Americano Blue's musher/mushing chat thread

[charnic44]

I think I'm gonna do what you are doing with ayimisew, give her until spring to see whether or not I will keep her. She has a great build, good feet, a nice coat-length, etc. and I'd breed her if she wasn't so shy/standoffish. If she will warm up to me by spring then I will probably breed later in the year. But if she still won't pull her weight by then, I will find her a new home. :/ The yearling of course has some growing up to do before I breed her. She still has that puppy mentality, not wanting to stand still for hook up, interfering with my other leader while hooking everyone else up, etc. But that will go away after some maturing. She works hard and learns fast so I can deal with her being smaller.

How old is ayimisew and the rest of the litter? 8 months right? I'd like to see some recent pics of them....

 

[RezChamp]

I think I'm gonna do what you are doing with ayimisew, give her until spring to see whether or not I will keep her. She has a great build, good feet, a nice coat-length, etc. and I'd breed her if she wasn't so shy/standoffish. If she will warm up to me by spring then I will probably breed later in the year. But if she still won't pull her weight by then, I will find her a new home.

The yearling of course has some growing up to do before I breed her. She still has that puppy mentality, not wanting to stand still for hook up, interfering with my other leader while hooking everyone else up, etc. But that will go away after some maturing. She works hard and learns fast so I can deal with her being smaller.

How old is ayimisew and the rest of the litter? 8 months right? I'd like to see some recent pics of them....

Ya eh.....pix I aint really too smart when it comes to electronics but I'd love to get pix up of the (my)Birthday Brood(jan/14) I'd love to get pix up of the Birthday Brood. I will one day. So they are 10+ months old

I've had to set "boundaries" in my working with dogs as with everything. If I didn't have boundaries and quotas and aspirations and,and,and.... in healthy balances I would soon be swamped with whatever. I've found that a willingness to change my perception is healthy...so long as I don't completely throw away too much at once.
"Changing the oil in the truck engine will prolong and embellish it's life." kinda thing.
That philosophy can be applied to the yearling. Give her some good memory to pass on to her pups. More memories = knowledge/wisdom.
I've found that if I am sincere in my desire to befriend a K9 or at the least gain it's trust it's very rewarding on quite some levels to spend a lot of 1on1 time with that K9. Even if it means leashed walks in the bush, picnic with him/her, just sit quiet for a half hour or even more. If I had more time I would do that with all of them, but I don't. So I just observe...see which 1/'s I think will do well with ppl and on-the-line with other K9's. I firmly believe this's how Okimaw became such a good lead-dog. I spent hours and hours and hours with him winter, spring, summer and fall. He was my buddy, still a sled-dog but my buddy but still a sled-dog.........u kno.......
I have respect for my dogs in amounts and ways that the vast majority of ppl will never fathom. That's OK Bkuz we're all different. (side note...I just dislike it when when pll think their way is the only way. PO's me Bkuz I know my way is the right way. 4 me!!!)
Anyways, re; respect(and even love) for my dogs... I have shot dogs for biting. I can't afford to have dogs biting ppl, especially kids, more especially my kids and Grandkids. Sometimes I need to make the hard calls and act on it myself instead of copping out and finding someone else to dump it on.

On the note of Grandkids, please everyone pray/think/feel/whatever good things for my fam. Today we prepare our 7th G-kid for burial 2moro. He was in this world for 4 days. I have feelings of self pity going thru' me just now, I never got to hold him or talk to him. I didn't get even to see him. 10 days overdue and then complications at birth. This is tuff. Good things have been shown to me tho'. I appreciate my G-kids more now. I kinda pushed aside sometimes but now I see that 45 seconds of hugs and tenderness is only 45secs. This post is taking awhile but it's just typing. no heartbeat in this machine(computer).
Maybe I'm just grasping at straws for empathy I ges. I may be a tuff old buzzard but I am still human and know that I am still vulnerable and I'm big enough to ask for help.
Well gota go. Things to do. TTFN TTYL

 

[SternRose]

Heey! Hooked Nala and Hank up again today and went 1/2 mile at a trot
Everyone pulled and stayed trotin
My cousin who got one of Hanks brothers is letting me train him so I'll have 3 dogs
Still trying to get an experienced leader but stubborn parents won't budge

 

[SternRose]

I think they'll all be ready this winter!! yay!

 

[RezChamp]

Heey! Hooked Nala and Hank up again today and went 1/2 mile at a trot

Everyone pulled and stayed trotin
My cousin who got one of Hanks brothers is letting me train him so I'll have 3 dogs

Still trying to get an experienced leader but stubborn parents won't budge

I think they'll all be ready this winter!! yay!

Righton Rosiegirl. 3 dogs. Cool. That should be enough for now. We only need 1 dog for every 50lbs of wieght being pulled.
I haven't yet hooked up your namesake or any of his siblings. They are gorgeous though.
I'm glad to hear from you.

 

[RezChamp]

We got another sprinkling of snow today.

Actually late lastnight and/or in the wee hours. Mind you, it's lunchtime now and there aint a single snowflake left on the ground.

I was kind of expecting a bit more snow by now but I guess I gota wait.
Gee I wish I knew how to get pix up on here. I usually get my daughter to help me but she's not around much the last while.
reason....I took apart my sled and tweaked it, painted it and put it back together. I also painted my snow-hooks to match and made matching gang-lines.

It looks good if I say so myself. I just gota put on the QCR now and

wait for snow......
Oh, and of course to show y'all the Birthday Brood pups.


I've also contacted some of the local commercial fisher-ppl to get fish as soon as the weather is cold enough outside to keep the fish frozen. I think I'm gona have enough.
Well, goin outside now. Check back later.

 

[charnic44]

Ya eh.....pix   I aint really too smart when it comes to electronics but I'd love to get pix up of the (my)Birthday Brood(jan/14) I'd love to get pix up of the Birthday Brood. I will one day. So they are 10+ months old

     I've had to set "boundaries" in my working with dogs as with everything. If I didn't have boundaries and quotas and aspirations and,and,and.... in healthy balances I would soon be swamped with whatever. I've found that a willingness to change my perception is healthy...so long as I don't completely throw away too much at once.
"Changing the oil in the truck engine will prolong and embellish it's life." kinda thing.
That philosophy can be applied to the yearling. Give her some good memory to pass on to her pups. More memories = knowledge/wisdom.
     I've found that if I am sincere in my desire to befriend a K9 or at the least gain it's trust it's very rewarding on quite some levels to spend a lot of 1on1 time with that K9. Even if it means leashed walks in the bush, picnic with him/her, just sit quiet for a half hour or even more. If I had more time I would do that with all of them, but I don't. So I just observe...see which 1/'s I think will do well with ppl and on-the-line with other K9's. I firmly believe this's how Okimaw became such a good lead-dog. I spent hours and hours and hours with him winter, spring, summer and fall. He was my buddy, still a sled-dog but my buddy but still a sled-dog.........u kno.......
I have respect for my dogs in amounts and ways that the vast majority of ppl will never fathom. That's OK Bkuz we're all different. (side note...I just dislike it when when pll think their way is the only way. PO's me Bkuz I know my way is the right way. 4 me!!!)
Anyways, re; respect(and even love) for my dogs... I have shot dogs for biting. I can't afford to have dogs biting ppl, especially kids, more especially my kids and Grandkids. Sometimes I need to make the hard calls and act on it myself instead of copping out and finding someone else to dump it on.

On the note of Grandkids, please everyone pray/think/feel/whatever good things for my fam. Today we prepare our 7th G-kid for burial 2moro. He was in this world for 4 days. I have feelings of self pity going thru' me just now, I never got to hold him or talk to him. I didn't get even to see him. 10 days overdue and then complications at birth. This is tuff. Good things have been shown to me tho'. I appreciate my G-kids more now. I kinda pushed aside sometimes but now I see that 45 seconds of hugs and tenderness is only 45secs. This post is taking awhile but it's just typing. no heartbeat in this machine(computer).
Maybe I'm just grasping at straws for empathy I ges. I may be a tuff old buzzard but I am still human and know that I am still vulnerable and I'm big enough to ask for help.
Well gota go. Things to do. TTFN TTYL

I'm sorry for your loss. Good thoughts and prayers sent your way. Good information, I only now see it with the horses we breed. Time, something I don't ever seem to have enough of, lol. I don't know how people with larger kennels are able to spend a good amount of time with each dog when I've only got 7 and there never seems to be enough 1 on 1 time. Then again, most people with larger kennels aren't a freshman in high school, which means hours of homework, other chores, and something of a social life. Someday I'll get it figured out.

Heey! Hooked Nala and Hank up again today and went 1/2 mile at a trot
Everyone pulled and stayed trotin
My cousin who got one of Hanks brothers is letting me train him so I'll have 3 dogs
Still trying to get an experienced leader but stubborn parents won't budge

Yay! Hey, if they still say no, just train Hank and Nala up well enough to where you won't need an older leader. Now I haven't trained dogs without older dogs but it sounds like your doing pretty well so far. As long as they keep their tugs tight and stay out front, the rest is easy, especially if you are training on a bike. They will pick up gee/haw easily depending on how many turns are on your trail and how often they get to practice them. Anyways, yay for Hank and Nala!

We got another sprinkling of snow today. Actually late lastnight and/or in the wee hours.  Mind you, it's lunchtime now and there aint a single snowflake left on the ground.
I was kind of expecting a bit more snow by now but I guess I gota wait.
Gee I wish I knew how to get pix up on here. I usually get my daughter to help me but she's not around much the last while.
reason....I took apart my sled and tweaked it, painted it and put it back together. I also painted my snow-hooks to match and made matching gang-lines.
 It looks good if I say so myself. I just gota put on the QCR now and wait for snow...... 
Oh, and of  course to show y'all the Birthday Brood pups.


I've also contacted some of the local commercial fisher-ppl to get fish as soon as the weather is cold enough outside to keep the fish frozen. I think I'm gona have enough.
Well, goin outside now. Check back later.

Snow! It seems like it will be forever until we get some. Just a few more months hopefully, if we get any at all. Because of the drought the weatherman doubts we will get a lot of snow or not. I'd love to see your sled. I'm going to try to build my second one in shop class so we shall see how that goes... :/

 

[RezChamp]

Hi y'all. Howzit goin in your neck of the woods? We got rain and then some rain and then we got rain, but I think it's spozeta rain 2moro AM and then we'll get rain a little in the evening after light rain in the early PM.

No snow yet. But I finished my sled. Dang she Purdy. Evreything in blues and whites, even the snowhooks. The shock cord is red and green and throws the whole theme off. Oh ya, the hook holsters are a nice shiny aluminum. I fabricated just about everything from rough materials except 2 of the snowhooks and the runners. I found a lot of issues with the old components so I just bought wood and voila. What I didn't see was the dang runners don't have the same curl tho. I didn't notice till everything was tightened up. I was wondering why things didn't fit the same on each side. I looked closer at the runners when I noticed they didn't lay the same on a flat surface. 1 is for a freighter sled and the other is for a racing sled. They're both long curls but the freighter has an extra bit of a curl at midpoint. That's so you can turn the sled easier with a heavy load on as opposed to a long flat runner. I got ripped off. Somebody else out there got the same thing I'm guessing.
It will run true for the most part but wear unevenly on the plastics. Oh well....... It looks nice anyway.
I have yet to hook-up more than 5 dogs for training/conditioning runs. I would love to have a full sized quad(with good brakes) so I'd be able to hook-up 10 at a time.
Blue, How's your training going? How many miles per day? ....days per week?
Anybody else out there training? LMK wuzup.

 

[RezChamp]

I'm sorry for your loss.

Good thoughts and prayers sent your way. Good information, I only now see it with the horses we breed. Time, something I don't ever seem to have enough of, lol. I don't know how people with larger kennels are able to spend a good amount of time with each dog when I've only got 7 and there never seems to be enough 1 on 1 time. Then again, most people with larger kennels aren't a freshman in high school, which means hours of homework, other chores, and something of a social life. Someday I'll get it figured out.

Yay! Hey, if they still say no, just train Hank and Nala up well enough to where you won't need an older leader. Now I haven't trained dogs without older dogs but it sounds like your doing pretty well so far. As long as they keep their tugs tight and stay out front, the rest is easy, especially if you are training on a bike. They will pick up gee/haw easily depending on how many turns are on your trail and how often they get to practice them. Anyways, yay for Hank and Nala!

Snow! It seems like it will be forever until we get some. Just a few more months hopefully, if we get any at all. Because of the drought the weatherman doubts we will get a lot of snow or not. I'd love to see your sled. I'm going to try to build my second one in shop class so we shall see how that goes...

My friends are getting snow in the communities 400miles north of me. I still got lots of stuff to move before snow fall anyhow. Seems I have more & more stuff every fall. LOL. Building your own sled....awesome. Make sure 2 measure 3X & then again before you drill, cut, screw, bolt, lash, glue etc. A nice flat surface is so so very nice to start and finish on. LOL. Do we get play by play on the build?

 

[RezChamp]

Time...................
I think if there were 2 of me I might enough time to do half of what I would like to do. In my experience when I have the help of 1 other human it takes about 1/2 of the time it usually takes to complete a task. If I have 2 helpers the task is usually done in 1/4-1/8 of the time. Of course that all depends on the task. Repairing or making a fence, or fetching wood are 2 things that really see a marked difference. Taking care of my dogs seems so easy when there are 3 of us doing it.
A set of "dog chores" that takes a lot of time is cleaning atimomiy(dog's excrement). ....Get the wheelbarrow, shovel and rake, the 45gln barrel and wagon, rake the poop into the shovel, fill the wheelbarrow and take it to the barrel and put it in there. Go get the truck and hook the wagon to the truck then take the barrel of omiy(excrement) to the meadow or feild and spread it by the shovel full. When there is 3 of us doing it we all have certain aspects of that duty and it goes quick. When I do it alone(which is almost all the time) it takes almost 1&1/2 hours.
Even watering the dogs takes me about 20 mins. I don't have a fount out back so I haul 5 gln pails fro the house....6 of them...........3 x/day.
I love it when I have frozen fish or chunked red meat at feeding time. It takes only 15 mins to feed-up. Or kibble.(yuck! makes for big, stinky, runny omiy). If I don't have "ready to serve" I gota cook. That means fetching wood if I don't have any already cut, hauled, split and stacked, then make a fire in the stove, then put the food stuffs(meat(deer,moose,elk,cow,pig,chkn,trky,fsh,etc), veggies, fruit, rice, barley,etc.) into the 10 gln drum with water and keep the fire going as opposed to walking away to do something else that usually will distract me then hafta make a fire from scratch again. After it's cooked, let it cool (covered so the Ravens and Magpies don't get at it) then put it on the garden-cart or jumper-sled and scoop some yummy soup to each K9. After that's done gather the dishes, cooking pots and utensils and use the warm water(on the wood stove(remember all the water needs to be hauled 100 yards from the house)) and then all wash and rinse with cool water to remove any soap residue (which will without exception gives them kisikatewin(the runs)

). And "dog chores" is just 1 thing. Chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese and rabbits are also under my charge,. Oh ya and pigeons. Prize winning show pigeons no less.The lawn and garden stuff, snow removal, fabricating mushing gear, vehicle maintenance. the list goes on...... And then there's my wife, children and G-kids.
When we want things, be they material/physical, spiritual or emotional, it all requires time to take care of. Thank goodness TIME is the one thing that was gifted to me to do with whatever I may so choose. even if it's just sitting here typing.LOL

Mushing is rewarding but it is not a hobby. I repeat Mushing is not a hobby. Mushing is a way of living. It's a life style whether or not it is done for rec, pastime, work(trapping,hauling wood,etc)week-ends, pro racing, rec racing, ....it is a living choice.....and I love it.

minopimacihewin nina oci soke-otoskew Good(as opposed to evil or blank and/or not referring to the easy life of riches and affluence most people refer to when using the term"The Good Life") ) life is retained in me by means of hard work.

HAGD everyone. TTFN. TTYS.