It is getting closer to another season start up. The mountains in front of our place got a dusting of snow and the trees are turning color fast.
Rachel kept really busy with the sled dogs this summer. She ran the three mile with the dogs running loose. It made it easier for her because the dogs always want to race the quad. If you run or walk with them they soon realize to stay with you and stay by your side. This builds incredible relationships with your dogs. In doing so it makes for a better racing team. One that knows you and you know them so good you can get them to respond so much better. Rachel has them in her pocket. It will be interesting to see her this season.
Rachel is the only one that will train this yr. Ben has moved on to other sports for now. He sometimes thinks that he will get to race a team in the odd race. I just don't think that this will happen. Rachel will not give up all her hard work to have ben run her team for her. However we will be getting ready for another fun filled season of racing. We will be going to Alaska at least twice this racing season. Rachel has some decision to make about who who will stay as her main dogs. This will happen after fall training. We are all looking forward to this racing season.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Sunday, June 6, 2010
SO sorry for so many late entries.
Hi I will catch up for anyone who has followed in the past. There has been allot of snow gone by between the runners. Or water under the bridge sort of speak. I just could not get back on again. After some effort well alot of effort I got back on to start to blog again.
We did have a great winter. Rachel and Ben had the best teams we have seen. They are all yearlings so with that in mind the winter was spent taking care of these young dogs. It was the warmest winter in memory for us. SOme of the races were hot. It was ridiculous. The first time that we ran into problems was at he world championships in Anchorage. We did learn allot about the heat and the difference between young dogs and older dogs. The younger dogs have very little tolerance to heat. There are two reasons for this. One reason they cannot take the heat is they do not know to slow down and take it easy because of the heat. They run and run hard despite the situation. Before they even realize it is hot out they are already in danger. Older dogs on the other hand do not work as hard going out. They then do not have such a over heating problem. They also have many many miles of running in the heat this makes them more tolerant to it. When dogs do over heat It can be very hard on them and some times they never ever recover. They seem to have endless trouble to try and control their body temperature. Rachel had a really hard driving dog in her team and he over heated. when he returned to the dog truck we used snow and water to bring his body temp. down. This works but you have to be careful not to bring the temperature down too fast or this can hurt the dog as well.
The dogs did well but not as good as they could have if the weather was colder. We actually were very lucky to have a dog race at all. It was a good time there and we went to the aleska ski hill as well. Very much fun.
We did have a great winter. Rachel and Ben had the best teams we have seen. They are all yearlings so with that in mind the winter was spent taking care of these young dogs. It was the warmest winter in memory for us. SOme of the races were hot. It was ridiculous. The first time that we ran into problems was at he world championships in Anchorage. We did learn allot about the heat and the difference between young dogs and older dogs. The younger dogs have very little tolerance to heat. There are two reasons for this. One reason they cannot take the heat is they do not know to slow down and take it easy because of the heat. They run and run hard despite the situation. Before they even realize it is hot out they are already in danger. Older dogs on the other hand do not work as hard going out. They then do not have such a over heating problem. They also have many many miles of running in the heat this makes them more tolerant to it. When dogs do over heat It can be very hard on them and some times they never ever recover. They seem to have endless trouble to try and control their body temperature. Rachel had a really hard driving dog in her team and he over heated. when he returned to the dog truck we used snow and water to bring his body temp. down. This works but you have to be careful not to bring the temperature down too fast or this can hurt the dog as well.
The dogs did well but not as good as they could have if the weather was colder. We actually were very lucky to have a dog race at all. It was a good time there and we went to the aleska ski hill as well. Very much fun.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Catching up
I had to leave the kennel for more medical treatment down south. When I was away it snowed around 8-12 inches of snow. Yikes. This makes it hard for everyone here.
The tractor would not even turn over for Leanne. Ben went out to put trail in with the Yamaha snow machine. It quit. Ben walked home. The other Yamaha which is a bravo single cylinder engine. Pretty simple always runs. It would not start.
When I got home the dogs had sat for about a week. Not good. Plus we had no way to put in trail. I needed to get a new snow machine and fast. I do not like the fast part of the equation. Fast when purchasing something always leads to trouble. I found the snowmachine that would work for us. I picked it up and brought it home to rescue the Yamaha sitting on the trail. We now have a 2003 arctic cat panther two seater. It has a 570cc twin engine that produces 70 h.p. It works nice except someone removed the electric start. Which is now on the way. I bought a new one to put in. I made it out to the Yamaha on the trail. Ben said it would not run and it made some awful noises and quit. I told him he has to close all the doors that are on the front of the snowmobile or all the snow from the fresh powder will come in and freeze up the skidoo. He said ya ya he did it. guess what the doors were open and it was froze up with snow under the hood. Rachel and I got it running and got the track moving again. No problem it ran perfect. We pulled the drag around the trail with out breaking ahead with another snow machine. That is because of the power and traction of the new Actic Cat.
The trail was put in and we had to put on our training runs. Problem with this is that the trail was just put in and the surface will be soft and hard on dogs feet and muscle. Great time to hurt someone. I worked the trail as hard as I could and the teams ran on Sat. No injuries. Sunday was different. Leanne ran Ben's dogs and one got injured. SO far that is all you can see is one dog injured. Lucky. He is in the dog box being brought back to health.
After all this I found out that our snowmachine works fine. So I will sell the Arctic Cat again. This time I will sell it for more with an electric start as it should have come in the first place.
This is just a typical time here. Things go bad and when they do the trail is still priority. The trail has to be in and dogs have to keep moving all the time no matter what happens around them. It is costly time wise and in monetary ways. It is the only way to insure a fit team at the end of the day. So we pay. Hopefully we catch up and things go better for the rest of the season. We have plenty of snow now. It will take quite a while to pack the trail down since the snow fall. Then we can speed the dogs up again and get ready for the Junior world championships in Anchorage in Feb.
Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Kinvig for their generous sponsorship again this year. It will go to travel cost to get to the Worlds or to the Arctic Winter Games. Thanks from Ben and Rachel.
The tractor would not even turn over for Leanne. Ben went out to put trail in with the Yamaha snow machine. It quit. Ben walked home. The other Yamaha which is a bravo single cylinder engine. Pretty simple always runs. It would not start.
When I got home the dogs had sat for about a week. Not good. Plus we had no way to put in trail. I needed to get a new snow machine and fast. I do not like the fast part of the equation. Fast when purchasing something always leads to trouble. I found the snowmachine that would work for us. I picked it up and brought it home to rescue the Yamaha sitting on the trail. We now have a 2003 arctic cat panther two seater. It has a 570cc twin engine that produces 70 h.p. It works nice except someone removed the electric start. Which is now on the way. I bought a new one to put in. I made it out to the Yamaha on the trail. Ben said it would not run and it made some awful noises and quit. I told him he has to close all the doors that are on the front of the snowmobile or all the snow from the fresh powder will come in and freeze up the skidoo. He said ya ya he did it. guess what the doors were open and it was froze up with snow under the hood. Rachel and I got it running and got the track moving again. No problem it ran perfect. We pulled the drag around the trail with out breaking ahead with another snow machine. That is because of the power and traction of the new Actic Cat.
The trail was put in and we had to put on our training runs. Problem with this is that the trail was just put in and the surface will be soft and hard on dogs feet and muscle. Great time to hurt someone. I worked the trail as hard as I could and the teams ran on Sat. No injuries. Sunday was different. Leanne ran Ben's dogs and one got injured. SO far that is all you can see is one dog injured. Lucky. He is in the dog box being brought back to health.
After all this I found out that our snowmachine works fine. So I will sell the Arctic Cat again. This time I will sell it for more with an electric start as it should have come in the first place.
This is just a typical time here. Things go bad and when they do the trail is still priority. The trail has to be in and dogs have to keep moving all the time no matter what happens around them. It is costly time wise and in monetary ways. It is the only way to insure a fit team at the end of the day. So we pay. Hopefully we catch up and things go better for the rest of the season. We have plenty of snow now. It will take quite a while to pack the trail down since the snow fall. Then we can speed the dogs up again and get ready for the Junior world championships in Anchorage in Feb.
Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Kinvig for their generous sponsorship again this year. It will go to travel cost to get to the Worlds or to the Arctic Winter Games. Thanks from Ben and Rachel.
Monday, January 11, 2010
The new sled
Hi. Ben and Rachel were able to use the new sled while training since we have been home. Rachel likes it allot and Ben says it is okay. That is a good thing. It really is a different sled. I was talking to the makers of the sled via e-mail. I was voicing my opinion in that sled being popular in the north. Danler is a widely popular sled maker. These sleds are on everyone's truck. They are nice sleds. The sled bags are formed from the front of the sled to the back. It makes the sled very aerodynamic. Or should I say it looks very aerodynamic. I bet that this in part is a reason that Danler does so well selling sleds. The sled bag comes around in front of the driver and you can crouch down and hide from the wind behind the sled bag. Other sled bags are held on with velcro and are pretty much a bag added to the sled where as the Danler has the bag and sled integrated together nicely. The sled looks fast standing still. You also pay premium for this sled. The k-2 has a semi integrated sled bag. It hangs down from the handle bars and slops to the front. the rear of the bag does not hold a shape at the back in a way in which you could get out of the wind behind it. It is a pretty good bag, not looking near as aerodynamic as the Danler Sled.
I do think that there would be a aerodynamic factor in longer races. Or races that have many miles of strong head winds. It has to make a difference on how hard the musher is to pull on the sled. SO is it a factor in time. Yes. How much is the thing that I cannot say for sure.
Handling has a huge factor on times in a dog race as well. The k-2 has a ski made by sled dog systems. The skis lean/tips very good when the sled handle bars are racked/bent into a corner. This is good to a certain point. when they tip on edge the ski will hold the sled from sliding out in a corner.sliding in corners bleeds alot of speed off of the dog team. SO don't slide right. The down side is when the runners/skis on the sled tip too much your feet are actually on top of the edge of the ski so there is a limit to the angle of attack you can use while turning. Also when you tip a ski you have less surface area of slider on the snow. Theory is this can reduce glide and speed from your runners. It puts more weight onto less surface area of sliding surface thus reducing glide. YOu need a happy medium.
The weight of the sled is also a factor. Two ways to look at this as well. Being young and very light like Ben and Rachel can pose it's difficulties with driving a sled with a fast team in and out of corners. IF the sled is too light it will skip over the snow on the corner. The edge will not hold on the corner because there is no weight on top of the edge. Too much weight and you are giving your competition a huge advantage.
There is also a very waxable surface on the ski. This is a different surface than on other sleds and I think It may be a better medium to wax. I hope it will hold the wax better as well. TIme will tell with this.
The k-2 is a happy medium with some fine tuning available to us in way of ski differences in spring tension. Another factor to fast sleds. This sled is not heavey . IT steers well with skis that tip well and are very controlable.
I like what I see in the sled but the times will tell as well. We will be going back to Anchorage for the Junior World Championships. This the same race trail that they races earlier. IT will be interesting what the times say. Although there are too many factors to say one way or another about the speed of the sled I bet it won't be slower.
Rachel and Ben trained four teams of six dogs. The dogs looked super and are really happy!! They are very happy and fit. This is the main thing. We really enjoy it when the dogs are this happy. You cannot hold back a team that is this happy. I guess the trick is to keep them like this right up until race days.
I do think that there would be a aerodynamic factor in longer races. Or races that have many miles of strong head winds. It has to make a difference on how hard the musher is to pull on the sled. SO is it a factor in time. Yes. How much is the thing that I cannot say for sure.
Handling has a huge factor on times in a dog race as well. The k-2 has a ski made by sled dog systems. The skis lean/tips very good when the sled handle bars are racked/bent into a corner. This is good to a certain point. when they tip on edge the ski will hold the sled from sliding out in a corner.sliding in corners bleeds alot of speed off of the dog team. SO don't slide right. The down side is when the runners/skis on the sled tip too much your feet are actually on top of the edge of the ski so there is a limit to the angle of attack you can use while turning. Also when you tip a ski you have less surface area of slider on the snow. Theory is this can reduce glide and speed from your runners. It puts more weight onto less surface area of sliding surface thus reducing glide. YOu need a happy medium.
The weight of the sled is also a factor. Two ways to look at this as well. Being young and very light like Ben and Rachel can pose it's difficulties with driving a sled with a fast team in and out of corners. IF the sled is too light it will skip over the snow on the corner. The edge will not hold on the corner because there is no weight on top of the edge. Too much weight and you are giving your competition a huge advantage.
There is also a very waxable surface on the ski. This is a different surface than on other sleds and I think It may be a better medium to wax. I hope it will hold the wax better as well. TIme will tell with this.
The k-2 is a happy medium with some fine tuning available to us in way of ski differences in spring tension. Another factor to fast sleds. This sled is not heavey . IT steers well with skis that tip well and are very controlable.
I like what I see in the sled but the times will tell as well. We will be going back to Anchorage for the Junior World Championships. This the same race trail that they races earlier. IT will be interesting what the times say. Although there are too many factors to say one way or another about the speed of the sled I bet it won't be slower.
Rachel and Ben trained four teams of six dogs. The dogs looked super and are really happy!! They are very happy and fit. This is the main thing. We really enjoy it when the dogs are this happy. You cannot hold back a team that is this happy. I guess the trick is to keep them like this right up until race days.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Back home
Well we are home again. Leanne is recovering from her accident on the eight dog race trail. Bad fall and a bad hit on the head. We got home early this morning from Anchorage. The dogs all rode well home and were happy to be back in their dog yard. We left two dogs and a sled behind for sale and for lease. We had an excellent trip to Anchorage and did well at the races. Things were perfect for training and that was the idea in going down there to race. It was too bad that leanne got hurt.
We plan on traveling to whatever race fits into our schedule and will be Traveling back to Anchorage for the Junior Worlds. Ben will be the defending champion. Rachel will be working to gain her first championship. I will have lots of smoked fish to sell to help pay for the bills.
We took delivery of our new sled today. It looks good and is made by sleddog systems. The sled is a K-2 has a great waxable ski base and has great turning flexability. The runners or skis really tip at usable angles to the snow. It has not been test drove by Ben and Rachel yet but I think that they are going to like it. Time will tell what they think.
We all miss our american friends and look forward to staying with them again. Thanks again to the Summers for letting us stay there again. We just love it in anchorage !!!!!
We will be training again tomorrow. I have to get the new belt onto the snow machine so I can go out and groom the trail. We fried the belt last trip. Once we do a couple of easy runs on the dogs we will do some intravels and speed work. We did zero fast runs this year and did some of the fastest work so far at the races. I would feel better if we can get some fast runs in at home before our next race. the weather is nice so better get some training in before it gets cold after all it is January.
We plan on traveling to whatever race fits into our schedule and will be Traveling back to Anchorage for the Junior Worlds. Ben will be the defending champion. Rachel will be working to gain her first championship. I will have lots of smoked fish to sell to help pay for the bills.
We took delivery of our new sled today. It looks good and is made by sleddog systems. The sled is a K-2 has a great waxable ski base and has great turning flexability. The runners or skis really tip at usable angles to the snow. It has not been test drove by Ben and Rachel yet but I think that they are going to like it. Time will tell what they think.
We all miss our american friends and look forward to staying with them again. Thanks again to the Summers for letting us stay there again. We just love it in anchorage !!!!!
We will be training again tomorrow. I have to get the new belt onto the snow machine so I can go out and groom the trail. We fried the belt last trip. Once we do a couple of easy runs on the dogs we will do some intravels and speed work. We did zero fast runs this year and did some of the fastest work so far at the races. I would feel better if we can get some fast runs in at home before our next race. the weather is nice so better get some training in before it gets cold after all it is January.
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