhaine, Mark and I, entered. Typhaine and I both went in for the 5km skijor with each our own dog, Sam and Marley. Mark entered the 2 dog sledding race with them.

La "Ottawa fun race" est , comme le nom l'indique, pour le plaisir. C'etait une bonne course pour commencer. Tout les trois, Typhaine,Mark et moi y avons participe. Typhaine et moi avons courru le 5km de skijoring avec nos chien respectifs, Sam et Marley. Mark c'est inscrit a la course en traineau a deux chiens de 2 km.

First race, the 5 km skijor.

La premiere course, le 5km de skijoring.

Step 1: prep my horse. I didn't want any booties on Marley but with the warm temperature an sticky snow I was almost guarantied snowball problems, so after I waxed my skies I greased my dog. The usual vaseline between the toes and baby oil on the rest of her feet hair (as a bonus it makes her smell pretty).

Premiere etape: preparer mon cheval. Je ne voulais pas mettre de bottines a Marley mais avec la temperature chaude et la neige collante j'etais certaine qu'elle aurait des problemes de boules de neige dans le pattes. Apres avoir farte mes skis je me suis donc affaire a graisser mon chien. Comme d'habitude de la vaseline entre les orteils et de l'huile pour bebe sur le reste du poil de ces pieds (en prime ca la fait sentir bon).

Once more I was allocated a lucky number, 56. I won't elaborate on the reasons that make it lucky, I'm certain it is.
The races start in waves with a minute between each competitor, dogs don't always run in good sports and it's wise to avoid contact during a run. With about twenty competitors it makes a fair lineup at the starting gate. We started 4th, I think, Typhaine and Sam ran just after us.

Encore une fois je course avec un numero chanceux, le 56. Je n'elaborerais pas sur les raison qui en font un numero chanceux, mais je suis cerine que 56 l'est.
Les departs sont donnes par vagues separant de une minute chaque equipe, les chiens ne cours pas toujours avec un bon esprit sportif et il est sage d'eviter le contacts durant la course. Avec une vingtaine de competiteurs, ca faisait une longue ligne d'attente au depart. Nous sommes partis 4eme, je crois, Typhaine et Sam sont partis juste apres.

Maybe I should explain the shorts I'm wearing, it's not about style. I've had issues about skijoring harnesses. They tend to slide too high over my hips and I find it affects my balance to much. I tried the climbing harness but it's tight and obstructive. What I really wanted was a harness that would wrap around my butt, just below the iliac bones and pull from there. Unfortunately a harness won't hold there on its own or without any annoying strapping....the ideal would be if the harness just floated on it's own....what if I sewed it into shorts!!! This worked really well for me, the dogs pulling force doesn't affect my balance anymore. For whoever is interested into the harness heres a non sexy butt pic that shows it well. Harness

Peut-etre que je devrais expliquer les shorts que je porte, ce n'est pas pour le style. J'ai des problemes avec les harnais de skijoring. Ils ont tendances a monter trop haut au dessus de mes hanches et je trouve que ca affect trop mon equilibre. J'ai essayeun harnais d'escalade mais c'est trop serre et derangeant. Ce que je voulais vraiment c'estait un harnais qui m'enroberais au niveau des fesse, juste dessous les iliac et me tirereais de la. Malheureusement un harnais ne tiendrai pas bien la sans des sangles au-dessus des hanches...l'ideal serait si le harnais flottait la...et si je le cousait dans un short!!! Ca a tres bien marche, la force du chien n'a plus affecte mon equilibre. Pour ceux qui sont interresse par le harnais voila une photo pas tres exy de mon posterieur. Harnais

Back to the racing. Marley started getting very exited in the line up. Now, that's all relative, Marley doesn't get exited like true sledding dogs, her excitement would be considered really calm beside a husky. Never less, I nice gentleman helped holding her back because when she saw the starting stretch, Marley was ready to go. No need to say my apprehensions all went away, I knew she was going to do her half of the job.
When our turn came, she did a perfect Marley start. She sat at the starting line, with subtle tremors and great expectation to go. Actually, when the timing lady gave me the twenty seconds heads up Marley's bottom came up and she almost went ahead. She gave me a mad look when I told her to hold.
And finally...3..2..1.. Run Marley....Gallop...I just can't ski at the start. The acceleration is just too much and I would trip over my skis, the best I can do is to double poll until Marley reaches her pace. Then we're on for a really nice ride. It's really neat how motivating it is seeing the dog working hard ahead, it pushes me to ski harder. I don't think there any other activity that makes me feel that team bond with Marley better than racing. All along I talk to her, instruct her were to go, ask her to slow down or pull harder and she responds as if her life depended on my commands. On her behalf Marley does take some initiatives, which are usually good. I tripped over some branches on a slightly narrower part of the trail, Marley slowed down right away (without stopping) avoiding me to fall, gave me the "everything ok back there?" look and as soon as I was balanced again she went back to her gallop rhythm. She also seems to know before they are in sight when we are catching up on some other concurrent because she would considerably speed up just before someone would appear ahead. I think Marley is a little competitive.

De retour a la course. Marley commencait a etre exitee en dans la ligne. En fait c'est plutot relatif, Marley ne s'exite pas comme les chien de traineaux, sont etat enerve serait considere calm a cote d'un husky. Neanmoins, un gentil monsieur m'a aide a tenir Marley parce quand elle a vu le droit de depart elle etait prete a partir. Inutile de dire que mes apprehensions sont vite disparues, il etait clair que mon chien allait faire sa pert du travail. Quand notre tour est arrive Marley nous a fait un depart, a sa maniere, parfait. Elle s'est assise a la ligne de depart, avec de legers tremblant et la hate de partir. Quand la dame du chrono m'a donner le "20 secondes avant le depart", le derriere de Marley s'est leve du sol et elle est presque partie. Elle m'a envoyer un regard mauvais quand je lui ai demander d'attendre.
Finalement, 3..2..1..Cours Marley...gallop...Il m'est impossible de skier au depart, Marley va trop vite. L'acceleration est trop vite pour moi et je trebuche dans mes skis, le mieux c'est de garder mes pieds parralleles et de pousser avec mes batons jusqu'a ce qu'elle atteigne sa vitesse de croisiere. Puis on est partis pour une bonne ballade.

Behind us the great Typhaine and Sam team was following, probably at a consistent 1 minute behind considering our arrival times.

This 5 km turned out to not be as painful as I was afraid it could of been considering I haven't skied any more than a grand total of about 4 km this winter. What could of made it a little....slightly (said with irony)....easier is if I hadn't lost half my pole at the first km. What a pain to skate with a single pole. I was going along very well, when just after I give a good push, I bring my hand back up and there's only a handle in left, the pole stayed behind. Quick debate on what to do and I decided to not stop, keep going and rely on my legs. Now, skiing with one pole is just too easy for me (again said with irony), so a little before the last kilometer my right boot came undone. I like to make those precisions as on the pictures of my arrival I look like I may be a little tipsy. I challenge anybody to try skating with one pole, one boot undone and tied up to a dog that's starting to back off as she see's the crowed. Marley still has that issue about running towards an unknown crowed. I can't really blame her, she ran amazingly the whole way, I won't hold against my pup her weariness of groups of noisy cheering people. We ran for fun and had lots of it.

Typhaine arrived a minute and 13 seconds after me. So our times were 13 seconds apart, I was really hopping we would do similar times and we did over a 20 minutes race. We arrived forth (20:06) and fifth (20:19) over 23 runners, I'm really satisfied considering my goal was to do under 25 minutes.

The sister debriefing, talking of our adventures and starting to think of the next race.

Marks race came after lunch. The plan was for Mark to run the 2km 2 dog sled race with two dogs working on different commands (German for one, French for the other) with a newly built and barely tried out sled... An other little detail, and my sister did warn us of it, Sams loyalty is above his love of running and pulling. It wasn't a given that he was going to work well, but Typhaine was curious to see how it was going to work out and Mark was keen to try the two pups.

The start looked awesome, until my sister was out of sight of Sam. Then, he decided to turn around and got tangled with Marley which wasn't about to slow down. Mark didn't give up he got them untangled and kept going. Apparently Sam never really pulled but eventually went with the flow. They had a few other scrambles and Mark had to run in snow for most of the race as Marley alone was working to hard to pull the load.

The last stretch, on the packed snow was the best as Sam started pulling when the arrival and Typhaine came in sight. Mark had to work really hard but he did his loop, we got great picture of his funny team and he got the third place ribbon.

Just I final picture of the site. Not many bouviers running, actually, only one. The Super Nobleair Calypso Marley, the no 1, best of all racing bouviers des flandres.

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Up, up and down, down. The Giant and Rocky Peak climb

A little bit more sun shine would of been welcome, but still, what a gorgeous day was last Sunday.
We left home just before 5 am. We usually try to make a bit of a hike day schedule, just as if we had to catch a tide or race a storm when sailing. For hiking mountains we are just making the best of the limited day light available. This weekend we were only going for a 14 km hike and time wouldn't of been much of an issue if I hadn't been hoping for a bit of shopping time in Lake Placid, so the plan was to be on the trail by 9am and back to the car by 3pm.
We arrived in Keen Valley quite early and since circumstances (full bladders) lead us to a nice little breakfast spot on the side of the road we opted to stop for a tasty, greasy plate... our conscience could afford it.
What a mistake. From our first steps on the trail up to Giant mountain we regretted this so delicious and decadent meal. Our struggling, still sleepy legs had to fight with our so busy digesting stomach for a little bit of blood flow. Never again...now on, we will keep heavy breakfast and hikes for separate occasions.
Anyway, we survived this difficult start and quickly poked out of the taller forest to enter the more mountain like landscape. The trail climbs at a steep rate and we started getting nice views within the first half mile.

Bien qu'un petit peu plus de soleil aurait ete bienvenu Dimanche dernier était une journée splendide.

Nous avons quitte la maison juste avant 5 heure AM. Comme si en mer on avait une marée a attraper ou une tempête a courser, on essaie généralement de se fixer un horaire les jours de randonnée. Pour nos balades en montagne il s'agit de profiter le plus possible de la clarete du jour. Cette fin de semaine on avait que 14km de prévue et le temps n'aurait pas ete un problème si je n'avais pas espère aller faire quelques courses a Lake Placid. Le plan était donc d'être sur le sentier a 9 heure am et de retour a 3 heure pm.

On est arrive a Keen Valley relativement tot dimanche matin et vue que les circonstances (des vessies pleines) nous ont amener dans un agréable petit café sur le bord de la route, nous avons décide de nous arrêter pour un bon déjeuner graisseux....notre conscience pouvait se le permettre.

Quelle erreur. Des nos premiers pas sur le sentier du mont Giant nous avons regrette ce repas délicieux mais décadent. Nos pauvres jambes, toujours engourdis devaient maintenant se battre avec notre estomac pour un petit peu de flot sanguin. Plus jamais....Désormais nous garderons les déjeuners graisseux et le randonnées pour des occasions separees.

Neanmoins, nous avons survecu ce depart difficile et atteint rapidement un terrain de montagne apres avoir parcourrus le premier kilometre en foret. Le sentier du mont Giant a pic des le debut et on commence a avoir de belles vues tres vite.

I say nice views but the truth is that Sunday was rather overcast and the visibility limited, yet a few sun rays did break threw the clouds and add a bit of magic to the sight.
The air was warm (it's all relative) and humid causing favorable conditions for some heavy frost on the vegetation. As we went up, the frost became a crust of ice and the trees eventually started disappearing to become some crystal sculptures. The walk pace started slowing down as with the changing light and the glowing trees, it was just impossible for me to put my camera away.

Je mentionne de belles vues mais la verite c'est que dimanche etait plutot couvert et la visibilite limitee. Les nuages on quand meme laisse passer quelques rayons de soleil pour ajouter un peu de magie aux paysages. L'air chaud (tout est relatif) et l'humidite on permi des conditions favorables pour une gelee sur la vegetation. Avec l'altitude la petite gelee est devenue une croute de glace et eventuellement les arbres ont commence a disparaitre pour laisser la place a des sculptures de crystal. Le rythme de notre marche a ralentit avec le changement de lumiere et les arbre luisants au soleil, c'etait juste trop difficile pour moi de ramasser l'appareil photo.

After an hour of an exposed walk on the ridge we got back into some forest which the ice didn't spare. I sometimes feel bad to find so pretty the harshness of weather on the nature. Isn't it like if someone gained some pleasure from my misery? Never less, I click away.

Apres une heure de marche sur la crete nous sommes entres de nouveau dans une foret que la glace n'avait toutefois pas epargne. Je me sens parfois coupable de touver si jolie cette durete du climat sur la nature. N'est-ce pas comme si quelqu'un prenait plaisir de ma misere? Quoi qu'il en soit, je prends des potos.

At 3500ft, the trees become small again, but are now completely covered with frosty snow. To my food oriented mind it looks like everything has been smeared with a thick sugar glaze.

A 3500pi d'altitude, les arbre redevenaient petits, mais completement couverts de neige givree.

We past the split of the trail to go to Giants summit before coming back to head over to Rocky Peak.

Nous avons passe l'intersection des sentiers pour continuer jusqu'au sommet de Giant avant de retourner sur nos pas et prendre le chemin vers Rocky Peak.

I guess there is no need to say that with our head in the clouds there was absolutely no view to be seen, only a thick white nothing. Wrapped in that silent world of white, I couldn't decide if it was peaceful or wild... it certainly felt somewhat awkward (and cold).

Je suppose que je n'ai pas besoin de preciser qu'avec notre tete dans les nuages il n'y avait pas de vue du sommet, seulement un rien blanc et epais. Englioutis dans un monde de silence blanc, je ne pouvais decider si je me sentais paisible ou angoissee....etrange, pour sur (et froid, certainement)

We didn't stay long at Giants top and quickly left that strange dream world to go for a quick visit to Rocky Peak. That meant going down 800 ft the other side of giant and up 600ft to Rocky's summit. Of course, we then had to back track down 600ft and up 800ft. I really wonder what drives humans to push themselves through such effort...certainly not the views last weekend.

Nous ne sommes pas restes longtemps au sommet de Giant et avons quitte ce monde bizarre pour aller faire coucou au sommet de Rocky Peak. Pour se faire, il nous fallait descendre 800ft (en altitude) de l'autre cote de Giant pour remonter 600 ft vers le sommet de Rocky. Bien sur, pour le retour, ca voulais dire redescendre le 600 ft et remonter le 800ft. Je me demande parfois ce qui ammene les humains a se pousser comme ca ...certainemement pas les vues la semaine derniere.

That would be giants back side and hidden top from the valley between it and Rocky Peak. The problems with mountains, is all that walking up and down, it's a lot of work...don't they have some hiking video game out yet?

Voila l'arrier de Giant et son sommet cache par les nuages vu de la vallee entre celui-ci et Rocky Peak. Le probleme avec les montagnes, c'est toutes les montee et descentes, c'est beaucoup d'effort....n'y a t il pas encore un jeu video de randonneur?

Well we did make it up to Rocky Peak's summit. Mark and Marley poked there noses up and went strait back into the trees, calling me crazy for standing in the wind to take a few shots of the very white world. I call crazy going threw all that effort to get somewhere and not spend a minute to enjoy being.

So no summit view, but no complain. I feel lucky I get to see some of the hidden world, and more so, I get to do it with my best friends.

Bon, on est arrive au sommet de Rocky Peak. Mark et Marley y ont pointes leurs nes et sont redescendus dans les arbres, me prenant pour une folle de rester dans le vents pour y prendre quelques photos d'un monde trop blanc. Moi je prends pour un fou celui qui fait l'effort d'aller quelque part et n'y reste pas plus d'une minute.

Finalement, pas de grandes vues, mais rien pour me plaindre. Je me sens privilegiee d'acceder aux mondes caches de la nature, et encore mieux, j'y vais avec mais meilleurs amis.

A January week in South Mountain

We finally finished the employee review in the chicken coop. A total of 36 birds have been promoted to the freezer the remaining chickens have officially received there permanent status as laying hens. One rooster has been mandated the hard duty of harem master. The lucky bird was named Curry as a reminder of his precarious status. Among the survivors a lucky bared rock rooster, disguised as a high egg production hen, has slipped threw the nets mesh. The weaselly rooster, now known as Rocky, will be kept in an unknown position as the chick union does not allow freezer promotion before the next employee review. Rocky has been quiet convincing as a capable breeder.

Here is typical young rhode island red hen and Curry, the official rooster.



Out of the chicken coop the week has been quite calm and usual. Everybody's daily highlight being Marley's happy walk. Parents, don't worry this is not a tipsy Mark. This is Mark and Marley in the motion of a fun "go get the ball" game. On the thread of dog walks, we dropped by the farm last night and had an improvised class and demonstration on artificial insemination of cows. Mark was offered to "arm" a cow, but declined. As for what that means...lets just say it involves a long glove that covers well up to the shoulder. A future photo (still featuring Mark) may illustrate this better.

Yes, this poor puppy has to pay her keep.

New improvement on the homestead, we traded in the old sleigh for a newly made lite aluminum kick sled. I originally welded up the sled to hopefully enter a "one dog" sledding race next weekend, but it turned out to be somewhat useful as a winter dog powered wheel barrow.
I'm still hopping to run on the race Sunday....to be followed...

Little boat steps

I finally brought the new front hatch up on the boat, one less open hole for the snow to creep in. The hatch looks good but I'm not completely happy with it. It's to heavy and as I finished building it I came up with a different idea to construct it, that always happens.
I'm going to stick with it for now but don't rule out remaking a new front hatch, maybe of aluminum... an other item to my never ending to do some day list...




Every little piece makes it look that more complete. I started making the aft chainplates, as an easy in between projects project. Next, I think I'll make the main hatch.
I ordered port holes back in October from Newfound metals. Those are now doing there first cruise as they are on the ship as I type this. I should be getting them by the end of the month. I eventually will have a somewhat dryer boat. Up to now I have been pumping water and carrying blocks of ice out of the bilge each time it thaws enough to do so.