Happy New Year!

Happy  New Year to everyone! Hope your holiday season was full of fun and time spent with friends and family. We wrang in the new year here at the kennel with a bonfire surrounded by friends and family. No other way we would rather spend it. Plus we had the pleasure of some down state family with Briea's Brother and family making the trip North as well as my Aunt and Uncle and kids coming up to celebrate the coming of 2011. Sure was a pleasure seeing them for the first time in a while.

The past week has been a blast meeting new faces from all over the world while running dogs. We had a Mom and Son come from South Carolina as part of seeing all 50 states together, a family from central Ohio on their holiday break, as well as a French speaking group from Switzerland. Could not have asked for a better group of folks.

McDougals from Ohio

Michelle Snipes fro South Carolina

Swiss Group

Plus in the middle of all of this Lucite had 10 puppies! Anyone who knows her and how small she is would understand my shock. 10 was quite a few for this little girl to have. I am happy to report though that all pups are doing great and Mom is a natural in the motherhood department. Name choices to come soon........

Lucite and the 10 new additions to the kennel

With the New Year came a pretty significant warm up with temps in the mid 40's for a few days. Trails took a pretty good hit forcing us to take a couple days off, which will be a good break for us and the dogs to catch/rest up, maybe do a bit of ice fishing! With the forcast for the week we should be running strong again shortly.

In other news Michigan State's lackluster performance in their Bowl Game Saturday left me not so optimistic about next year while the Lions finished the season with a roar winning their last 4 games. Very Nice!

Well good luck to everyone in the New Year, we hope it is the best year for you yet.

Take care,

Tim, Briea, and Peyton

Christmas

Well Christmas couldn’t have gone any better. It was so rewarding to watch Peyton open her presents on her first Christmas. Although I think she enjoyed the wrapping paper more than what was inside, she has plenty of new toys to play with for a long time to come. With time spent with family on Christmas day, the evening was spent running the dogs on a new 18 mile trail we scouted out. It was an amazing night to be out under the stars and each dog pulled their hearts out truly enjoying their Christmas run. I couldn’t be more proud of the group of dogs we have in our kennel.



Peyton enjoying the box more than the present.



On the 23^rd we had a wonderful family come out for a tour. It was a blast having the kids (Landry, Kellen, Peyton and Tonna) around to spoil our dogs, rabbits and chickens! Bridget and Paul were naturals on the sleds, not one wipe out. It was also Tonna’s birthday and we were hoping Lucite would have her puppies while they were here, but unfortunately she is still holding out and is as big as a house!

Schneider family

 

Lucite enjoying some couch time

Yesterdays tour was with Becky and Larry from Southern Indiana, who were in the area snowmobiling. Larry bought Becky a tour as a Christmas gift. With plenty of Laughs, we had a good ole’ time! 

Becky learning to drive a sled

 Thanks everyone who has stopped out and given us the opportunity to take you out with the dogs. Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a great New Year. We will be at Treetops resort in Gaylord New Years eve, so if you don’t have plans come on out to see the dogs, go for a ride and do a little skiing.

Take care,

Briea, Tim and Peyton

                                                           

Christmas Already?

As usual I sit here less than a week until Christmas not knowing where to begin with all there is to do. The Christmas tree I scouted out during deer season needs to be cut and decorated, puppy pen needs final touchups for our upcoming litter, the dreaded shopping and wrapping of Christmas presents awaits, and of course as much dog running as we can.

We had the pleasure of Jill and Ian Welsh join us on a dog sled adventure this past weekend. The day was perfect for running dogs and Ian proved to be a natural on the runners. Jill too by the end of our journey had it down and looked like she could have gone on forever. It was such a nice day we too didn't want it to end. Thanks for the great times Ian and Jill.

Spent yesterday finalizing the trail at Treetops resort in Gaylord for our rides this winter. They open up full time on December 26th and we will be there with the dogs December 31st, January 15, February 19, and March 12. So come on out to ski and take a ride with the dogs while there. To check them out or book your winter fun check out http://www.treetops.com/

Work is done for me for the year so I am pretty happy about getting to run dogs full time for a couple months. It does seem like I am busier and work a lot harder when I am off in the winter.

We wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season. We are really looking forward to spending our first Christmas with Peyton!

Take care,

Tim, Briea, and Peyton Riley

A True Musher!

Well the snow is slowly coming and I think it may be here to stay. Although we had only a few inches this past Friday, Tim and I decided we would hook up a four dog team and go clear the trails. Being new to this, I was pretty excited to be on a sled. However, the adventure didn’t come without a few bumps and bruises along the way. Tim and I dumped the sled three times while out and about. Tim’s advice went a little like this, “Briea, whatever you do don’t let go of the sled!” So each time I fell, I was thankful to still be gripping the sled handle. Now, the next day was a different story… while out on the sled, Tim hopped off and told me to take the turn, only when I did I hit a fallen tree and the sled was ripped from my hands, oops! There went the dogs barreling down the trail with no driver. Tim finally caught up to them almost two miles away. Thank you Tim! He came back and picked me up after gathering the team. All he told me was, “you’re not a true musher until you’ve lost your dog team.”

Quinn getting family time

Briea, Tim and Peyton

First Snow!

Well as we know December is right around the corner, with Thanksgiving behind us and Christmas near, we can only hope for lots of snow! With the first day that the snow actually stuck, we were sure to get the dogs out for a run. And as usual, they loved it. Every time we stopped for breaks they were all screaming at Tim and I to let them keep on, turning around and looking at us with what seemed like a big question mark hanging over their heads asking “why are we stopped?” when stopping for a water break, we turn the four wheeler off and tighten the breaks so we can water and tell each one how great they are doing….only on the day of the snow, we got the water dishes from the back of the four wheeler and to my surprise, they took off! Glad to say they didn’t get too far as Tim grabbed the machine and jumped on to put them at a halt.

First snow

Hopefully the snow will be here to stay real soon, as we are itching to get on the sleds! We are booking more and more winter festivals and tours and can’t wait to be a part in teaching people all about the sled dogs and everything in between.

Tata for now,

Briea, Tim and Peyton

                                                                                             

Thanksgiving!!!!!

Sorry to all you dedicated blog readers, I know its been awhile since our last post. Can I use the "super busy around here" excuse again?

Well today is Thanksgiving, my absolute favorite holiday in the world, and I have so much to be thankful for. First the two most beautiful girls in my life. I don't know how I ever got olong without them. A close second is my extended family who are always here to support us in all our endeavors. Third I am very fortunate to have some of the best dogs in the world always happy to see me and put a smile on my face. Oh and I guess we can not forget to mention how thankful I am that MSU is 11-1!

Lil girls first Thanksgiving today!

To get caught up on the happenings around here, when I say we have been busy that is no lie. First we are excited to announce our partnership with Treetops resort in Gaylord, Michigan. We will be giving dogsled rides up there several weekends this winter. A couple weeks ago we were invited to meet with their golf and ski pro to discuss the potential of us doing rides there and scout out a trail. The meeting went great and we set some dates to make it happen. We are looking forward to spending time up there this winter showing off the dogs and meeting new folks.

With winter fast approaching we are feeling the time crunch on getting last minute projects done. Finally got a new dog box built for the truck (just needs paint). Built the "retirement" yard for our faithful elderly dogs, prepped the puppy pen for Lucites pups (yep gonna have a December litter), and continually helping Ma and Dad move into their new place down the road.

Dog Box almost done

With the weather cool we can run dogs longer and about any time we want. So we have been opting to run more towards mid day to avoid conflict with deer hunters. All the dogs are looking good and I think this is one of the strongest, no doubt the fastest, dog teams I have ever had. Sure wish we were planning on racing some days. Also got the dogs switched over to their winter diet of meat and kibble. Sure is cool watching them enjoy eating so much!

Speaking of Deer season, we have been working pretty hard at filling the freezer. Unfortunately the deer have not been cooperating with me much this year. Don did have some success taking a nice 6 point out back one evening. Briea and I helped him cut up and package it yesterday and he was super generous in giving us a share in the meat for our help!

Don's Buck

That should about get us caught up for now. I am sure in the blur that November has been I am forgetting a few things here and there but that is the bulk of it. Off now to brew another pot of coffee, get Thanksgiving dinner on the cook, wake the girls, and watch Peytons first Macey's Parade on the TV. Gonna say a little prayer too for the Detroit Lions game.

Take care,

Tim, Briea, and Peyton

Getting Cooler....

We woke up this morning and it was 12 degrees out with a slight blanket of snow on the ground…wonderful. Although this week will be great for training dogs, I have been told it will warm up next week to almost 60. I’m hoping by the next week we will get snow snow snow! We have the new dog yard all finished and pretty much full. Thanks to mom and chuck, we were donated a small shed that makes perfect for harnesses and other such dog equipment.  

New Dog Yard Finished

                                                            

Tim has been pretty successful trapping the past week. We’ve got two beavers, a raccoon, and a mink so far and who knows, he may come back with more as he is gone checking traps right this moment. Tim decided to hike the couple miles back to the lake from our cabin the other day to check his beaver traps. I get a call about 45 minutes later from him asking if I would come get him off the road where he had hiked out and said he had left the beavers in the woods. So we went back, got a couple bungee straps and a back pack and I dropped him back off and waited for him to come back. I was confused about this as I had always pictured beavers to be small and about 15 or 20 lbs….until he came out of the woods with two HUGE beavers! Just the one weighed about 60 lbs. needless to say, I was confused no more!

First Catch

                                                                      

On another note, Tim and I went on a double date with my brother Timmy and his gal Sarah to the see a movie on Thursday. We decided to see paranormal activity 2. Scary is an understatement! I never thought I would watch a movie that would actually stress me out. The anticipation of the “jumpy” parts was sickening! If you like scary movies, this is the one for you!

Briea, Tim, and baby Peyton