Fun with Bert

A couple of weeks ago Bert got injured and had to have his dewclaws removed. Even tho he isn't really an indoor dog, we were bringing him because he had that area of his paws shaved and it can't be much fun to have exposed skin at +5F.
One day Sunnifa was running late and figured, "How much trouble can he get into in five hours when he has that goofy cone around his head?"
The answer is "lots"! Especially when he gets it off!!

Red

Here are a couple of photos of Red. He is a 3-yr-old male that we got for Sunnifa. As you can tell from the photos, he doesn't quite look like the other dogs in the kennel. Red is definitely heavier on the 'pointer/hound' side of the Alaska Husky spectrum, which is a good thing when you are looking for a good skijoring dog. Sunnifa took him out for a run while I followed with Joh, Lew, Lucky, and Tavarez in a team and all Sunn could say when we got back to the truck was, "Boy, is he fast."

Personally, I think it is in part due to those floppy ears giving him some lift-off, but that's just me.
Nicknames: Red Dog, Black Red.

Raw, Naked, and Sleeping

The world's best athletes eat raw meat,
run naked, and sleep in the snow.

Mush on!

Sasha

Sasha is fourteen years old and a honorary member of Lewjoh Kennel. She is our constantly shedding house dog. Sunnifa got Sasha from her parents about 8 or 9 years ago.
If you like cats, you'd like Sasha. She doesn't listen, has her own agenda, only likes to be petted when she wants to be petted, and is all about food. Seriously, she is a 70# cat. With really bad breath! Nicknames: Snarla, Fuzzy Butt.

yawn..

Aw jeez. A sweep? The Dred Sox are the new Yankees. 0-162 to them both next season.

The End Leads To the Beginning

Aw crud. The World Series is decided. Boston will win it in 5.
Let the hockey season begin. Go Wild!!

What Would Who?? What??

Screw Jesus. When I'm in doubt and
am in need of some guidance, I just ask...

What Would My Lead Dog Do?

Transporting sled dogs

So here is a not-so-great picture of my "dog truck". This is how mushers transport their dogs from one place to another, whether its to get to a trail head, to a race, or just to the vet. It's called a "dog box". I have four "holes" on each side of the box and comfy straw inside each hole. You can sort of see the "windows" on each hole door. There is a metal grate covering the windows but some people just leave the windows open so the dogs can stick their heads out. The box is quite sturdy. There are eye-bolts on the top so I can put my sled up there and tie it down. So now the dogs, musher, sled, and gear can all be conveniently transported. YEEAAAHH!!!!! :-)

Summer is a distant memory...

Hey there! I know, it's been a while. There is a good reason though. Summer is gone and autumn is almost over as well. This was the scene when I woke up to on Saturday. The first real snowfall of the season came on 10-6-07. So we've been busy trying get all of our outdoor projects finished. Doghouses have been getting painted, gravel is still being hauled, the dog boxes are on the back of Mackenzie (the orange truck. there is also Stanley [the white car] and Dexter [the red truck]), the heating unit on the well and pitless adapter is up and running... All we need now is a couple more feet of snow! I remember when I arrived up here on 10-19-99, there was already two feet of snow on the ground. Haven't seen that since but it sure would be nice.

First Frost

Yeeeaaahhhh Baby! The first frost of the year has arrived. I had to scrape off the windows on the truck before I went to work this morning.

:-) x 1,000

Pretty cool, eh?

Hey! Check it out! I just figured out how to put that box up there on here. Maybe it's really a simple thing, but for someone as computer illiterate as me it's a big thing.

:-)

it's been so long...

Yeah, it has been a long time.

We finally finished putting up the fencing around the dogs. We fenced in about 1/2 acre, so now we can let a couple of dogs loose to run and play and get some exercise and not have to worry about them running off or playing tag with the traffic.

Summer is definitely over! The leaves are turning and falling, overnite lows in the +30Fs, I can still see my breath at 8am (outdoors only), and we've been turning on the heat at nite. There's even been reports of snow above 2500 ft. The house sits at roughly 950 ft. Currently, it is 7:39am and +43F.

School has started back up for Sunnifa. Listening to her talk about the junior high kids makes me appreciate my dogs even more!

Think snow!

NRA in AK

The NRA loves this state. Even the squirrels carry guns!

This Past Week

Not too much going on here. Summer is starting to wind down. I now have to turn on my headlites when I go to work at 4:30am. Hmmm...overnite lows in the +40Fs, darkness starting to creep into our lives, breaking out the sweatshirts...yep. Winter is a comin'! As far as I'm concerned, it can't get here fast enuf.

I bought a truck last week. A '92 Chevy C2500. 5.7L V-8, extended cab, long bed. It'll work great for transporting the dogs around. We don't have trail access from the house, so I needed something like this. Ain't it purdy? We named it Mackenzie.

Sunnifa is in Whitehorse for the weekend. Her nephew down there is turning 16, so her and the folks went down for the celebration. I would have gone too but her folks didn't mention going there until Thursday evening and they were leaving early Friday morning. I need more notice than that to try to get off of work. So it's back to bachelorhood for four days. Party on man! (yawn)

That's about it. Have a good one yo!

got zucchini?

With all the daylight we get in the summer, veggies and flowers get pretty darn big.

"Hello? Can you hear me now?"

fyi

Hi there. Sorry it's been a while since I've been on here. Our phone and internet has been down for almost two weeks now. We got the phone back today, but still no web access. Sunnifa has called the phone company a few times and got a recording saying that there are outages thru-out town.

More when I have more time. I'm at work right now.

Alaskan Husky

People have asked me, "What is the difference in sled dogs? Most of the ones I see in the races aren't anything like I expected them to be. They are tiny little things. Not anywhere near the big, fuzzy dogs I was expecting to see."
Well, most of the sled dogs you find up here are Alaskan Huskies. They aren't a pure-bred anything. A person that I used to work with refers to them as an "Alaskan Mutt-ski" because thats what they are, a mutt. A little bit of this and that.
When most people think "sled dog", they picture a Siberian Husky (upper L) like the "faithful lead dog, King" in the "Sgt. Preston of the Yukon" TV show. They are the precursor of today's sled dog. The Siberian was introduced in Alaska in the early 1900s. They are a great dog for this environment. With their thick, dense coats they can handle just about anything winter throws at them.
As time went on, people that were serious about racing these dogs decided that the stocky, short-legged Siberian wasn't quite what they wanted. So the cross-breeding began. Nowadays, one can't be exactly sure what they are getting when they get a husky. Some people take great care in tracking the bloodlines. For example, my dog Bert is, according to the people I got him from, 1/2 Alaskan Husky & 1/2 "hound" on his dad's side and 1/2 Malamute & 1/2 Greenland Red Inuit on his mom's side. So basically he is 1/4 of one breed, 1/4 of another, and 1/2 of "something".
The "hound" aspect is becoming more and more common. This is being bred into the husky for it's endurance trait. This is also why a lot of the dogs you see in the Yukon Quest and Iditarod are only about 40-50, rarely reaching 55, pounds. These smaller dogs are easier to care for, they eat less (more cost effective), they run faster, and they run longer without a break. Rather ideal for the serious racer. You can really see the "hound" in the dog on the upper right. She is a three year old Alaskan Husky in a Yukon Quest / Iditarod racer's kennel. I know the musher and I'm gonna guess that this dog weighs in at around 40#.

Hockey and Baseball

Holy crappers!! Both Drury and Gomez signed with the Rangers!?! The only thing that could have been worse is if they would have signed with Dallas.

I sure hope that the Wild's move in getting rid of Fernandez doesn't come back and bite 'em in the arse. Two somewhat inexperienced goalies in Backstrom and Harding. Plus they lost Todd White. At least they have Gaborik signed and they re-signed Mikko Koivu.

I think that Koivu is going to really come thru this year, that is, as long as Minnesota isn't sitting back on their heels playing defence all the time.

On to baseball. Remember, one of the XII Commandments is "Baseball Is Real Life. Everything Else Is Just A Game."

How in the world does J.J. Hardy make the All-Star team? Ahead of Renteria, Ramirez, and Rollins. What, did the N.L. already fill it's quota of "R" names or something? What a joke. Hardy had a really good first 1-1/2 months of the season and all, but an All-Star?? I don't think so! And what about Chris Young? What the hell does a guy have to do? People are calling for Peavy to start this year's game, but compare...

('06/'07) G ------ IP ---------- W-L -------- ERA ------- K/9 ------- WHIP
JP 32/17 -- 202/112 -- 11-14/9-2 -- 4.09/2.09 -- 9.6/9.6 -- 1.23/1.05
CY 31/16 -- 179/97 --- 11-5/8-3 --- 3.46/2.14 -- 8.2/8.4 -- 1.13/1.09

I'm not saying that Young should be the starter, but he should have been picked over Peavy. Actually, I think that they both should be on this year's A-S team. And actually, yeah, I do think that Young should be the N.L. starter.

Boy, am I glad that Soriano isn't a starter. Nothing worse than having someone from the Chicago sCrubs being out there in the first inning.

I'm not going to say anything about the a.l. They cheat (the rulebook says 9 to a team, not 10), so they aren't worth the effort to type anything about them beyond this.

Lucky

This is Lucky. He was acquired thru the Fairbanks North Star Borough. The shelter didn't have any information on him, but I'm guessing that he is 5-yrs-old. I named him Lucky because I got him on a Friday the 13th under a full moon. He is a shy boy that is deathly afraid of loud noises and strange situations. It's a shame because he is a really good 'gee-haw' dog. Putting him in lead isn't really an option, tho. I've tried it and he does fine until we come across something that spooks him. Then I have to put all my faith in Joh to get us thru whatever it is. Joh is good about it, but if they are both having an off day, we're all in trouble. Nickname: Schnarfel.

Baseball

It's time for the 2007 All-star Game. Here's who I'm voting for...
AL:
C: V Martinez, Clev
1B: J Morneau, Minn
2B: B Roberts, Balt
3B: A Rodriguez, NY
SS: D Jeter, NY
OF: V Guerrero, Cal/Ana/LA/whateverthehelltheyarethisyear
OF: M Ordonez, Det
OF: I Suzuki, Sea
SP: J Santana, Minn
NL:
C: R Martin, LA
1B: A Pujols, StL
2B: C Utley, Phil
3B: M Cabrera, Fla
SS: J Reyes, NY
OF: C Beltran, NY
OF: M Holliday, Col
OF: C Lee, Hou
SP: C Young, SD

I'm a firm believer that you don't choose an all-star based on what they've done over the first couple of months of the season, a la Bip, I mean Brian, Roberts a couple of years ago or Joe McEwing back when he was a Cardinal. So I ran over 90 players thru my not yet patented 'All-Star Sorting System' and came up with these picks. They are based on the past 1-1/2 seasons, taking offence, defence, and whether they spent a lot of time on the DL or not into account. Personally, I'd rather see Joe Mauer behind the plate in the A.L. and almost anyone over Miguel Cabrera at 3rd in the N.L., but the 'A-SSS' speaks.
Note: The 'A-SSS' only works for every day players. My choices for starting pitchers is just who I feel deserves it.

Happy Birthday To Me!

So, it was my birthday a couple of days ago and it was fun! I took the day off of work like I always do and slept in until 7am! I spent the morning doing a whole lot of nothing and then we cooked brats on the grill. Brandon and John, the roofer dudes, were way grateful for this. We had brats and baked beans and chips and pink lemonade. Then Sunnifa and I spent the afternoon hauling gravel down to the dog yard, taking turns between hauling and raking. Brandon hung around for dinner and we had grilled salmon (see 'Dipnetting') and rice and salad and yummy beer. Hooray for Redbridge!
I got presents too! I got a new bike and some biking clothes and shoes and other clothes and cards and money and a book and a CD by Imogen Heap. It was a good birthday.

Tavarez

Say hi to Tavarez. Three years old and dumb as a box of rocks. She should have blonde fur since she really is the K-9 equivalent of a "dumb blonde". An absolute cutie and sweetheart, an airhead, and can't remember what happened two minutes ago. If she would start to pull consistently I might be willing to overlook her ditziness. My third dog from Leslie. Nickname: Pixie-stick.

Dipnetting

Last weekend Sunnifa and I went dipnetting for salmon down outside of Chitina. It was a good time. In a nutshell, dipnetting is when you use a big net, mine is approx. 2' x 3', on a long pole (see pic at L, that's me), and scoop salmon out of the water. We started on Sat. at about 10ish and by the end of the day we had five. Four Reds and a King. Between the two of us we can get up to 30 salmon. There are no size limits, but you can only keep one King.

We went down with a few people that I work with and a few others. About ten of us total. It was a fun camping trip. Very dusty and a little windy but still fun.

OK, so, like, out of the nutshell, a dipnet is a big net on a long pole. The pole that I used is 12'. Some people were using 25' poles! The 12-footer is somewhat easy to handle but the 25-footer is tough. If you don't have the technique down, you're screwed. So anyways, the salmon are coming up the river, in this case the Copper River, and you scoop the net with the current and hope to catch a salmon coming up against the current. It's not as easy as it sounds. You are in hip-waders and the river is rushing and you are concentrating on keeping good footing in the silt and rocks and not falling in and getting swept away in the cold water and trying to keep your net deep enough and upright and, oh yeah, if you feel a fish hit you have to get the sucker in PDQ. Get your butt up here and try it sometime. The only catch on that is that you have to be an Alaska resident. Meaning you have to have lived here for one year before you can (legally) dipnet. The fish were really coming on Sunday. A few of the guys hung around and got another 10-15. As for me, I just wanted to hit the road and get home. It's a 300 mile drive (one way) and we still had to fillet the ones we got and get them packaged up and try to get to bed at a decent hour. 3:30am comes awfully early after a weekend of driving and fishing.

Sorry about the sideways picture. I can't figure out how to turn the darned thing.
Killer scenery, eh? What kind of view did you have last weekend???

Nap time

And who says that puppies are a non-stop bundle of energy?!?

Hockey

I was wrong. It was 6-2. Stupid Ducks.

Hockey

So, is anybody actually watching the Stanley Cup Finals? Besides me, of course. Game 4 had Ottawa written all over it until part way thru the 2nd period. The Sens just lost their legs. Anaheim sensed it, turned it up a notch, and that was that. Ottawa never really recovered. I think the thing I was most impressed with was the Canadian anthem. Alanis Morissette did a really good job. I'd rather chew on a piece of aluminum foil while listening to someone run their fingernails over a chalkboard rather than listen to one of her CDs, but I was impressed the other night. Maybe because she sang in French. Or because she shut up and let the crowd sing about 1/4 of it. Yeah, that's probably it.
But tonite will be the end of the hockey season. Anaheim will win 4-2, take the series 4-1, and for the third season in a row a Canadian team will lose in the finals to a team from the southern U.S. Imagine if baseball had a bunch of teams in Canada and for three straight seasons teams from Calgary, Edmonton, and Ottawa beat the White Sox, Baltimore, and Atlanta in the World Series. I just ain't right. Go Sens! Three in a row, baby!

Bert

Meet Bert. He is a goof-ball of a pup. Born on Summer Solstice '06 on the Richards' homestead on the Kandic River. He'll end up being the biggest dog of the crew, as he is already 66#. The rest of my dogs, all adults, are between 60-70#. Bert is smart as a whip. I have dreams that one day he will replace Joh as my main leader. Nickname: Bertskidoodle.

Zulu

Here is Zulu. She is an 8-yr-old that I am desperately trying to find a new home for. She is a great puller, good w/other dogs, and by far the sweetest dog I have ever been around. The problem is that she can be very vocal. Always the first to say hello and goodbye. Out at my cabin it's no big deal, but when I move it will be a big deal. I doubt that the neighbours will want to hear a dog howling at 4:30am M-F. She isn't housebroken and won't be setting any speed records anytime soon, but if you happen to know of anyone willing to take her in, please let me know! I have until the 30th to find a home for her. I don't want to have to take her to the pound. Nickname: Zulululululu

Chris

This is Chris, Alpha Male of Lewjoh Kennel. He was born many moons ago in the northern-midwest part of the U.S. After coming to Alaska on vacation in the fall of '99, he decided that looking at moose was more exciting than looking at cows, so he moved there a couple of months later. After hopping around the state a little bit, he settled in the Interior and continued his life of bartending and exploring. This led him to a stint as a dog handler, which led him to acquiring his own team. After getting his kennel up to nine dogs, he realized that he didn't have what it takes to be a somewhat-almost-but-not-really professional musher (re:$$$). Currently sitting with six sled dogs, a girlfriend, and her 13-yr-old Siberian Husky, Chris is content with letting other hardy souls do the racing.

Lewjoh Kennel

Joh

Here is the other namesake, Joh. He is my main lead dog. I'm guessing he was born in 1997. I also got him from Leslie. She didn't care for Joh (then "Cujo") because he was prone to fighting. I had a puppy at the time that I wasn't really into. Cujo and I hit it off, so I offered Leslie a trade. She took Rhem, I took Cujo, and all is well.
Altho he is up there in years, you'd never know it by watching him. He can run and play and keep up with the younger dogs, noooo problem. Joh is an all-around great dog. Nickname: Boneyhead.

Lew

This is Lew, 1/2 of the namesakes of Lewjoh Kennel. Lew was my first dog. She doesn't look it here, but she really is a sled dog. Born 11/02, I got her from my friend Leslie at 7 weeks.

She finally started pulling this past winter instead of just running along and giving a token pull from time to time.

A very smart girl, Lew is full of life and gets along with everybody. After doing a good job of it last year, I think that she'll be running in lead a lot this winter. Nickname: Dumbo Dog (look at the ears!).

Welcome!

Hi there. Welcome to the blog of Chris and Lewjoh Kennel. I found about this blogsite from my friend Laura (blog "Adventures in AK"). She, like me, has her entire family Outside (aka Lower 48) and found that this is a good way to keep everyone updated on what is going on up here. So gimme some feedback. Hopefully this will work out well.
Things are swell up here right now. Especially if you like to inhale smoke and deal with yellowjackets. I saw that there are already sixteen active wildfires in Alaska. Which makes me wonder...what is an inactive wildfire? A bunch of hot embers w/tattoos and leather jackets sitting around a watering hole smoking and wondering what to burn next? Anyways, I have a feeling that it is going to be a bad year for fires. I hope I'm wrong, but it isn't starting out well.
Currently it's 7pm, cloudy, and +70F. Everyone is well here. I'm in the process of moving in with Sunnifa. Right now Lew is living w/her and I am living between both places. I still have to finish putting in the dog yard. Lucky, Tavarez, Joh, Zulu, and Bert should be over here by the end of the month and I'll be out of the cabin sometime in June.
When I figure out how to download pics to a Mac, I'll have some posted on here. Until then, hadet!