Our Life

Tying Up Loose Ends & Starting Fall Dog Sled Runs

Sarah · September 30, 2014 ·

September has come and gone, almost. We’ve spent most of the month tying up loose ends around the kennel, trying to finish all the projects we started but hadn’t quite finished yet. I’m excited that our new website is finally done. So many hours were poured into it– I hope it shows.

Travis and I have felt overwhelmed recently. Our dog sled runs haven’t quite hit a solid rhythm yet of wake, run, rest, run, sleep but we are slowly moving towards that goal. The little things that have left us feeling disorganized are starting to fall in place: the piles of stuff in our basement left over from last mushing season have finally been sorted through and are sitting on new shelves that we installed. Our summer glacier gear for our glacier dogsledding camp has finally found a home and been mostly put away. And, it seems, we are finally remembering the little things: cooking real dinners like Chicken Parm and spaghetti and meatballs, rather than simply getting by on ramen noodles and pizza which is what we ate for most of the summer. I wish I was lying but when you are busy it seems the first thing to go is a nice home cooked meal!

Travis has been excited because our second ATV we use on dog sled runs had a few upgrades made to it. Although the machine doesn’t actually run, it’s perfect for running dogs with. He recently found some new fenders for it on a trip to the dump – what a score. He then pulled the fuel tank out and made a thermos holder. Also new — the padded backrest. May not look it, but it’s a pretty sweet ride!

We are back to the quiet life of fall — no more tours or help around — and it feels good to finally sit down and settle in, the warmth of the wood stove radiating throughout the house after a dog sled run. Our Friday nights have consisted of netflix and puppies romping around through our living room.

During our quiet moments at home we’ve allowed the young dogs to run wild through the yard, their squirming endless energy exciting the kennel and keeping everyone’s tails wagging. They are so much fun right now. It’s a great age.

The dog sled runs we have gone on have shown lots of promise. We’ve been working with new lead dogs and some of our younger sled dogs who were born last summer. Today, we ran Marlowe who just turned a year old in lead. To say he was amazing would be an understatement. He is a confident young dog who simply loves to go. From the first moment we put him up front he was an absolute natural. I’m so excited to be working with him and a couple of our other young sled dogs this year. I had so much fun free running them and bringing them inside last year while Travis was training. Watching them develop athletically into talented sled dogs has been exciting.

It’s still warm out but we’ve started doing 10 mile runs with the team. Hopefully, we’ll be able to head north to longer trails soon. The loops we run at home aren’t long but they at least provide some training and there is plenty of water in creeks along the side of the road.

Well, Travis has finished his coffee so we are going to head out on the trail again. We’ve been having fun running together.

2015 Dog Sled Racing Season Announcements

Sarah · September 28, 2014 ·

Welcome! Our new website has been a work of love over the past few months and has taken up a tremendous amount of time and energy. We are so excited to finally be sharing it with you in time for the 2015 dog sled racing & training season

We have a couple new features as well as big announcements that we would like to share with you.

Cool New Features

Videos Section
We are going to be producing a lot of videos this year. Many of these videos will make their way on to facebook but we encourage you to check on our website weekly in the video section to see our latest videos. Check it out.

Meet our Dogs – The Real Dog Sled Racers

These guys are the real stars of our kennel — we’re just the ones who do all the talking! Meet some of our fantastic team members so you can better understand our stories and our video updates. Meet our sled dogs!

Adopt a Sled Dog

Interested in adopting one of our older retired sled dogs? Fill out our adopt a sled dog application. Don’t worry – it is in no way an actual commitment but we would like to grow a list of interested people. We have several sled dogs nearing the age of retirement and we want to ensure a great post-racing career for them. Learn More

Facebook Commenting On Blog Posts!

Want to let us know your thoughts on a certain post? You can now use facebook commenting down below the post to give us your feedback. We LOVE when you comment on our blog posts!

Easy-to-Share Blog Posts

You’ll notice at the top and bottom of this post there are some new buttons to help you immediately share our content. Help us grow the dog sledding community by sharing our content with your facebook friends, twitter followers, and on your pinterest boards! While you may not think this helps, this is one of the single biggest things you can do to help “cheer us on” virtually.

And 3 Big Announcements

Of course it wouldn’t be the start of the 2015 dog sled racing season without a few announcements!

#1) This blog is going to be very, very active.

You can expect a minimum of 3 posts a week. Two of these blog posts are going to be centered on teaching you about dog sledding so you can really learn how to understand our sport. Most people know the basics of football, baseball and hockey – it’s time for most people to know the basics of dog sledding! Educational blog posts will be updated every Monday & Thursday, with kennel updates occurring on Wednesdays.

#2) Our biggest goal for the 2015 season is providing quality information about dog sledding, dog sled racing and our kennel.

We want to engage with you and teach you more about our sport. Tell us what you would like to know. Have a question about a blog post? Comment on it. Thought of something you’d like answered? Ask us your dog sledding questions on facebook. While we can’t always respond right away (we do have to train) we’ll be sure to get to it when we get back from our latest run or when we have internet!

#3) We have launched a new sponsorship program for the 2015 dog sled racing season.

Learn how you can help sponsor our racing and training and be a part of our journey as we prepare for Iditarod 2014. Check it out!

That’s it. Stay tuned for our next blog post later this week!

For Now, Summer

Sarah · July 15, 2014 ·

The days go by in whirling blur. Outside, the fireweed blooms and it is a painful reminder that all too soon summer will be gone. Can it already be mid-July? We’ve stayed busy and when the day ends we are grateful for a moment of rest and solitude before waking to do it all again. It’s funny how we lose track of time completely. Often my internal clock puts me a full day ahead or behind schedule: it has led to confusion on more than one occurrence.

We find peace in the quiet moments, whenever those come but we seem to enjoy the chaos. We fill our days up so they pass by both slow, stuck in the moment, and fast, because you are always doing something. You wake to do it all over again.

Sunday night we went over to our friends house to relax and unwind. They cooked us some incredible steaks on an open fire. We cut the steaks up and made tacos — they were out of this world. My friend was saying how they always cook on an open flame because everything just tastes better cooked on a fire. That meal definitely spoke in favor of that lifestyle and there was something to be said too for the slow, methodical preparation that it took.

Last night, they came to visit us and we lit a big bonfire and stayed out late, watching the night slip slowly away while the big brush pile turned to smoldering embers. We sit around and talk of things to come and things that have passed until it seems that the night must surely be over — how can a day last so long?

Soon enough, the days will be shrinking: shorter and shorter and shorter. The air will get a little colder, and the clear blue skies will darken as the rainy season of fall approaches. The trees will lose their leaves and night, barely present now, will grace us with her presence and we will begin the long, steady task of training dogs and traveling through the wilderness.

So for now, we enjoy the sunshine and the steady whir of life that keeps us ever-present in these long, warm days: the cold will be here soon enough.

Signing Up For Iditarod 2015

Sarah · July 1, 2014 ·

Wow. The last month has been truly exhilarating. With Travis sick, I’ve spent a lot more time running dogs…mainly puppies. I have to say, its due to their enthusiasm and their talent that really encourage me to sign up for Iditarod.

Iditarod has been something I’ve wanted to do since I was 6 years old. I remember sitting on the couch watching Iron Will, sometimes on repeat. I don’t really know when it happened or when I first said it, but for as long as I can remember I have wanted to be a musher, run sled dogs, and of course, run Iditarod.

When you let passion by your guide it’s amazing the places it will take you. It brought me from Boston, MA to Seward, AK. It’s taken me from a place of being a humble employee to the co-owner of two growing businesses. It’s showed me that choosing to follow what you love can do big things and introduce you to some really incredible people.

On Saturday that love, enthusiasm, and passion woke me at 4:30am. Despite being sick for the last month, Travis somehow still couldn’t contain his excitement.

“Today is the day!” He chirped.

I wearily got out of bed and we began the long journey north to Iditarod Headquarters to sign up for Iditarod 2015. It’s a long drive but at least in Alaska it was already light out and it made rising early on my one day off in the last month a little more palatable.

We jam packed a couple of crates into the back of our CR-V. Maybe we were going to pick up some new dogs… Travis ran into town and got coffee and suddenly we were driving north.

I couldn’t have slept on the drive if I wanted to. The nervous excitement ran through me like an electrical current. Every few minutes my face would light up in a smile or my stomach would clench into a tight ball. Travis kept the conversation light hearted and we’d talked about the last month, with him being down-and-out. He was ready to get back to work. In the back of our mind we were both thinking: How on earth are we going to do it all?

Honestly, we still don’t exactly know. We’ve skated by the last two years on hard work, dedication, and a whole lot of faith that these two things will see us through. So far they have and we hope (pray?) that they continue to.

In the quiet moments of the ride, I filled out paperwork in the car. Could I really be doing this? Iditarod 2015 sign ups?

On more than one occasion I thought as we drove Ok, this is it. Once I hand this in there is NO going back. $3,000 and 20 years of wanting, wishing, and working is way too much for a change of heart!

Yes. 20 years. I have wanted to run the Iditaord since I was 6 years old.

I talked about mushing non-stop and would write about my dog Samantha in class whenever we had writing assignments. I was terrified of the dark and hated sleeping (still do!) and my parents often tricked me into going to bed by bringing Samantha in to my room and saying, “Sammy’s tired Sarah, it’s time for you to go to bed now.” More often than not she would lie next to my bed and I would bring my blanket down and sleep on the floor next to her. In the morning, my parents would come in to find the dog on my bed and me still sound asleep on the floor.

I got every dog mushing book I could find and read them. At one point, I even convinced some of my friends to pretend they were dogs and pull me on a sled. But I didn’t go mushing for the first time until I was in the 4^th grade. My aunt Betsy finally took pity on me and took me for a 3 day mushing adventure. I still remember gearing up for my first run, putting on the warm fuzzy mukluks and making sure I had all the proper gear. When we pulled hook for the first time and took off into the woods of Maine, I was instantly hooked.

When I returned home, much to the chagrin of my parents, I immediately began asking for a dog team. I am fairly certain I asked for a sled dog every birthday and Christmas. In the 5^th grade I wrote Susan Butcher repeatedly and would write about how she was my biggest hero in my school assignments. I still have those journals.

So to finally be here, doing what I set out to do all these years ago, it’s exciting, it’s nerve wracking, and it’s joyful. My grandmother, Edith Stokey, was also an avid dog lover and hung pictures of her old dogs and told stories of them at dinner when I was a kid. I’d like to think she would be proud of me, knowing that I fulfilled my dream. She passed away a week before I ran my first Iditarod qualifier, The Tustumena 200, in 2012. I’d like to think she’d be proud of me.

On Sunday, the day after signing up, an 87 year old woman named Margaret visited our kennel. “This was the highlight of my trip,” she told Travis and me, “I have wanted to do this all my life.” Seeing her big smile, her enthusiasm, and the joy our tour gave her, brought tears to my eyes – I felt like Margaret’s visit was a sign from my own grandma, her blessing on my endeavor.

So here we are Monday afternoon. We’ve stayed busy with tours and are hoping that trend continues. After all, we know we will have some major expenses this season! However it all works out, I know that both Travis and I will make it to the starting line with happy dogs and smiles on our faces.

Our goal for the 2014-2015 season is to provide continually updates about training and a more in-depth look at what goes on in our kennel. My goal is to write as much as I can about our training process. We’re also hoping to do a lot of audio and video updates but are looking for a tech savy person to help us out 🙂 email us if you are interested: info@turningheadskennel.com

Thanks 🙂

Spring is Here

Sarah · April 24, 2014 ·

The days go by one and then another in glorious sunshine. We spend our days outside, mostly, trying to clean up our yard and get ready for the oncoming tourist season. We’ve found new hobbies: Travis has been taking a part old sleds, sanding them, and re-staining the wood. I’ve been pretending to be a gardener. Our greenhouse is full of young plants that I still have nowhere to put. They ache for the sun.

Madison’s recovery is slow going. He keeps us full of laughter The other day as I was coming in I got told, “Stay outside! I have to vaccuum up some maggots!” These are words no one wants to here. Apparently, Madison found a bone while out on a pee break and Travis let him bring it inside only to find that it was decomposing. The worms apparently got spread out all over our kitchen floor — but thankfully I never saw this.

We’ve been entertaining him with dog toys. His knew favorite is a pink hippo with a rubber kong inside of it. He parades it around proudly by its dangling streamers as if he found it. This is after the moose we got him — he accidentally tore that to shreds — and then was somewhat depressed that his “buddy” was gone. He is, for the most part, a good spirited happy dog who, I think, we have finally house-broken.

We haven’t run dogs much. They are recovering. This is their time off — between Iditarod and Summer — where they can rest and relax. We’ve been doing some of that too — though not much and have gone on a few runs with our pups. I forgot how wild puppies can be when they first start running. They are gawky, awkward athletes who often trip over the lines. They pull, they always pull, but they do the things a seasoned veteran doesn’t which is mostly get tangled, especially during hook up.

As the runs stack up, they learn to channel their energy better. They jump over lines less and don’t seem to get quite as tangled. But for now, they are a chaotic mess of limbs and high-pitched barks. The neighbors can hear us coming; these dogs like to bark and run which is unusual for us.

Our two youngest females are still running loose in the dog yard — Shark and Hoover — and it’s been fun watching how they play. Their brother, Mr. Clean, is tied up now but every day his sisters go to visit and play with him, usually for several hours.

Faraday, our wandering Siberian Husky, usually stays outside but has lately been seen crawling through our doggy door. While this is certainly allowed it always catches us off guard. Why, after two years, are you coming inside? We’ve been asking her. She never stays in long but occasionally finds a patch of rug to flop down on for an hour or two. When she’s outside, she plays with the pups — occasionally taking them on adventures they shouldn’t be having. Still, we are before the summer, before the tourists and what freedom we can give the dogs we will.

Our goal for the dog lot this year is to put in a big free run pen so we can let dogs loose to play on a regular basis. Unfortunately it will take a lot of work before we can get to this point — bringing gravel, buying fencing, putting it all in….I am excited for the end result, less excited for the work leading up to it.

We have a few small pens now and routinely put a few dogs in there to play. They enjoy being loose together and the more we loose run our dogs, the more we want to be able to do it on a routine basis. It’s good — not just for the puppies — who, if its not tourist season, run wild and free — but for the adults too.

Anyways, that’s where we are at. I’ll try to post more (I always say this) but I often find myself unsure of what to write. It’s easy during Iditarod, etc when we are constantly running the dogs and have “news” and although there are often things I want to write about, I wonder how relevant they are. I mainly try to keep our posts about our dogs, etc but have been wondering more and more if I should just write about the adventures we have both with dogs and without. Input here, from you readers, would most certainly be welcome