Sam finally moved back home to Fairbanks after finishing her rookie Iditarod. Lately she's been sitting in a recliner. A fully unemployed bum, she is. But that's just fine. This is the first time she's been unemployed as a "dog handler" since 2019 -- that's six years of scooping dog poop for other people. Now she's home, hanging out with friends, drinking beer, going on long walks with the dogs, sleeping in, and waiting for the snow to melt so she can start planting a garden.
Meanwhile, Tucker sat on his butt all winter, just picking his nose and waiting for Sam to come home. At one point in February he did get off of his butt to ski 150 miles on the Yukon River and then again to ski the Iditarod Trail Invitational 350. But now, this spring, it's time for him to go back to work fighting wildfire in Alaska. He'll be picking up a lot of sticks in the woods and sleeping on the ground for most of the summer. Every now and then he'll get a couple of days off at home to unnecessarily critique the garden and ask why the dog yard fence hasn't been put up yet.
Over the spring/summer of 2025, we (mainly Sam) will keep working on the kennel: building a dog barn, putting up fences, acquiring dog gear, and getting ahold of some more dogs. Our old boss and mentor, Ryne Olson, will be donating 8 dogs to us (to see which dogs will be joining us click on the "meet the dogs" tab). Thanks Ryne! That'll put us at 11 dogs that can run/race in harness this coming fall. Puppy fever is in the air, but don't hold your breath, alright? Big plans here, big plans. Future's looking good, lots of dog poop to scoop out there on that horizon, but we'll be doing it for ourselves.
