House Guest

There's a guest in our house this week.

And his name is Clancy.

I realize that he gets fairly lost with our wild floral tapestry couch as a backdrop but even so it was the best place to shoot his picture at the time (which was 5 minutes ago in a messy house).

He and our two cats are getting used to each other...slowly.  Bobo is bold and outgoing, so he and Clancy are making their way steadily.  But Mama Kitty is a recluse.  She hides and thus hasn't had much exposure to Clancy.  Consequently, they're a little on the outs with each other still.

But Clancy is just the cutest little dog.  He's a Yorkie-Poo.  Part Yorkshire Terrier and part poodle.  He's way bigger than a Yorkie but doesn't have the curly hair like a Poodle, so they're not sure of how the mix plays itself out mathematically.

He blinked.  I don't think I've ever known a dog to blink when getting their picture taken.  This guy sure did.  But get a load of those eyelashes!  I'm told that they're really eyelashes and not just hair above his eye. 

He's so sweet.  Gentle and obedient.  Always wanting to please.  Rolls over to get pets.  And his tail..... his funny little tail....

is always going a mile a minute!


I'm really enjoying having him.  Mr. Clancy.  (Sounds much more sophisticated than what I've taken to calling him most of the time which is Bubba Doo.)  I think he looks as distinguished and full of character as a Clancy should.

Uh oh.  I hear hissing.....

OK, I'm Into It

I've all but forgotten that the Iditarod started Saturday. I was in the valley for the weekend. Being out of sync, off schedule, and out of routine, well I just forgot. But now I've just checked in with Iditarod.com and caught the bug again. I have a handle on some of my favorite and familiar mushers, where they started and what position they're in now. So, I'm "on it" a little bit now.

I'd love to post some photos but the best I think I can do legally is post the links to some photos I've found on the Anchorage Daily News and Alaska Stock Photo.com websites. So, if you're interested, here goes and click away.

All of these photos were taken at the Official Restart on Sunday. If you remember, the race starts in downtown Anchorage on the first Saturday of the month. Because of cumbersome geographical hurdles to deal with by starting in the state's largest city, somewhere along the historical line of the race, they decided to do a Ceremonial Start in Anchorage for the fans. The Official Restart was moved to the next day in Willow/Wasilla about 50 miles outside Anchorage. Lots of people show up for the start, but just as many show up for the restart.


Here's "the incredible Lance Mackey" loving up on his dogs before his start - winner for the last 3 years, a throat cancer survivor, and 4 time winner of the equally challenging 1000 mile Yukon Quest.

Dee Dee Jonrowe is also a cancer survivor. She has survived breast cancer and is an active supporter of breast cancer research and awareness, and thus she clads herself and her dogs in pink. Dee Dee is also a Christian. She's in her 50's and has been running the Iditarod for about 20 years or more. Pictured with her, I'm guessing, is her "Idita-rider". For the Ceremonial start guest rides are auctioned off for each musher. The Iditarider gets to travel with the musher from the exciting start to the stopping spot about 11 miles away. Here's a great photo of Dee Dee.

Here's another musher I've grown very familiar with. Jeff King is known as The Winningest Musher because he has won so many sled dog races. He's won the Iditarod 4 times and is really working for # five. I read his book, Cold Hands Warm Heart, two years ago. His home and kennel is up near Denali National Park. When we drove up there two years ago, I looked closely along the road and I spotted what surely has to be his place along the Parks Highway. It had tall log posts with a cross bar, marking the driveway. Resting on the top beam was a laser cut iron piece of a sled and full team of dogs. The name of the road was Hickory, the name of his beloved dog that tragically died when Jeff decided to leave him in the house one time when he went to visit a friend's house for the evening and his cabin caught fire.

I like this next photo. It shows something I have always heard about but never really seen in a clear image. It was taken at the start line as a musher is getting ready to go. The announcer is probably counting down through the loudspeaker, getting very close... Four. Three. Two. The photo is of the "handlers" holding back the sled until the announcer says "Zero!" The dogs are so excited that they jump and leap in the air waiting to go. They pull on the harnesses, lunge forward, wanting to be set free to go. They have to be held back so they don't go before they're allowed. This is a great shot of how much strength and energy they have, and how much strength and energy it takes for four people to hold them back.

Here is the winner of the 2009 Yukon Quest, Sebastian Schnuelle. Don't ask me how to pronounce his name; it seems every announcer pronounces it differently. He's German born but lives in Canada. He is known for his thick accent, big smile and huge wild hair. He came in 2nd in last year's Iditarod so he's the one to watch this year as he's sure to be right on Lance Mackey's heels the whole race.

Here's Martin Buser resting up before the restart. He's one of my absolute favorite mushers. It's not a very good picture of him but I think it's a funny one. I like him because he is so full of smiles. The guy is always smiling and has the best attitude! He's a cutie with his dimples and his happy approach to life. Every musher I've read about adores their dogs and makes it their aim to have happy dogs, but Martin Buser seems to have found some great means of keeping his dogs extra happy. He designed these giant hamster wheels for his dog yard. He did it because the dogs love to run. It's not part of their training; the dogs just get in there on their own and run because they love it. They get on when they want to and they get off when they want to. He's Swiss born and has a lovely accent. He, too, has won the Iditarod four times. In 2002 he won it in record time, a record that still stands. As he crossesd under "the burled arch", he was given a big US flag which he waved proudly. You see, after he finished, he took his oath of allegiance and became a citizen of the USA. Here's another photo of Martin. The scars on his cheek are from frostbite.

Here's an interesting musher. You've heard of the Jamaican Bobsled Team? The very real Winter Olympics Bobsled team from Jamaica was the inspiration for the movie Cool Runnings with John Candy. Well, here we have the Iditarod's first ever Jamaican Dogsled team. Newton Marshall has trained with Lance Mackey this year and he entered the Yukon Quest as a rookie last month. Now he's running the Iditarod. How cool is that!

Here's some more dog photos, showing their excitement as they impatiently wait to finally hear the "Hike!" command from their musher and they get to take off. More and more jumping sled dogs.

Scanning Dogs

I'm finally able to scan on my computer. I got online to HP's Help Chat Center and figured out that I had a bad USB cable. I'm very happy that I can now scan!

What inspired me to address this longstanding and mysterious problem is a little photo contest that Ree, The Pioneer Woman, is having. Ree has several facets to her blog and she has thousands of followers. She's does little contests in a couple areas of her blog. Sometimes it's a trivia quiz and now she's also doing photo contests. She offers a prize, something she herself buys with her own money and just gives away for fun. I've never entered one of her contests before but the current one captured my interest. It's a Dog Photo Contest.

It's been six years since I had to put both my sweet dogs down. Some of the best photos I have of them are pre-digital. After they passed, I found a perfect little photo album. It opens up to include two halves, each with a frame for that half. I was able to put photos of Keezie on one side and Rooster on the other.

So, I thought I'd finally figure out what kept me from being able to scan and see if I could get some photos in the computer to enter Ree's little contest. After spending a couple hours getting the problem solved, learning how to save the scan to a file, exploring the various features and getting the hang of it all...I managed to get three photos scanned to my liking. I'm off to a good start.

And, of course, I thought I'd share them with you.

Here is Rooster...my little Pipsqueak.



This photo was taken during construction of our home/cabin. When we bought our land, it came with a huge blessing: a 12x50 mobile home. Though it had no running water or electricity, we were able to live in it very comfortably while we built. In this photo, Rooster is sitting in the doorway catching some rays. I love the look on his face. It's like he's soaking in all the warmth of the sun, getting sleepy, just lovin' it. I also detect a little remnant of a "surveying his kingdom" look. I love his rolly polly pudginess, too.


And then there's Keezie. She was beautiful. A Keeshond.



I caught this photo of her in the same doorway of our trailer. I love this photo of her. (And if you'll notice, it also includes a little Pipsqueak checking things out from a lower vantage point.) I love how Keezie is framed on one side by the white door with peeling paint and on the other side by the trailer wall. I love her look. She was so pretty.

I didn't get the third photo uploaded to this post before I had to shut the computer down and get on my laptop. The laptop uses about 1/3 the power as my desktop. When the sun goes down and I'm not done on the computer or internet, I switch to the laptop. Only problem is, it doesn't have all my files.

Now that I can scan, I have about 100 hours worth of things I want to scan, to preserve. I want to scan everything! The dogs. House building. My Mom! Old family photos from my growing up years. Family photos from generations past. Make that about 1000 hours!

But what a blessing that it's possible...and that even I can do it now!

Alaska Photos 5

IDITAROD HEADQUARTERS

The Sled Dog Behind the Mask

I LOVE this dog's face! I commented to the owner's wife about what a beautiful and striking dog this is, and that he looked like he should have some thespian-type name. She said she had wanted to name him Phantom, after Phantom of the Opera, but his name became Othelo. I like it.

This is what a summer time sled dog ride looks like.
And this is what a "dog truck" looks like.

FLY BOB
In my posts from Alaska I mentioned Fly Bob, so named because he is a fly tier and there was a need to distinguish him from another Bob. Here he is with the pride of his collection. And a fancy fly, too. I mean beer.

Some others
And with the whole winter's worth of flies....some 4000. Three winters ago he tied 8000.

Fly Bob told us a great story. He said last fall he had been out fishing on the river and was walking back to his truck with his catch. An SUV was pulling out of the parking lot and a little girl was frantically waving at him trying to get his attention. She rolled her window down and hollered with all her might, "HI, SANTA!" Bob said it was the cutest thing he'd ever seen.


EAGLES
I love taking photos of the eagles on the beach. They are beautiful It's amazing to be in their presence.

Bald Eagle or Headless Eagle?

Ah, there's his head...just barely .

Flaps up. Landing gear down. Love it!

This is just to give you an idea of how many were hanging around. Lots of the birds in this photo are seagulls but there are plenty of eagles, too.

VOLCANO
We watched the steam plume rising from Mt. Redoubt all the while we were on the beach with the eagles. This was shot at about 11pm. It was actually much lighter out than this. The camera tends to dramatize sunsets, but hey, I'm not complaining.

Meanwhile....The Iditarod

Meanwhile, up in Alaska, the 37th Iditarod is being raced. I have been following the internet morning and night. It is shaping up to be a surprising and exciting race. Mushers draw a Bib # at a banquet the night before the race. This is their starting position. Start times are separated by 2 minutes. So, out of 67 mushers, if you draw a high bib #, you're going to start perhaps hours after the first musher. This time is made up somehow when the musher takes their mandatory 24 hour rest period at one of the check points down the trail.

Most of the top contenders drew bib numbers in the 30's and 40's. And they're all tightly bunched at the front of the pack on Day 5. That means, Mackey has passed about 40 other mushers to get there. Passing is done on the trail or at checkpoints by leaving earlier than the others. Several former champions are running in a tight pack in positions 4-10 with some younger guys pulling out the surprising 1-3 spots. It's going to be a tight and exciting race. One young musher has gone from a 60-something-th start to around 12th position. He's surprising everyone, even his dad (a former Iditarod winner and constant strong contender) who is also running the race. They are Mitch (dad) and Dallas (son) Seavey. Dallas' new bride is also running the race. Sometimes musher couples run together, but they must have had an agreement because Dallas left her in his snow dust early on. It was at the Seavey "Iditaride" and kennel tour (2008) that the photos in my sidebar at right were taken.

Last year they had a free GPS tracking on a handful of mushers. It was a trial year that went over as a huge success with the fans. So of course, this year you have to pay for it. I didn't. The Current Standings page (once on the page, click on Current Standings at right - not that I believe any of you actually are interested enough to do so) only tells in and out times from check points. You have no idea what happens once a musher leaves a check point. They list info from the last check point to the current one so you can see how fast they travelled on the last stretch but you don't know what they'll do next. They could rest on the trail, they could have a great trail and go fast, they could have a soggy trail and be slowed down. They could run into moose, wipe out around a tight curve, get a broken sled (like several mushers already have), or any number of delays. They could pass the guy ahead of them and show up first to the next check point. The dogs, of course, are the major factor - how they're feeling and what they need. It adds a fun dimension watching the Current Standings only and trying to figure out who's really in the lead based on how fast they've traveled to the last check point, how long they might rest there and that even though it LOOKS like Martin Buser is in first place, he's really not because he's just starting his 24 while mushers behind him are just coming off theirs.

For a quick look of fun film footage of the dogs and mushers, go to Anchorage's Channel 2 Iditarod page.

How I Became an Iditarod Fan

How did I become an Iditarod fan? I’m one of those people who doesn’t read the newspaper of my own city but likes to read papers of places I'm interested in. So I regularly check in with the Anchorage Daily News online. Just two days before last year’s Iditarod I read an interesting article about the 2007 winner, Lance Mackey. I found a video clip of an interview with this ordinary guy who sounds part humble, part cocky. It showed his first place trophy sitting on top of his refrigerator in his humble cabin. I saw the way he loved his dogs. The whole sport just grabbed me. I like sports. I like dogs. I like Alaska. Boom! Iditarod fan.

I was fascinated by the movie-material story of how his dad, Dick Mackey, helped organize the first race back in the 70’s and then dramatically won it the 6th time he raced. He was wearing bib number 13. Then years later Dick’s son, Rick, was running his 6th Iditarod, drew bib #13 and he won it. Can't top that, can you? Well, in 2007, it was the 6th time son Lance was running the Iditarod. It was the first and only time the Iditarod committee allowed mushers to pick their bib numbers, so of course Lance picked bib number 13. He won! AND he did it on the heels of running another 1000 mile race just 3 weeks before! AND he used many of the same dogs. His training and racing knowledge are changing the sport. No one had ever before considered running both 1000 mile races back to back with any serious competitiveness. Evidence now suggests that instead of the dogs being spent and needing a longer time to recover, they actually show greater strength, endurance, energy and enthusiasm the more miles run. Oh, by the way, Lance Mackey not only ran both races within weeks of each other, he won them both. Two years in a row. It literally stunned the mushing world. Oh...and Lance is a cancer survivor. Didn't I tell you it’s movie material?

I always knew the Iditarod existed but never thought much of it, even with my interest in Alaska. Finding out more about it just two days before the 2007 race was the perfect breeding ground for fanship. Two days later I was all over the internet and the Iditarod site "watching" the race. It's really interesting. The challenges these men and women face are real and big. They never know how the weather will factor into things but it always does. Last year's race was during a "heat wave". Temps "soared" up to the 40's making the trails and dogs slower. The dogs prefer temps below zero. The year before, weather affected the race with nasty storms producing white out conditions.

Well, I could go on and on.... but I'll spare you. ( I guess I kinda already did go on and on.)

Controversial Sport

Sled dog racing is a controversial sport because some people think it’s cruel to race dogs. Yes, sometimes dogs get injured and the truth is that sometimes accidents happen and a dog dies. Everyone hates this and mushers and vets are constantly studying how to keep the dogs safe and healthy. Because of these unfortunate happenings, it is a very controversial sport with heated angry objections. BUT I have learned that: 1.) the dogs LOVE to run. Musher Martin Buser constucted these giant "hamster wheel" things in his dog yard. They’re not for training purposes; he did it because the dogs love to run. They get in there on their own and just run and run. 2.) The mushers LOVE their dogs and take the most excellent care of them. To hear Lance Mackey talk about his dogs and see him interact with them, you can just tell he adores them as do other mushers I’ve seen on video clips. 3.) The most common reason I’ve heard as to why a musher gets into racing is that they love dogs and nature, and love being in nature with their dogs. They’re not in it for the money. Mushing is definitely not a lucrative professional sport. The costs often far outweigh any race winnings. A lot of professional mushers take on summer jobs to make ends meet. Some offer tours of their kennels as a means of additional income. As for glory seeking? People are naturally competive. These men and women are athletes, but they ALL give credit where credit is due and claim their dogs are the true athletes.

Favorite Websites, Part 4 - Iditarod

The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race is a 1000 mile race of dog teams pulling a sled and musher from Anchorage to Nome Alaska. It commemorates the lifesaving Diptheria serum run performed by mushers and dog teams in around 1926 that saved the town of Nome. Anchorage hosts a "ceremonial start" on the first Saturday of March. It’s coming up on March 7th this year. Crowds of people line Anchorage’s 4th Avenue to see the dogs take off. Dogs are so excited they bark and howl and leap in the air. They just can’t wait till they’re given the signal to start pulling and RUN! It’s amazing to see their excitement. For various reasons over the years, it was decided to make the official start of the race in Wasilla the day after the ceremonial start in Anchorage. The race winner will cross the finish line in Nome in about 9 days. The Red Lantern award given to the last musher across the finish line is earned approximately a week or more later.

Mushing was and still is an important means of transportation in many parts of rural Alaska. Lots of places today cannot be reached in winter except by airplane, snow machine or dog sled. Mushing certainly is a different kind of sport to "watch". You have to watch it by checking the current standings on the internet, checking local online newspapers and newscasts, seeing photos from various check points, or being a paid subscriber to the Iditarod's daily video coverage. Check out the very short video clip on the Iditarod home page.