So-what a crazy summer it has been! First of all, we moved. Yep, all dogs, goats, sheep, cows, horse, chickens, turkeys, ducks, goose, cats and humans. Our new place is not quite as far off the grid as the last place, but pretty close. Incredible trails here, and since the terrain is a little more level we have more options for running dogs.
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| One of our new trails runs along this waterway |
Summer has been spent trying to get set up here; we put in a new dog yard, remodeled a cabin for the handlers, installed our own energy system with new solar inverter and batteries, and fenced off about 35 acres of pasture for our livestock. We put in a new chicken yard and coop, and we still need to build a barn.
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| Our New House |
Interestingly enough, even though we are much closer to civilization at the new place, we have been having our first ever predator problems. A grizzly has been terrorizing the area chicken coops and finally made it over to our place. He carried off my favorite rooster before the guardian dogs got on him, but he has been taken care of now. We have a very active wolf pack nearby. Fish & Wildlife have been trying to trap one or two of the pack so they can collar them to track their movements. We've been told that the pack has pups this year, denned up about a mile from our house. We have seen a couple lone wolves but no pack sightings, winter will be better for wolf viewing.
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| Running the trails near our new home |
We have a new guardian pup, an Akbash male named Simon. He is a cutie, and is living & sleeping with the chickens and piggies. Also joining our pack is a malamute puppy from Nancy Russell of Storm Kloud Kennels. He is out of our boy Havok so he is family too. He is supposed to have a name that begins with an “X” (thats how Nancy keeps track of litters), but I am not having a lot of luck finding an X name that I like. I discarded Xavier, Xan, Xander, and Xanadu-they just don’t fit him. If anyone has suggestions, please forward them along.
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| Simon and X Puppy resting in a kennel after a play session |
The next big news is that we are going to run tours this winter! It has been many years since I have run tours, but we have to feed the doggies and put money into the Iditarod fund. What better way to make a living than to run dogs??
More to come....I will try to keep up better this fall!!
