New Axe!

/

First- Happy Easter! I hope you are all having a wonderful day with family and friends (both two and four-legged).

My older brother Nick just gave me this incredible axe that he made himself! He found the old steel head while antiquing, harvested and shaped the hickory handle from a tree at my family lake, and then imprinted it with the Ryno logo! Nick even made the leather sheath! Part of me wants to hang it on a wall to save forever, but Nick made it to race specifications so it'll get lots of use accompanying me on all of our adventures. What an incredible gift!

Ryno Kennel in Birmingham

/

This week, I'm down visiting my family in Birmingham, Alabama and squeezing in a few sled dog presentations. With any luck, I'll convert a few more mushing fanatics down here in the South!

Two of our biggest fans, also known as the "Southeast Public Relations Team," are my Aunt Sally and Uncle Ralph. They organized an open house at their home as well as presentations at Mountain Brook Elementary (where I attended school through the 3rd grade) and Brookdale Senior Living where my Grandmother lives.

In addition to the presentations, several family members have traveled to Birmingham for an impromptu reunion including my brothers Nick and Tom (who have both spent several months in Alaska helping at the kennel); my parents Katy and Mike (who follow every race and often come to my 1000-mile races); and my Aunt Amy and Uncle Newman and their sons Aidan and Newman (a.k.a. Northeast Ryno Kennel Public Relations Team).

The point being: it takes a city to raise a kennel! Thank you so much to all my family and friends in Birmingham for giving me such a warm welcome and being part of the Ryno Kennel team!

Part of my presentation includes this video that gives a recap of the season. I hope you enjoy it!

Spring at Ryno Kennel

/

All our snow is melting in Two Rivers and spring is in the air! The last few days have been 50F, and the temperature barely reaches freezing at night. We're making sure to take advantage of the last bit of snow by going on camping trips and prepping for the summer and fall.

Puppy Campout

A week ago, we took the puppies (Louie, Badger, Nala, Vanessa, Nile, Elmer, Flash, and Amelia) on their first camping trip! We were joined by our friends at Squid Acres (Paige and Cody) and their 15 puppies! One might think that with 23 puppies on their first sleepover, they'd stay up all night barking and playing, but the pups did really well! While they did wake us up at about 5:30 AM, the rest of the night they slept quietly and behaved themselves.

If you recall from an earlier post, we recently purchased a large parcel of land and are in the process of moving to the Flying Mushers Raceway compound! This spring, we're hauling in logs to prepare for building our cabins next fall. While it's definitely more efficient to haul the logs in by snowmachine, Tyler, Gunhild, and I spend a day hauling in logs by dog team. It was a blast! Plus, the dogs really enjoyed the heavy pulling, especially Rucu who is a total meathead (and adorable).

Cooke isn't so little anymore!

Remember baby Cooke? Well he's not a baby anymore! Cooke is now seven months old and about to try out a harness for the first time! Of course, I don't think he'll ever out grow his cuddly nature- can you tell from the picture?

This last weekend, we took 24 adults out to the White Mountains for our final camping trip of the season. Accompanying us were 3 teams from Squid Acres, 2 teams from Douglas Fir Mushing, 1 team from Golden Heart Mushing, and 2 teams from Good Mushing. In total, we had 84 dogs camping at the cabin! Gunhild took some beautiful photos of the trip with her fancy camera, so I'll be sharing those photos soon!

Camping in the White Mountains