Howdy. Sorry it’s been so long since we’ve
updated you all on the team. We’ve been busy…
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Fall training has begun. |
Dog yard work. We need more stake outs! |
Fall training has begun. The leaves have mostly all fallen from
the trees and the mountains have already seen their first
coatings of snow. The huskies are as excited as we are for the
upcoming season. With all the yearlings from last fall’s
litters, we’ve got two teams to train and race. This year Sue
and I will both race in the Eagle Lake 100-mile, the Wilderness
100, and the Can-Am 250, all in northern Maine. We have had one
team in all these races for the last couple of years, but having
two in each is a huge jump! Our big trip of the year will be
heading out to northern Minnesota in the end of January where
Sue will run a team of the young dogs in the 150 mile Beargrease
Mid-distance and I’ll attempt to finish my qualifying for the
Yukon Quest by completing the Beargrease Marathon, which at 400
miles is the longest sleddog race in the lower 48! We’ll also
fill in the racing schedule with some smaller races around New
England to get the young dogs the valuable experience that only
a race environment can provide. Our goals for the season are to
get qualified for Quest (most important!!) and continue our
overall improvement in performance. Finishing races with happy,
healthy, big strings of dogs is priority number one. With over
1600 miles of racing in the plan for this winter, we’ve got a
very long trail ahead.
With our goals being set so high, we knew we were going to need
some extra help for this winter. We’ve always gotten by with a
little help from our friends, and last month we called on our
best friends to come out and support our team. On September the
16th we held what we called our 2006 Fall Fun(d) Raiser here at
our home. More than 120 people showed up over the course of the
day!! Folks hung out while listening to two bands (thanks to
“Tyler Road” and the Raf, Scott, and Manny Experience), milled
about the kennel visiting with the huskies, ate some great food
(thanks to my Mom especially, but also to Sue’s brothers and
Anthony for manning the grills and all those who brought
something along to share), and hung around the campfire after
dark. We had a brilliant day with the fall colors as bright as
the cloudless sky. Special thanks to those folks who contributed
fantastic items to our raffle, including- Shaughnessy Forest
Products, Marjie Norton and McKenzie Sports, Bert Ellis, Rhonda
and Bob O’Hearn, Linda Lopes, Stacy Lopes and Booth Creek, Mel
Puga and the Black Bear Lodge, Kip Bartlett, Amy and Mike
Gratton, Gail Castonguay, Lidia and Richard Dale-Mesaros, and
Christine Richardson. Thanks also to all the folks who took a
chance and bought those raffle tickets. A whole bunch of people
sponsored dogs while they were here and we’ll post them on each
individual dog’s webpage soon!! The Rumney Fire Department
Ladies’ Auxilary donated the use of tables and chairs. A bunch
of other folks helped in all sorts of different ways including
set up, clean-up, running the sponsors and raffle table,
cooking, etc. Two ladies very dear to us went way over the top
with their efforts to help out with this event and we need to
say a very special thanks to Mel and my Mom. You guys are
amazing!! In the end, the party was a huge success and we really
need to thank EVERYONE who made it here and a good many folks
who couldn’t get here but sent help in whatever way they could.
THANK YOU ALL. I know it may sound corny, but we honestly
couldn’t do it without you. We’re humbled and incredibly
Grateful for all you do for us. Thank you.
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New Husky Creek Sled |
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In other sponsorship news, we’ve gained a sled sponsor just when
we desperately needed another racing sled to enter two teams in
the long races this year. JR and Anna Anderson of Ray, Minnesota
have agreed to sponsor us through their business of Husky Creek
Sleds. I got a Husky Creek a few years ago after my first
attempt at the Can-Am 250. Not having the right sled that first
time had some serious consequences. I quickly learned that it’s
just not good enough to run several days on end with a sled not
suited to the purpose. We did some research and decided to get a
Husky Creek at that time. I’ve now put about 4000 miles on that
sled over the last 3 winters and with a new coat of poly this
fall it still looks, and drives, like new. It’s great to now
have support from a company that we already had tremendous faith
in, and totally LOVE their product!! Thanks Husky Creek!! Team
Tsuga will be proud to race with the new sled and sledbag this
winter. We’ve also got our irons in the fire with several other
sponsorship opportunities and we hope we can announce some new
sponsors soon…
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Attending the Northern New England
Sled Dog Trade Fair |
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A couple of weekends ago, we went down to the
Northern New England Sled Dog Trade Fair at the Hopkinton
Fairgrounds. We brought a couple Husky Creek sleds to show
interested folks and Mugs, Jim, Hood, Moon and Zirkle came
along, too. It was another great fall day and started with our
first frost of the season. Two of the speakers were Jason Barron
and Karen Ramstead. We
were meeting Jason for the first time but his reputation had
preceded him. Jason is about my age and very driven to be a top
musher in the Iditarod. He’s well on his way and was raised with
sleddogs. His dad has been an Iditarod musher for years. Jason
married Harmony under the burled-arch finish line in Nome a few
years ago. He’s as much a died-in-the-wool musher as there is.
Listening to Jason speak about his way of doing things with
training and racing dogs was fantastic. Thanks for taking the
time, Jason. For those of you not involved in racing siberians,
Karen is from Alberta and has entered the Iditarod 6 times now.
She’s been the only siberian team entered most of those years.
She’s traveled down this way a few times to speak at events and
visited our kennel a couple years ago. She is an excellent
speaker and has some great topics for her talks. Thanks for the
insight Karen and Jason!! It was a super day of seeing old
friends, making a few new ones, and “talking dogs” with a bunch
of folks who share our passion for mushing.
Well, sorry this took so long. We’ll get some
training updates very soon. Stay tuned….
THANK YOU!!!
