EVERY SPARE MOMENT...

Last year's Food Drops

Over 2,200 pounds shipped out on the trail

Well, it is definitely "CRUNCH TIME"...Drop Bags will be due before I know it.  Usually by this time, I have most of my meals done, and all my booties powdered and bundled.  It seems like I have been playing catch up ever since I made it back home (2 months later than usual) and then having to make two unexpected trips back to Edmond for my dad has made it all the harder.  The bright side is that my dad is doing FABULOUS.   The down side is I am behind schedule.

Dogs are doing GREAT !   Keeping the miles on the dogs and getting those drop bags done is my priority.  The Food Saver machine has been running non stop and will continue to do so for a while.

Every spare moment has been filled with meal prep.  When ever I make a dinner, I make enough to have 3 or 4 trail meals out of it.  Same goes for breakfasts.  Here are a few more pouches that I have made up.  

Grapes for the Trail

Meat Balls for the Trail

Oranges for the Trail

Pizza for the Trail

Tonight I made Curry Beef Stew...and guess what I will be eating on the trail?  Yep, Curry Beef Stew.  

Mocha at home and an the trail....

Love those Mochas !  

 Ola at Alaskan Dream Espresso with my Mochas for the trail

 Ready for the trail...

One on the far left is a Venti : )

It's What's for Breakfast...at home and on the trail !

Woke up earlier than planned on my Saturday "sleep in day"...with a wake up at 7 AM.  : )  6 AM found me laying in bed, not being able to get back to sleep.  With there always being so much to do and especially around this time with Drop Bags having to be put together, I decided that I would just get up .  

One of my favorite meals on the trail is French toast slathered in peanut butter and drenched in syrup, served with sausage or bacon.    I decided that preparing French Toast meals wouldn't be a noisy project for 6 AM, so I put on the coffee and started cracking eggs.  I had raisin Bread in the freezer and thought that would be really good for my French Toast.  YUM.

French Toast cooling

                                      

French Toast with Almond Butter between two slices
Yes, there are two will a double layer of almond butter.  : )

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 The pouches on the left have Almond Butter between two pieces of French Toast and then Pure Maple syrup poured into the pouch.  The three on the right just have Pure Maple Syrup.  They are all Food Saver sealed and ready for the trail !  There is also enough left overs for our breakfast this morning.

You have heard of "Walk In Freezers"...well, this is our "Walk Out Freezer".  It is portable and conveniently placed right outside the sliding door that is just off the kitchen.  With the temps at 13 degrees I was able to open the door.   When it gets into the minus temps, the slider is frozen shut.

All of this done by 8 AM.  Time for breakfast and then time to hook up the dogs for a run !

A Long Day

Night Run...still snowing 

Well, I got up at 5:15 this morning, a bit earlier than usual.  I had a 7 AM Physical Therapy appointment in Wasilla.  Poured myself a cup of coffee and then filled my water buckets for the dogs.  When I opened the door and stepped outside, I saw that it had snowed about 8 inches overnight.  Started my car so that it would be warmed up and ready to go when I was done watering the dogs.

Out in the dog lot I had to play Hide and Seek with the dogs bowls. The snow hid them and I had to find them. Got all the dogs watered and then tackled the job of brushing all the snow off my car.  I was hoping that I would make it to my Physical Therapy appointment on time. Yesterday I was 15 minutes early arriving so I thought I would be ok.   Today I arrived at 7:00 sharp...Right on time.

After Physical Therapy, I made a quick stop at the grocery store and bought pizza, sweet and sour chicken, and lots of bacon. I was determined to get a bunch of meals done for Iditarod.   Between now and Drop Bags, that Food Saver Machine will be working overtime.  This afternoon I cooked up the bacon and food saver sealed them.  Also got all of the sweet and sour chicken cooked up and food saver sealed.

Bacon

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Drop Bags for Iditarod are due February 18th and 19th.  Ugh !  There is so much to do to get those bags done.  I am still waiting on my ton of dog meat that I ordered from Aaron Burmeister.  Sure hoping that it comes soon.  I need to get it cut up and bagged. I really wanted to be feeding the dogs this meat for January and February, along with on the Iditarod.    Here it is almost the end of January.

Mobile Vet, Susan Dent came to the kennel at 2PM today and gave 10 dogs their Rabies shots.  It was quite a time saver.  We didn't have to load up dogs and truck them to the community center, unload and then load them up again and drive home.  She arrived and lickety split, before we knew it, those dogs were vaccinated.I

6:00 we took two teams out.  Just went for a short run, but it was a good run for the dogs.  They worked hard breaking trail the whole way.   Since yesterday we have gotten 16 inches of snow.

After the run, we had a late dinner and then I Food Saver Sealed more Iditarod dinners.

Lasagna Dinners

Two pouches of Baked Potato w/ chili and cheese
Two pouches of Steak

A Hard Working Man...

Getting Bob stoked up and well fed so that he can head out on the trail for some grooming before we take our teams out.  Bob is one of just a few people who groom and maintain our trails here.  I will say that for those who know him, they know of his love of working on the trail.  A few weeks ago I saw him off at 11PM to go work on the trail.  He came back around 2 AM  He was determined to work on a section of trail out by the train trestle and make it safer.  The next morning when we hit the trail I could see all his work.  Beautiful.

Egg scramble of mixed peppers, onions, mushrooms, power greens, bacon, and sausage,  Coffee and a Blentec smoothie of Banana, pineapple, mango, blueberries, peaches and power greens (spinach, kale and chard).  He is ready to go !

 Ready to do some grooming

Our trails have been great.  However, some new snow would make them much better.  Because of a brief sprinkle, even though temperatures are below freezing, Bob was concerned that the real nice scuff of snow that was on the trail might be frozen to the trail surface, creating an abrasive condition for the dogs feet, making it necessary to boot the dogs, and causing booties to wear out quickly.   

  

 Tools of the trade

 More tools of the trade

Heading out on the trail...

While Bob is out on the trail, I am heading to the gas station to fill up all of our jugs for the snow machines, to the dump to drop off our trash, and to the post office to pick up truck parts and hopefully a number of other items.  

Then I will have both our teams on the stake out chain ready to hook up when Bob returns.  We plan on heading out for about a 50 mile run.  Dogs are doing really great !   

Brrrr...Minus 18 degrees this morning.

Got up early, I guess I should say the regular time, which is early for some.  Up at 5:30.  Looked at the outdoor thermometer and noticed that our temperatures have dropped to - 18 degrees.  Dressed and out the door with my buckets to water the dogs.  It is always dark in the morning when I go out to water and scoop the kennel, so you can see that I am wearing a headlamp.   I do have a light out in my kennel, but it doesn't light up the entire kennel.

Because of the cold snap that we are in, my morning water is bated with more kibble so that the dogs are getting more calories.  They are also getting a snack of turkey skins and fat balls, along with a meat snack.

After watering the dogs I loaded up my Subaru with meat and fish and headed over to my outdoor butcher shop.  Fun, fun at these temperatures.  I wasn't sure how long I was going to last, but I was pleasantly surprised.  Only my feet were cold.  Next time I will wear my white bunny boots, as they are warmer than the black ones.

Meat and fish in the back of my Subaru...

I was quite happy with my meat cutting.  I got the salmon cut up and 150 pounds of tripe and beef cut up for the dogs.  That was good for a cold morning.  Then it was back home and time to get the dogs ready for a run.  It would take longer getting ready as I was going to boot all of the dogs.

And put coats on all of them...

The Red Coats are Waiting...

And we are off for a run !  We headed out to the other side of the highway and ran out to the Intertie. We had 3 head on passes and saw a total of 5 teams out on the trail.  It was a beautiful run and dogs and musher did great.  When we pulled back into the kennel, I removed the booties and then snacked and watered the dogs.  I was happy that I lost no booties on the run.  

After the run, I loaded up the car again with salmon and meat.  It was off to the band saw and more cutting.  Bit by bit, One Bite at a Time !  Now I have 450 pounds of meat cut up and quite a number of salmon cut up.  

DREAMING OF A STEAK DINNER WHILE ON THE TRAIL !

I would like to thank Jessie, Jesse, and Sophie for a wonderful dinner out for Bob and I.  And yes, we had steak !  Good old baked potato along with it.  And we split a cherry pie with ice cream !  What a treat.  

This is me dreaming of a steak dinner while on the trail.

Today the temps were around 1 degrees.  I took out a 10 dog team and we went 37 miles.  It was beautiful.  Dogs are doing great and most importantly happy.  They are coming into the kennel after their runs full steam ahead.  Today we saw 3 teams go out past our kennel, but I saw no one out on the trails.  

While on the way back from run I started thinking of the gift from Jessie and Jesse and Sophie.  Tonight would be the night!  I made a quick call to Bob to make sure that he would get his run in so that we would take off for dinner as soon as he got back.  

I called the Trading Post and their grill stays open until 9 pm.  Bob got in from his run at 8:20.  The two of us watered and put his dogs back to their houses lickety split.  The car was already warmed up and we were heading out the driveway at 8:50.  I called and placed our steak dinner order and when we walked in the restuarant we sat down and were served.  And I might say that it was DELICIOUS !  

An Alaskan Flat...

First Run of the New Year

 First run of the New Year was a short one.  Dogs were excited to get out as they were kennel bound yesterday due to warmer temperatures and freezing rain.  Bob ran the snowmachine out on our trail this morning.  I got the OK from him and I took out my first team, fully bootied to protect their feet.  I felt the trail was too punchy on the sides and decided to not take out my second team.  

I had to laugh at Clarence.  I am not sure if he has ever been booted.  He wanted to eat the booties and danced around lifting his feet high.  As soon as we hit the trail, it was as though he had forgotten that he was wearing the boots.  I am really impressed with how he is doing.  At first he was pretty much always loping, and now he is settling into a nice trot, which has been getting faster and smooth.  In the picture above, Clarence is in wheel on the right, running with Otter.

On the way home, I put Yen up in lead with Turbo and she really showed the boys her stuff.

HAPPY NEW YEAR ! ! !