FIELD TRIP!!

I took the younger half of my dogs to get their rabies shots today. It was also good practice for some of the newbies to take their first ride in the truck. Everybody did pretty good except Titan, who also had a collar on for the first time today, he wasn't about to be chained into the dog box, so he rode up in the cab with Cosmos, the Jack Russell. Which was good practice for Cosmos because he has hardly had to share "his" space in the front of the truck before and on the way to Juneau he is going to have to ride with Telesto, Leo and Saturn. He also did well.

So I want riding in the truck to be associated with going to do something fun, not going to the feed store parking lot to sit for 10 minutes and be stuck with a needle. So I took the whole crew to the city dog park. What fun! I had 10 dogs in the park. It was great to see all the different interactions of the yearlings. Cosmos of course stole the stage and had everyone at his will and beckon to throw sticks and balls for him. 2 of the "Solstice Litter" , Eclipse and Corona were freaked out by the other dogs a little, which I thought was strange because they are around other dogs all the time. So they formed an alliance and hung out back in the corner where they city stores the Golden Days Jails. ( Fairbanks has a week long festival called Golden Days, which celebrates the Gold Rush. During that week you can be arrested and placed in one of these "jails on wheels" if you are not wearing a garter or a Golden Days button. It is a fundraiser in that your "friends" can have you arrested, and you have to bail yourself out for a small price.) They were friendly towards any of the Cosmic Canines and one puppy, but otherwise were anti-social. Everyone else had a great time with all of the other dogs. Alcor, Solstice, and especially Zenith were super friendly with the people there too. Zenith latched on to this one woman for some reason and followed her everywhere. The dogs were so happy. It was nice to watch in a full out and out run. I think it is so beautiful to watch dogs run and weave. The girls were very agile. They are going to be super athletes. An Alcor looked pretty good too. Titan was a little lumbering, but he is only 5 months old. He is still figuring out how to work his legs. I still think he is more wheel dog material than lead dog though. He is going to be huge.

The whole day was great for the dogs for mentally and physically. I know they are getting bored, I've been so busy getting things together the dogs have been just sitting in the yard. It was great socializtion for them. They do great with other dogs, though it was very evident that there is a definite sense of "team" within in my dogs. Which is what I have been striving for. I have to remember to donate to the Fairbanks Dog Park. Its a great space.

Cinco De Mayo Bonfire

Took a break to go hang with the Two Rivers crew. Susan and Jason are clearing their land and had a bonfire to celebrate. It just happened to be Cinco De Mayo however there were no Dos Equis or Coronas being drank. Jose Cuervo did show up later, much to my dismay the next morning! Ouch! I did speak Spanish with the infamous Kris Krestensen for a while, but we both remembered the last time we spoke Spanish we were at Aily Zirkle's musher party last summer. We were talking to some guy that rented from Judy Cooper, who ended up murdering his girlfriend with an axe 2 weeks later. Yikes! I read the police blotter on El Seis de Mayo and much to my relief there were no murders.

Hey what do you call 4 Mexicans in quicksand?
Cuatro "sink-os" (cincos)
Ha ha!

Nice to hang with most of the attendees of the White Car Party* one last time before I head south. Gonna miss these guys.

* White Car Party: A rare occurrence one summer night 2005. There was a party and completely unplanned every single car/truck/van driven there was white....there was about 10 or more cars, all white. Coincidence? Strange but true!

I am living Kafka's "the Castle" again

And now in ring three is the Astronomically Awesome Abbie!!!! She will gracefully jump through every bureaucratic hoop with grace and splendor!!!!!

Too much paperwork!!!! The Canadian government needs one year's salary, a 5000 word essay about my life, a pint of blood, my first born, and a kidney just so I can get through the border!! I'm not even staying there!!! Don't put the coffee on, just passing through. Well at least until I find that hot Canadian Musher I can marry and get my citizenship. Ha! I heard that wouldn't even be enough to become Canadian.
Its a point system, points are as follows if you are American:

• 1 point if marry a Canadian
• 1 point for every child you bear on Canadian Soil that ends up playing Professional Hockey
• 1 point for every $10,000 dollars you make weekly.
• 1 point for each doctorate you have obtained
• 1 point if you speak French

You need a total of 100 points to earn your citizenship. But you get minus 50 points if you have ever even looked at a handgun.

I don't mean to bash the Canadian Government, I would still move there in a heartbeat. But what do they have against American musher girls anyways?

It will all be worth it though when I am working with my dogs and getting paid for it in beautiful Juneau! Can't wait to leave Fairbanks. This town is way to big for this girl! I am getting so excited. I am halfway done packing. I almost have all of my paper work done. My truck is fixed and even has an exhaust stack on it so it doesn't suffocate the dogs. THANKS TO LONNIE BEACHY!! The nicest guy, who did all the work on my truck and won't even let me pay him. I had to threaten him to even let me buy him dinner and a beer the other night at work!

I cannot wait to quit my stupid job at Los Amigos. I have had enough of the owner. "I ain't gonna work on Randy's farm no more!" Saturday is my last day.

Friday is my last day a the Quest. I am trying to get everything set up to make it easy for the new help.

So many logistics, but totally worth it.

How my dogs are helping rid the world of the Bird Flu, or why I am having KFC for dinner tonite

I hate chickens!

Looks innocent doesn't he? I thought so too.

Yesterday was a bad day. I was packing when I hear a commotion outside. I look out the window and all of my dogs are looking over to the neighbor's house. I open the window and I hear chickens screaming and dogs barking.

" OH GOD NO!!" On goes any boots and clothes I can find and out the door I go running.

So let me give you a little history; a few months ago I get a phone call from Dylan at work saying that the neighbor is at the house saying my dog has killed all of is chickens. I ask him to go outside and see if he can catch any of my dogs that are loose. And he says there are no loose dogs. So I race home. All of my dogs are still on their chains, all in place. So I go next door. The wife is home and their "Chicken Handler."

"Your dog killed all 40 of our chickens."

"Did you hook the dog back up?"

"No he went back over to your house."

"But none of my dogs are loose."

"I know it was your dog."

"I must have been somebody else's dog because none of my dogs got loose."

"Are there other huskies in the area."

This woman must never come out of her house EVER. Listen lady you live in Two Rivers, Alaska, the distance mushing capital of the world. The population of huskies exceeds the population of people.

"Well, yes."

There chicken handler then gives me a tour of all of their dead chickens. For what reason I don't know. How gross! Their coop is a patch work shack of garbage. This is by far the third world set up of chicken empires. Not only do they have chickens (or had I guess I should say) but they have pigs, geese, 4 or 5 german sheperd, a few cats, a see hamster cages laying around, and a couple kids. The whole set up is nasty and smelly. I leave and the next day the husband comes over.

"Your dog killed my chickens!"

"I already told your wife that it wasn't my dog."

"Well next time I see your dog over here I am going to shoot it!"

Okay, I thought that was the plan anyways.

So yesterday I KNOW it is my dog. I go running over, his last words going over and over again in my head. Its Saturn. Innocent, sweet Saturn! He's outside the coop smiling ear to ear, and inbetween his teeth there are a few feathers sticking out. He is looking at me panting saying "This is fun, Abbie!"

"Crap!" I grab Saturn. "Come on buddy lets go or we are going to be dodging bullets!" We go tearing off through the garbage. I took the back trail so he would see our footprints in the snow leading right to our house.

I bring Staurn in the house. What to do, what to do?

1. I could pretend like it never happened. Prove it buddy. But this guy is crazy. He might just come through the back, and start shooting my dogs. I wonder how many chickens Saturn actually killed?
2. I could say there was a dog loose in my yard too and I chased him off, he must have went over to your house.
3. or I could just fess up. Dammit we only have 2 weeks left here and this happens.

New Abbie rule #3:I WILL NEVER LIVE NEXT DOOR TO CHICKENS AGAIN!

I have had problems before.

When I lived in Homer, the day before my wedding, I took a walk to my landlord's to borrow his lawn mower. I took my dogs (2 huskies) with me. My next door neighbor had chickens, which had been killed many times before (not by my dogs). I knew this but as long as a watched my dogs they would just play with his lab that ran loose and I could call them away without them even realizing that there was any chickens. Well as we went by there was no dog. I would later find out he had killed his own dog because he had killed his chickens. Not only that but his chickens were free ranging. Now if I had my chickens killed 15 times I would have one serious fence around them! Any ways there was a mailay of chicken and huskies I was running around throwing chickens in the air . Trying to catch my dogs. My Dad, up from the lower 48 for my wedding is watching the whole thing. It was too late. All of them dead. So I go up to their door. There 4 year old son answers.

"Um, my dogs killed all of your chickens."

"My dad is NOT going to be happy."

"Tell him I will do anything to make it right. I will by him chicks, fresh, local eggs until they can lay. Anything."

I had to go into town afterwards to do some more wedding arrangements. I though, "You know, I better bring the dogs with me."

And good thing I did because my brother and his girlfriend stayed behind and this guy came up throught the back rifle in hand and was going to shoot my dogs right on the line.

Meanwhile I was at the feed store.

"I need to buy some chickens, now!"

" What kind?"

"I don't know, I know nothing about chickens."

I expained to her what happen.

" Whose chickens?"

When I told her who she said, "Not again!"

So I call his house from the feed store. He is pissed, "I'm going to shoot your dogs!"

I had to have the feed store lady convince him, she's here, trying to make it right.

So I ended him chicks and an incubator.

Now he had a fishing boat with a guy who owned Caribou Lake Lodge, a lodge we used to mush out to until he had a fight with one of us ( a long story, it probably really was this musher's fault being that she is psycho) and he said "No more dog teams." Which was a bummer because it was the greatest place to mush your dogs to and have lunch. Well that summer their boat burned and sunk to the bottom of the ocean. It was all I could do to call up in my best mafia voice and say, "Next time you mess with my dogs, it will be more than your boat that goes." But I resisted.

Sled dogs and chickens don't mix! I check the hardware on my chains, and am responsible. But you know what, "shit happens."

Back to yesterday...

So I think WWMMD? ( what would my mom do) We drive over to the neighbors house. She is home. Knock knock.

"Hello, well the bad news is that my dog has killed some of your chickens, the good news is that we are moving in 2 weeks."

"Oh, my husband is going to be mad.!"

I left my number and an apology. He hasn't called yet. Which makes me nervous. Lets just say I didn't get much sleep last night. Every little stir woke me up. Who knows what this guy will do?

Two weeks.....only two weeks....

At least my dogs are doing their part to eliminate the Avion Flu

Now I know what its like to be a lead dog. Telesto ( and I ) ran in the kids races during the Valley Funale.

the day sighs and dances

What an day! If a sigh could dance that would be how I would describe today. The flags, the wind, the people, they move and spin, but liltingly. Today is the kind of day you let things be, and inhale, absorb everything with a smile. The sky has reached a quiet Nirvana. Not exaltant sunset/sunrise kind but the quiet thoughtful kind. Fused the blue and the clouds so you cannot tell when one begins and the other ends. A touch of cold on the wind but still perfumed in the silky scent of spring and jacketed in sunshine. A day where you literally feel how everything is connected, how we are part of the same body of life. Joy!

Coyote Stone

I have walked intoxicated
Lost in the fabric of my dream
I had anticipated
Pulling yours at the seems
Instead I woke with coyote stone
Cold against my lips
With shaken and hollowed bones
And my spirit slips
After the visions of you
Lying naked in the sheets
Realization comes to veiw
This, the only way we can meet
So as the sun weaves shadows on my bed
I close my eyes again
So you can spin silk in my head
Blanketed in your love's threads

Cosmic Canines Racing

Ths snow melts

As the snow drips and melts outside (can you believe it snowed again last night!?!) I am contemplating about my future. For my life, too, is dripping and melting. That may sound terminal but I look at as a new beginning, another season in my life. There were many chapters to the book Siddartha, everyone with a lesson to learn, an experience to gain.

Memories are snow
They melt, drip, flow
And disappear for a time
Soaked deep into the mud
The muck of what was
But the earth births
Blossoms of tomorrow

I contemplated erasing my last post. For everything about it has changed. But I changed my mind instead. I can't go back and make it so it never happened, and I'm not sure if I would if Icould. Never turn your team back to the last checkpoint, usually then, your race is over.

So I forge on. I really should be packing and organizing. Perhaps this blog should be titled procrastination. Ren and I are parting ways. I should have listened to my friend Ed years ago, it just won't work if your partner isn't a dog musher too. No one else can truly understand this fine madness.

Now my dogs and I are simplifying our life. I have to pack, sell or give away everything I own. For a little bit of time we will living a semi-nomadic life. Which I find fascinating. Our first stop is our new job. I can't wait. We leave on the 10th or 11th of May. We will be spending the summer in Juneau, doing dog sled tours for a company, AIE. I am so excited to finally be working (for money) with my dogs. The pay is excellent and we should be pretty set up to begin the season next fall, who knows where we will be then, that I am still working out. I have a few options but I am giving it some time. Life has funny ways of throwing a new path infront of you. I do know that wherever we are, everything will be focused around the dogs and racing next season. I want to be mobile, to be able to follow the snow. So I have purchased 10 Rubbermaid totes and I want to fit all of my possessions into those 10 totes to be stored at a friends house. That of course doesn't include my bike, my sleds, chainsaw, things like that. Lets just say I am proabably having one great yard sale next weekend.

A day in the life

A day in the life here at Cosmic Canine Kennels.

Wake up 5:30am, make lunch for my finance Ren. Read and listen to NPR until 7:00am, when I go out and get the dogs ready to run. Feed the puppies, let out the Pits (Mattie and Torrent) and Cosmos the Jack Russell Terrier, and feed them. Go on a run with the sled dogs, they pull my 4 wheeler, they just started on Aug 1 so they only go 2 miles right now , 8 dogs at a time, every other day. Feed the sled dogs, clean up all the dog crap. Water the dogs. Water the Garden. Go inside and check my email, clean the house, take the puppies for a walk with one of the house dogs. Go for a bike ride or 4 wheeler ride and play in the woods. Pick blueberries, explore wildflowers, talk to animals or the wind, or the sky. Exalt life from the top of a mountian. Write in my journal. Go to town, only when I have to. Wait impatiently for my finance Ren to come home. Bake cookies or a pie with the berries I picked or rhubarb from the garden. Make dinner lately its been 1001 creative zucchini recipes due to the fact that I planted 9 zucchini plants this year. Don't laugh its my first garden ever. Next year I'll plant 4. Or sometimes I go to work at Two Rivers Lodge where I am a bartender some nights, a waitress others. Spend time with Ren. Watch a movie or play a game. Make love to Ren. Say my prayers of thanks to the Universe for such a beautiful life, go to sleep about 1:00am. Dream about the future.

Abbie 2

Abbie