They're Growing Fast

The sled dog puppies are now about three and a half weeks old and are they growing fast. Eat, sleep, poop- that's all they do. Leia, the female, is quiet and chubby from head to paw, wobbling her way around till she wears out and has to sit down again. Vader, the black male, is active and very vocal about everything. Joanna spends lots of time handling, loving, and socializing them to acclimate them to humans. They crawl on her, nuzzle in close, and after playing for awhile, they peacefully fall asleep. Puppies are lots of fun.

Road to North End of Kukukus Lake

We have been wanting to check out the road to the north end of Kukukus and the boat landing there, ever since we heard there was a bad wash out and campers actually got stranded last summer.

The MNR told us they did a repair job on the road last fall, so this spring John, Joanna and I loaded into our old, four wheel drive pickup and headed north on the 325 road.

The road was good for about 13 miles until we came to the repaired washout. It is quite an interesting repair job. The spillway is still open for water to flow through and the sides of the banks are packed with rocks about five to six inches in diameter. The banks are fairly steep making us wonder how in the world a person could ever pull a boat on a trailer through there without getting hung up. (In fact we did get hung up there on our way out with our plow frame pushing up logs and trees that had been packed in the dip for winter usage. We were sitting there in our truck in the middle of the spillway with water running under the truck. John and Joanna climbed onto the hood of the truck to get across without walking in the water and pulled the debris out of the way.)

We continued on down the road to the boat landing on Kukukus. There were several other tricky spots, one where the beaver dam alongside the road is about five feet higher than the road itself. One would hope that it never breaks open or the road would be under water for sure. The other spot was a creek crossing, but it was navigable with care.

The pictures give you a pretty good idea of what the difficult spots look like. We thought it might be of interest to those who like to fish Kukukus.

Joanna the Midwife

It all started the evening of April 27th. I had just returned from visiting my parents in North Carolina for about three weeks. Joanna said, "Mom, Tulsa is going to have her puppies tonight."
Tulsa is the best bred, most expensive sled dog in our kennel. Joanna had bred her to a male with excellent bloodlines in an effort to produce some fantastic racing dogs.
She had high hopes for these puppies. Earlier in the day, Joanna noticed that Tulsa had not eaten her supper which is an indication she would deliver soon. Joanna planned to stay up all night if necessary to offer Tulsa any needed assistance. John and I headed to bed about eleven o'clock, but we told Joanna to let us know if there were any problems.

From our downstairs bedroom, we could hear Joanna coming in at different times to put on warmer clothes since it was so cold. She stayed with her the whole time. Suddenly, at about 3:00 a.m. she came downstairs and tearfully explained that Tulsa had been in labor for quite a few hours and nothing was happening. Joanna has had a lot of experience helping puppies get delivered. She could feel the foot of a puppy that was stuck in breach position in the birth canal, but was unable to grab hold of it to help pull it out.
We called the vet in Dryden which was 2 hours away, waking him from a sound sleep. He kindly advised that the puppy in the birth canal was probably dead, but the ones left in the womb should still be okay for 12 hours. We planned to meet him at the clinic at 7:00 a.m.

We didn't want Tulsa to have to go through a C-section and all the complications that go with it. As John brought the Tahoe up to the dog yard and prepared to load Tulsa, Joanna thought she would check Tulsa one more time to see if there was any change. She cried out to the Lord for help. And He helped her. The puppy had moved down just a bit more so that Joanna could grab hold of one foot. She gently, but firmly pulled and the puppy came out ...ALIVE!!! We all shouted for joy. Then another one came soon after. In all, there were three puppies, however the last one died.

So, Tulsa has a male and a female, Vader and Leia (Star Wars theme). Both are healthy and growing fast with multiple choices for nourishment from Tulsa. What a smorgasbord!

Our Road Department Engineer

John is a man of many talents and as most folks know, when you own a camp, you wear an assortment of hats. One of John's hats is as our road department engineer. (Doesn't that sound impressive?) Our plow truck is pretty impressive too. It pushes and clears an awful lot of snow for us and it takes a good bit of expertise to operate it, especially when you have to plow 30 miles round trip and climb up two very steep hills. That's right. Our driveway is the 325 road. It is no longer being used for logging, so since we're the only ones out here, we have the privilege of plowing it all by ourselves. John has always had an innate ability to drive different kinds of equipment. He drove large semi tractor/trailer rigs for years, including driving for Schneider National (nicknamed the Orange Pumpkins) for nearly two million miles. Now he's driving an orange dump/plow truck. Is orange your favorite color, John?

Off To The Races

It's dog sled racing season for Joanna again and she's got four exciting races lined up this winter. The first and most challenging was the John Beargrease mid distance race along the north shore of Lake Superior in January. There were 43 other competitors running the 106 miles to the finish line with eight dogs. Much of the race took place at night with two checkpoints to feed the dogs and rest a bit. I went along to drive the truck and 18 foot trailer and offer what assistance I could. Joanna's cousins, Sarah and Holly Oberg and friend, Leah Richter graciously gave of their time and energy to be Joanna's handlers, which are a bit like a pit crew. Handlers keep track of the racer's times in and out, prepare meals for the dogs so they can eat as soon as they come into the checkpoint, walk and massage the dogs, checking for any injuries, and see to the needs of the musher to make sure they get as much rest as possible. It's quite an adventure.
Joanna did quite well on the first leg of the race. She seemed to be in good physical condition and so did the dogs. But, as it turned it out, she ran into a series of problems on the second leg of the race which combined, caused her to have to withdraw from the race. It was very disappointing for her after all the months of preparation involved. Even so, she has bounced back with a great attitude and is looking forward to her next races in Dryden, Ely, Shebandowan and Pickle Lake. There's never a dull moment with our Enjoyanna!

Our Family

We've been wanting an updated picture of our family. What better time to do it than at Christmas when we were all together. That doesn't happen too often. And what better person to do it than Reseth, our own professional photographer. Getting everyone to keep their eyes open and smiles going all at once, even for adults, is a challenge.
Great job, Reseth!!

From left to right in back row- Cherish, Joanna, Jonathan and Reseth

Guess Who

No, it's not a visiting Eskimo from the Arctic Circle, but our very own daughter, Cherish. Reseth, our daughter-in-law from Oklahoma took this unique picture while we were all together at Christmas. It must have been one of those chilly days.