writing

On The Edge

Sarah · October 23, 2014 ·

In the quiet moments between living I’ve been rewatching Ken Burns’ The National Parks: America’s Best Idea. It reminds me in many ways why our life is so blessed. We live in such a beautiful place — where mountains and ocean and ice meet. Right on the edge of a place so wondrous that we as a nation decided no matter what secrets were hidden there, they were not worth revealing. The mountains are enough. The oceans are enough. The rivers of ice, slowly melting away, are enough. The natural world does not need altering to have value.

Our house sits on the edge of Kenai Fjords National Park but is also just a 5 minute drive from downtown.We live carefully balancing life in society and life out in the wild, balancing past and present. Often we go days without leaving home, lost in the quiet rhythms of our lifestyle that seem so antiquated compared to the fast paced of modern life.

We get wholly absorbed in work that fills our days and leaves our bodies aching. I don’t understand how you could or why you would want to live faster than this.

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.

Handsome the Terrible and Midnight the Wonder Cat

Sarah · November 19, 2013 ·

We recently added a new sled dog to our kennel, his name is Handsome…and there is a very good reason…he is GORGEOUS! We were given him because he is exceptionally shy dog despite lots of socialization and I have a long history of working with shy dogs and getting them to “come out of their shell” (or as the case usually is, dog house.) But all the shy dogs I’ve met and worked with before don’t even begin to hold a candle to Handsome. Although at home with his fellow canine companions, he is on full alert whenever I seem to come around…here’s a recent video I took of him resting inside:

The first three days at our kennel he lived in our house and at night I put him on the foot of my bed to sleep. On the third night, I woke up with his head resting on my stomach. You can imagine the joy I felt after having worked with him when I thought I had finally gotten through to Handsome that I was on his side. After all, I had bee feeding him, walking him on a leash, and at one point I even let him free run in our fenced in dog yard with all our pups. You could see although he was not at home with me that he, at least, felt at home…but maybe that was slowly starting to change.

Wrong!

That morning, believing that our bond had somehow deepened I decided to once again let him run loose with the pups. Letting our dogs play for an hour every morning 4-5 times a week is one of my greatest joys. Watching how our dogs interact, play, and “hang out” together is fun…more importantly I love that no matter what I am doing, whether it’s sitting on a dog house or scooping poop, that the dogs want to be around me. It’s cool to know that even though they have a huge yard to run around, they’d rather be hanging out playing next to mom.

What’s also awesome is that dogs as young as two months and as old as 10 years get along effortlessly. That’s not to say we don’t have occasional squabbles, we do, but they are always more interested in playing. Their favorite game is keep away. Inevitably, one dog always finds some treasured object whether it’s a bone, a ball, or a stick and then runs around trying to protect his treasure from everyone else. It’s hilarious. Occasionally, we get a “bad sport” who will take their treasure and dive into a dog house (“base”) to protect it and to stay away from the other dogs.

Well we had a great morning playing together and until playtime was over things went flawlessly. When playtime ended, one dog, Handsome refused to be captured. I have never had this problem. We have two shy dogs in our kennel — Willie and Sage — but both are dogs who respect, listen, and come to us. We work hard to socialize all our dogs, not only for our benefit but for theirs. One day, there will come a time when they cannot run or pull and they will need to retire. We can’t retire every dog to our kennel so it is important that our dogs have social skills. Plus, we mush because we love dogs…it’s only fun if they love us back!

Handsome, unfortunately, was not at all like this. When I moved to the left, he moved to the right. No matter how close I got, he was always an arms length away. It seemed like we were magnets that repelled one another and no matter what I did I could not catch him.

So, I started pulling out every trick I have in my book. He is not the first dog who has not listened. Usually the puppies around 2-3 months old go through a brief “rebellious” phase where they do not want to be tied up and enjoy playing keep away. Max, my 1/2 husky 1/2 collie mix, Betty, our german shepherd, and Archie, our retired sled dog turned dog lot manager (I’ll post on this later), almost always come to my aid and help me coral the young ones — not so with Handsome. Their tricks at distracting would not work. Food did not work. Nothing worked. He was too fast and too smart.

I grew frustrated and started to think that I would never catch him. He was in a fenced dogyard for crying out loud! How hard should it be?

But nothing seemed to work so Handsome remained loose.

Days passed. And I remained confused. Why wouldn’t he come? He always got so close but then whenever it seemed like I would reach out for him, would dart off in another direction.

One day went by. Then another. Then another.

Well, when I had given up hope of ever catching him, something miraculous happened: Midnight the Wonder Cat. Midnight cat has a thing for dogs and for some reason or another, they seem to have a thing for him. His best friend is a german shepherd and he routinely hangs out in the dog lot. Whenever we bring a sled dog inside he immediately goes up to it. For a long time I wondered about the expression curiosity killed the cat but now, I know. He is not shy whatsoever. See, look how he just helps himself to the dogs’ food.

So Midnight goes out to the doglot and Handsome immediately runs over and barks at him. They’d met earlier in the week and at one point I even caught them cuddled on the couch together — not a rarity with this cat. Midnight ran playfully around Handsome. There was no aggression. No sign of dog chasing cat or cat chasing dog, just playful gestures back and forth for about a half hour.

But eventually, Midnight decided it was time to go in. He came to do the door (I’d been watching this from inside) and I let him in. Much to my disbelief, Handsome followed Midnight not only inside but right up onto the couch to curl up with him. Quietly seated next to the cat, I easily snapped a leash onto Handsome who paid me no attention.

Handsome is still living inside. It’s clear he needs more time to learn how to trust us. For now, he’s happy snuggled up next to the coolest cat I’ve ever known.

The Ebb and Flow of Things

Sarah · September 29, 2013 ·

It should be obvious enough that we are dog people. Our life revolves around our dogs: In the morning we wake to water and feed them, Then there is scooping the yard, running them, feeding them again, and if we can, running them again. At least that’s how the days go by this time of year. In the heart of winter it’s different, the days go by slower and longer, and in the spring it’s different too, perhaps more relaxed, but it’s not much different. Still even so time passes, not so much in the changing of the seasons but in the life cycle of our dogs.

We watch the puppies transition, first away from their mothers, then into the dog lot, and then, finally into harness. We watch their goofy progression as they learn how to manage their lines in the team and how not to chew on the gangline or their neckline and finally we watch as they come into a steady, rhythmic gate, their legs moving so swiftly and effortlessly you could balance a glass of water on their back.

The playful puppies Travis had when we first started dating now have the look of hardened athletes who know what competition. They are steadfast. They give their heart and soul on each and every run. They are more disciplined this year — and so are we. As they grow up and learn the rhythm of training, we grow up and learn how to train and live and balance running dogs with running a home and managing two businesses. I am honestly still not sure how we do it. I guess the way you do anything hard: one step at a time, then another, then another, then another. Progress seems slow but we are always moving forward.

The older dogs who once ruled the dog lot — Pilot and Hope — have gone on to help a neighboring musher and have left our yard for the winter.

When we dropped Pilot and Hope off Travis said few words, his sadness greater than my own for as many times as they had come to my rescue, I knew they had come to his more. Together they have travelled countless miles not only across the frozen wilderness but also across his childhood; Pilot and Hope had run almost every junior race with Travis and had helped him qualify for the Iditarod.

Last year, when picking out his Iditarod team, Travis choose to take Pilot despite the fact that he thought Pilot wouldn’t finish. “He always has my back,” Travis said when I questioned the decision. Pilot, sure enough, ran 700 miles with Travis and then broke out of the checkpoint when Travis left him behind. “I guess he wasn’t as tired as I thought,” Travis told me. “Some guy from the checkpoint had to go out on a snowmachine and bring Pilot back. He wanted to keep going with the team. I thought he hadn’t been feeling well. Guess I was wrong.”

As we drove away from Pilot and Hope’s new home, my eyes were full of tears. Travis told me, “Pilot and Hope are teachers.”

I nodded, thinking of all the fantastic dog runs I’d had with them both and everything I’d taken away from my time with them. How do you measure what a dog has taught you? Pilot and Hope got me through my first 200 mile race, The Tustumena 200. They were the old solidified backbone to my otherwise young, rookie dog team. They encouraged not only the young dogs who would later form the core of Travis’ Iditarod team to keep going, but they also encouraged me: I was intimidated by the intensity of what I had undertaken — two hundred miles of unending hills, without sleep, with only my dogs.

He continued, “They need a new musher, new dogs to teach. They know they are getting old. Would you rather sit around remembering all the awesome times you had when you were younger or would you rather keep having them? They aren’t fast enough to keep up with the young dogs they’ve trained anymore. I think they will be much happier here feeling like they are still A-team stuff.”

We’d seen this throughout the summer on tours and we’d seen it last winter too, especially with Hope. They weren’t running in the front anymore and though excited to go anywhere in the team it was always obvious to me that lead dogs, even when not up front, never stop leading.

Our dogs grow up and grow old and one day, we always hope its a long ways off, they pass on. We measure our lives by our dogs presences and their subsequent absences. Pilot and Hope are not gone; they have simply moved on to another kennel but I can’t help but feel that we are growing up and growing older too: we are no longer uncertain in ourselves or our young team — we are confident in what we have built.

A Note On Blogging

Sarah · July 30, 2011 ·

Well, our goal for the summer was to get a website up in time for the fall. So far, so good. We’re on track to be done. We have a few more pages to iron out (our sponors’ page and how to sponsor, as well as a our dog section) but for the most part, Travis and I are happy with how things are looking.

We’re starting to try and figure out how we want to do our blog/updates. So far, they’ve proven to be a challenge: summer has kept us busy and, for the most part, away from one another. While Travis is working in Anchorage, I’m down in Seward taking care of the dogs and working full-time. Our dog adventures have been somewhat limited in the summer months due to heat and trying to get weight on the dogs in time for fall training, but we’ve gone on some really great hikes / free runs with the dogs.

Bud, Pilot, Apache, Weiser, Hatchet, Larry, and Curly all enjoyed spending time at the Seavey’s tour kennel in Seward but are happy to be back lounging around in the yard eating yummy kibble and fish, digging lots of holes, and getting lots of love and attention. Hatchet recently travelled up to Anchorage and is keeping Travis company while Travis works at the WildRide Sled Dog Rodeo.

In terms of updating, we’re going to be updating at least once a week when training officially begins. We’d like to provide more of a behind-the-scenes look into how we do things and will be posting as many pictures as possible. We’d love to post some videos too but right now the only way we can do that is on our point-and-shoot camera. We’re hoping to eventually require a GoPro camera so that we can take HD videos while mushing and not have to worry about holding on to the camera but…they’re expensive. Right now, we’re pouring our money into buying dog food…

Speaking of, we just picked up a half-ton of Eukunuba. We’ve been really happy with it so far. The dogs coats are looking absolutely incredible and we’ve gotten a nice deal on it though the bill is still pretty hefty. Anyways, I picked the dog food up last Tuesday when I was up visiting Travis. This probably sounds like no big deal, you know, all in a days work, except Travis’ truck is a manual and I don’t know how to drive manual.

“Here,” he said and tossed the keys at me. “You’ll figure it out. It isn’t real far. You’ll be fine.”

I was less than excited at the prospect of learning to drive a manual on my own in the middle of Anchorage but we needed the dog food and he couldn’t take the time off. So I obligingly hopped in the truck and…wait? How do you start a manual? It took me a few minutes to figure out then I popped her in reverse and…stalled. I proceded to pop along until I finally got to the feed store. Pulling into the lot, it was clear I had no idea what I was doing: everyone stared.

Still, we got our dog food and will be able to feed the dogs for another month or so. We’re heading up to Fairbanks tomorrow to visit Lance Mackey’s kennel and to look at some dogs. We’re not too sure what we have planned but it’s been awhile since we’ve really been able to spend time together without work butting in the middle of the two of us — really, since July 4th — so it’ll be nice to have a few days to ourselves.

We’ll take pictures and post them when we get back. That’s all for now…leave us a message if you stopped by!