Hollingsworth

Viking thinks she's a lap dog                                                                                  No electricity, no problem, Karosine lanterns work great

Thanksgiving week was quite busy. I was expecting 12 for dinner so did a lot of cleaning and cooked the bird. I cooked the bird a day early so I didn't have to deal with the mess. This was a good thing as snow started to fall the night before and all day Thursday we were either playing with the dogs in the snow or snow blowing the drive. Everyone arrived exhausted after a day of hard work removing snow so we had a nice relaxing evening with very good food from all people. It was very pleasant. I'm still amazed that I can fit 12 people in here, but with a borrowed card table it works well. We were able to talk Hunter into playing the piano for us. Thanksgiving was a very special day this year as it marked Daryl's & mine 33rd anniversary and Nita's 32nd birthday. Life has been very good to us over the years.

With the fresh snow we went to Exit Glacier to run the dogs. It was wet heavy snow and there had been no traffic on the trail so we ran over it first with the snow machine. Not the best of trail grooming, but at least the dogs had some sort of trail. The first team really had to work hard, but by the second team the snow was packing and it was much easier going. It rained that night, but then snowed another 6 inches so when we went out on Saturday we took some tires and smoothed the trail before the run. It worked great and the dogs did well. Then today we pulled out our sleds for the first time. We had to hook the sled to the snow machine to get to the gate, but then turned them loose. Each team got to pass lots of skiers and a couple of dog teams. It was good to see the dogs working without any chance to cheat. Both teams did well and tomorrow we plan to hook all 16 up at one time and let them rip. Daryl will groom tonight so the trail should be really nice.

Since we had so much snow at the campground we decided that we would run the dogs in front of the snow machine rather than using the four wheeler which was hard to controll. Since there is so much control with the snow machine we decided to run all 16 dogs in one team.. I also decided to try out our new lines. Unfortunately I didn't have the harnesses that the new lines were made for so the dogs were stretched pretty tight, but I figured things would stretch a bit as we started running. It takes a bit more time hooking up a 16 dog team, but we finally got the job done and took off. We'd gone about a mile when Daryl started doing funny things and then we stopped. It's broken, says he. How can it be, says I. Daryl messed with it for a bit trying to get it going to no avail. Poor Daryl is completely mechanically challenged and soon gave up. While I stayed with 16 very fresh dogs Daryl headed back up the trail, through the deep snow, to head over to Ricks and pick up his other four wheeler. I was trying to keep the dogs from chewing up all the lines. Every time I got close to the leaders Eva tried to turn around and come visit. Then I went back & studied the machine. It's been awhile since I've driven it so it took some time before I remembered how to turn it on. I knew you were to wait for this signal before trying to start it, but no signal came. Then I remembered the shut off switch. Hmm, I wonder where that thing is. Is this it, nooo...., how bout this, nooo. Ah, there it is. I flipped the switch and then tried to start it. Vrrrrmmm. It started right up. Now the decision. Do I wait for Daryl or go ahead and run the dogs and hope the machine doesn't get stuck further down the trail. I looked at all the dogs that were frothing at the mouth by now and the decision was made for me. Off we went. 16 dogs is a lot of dogs to run in the campground, but things went well. At one point I stopped and swapped a leader out and was that ever tiring. It's a long ways to the front of a 16 dog team in deep snow. Then the new leader got tangled and I had to go up and straighten her out before we could take off. By this time I was wondering where Daryl was. I didn't see him until we were a quarter mile from the truck. He was just getting there so I'm glad I went ahead and ran. How did you fix it, says he, Switched the shutoff switch, says I. All in all it was a good run.

We stopped to drop the four wheeler off at Rick's and stayed for tea and cheese & crackers. The day was beautiful. We started running at minus 2 and finished at 9 above with plenty of sunshine and no wind. The snowmachine is so comfortable to drive and much warmer than the four wheeler.

Winter is finally here at last. Let's hope it stays.

We finally have our four wheeler out of the shop although it is not completly fixed. We're waiting on a part that is back ordered. We can use it as long as we don't use the one brake.

Yesterday I went and  checked out Exit Glacier Road and they had a lot of snow so I told Daryl to see what he thought. He went out last night and went around the entire trail. There was about 5 or 6 inches so we decided to run the dogs there rather than drive to the campground. This morning we went out and hooked up the dogs. The wind was howling which is the norm for that area. When we got onto the road we were dismayed to find that all the snow had blown off in the night and it was now down to ice. The dogs seemed to be handling it okay so we continued with our run. I think it was getting more polished by the time we finished and it was really nasty so we decided to go ahead and drive to the campground for the next team. Anything that wasn't battoned down was blowing away.  I was dressed as I do for when it's 30 below and was barely comfortable. The wind was brutal, My brother stopped by and said he'd never heard it as bad as it was last night and that's saying something.

Now the campground was a delight. There was a lot of snow there and no wind. The only problem was that I was having a hard time controling my little four wheeler in the deep snow. The next time we run there, we will take the snow machine and run the dogs in front of that. It was quite a work out for the dogs to run in the deep stuff. It was very pleasant when we had finished and were putting the dogs away. The sun was out and it was just a beautiful day in paridise.

Hunter joined the swim team this week so now I only get to have him 2 days a week. I really miss the little guy. We went to the Veteran's Day concert at the Grade School to see Hunter sing in it and that was very nice. Very touching.

Isn't she beautiful Bass Practice

I took this nice picture of Viking Queen on our walk yesterday. It was nice of her to pose. Above is Daryl & Hunter playing bass together. Here is the link to a piece Hunter created. I'm not sure if that's what Daryl had in mind, but it's important for kids to have fun too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yuo8qFJpOEY

Our four wheeler is in the shop. We wanted the brakes fixed, but one thing led to another and soon it was several things needing fixing. We should get it back on Monday and meanwhile our good friend Rick has been kind enough to loan us his ATV so we could train dogs.

We had a really fun run today. There were 4 teams all training in the campground. The campground has several loops and we all use them to get the mileage that we want. With so many teams out there we encountered several traffic jams. At one point we were passing two teams head on and one team from behind. Another time we were trying to turn left while another team was going straight ahead. The dogs seemed to be able to tell which master belonged to which command. All dogs from all teams were very well behaved and there wasn't so much as a ruffle amongst them. It's nice to train with well behaved teams and friendly people. An added benifit was that it was snowing so there was a little, tiny bit of cushion for the dogs feet.

We had Hunter for the weekend as Nita is in Anchorage with some friends. I watched Hunter snarfing down squash soup last night and wondered how many eight year olds would eat something that exotic. I have yet to see him turn away any food. Hunter stayed in the truck while we ran the dogs and played some sort of game thing with his fingers. It kept him occupied the entire time.

With these cooler days the dogs are all huddled in front of the Toyo when it comes on in the morning. Viking had to squeeze her way in for the best spot of all.

What a week I've had with the computer. For over a year the computer has been trying to add a service pack and unable to do so. I finally decided the best thing to do would be to upgrade to Windows 7 in hopes that it would correct the problem. Unfortunately when I went to install windows 7, it would not install unless I had the service pack installed. That ment contacting microsoft. I got on a chat line with a fellow and then he took over my computer trying all sorts of things to get it to work. Unfortunately all failed to help and we ended up having to restore the computer to it's original format of when I bought it. I had backed up my files, but still it's a scary thing to erase everything. We did get the service pack installed once we did this. We'd been working on it almost 12 hours. Then I put the back up discs in and tried to restore. The discs wouldn't work. I finally went to bed after midnight and, of course, couldn't sleep, but during that pricess I came up with another idea for restoring. The next day I installed the new version of Norton and tried to restore through that. I still wasn't having any success untill I told it to send the restore files to a separate folder. Ahah, now we were getting someplace. I now had the files, but then needed to send them to where they belonged. That took the rest of the next day. I also got Windows 7 installed although, so far, I don't see much difference in how things work. All in all, I did okay. I got all my documents and pictures. I was able to salvage my favorites, and most of my itunes. Anything I had bought from itunes was gone and all my email contact information was also gone. I was mostly concerned about my documents & pictures as I can replace the rest.

We ran the dogs yesterday. They are doing well, but there is a pack of dogs at the end of the road that is very bad. The leaders can't get past and even the team dogs are getting reluctant. I finally got off and led the dogs past and that may be what we have to do at that spot. The dogs are passing other loose dogs well, but these guys get in front of the team and block them. It wouldn't be so bad if there were just one, but there's about 6 and they're all big.

We have an appointment to get the brakes on our four wheeler fixed. I've been after Daryl for a couple years to have that done, but they're really getting bad and, of course, we are now in need of it as we're training. Hopefully Luke can get the machine in and out in a day. I'll feel really good to have solid brakes again. The brake on the right works fairly well, but that's also the side with the throttle and if you take your hand off the throttle to use the brake, the machine dies. Then you have to rock it back to N with all the dogs scraming to go. How I hate equipment. Give me a living beast any day.

I've had Hunter for the last couple days as there have been parent teacher conferences. He's a great kid, but I'm running out of things for him to do. Yesterday I was giving him algebra problems to work out. The kid is a math wiz and I'm going to have to make them harder. Unfortunately, much harder and I won't be able to do them. His answers come much faster than I can think. I asked him if the answers just pop into his head and he said, "Something like that."

Viking is recovered except for a couple lumps where we gave her the IV's Now we're sort of wishing she didn't feel so good. Hunter got her wound up the other day and then pretty soon he was crying. She's pretty much gained back the weight she had lost so it looks like she'll survive for another month. Fonzi has taken to walking the counters to stay out of Viking's reach.

Here we have master leader Yogi teaching Elyse the ropes and master leader Balder working on Eva. Eva & Elyse are sisters and are in our leader training program for the year. They are both doing well. We had planned to run 7 miles, but forgot to set the odometer and ended up running a few more miles that we wanted. The next day we cut out a loop in the campground and came out just right. Yogi & Balder have both mastered their commands and are doing a great job of teaching the other dogs how to turn. Balder, especially, seems to take delight in draggin his partner down the correct turn. Yogi sometimes tries to think on his own and we have to stop and have him turn the correct way. We did quite a bit of head on passing this weekend so the dogs are getting experience of being around other teams. This weekend we had the privelege of having a newcomer to the sport come down & train with us. She brought her dogs and we were able to run them as well. It was a fun weekend and so much better that we were able to share it.

The Viking Queen is now back to normal. She's eating all her food and chasing the cat. She has also gotten rather spoiled from her sickness ordeal and now wants to spend her resting time on our lap. It's not too bad at 25 pounds, but when she gets bigger I don't think we're going to want her laying on us. It is such a relief to see her running around and enjoying life. Now, hopefully, she has gone through all her close misses with death and will have clear sailing from here on out.

It's still pretty warm, but we did see some snow in the rain yesterday and came home feeling pretty cool so I think Winter will arrive this year. I hope it just settles in with a vengeance and no transition or winter chinnooks.

This was a very rough week for Viking Queen and her family. Saturday VQ  ate & drank as normal, but we were cutting wood and had to take down one of the walls to the pointer pen so we put her in the puppy pen for a few hours. When I went to get her she was sleeping in the house. That wasn't so unusal, but the fact that she didn't greet us was. I brought her in and she half heartedly chased the cat and then took to her bed. The next day she would neither eat nor drink and her temperature shot up to 105.7. Dangerously high. I got her into see Dr. Matt the next day and we hydrated her. She also got a shot of pennicillan and a shot to bring her temp down which was still over 105. The temp came down, but by the next morning it was back over 105 so in she went again for more hydration and shots. Then I started syringing fluids down her every half hour. She never did have diarheah and only vomited once, but she sure was sick. We then switched antibiotics and I kept giving her food one syringe at a time. She finally started drinking a little Tuesday evening, but not eating unless force fed. Tuesday evening her temp had climbed back to 103.5, but Wednesday morning it was down to 102.5 then down to 101 and then back to 103. When I was feedint the dogs I heard barking. Of course with 19 dogs I'm going to hear barking, but this was Viking barking. I looked up and, sure enough, there she was waiting to be fed. I gave her a little food and she ate some of it. I figured she was on the mend so took her temp again and it had climbed to 103. A couple hours later though she ate a small part of an apple and her temp had dropped to 101. It seems to be holding steady so even though she still doesn't feel well we hope she is on the mend. The only one enjoying this time has been Fonzi who is delighted that the pesky little puppy is not pestering him.

The dogs are training well. They never look that great at this time of year. Several are trotting and refuse to lope. I know these dogs though and as soon as we switch to the sled they will be loping all the way. We're working with a number of new leaders and they are doing well, but still have a lot to learn. We tried our new little Jenny in lead on the home stretch today and she ran great up there. In the other team I tried Poppy in lead and it wasn't so good. She just stood there and then wanted to play, so back in the team she went. Jenny, however will be added to the leader rotation. One can never have too many leaders and some of these probably won't make the final cut, but we can hope. We've dropped one training day out of the week to keep from wearing their feet out to badly. The ground isn't frozen yet, but gravel is tough on feet. It's still pretty warm out, but I expect it will start to cool soon.

Hunter had to build an istrument for music class. He & Daryl built quite a drumset with symbals and everything. It was quite a hit in music class. The 6th graders couldn't believe that it came from a 2nd grader. He did most of the work himself with a bit of help from Daryl. Last weekend Daryl & Hunter built a go-cart. It's pretty cute and they painted it red. I figure it needs a couple dogs to motor it, but there are no breaks so that might not be such a great idea. Right now it's Nita powered, but she runs out of gas in a hurry.

Meet Jenny

Well we've survived 6 days of Viking contained in a crate. 8 more to go. She's getting slightly better and doesn't scream quite as much, but for awhile it was so bad she even got confused on which was day and which was night. I had her in the car for a bit to muffle the screams. I feel bad for her, but want her to heal. I have to confess that when it's real quiet here I lock Chip, Nestle & Fonzi outside and don't allow any other humans in the house and then let her out to roam the house. As soon as there is a diversion she has to go back in or she wants to run around and play. On top of her leg problem she also picked up some kennel cough, probably at the vets, so she's also on meds for that. I did a quick vaccination of the entire kennel and so far so good. It's prabably a good thing she's quarantined right now. I would guess Chip & Nestle would be the most susceptable, but so far they remain healthy.

Jenny is our new little girl. She is very sweet and likes to run. Today she was pretty excited when we pulled the truck out, but then we put her in the truck instead of just tying her to it and she wasn't sure about that. We drove to Crown Point to run. When we got out we realized it was very warm out. I went to check the thermometer, only to find that it was broken. Then I went to the other side of the truck to check the thermometer on Daryl's side of the truck and, lo and behold, it was broken as well. I would guess it was pushing 60, but the dogs all ran well and no one looked overly hot at the end. Elyse is turning into a very nice leader. Today she even held the line out while we were hooking up so I could go fix another dog. She has a very good trainer in Yogi. Eva was our other trainee today and she did well except she was unsure about passing some humans. Balder was her master leader for training. Poppy continues to amaze us by running like an adult. She went into the season with only one run on her as a pup so I wasn't too hopeful, but she's a natural.

I'm singing in the Community Choir and we're working on Christmas songs. I'm really having to work on the hallelujah chorus. There are a few very tricky parts.

Last night Hunter showed Daryl plans for a go-cart so today they are working on building that. We had most of what we needed lying around just waiting to be turned into a go-cart. Then Hunter wants to build a tree house so he should get some good carpentry experience. How much better than just vegging in front of the TV all day like many kids do.

I've been helping out with the mural painting this summer. If I'd known I had any ability along these lines I might have helped in years past as well. This is a massive project my Mom has taken on for not only has she designed the new mural, but is redoing the mural that was painted a couple of years ago. Fortunately there has been a lot of help, but my Mom has been working practically non-stop for the last couple of weeks. One mural has 26 panels and the other about 10 so that's a lot of panels all in the process of being worked on.

I had to take Viking Queen to the vet in Anchorage today for x-rays. She's been favoring one of her hind legs for about three weeks now and our vet feared she had damaged her growth platletts which would have had long reaching affects. I'm glad to report that her joints all look very good. They did find a bit of soft tissue damage so she is on crate rest for 2 weeks. I'm not sure if any of us are going to survive the next 2 weeks. I feel terrible each time I have to put her back in her crate. For an active puppy its torture, but I've tried to have her lay at my feet calmly and if there is any sort of distraction she wants to jump up and investigate so it's back to the crate. 13 days to go. Then a week of rehab.

I've had Makaira along with Hunter this week which made things interesting. Hunter is very good with Makaira and takes care of her as an older brother would. Makaira is hooked on Muzzy now. That's her favorite part of the day, watching Muzzy in Spanish.

We picked up a new dog today. Meet Jenny. She's out of one of Egils females and a Kornmuller male. She has a nice husky coat so should be easy to care for. She seems to be settling into the yard well although I expect she will be keeping us up tonight with howling. Between her & Viking we may not get to sleep at all. I look forward to driving her tomorrow. I was going to post a picture, but I can't seem to upload it. Maybe later.

Hunter looking good in his Cub Scout Uniform. He managed to sell me some popcorn that I didn't need, but couldn't refuse.

We are back to training and the dogs are looking good. Our three leaders in training are moving right along. We have so many leaders we're working with this year that we are able to give them a break. Master Leader Yogi & Balder are doing most of the teaching of the youngsters. I'm working with them on holding the line out. I really like working with Eva as she is so happy. Elyse is very calm in harness so completely different personalities. Eva & Ella are wild to work with. Just getting a harness on them is a challenge and we often end up in laughter as they bob around. In the next couple weeks we hope to introduce them to other teams so they can learn the rudiments of passing and such.

I helped my Mom on painting her mural this week. I went Friday and she had sent everyone else home, but wanted me to stay so I could get my name on as one of the helpers. Then she left as well and there I was all by myself painting away. It was actually rather nice as there were no interuptions to the work. It was so much fun that I went back the next day and worked some more.

Yesterday I took Hunter & Nita to see the "Lion King" broadway production. It was great. I had hoped to watch Hunter's reactions more, but got so caught up in the play that I forgot to look at him often. The puppetry was great and the 11 foot elephant magnificant. The place was packed and I don't think there was even one seat left over. The play had us spellbound right from the start. I know many people have gone more than once, but I sure don't know how a person could afford that.

Viking Queen graduated to sleeping upstairs with the big dogs last night. It appeared to work well and she slept all night. I'm sure Fonzi wishes that she were still in her crate. In fact Fonzi probably wishes the pup never came to live here. Pester, Pester, Pester!