Perfect Winter's Day!

What a spectacular winter's day here today! It was bright sunshine most of the day & about -3C so off to the woods we went with the kids. We decided to go to Long Sault this time (it is north & east of Oshawa) and has some wonderful trails. Very popular with cross-country skiers. The woods here are really neat because they change as you progress along the trail - from pine forest to maple forsest to mixed & back to pine/mix . .. . the only thing it lacks is natural water . . . .we hardly ever go here in the summer for that reason. We had a great walk & the kids really had a good time. We are dog-sitting little Patches this weekend & he was pretty well tuckered by the end of the trek.

Miss Chicadee is very photogenic!!

It is quite difficult to get a pic of Lenny out in the woods because he is very seldom still!

I noticed this along the trail today!


When we got back to the van, we enjoyed a nice cup of hot chocolate that Cath had packed for us . . . mmmmm good! Then we headed over to Tyrone Mill for some apple donuts . . . .mmmmm good again!!

Then we decided to slip over to the dog sled races in Cannington (north & west of Oshawa). We got there just in time to catch the 8-dog teams run an 8 mile race. There were 5 teams, and as you can see, these were mostly not the husky type - apparently b/c they are sprinters, they are smaller & leaner. The second team out lost control of his sled & lost his dogs right after the first turn. Officials brought the team in after the race was over. That musher was not a happy camper. I heard him tell someone he was probably not going to go in the races tomorrow. What a disappointment! The team was fine, by the way.

Sean & Heather, these pics are for you!

These pics are from after the races. The rigging to tie the dogs up is pretty neat. This team was very well-mannered for meal time - I was quite impressed that there were no scraps between them. When most of them were done eating/drinking their meal, the musher brought out this pup . . what a cutie . . . getting him used to the team!

This woman had quite the hat - some kind of full skin that went right down her back!

Snow fun

Lenny & I went up to visit friends in Douro, near Peterborough, today . . . . it was a gorgeous winter day. Tons of sunshine, about
-5C, very little wind . . .it was great! There is way more snow up there than we have here! Lenny had a blast!! He has never experienced snow that deep (probably at least 2 feet or better) and had to do the leap n' jump technique, especially when we decided to trek across the cornfield. He sucks at breaking trail b/c he doesn't go in a straight line! My friends have a little dog, Muffy, who had to hitch a ride b/c she would just disappear in the snow! We had an excellent day!

Agility Level 2 Graduation

Well, Lenny graduated from Level 2 Agility (for the second time) tonight. He was nuts tonite!! Even after going to the woods before class, he was still full of beans. I sure need to work on my handling skills! Lenny got the weave poles once tonite (he finally just "got" them a couple of weeks ago). Out of 3 times through the weave poles tonite, he did them all correctly once . . .I'm very proud of him!! Lenny took his teacher an assortment of chocolate hearts for Valentine's Day; she was very impressed! We have to wait a couple of weeks now until Level 3 begins . .. .can't wait!!!

When we were at the woods tonite, Lenny ran into (literally) a Great Dane friend of Gideon's - Lenny was barrelling directly towards him, couldn't stop and so leaped right over top of this large Great Dane!! Then they played and played for quite some time. They had a great time. It was wonderful to see them having so much fun!

Superdogs!

One of the very exciting things that happend with Lenny & me over Christmas was that we were invited to be part of the Superdogs Show which was here at the GM Centre in Oshawa on Dec 27/07. We had a blast!!

We went to 2 nights of Superdogs Bootcamp to learn what we needed to do in the show. Lenny & I took part in the introduction at the start of the show, Lenny did 2 jumps in the high jump portion, and then we were in the finale parade around the ring. We also took part in the Meet n' Greet after the show. Lenny was awesome!!! The crowds, lights, and noise didn't faze him one bit. And, he was a trooper when all the kids & people came to see us after the show.

Many thanks to my sister for all her help and also to family & friends who came out to watch the show & support Lenny & I in his first big "starring role". It was an excellent experience for both of us.

I hope we will get to do it again some day!