New job, new logo, first race, and other updates

Check out our new kennel logo, created by my amazingly talented artist best friend and fellow musher, Amanda Stanoszek! Click on her name if you have a need for an awesome graphic designer!

Yay for snow! We're back on sleds, and the lake by the ranch is beautiful. Sophie is doing fabulous, and we are finally looking forward to our first race this coming weekend in New York state, the Tug Hill Challenge. This will be Sophie's very first race, and we can't wait to kick off the racing season finally.


Sophie running dogs

Our puppies are nearly ten weeks old now, and two of them recently went to a new home of fellow musher, Tammi Benson, and her family.


Tammi holds Parker, who she instantly fell in love with

Tammi formerly lived in mushing mecca, Two Rivers, Alaska and has run parts of the Yukon Quest. She had to get out of dogs several years ago due to some family issues, but is back and has started building her kennel again with Parker and Coltrane as her first Alaskan huskies since leaving Alaska! Welcome back, Tammi!


Tammi's husband, Freddy, holding Coltrane

We still have four pups, but things are far less chaotic with these four.


Brubeck (left) and his brother Miles (right) decided to cuddle up on a pizza box for a long winter's nap

Brubeck has developed the same pneumonia as his sister, Etta, did at four weeks. Shortly after having chest x-rays done and getting him on medication, Thelonious developed the same pneumonia. Interestingly enough, it's been only the pale-faced puppies with blue in their eyes that have come down with this pneumonia, which has led both my vet and me to consider a possible genetic component to this illness. We'll see.

In other, happier news, I started working at a new job on Monday! I am very happy to report that I am now the Community Educator at Northeast Ohio Colleges of Medicine's BeST Center in Psychiatry. The BeST center specializes in best practices for schizophrenia treatment and is one of the only centers of its kind in the U.S. I am very excited to have been selected for the position!

Here are some photo I shot recently of the lake by the Ranch.

Wind kicking up snow across the frozen lake makes a beautiful, blustery scene that I so love


"Danger: boating hazardous due to unusually low water" - Yea, I'll say!


And my truck stops for weird bumper stickers, like this one

Until next time...