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Published: October 20th 2010
The dogs attatched to the van
The dogs are taken one by one out of their crates in the van and chained up to this line. From here they are then again taken one by one to be attatched to the cart!! Day Three- My First Run!!!
I got up at 6:20 today… SIX TWENTY!! Its still bloody dark when I get up 😊 the sun rises are really beautiful though, they go from deep orange to bright red to purple. So pretty!! But I am normally picking up the dog poop at that time so I can’t take piccys. The colours change within the space of seconds! Its fabulous! So yar, I got up today and we loaded all the dogs onto the van, not an easy feat may I add!! You have to do one at a time and then lead them to there respective crate. By the way add into the equation that the dogs are FREAKING NUTTY!! They get so excited!! I had one try and back flip on me!
We then drove to the other side of Watertown to the track Linda uses to train them. We then had to attach these big long lines to the truck and these are used to hold the dogs while we attach them to the cart. Imagine the truck and at the front is a bar sticking out, and at the back is another bar sticking out.
Iloo and Sweetpea :)
The dogs finishing there chicken water mix!! Well a line is attached to both bars. Little lines about half a metre long are then attached at points along the big line and the dogs collars are then attached to the little lines. Dang that sounds confusing written down!! We only unload the dogs that are to be run. And we had two teams. First a team of seven, then a team of six. The dog cart is a confusing thing and has to have THREE safety measures done before the dogs can go anywhere near it. First the break has to be applied, then the earth break (which is situated at the front and digs into…well the earth!) and then a rope is tied around this big wooden post. All this is done as when the dogs are attach to the cart they go CRAZY! And immediately try to pull…hence trying to stop the cart disappearing into the woods it has alotta breaks 😊
Once the team is attach (two lead dogs and then two every… metre or so) Linda undoes the roped post, takes of the break and then I have to quickly yank up the earth break. She then immediately shouts “Ready let’s
The dogs attatched to the cart
Our first lot of leaders at the front were Zala on the left (looking at pic) and Klaus on the right, Then behind them White feather and her sister Topa, Zodiac on his own and finally Iloo and Sweetpea. go” and WHOOSH! The dogs start running like mad things! The first time we started it was AWESOME! The cold morning wind just rushes at you and its so refreshing :-P It was quite easy to balance on the cart. Linda stood in the centre as she had to steer it and I hung onto the edge but twas all good! I didn’t fall off once 😊 We then went about 2 miles, then stopped to give the dogs a concoction of water and this chickeny powder stuff for energy. Then we went two miles back to the truck. Its took in total about 3 hours from loading the dogs at her home to getting back to her home so not to bad!! There is SO much to remember though. Little things that have to be done properly and everything as to be checked at least twice. Esspecially the dog clips (each dog is attached to a neck line and by the bum, the bum one is the pulling one, the neck one is to stop them running around trees!).
We then came home and I cleaned out the dog food kennel. It was horrible 😊 It was a
Wimzi and Oken!
This is baby Wimzi's 4th run!! Last time I came over she was only a 12 week old puppy and incredibly bite-y now shes a big 9 month old dog and is very big and strong for her age!! bloody Henry Haven!! (For future refence Henrys are spiders...) I was constantly checking over my shoulders in case a big one was climbing up my back! But I cleaned it real good 😊 I swept the floors, scrubbed the table and buckets and generally tidied the whole place! I thenhad uber hot chilli for lunch and read my book. Its called Alaska Homestead and is about a family that uproot themselves from a dreary life in the lower 48 and head up to Alaska to become basically..pioneers! Damn good book.
Then I decided to hike into water town and buy the rest of my food. Linda lent me a Bergen and I trekked two miles into town (it took about 45 mins)…now two miles seemed fine with an empty bag and its mainly down hill. However I walked past the school as all the kids were going home in those yellow buses and they were all gawping at me!! (Haha I guess strangers are obvious in a town this small!) I then meandered around the shop and was immediately known as foreign! I asked a store assistant where the baskets were and
she was like “sooo…where are you from??”
me-“England…”
her- “Oh my son went over there for a year with school…he went to Birmingham”
me- Massive smile erodes on mon face!! “ahhh I’ve just moved there!” she then said he had a great time. I didn’t feel the need to tell her its nightclub mad and the half the girls dress like strippers!! Haha my next fopar was to ask if they had any marmite…no…vegemite…no…BOVRIL????....no….what is it?? Erm….yeast extract!!! That’s when the weird looks began :-P Oh well! I then hiked back with a full Bergen, and a plastic bag with sausages and bacon up-bloody-hill and seriously tired!! But I gots ma food in the end so life is good 😊
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Natalie
non-member comment
WONDERFUL
Becca I think your blog is amazing, I really enjoyed reading it :-) It sounds like your having an awesome time out there, even with all the hard work. I bet it's quite refreshing though after what 13 years of being stuck in a classroom nearly everyday!!! If you send me your address I'd love to send you out some stuff like English chocolate and marmite...!! Looking forward to reading more x x