Getting Ready for Fall and a blurb on Skiff

I can't believe that July is a little more than halfway over. Know what that means? It means that August is just around the corner -- and with that comes the advent of cart training with the ATV. Yikes! Didn't the snow just melt??

Obviously it's time to start thinking about chores that need to be wrapped up before ATV training starts. With our little kennel now having nine sled dogs, the option of transporting everyone in the Land Cruiser is obviously going to be nixed now. 5 dogs was manageable (if not a bit hairy at times, literally) but nine is just absolutely out of the question. Matt and I had been mulling over our options for months when, as is prone to happen, a solution seemingly presented itself. His friend happened to be selling a 1998 Dodge Dakota with 170K miles on it. At the same time, I noticed an ad for a killer deal on a 10-hole dog box and trailer with harnesses and two sleds on Craigslist. Needless to say, in short order we had a "new" dog truck and trailer and all of the extra goodies that came with them. The 10-hole dog box was actually not something that we needed to keep, because it was designed to be mounted either on a trailer (which is how it arrived) or on the bed of a full sized truck. The Dakota is a compact, so the measurements didn't work out. It just so happened that Bonnie and Jim were looking for a new dog box at the same time -- so, to make a long story short, they now are the proud owners of the 10-hole box and we kept the trailer, which is the perfect size for toting my ATV! Our other friends were selling a 6-hole dog box designed for a compact pickup. You can probably guess what happened -- we now own it. So, score one dog truck, one dog box, one trailer, a passel of harnesses, and a child's sprint sled that I gave to Eric for his grand kids. The 6-hole dog box needs to be stripped and repainted (help this weekend, anyone?) and needs to have a level of 3 boxes added on one side. I'm exhausted already and the work hasn't even begun! I will post photos of the "new" truck and trailer and box as soon as I can.

In other news, I've decided to put up some blurbs here and there regarding the dogs in our kennel. I selected Skiff (the newbie) for my first post. Let me know if you like the idea of finding out more about the fur-kids (feedback is always welcome!)

SKIFF:

Silly Skiff Barking at the Camera

Skiff is a 2 y.o. spayed female from Jon and Bree Little of Kasilof, AK. She was the result of a cross between Jon's "Kit" and Mitch Seavey's "Ice Man". She has some pretty old and well-known bloodlines. Check out her pedigree below:

Skiff's mom, Kit, still lives with Jon and Bree. Here's what they have to say about Kit:

A very fast, very durable team dog. She is large and leggy for a female. Her dad, Lobo, did well for Charlie Boulding. Her mom led Dave Scheer to a 12th place finish in 1996. A busybody, she's got a lot of energy. She was an awesome part of the team in the 2004 Kusko, but that was her last race. She's loose 24/7, patrolling the yard.

Read more about Jon Little's kennel at http://kasilofkennel.bravehost.com/ or on his blog http://jonlittle.wordpress.com/

I see a lot of these attributes in Skiff already, and I haven't even had her in harness yet. She is long and lean and is constantly in motion in the dog yard. She's not shy about vocalizing to me, but she's not annoyingly talkative. One of her favorite things to do is to nibble on my nose when I lean over to pet her. I gotta say, I don't mind. There are worse things she could be doing :)

I really look forward to seeing what this gal has to offer this year. I expect her to be a cheerleader and eager to get to work!