Mike - our superdog.

8 new Lil'Mikes.

The Lil’ Mikes have landed July 22! An artificial insemination success story came to light when Velvet gave birth to 8 healthy pups out of our late super leader Mike. Mike passed away in -06 but his semen lives on in frozen form and is producing pups around the world. This is our 5th insemination we have done (with different males) and have always had good turnouts with 6 - 11 pups in each litter. Artificial insemination is a bit of a hassle compared to natural breeding but if it is planned well, timed right and performed by a competent vet you have the chance to re inject the genes of super stars long gone. Viva Mike!
8 seems to be the number this summer because last night we had our third litter containing 8 pups... starting to feel like an overflowing kettle of popcorn around here! Kimo is the proud mom and Casper is the dad. This is her second litter.
So within two weeks we added 24 new members to our kennel. It will be busy, busy here with all the pups in a few months…
Weather has not improved and the rain keeps hammering us. Its grey, dark and with temperatures struggle to creep over 50F it starts to feel like fall but no, I want at least a couple of weeks of warm sunny days… we need it before the days get too short and nights longer and …
Tonight I made one of the best chicken dinners I have ever made; Creole fried chicken – it was so good, crisp and just perfectly spicy. Served with chickpea salad it was a meal to remember. Bon appetite!
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Mike as a little puppy. He was born in 1994 and here he is about one month old.	Tinny and Tigger, two of Kimo's pups.	Tony is very interested in the new puppies, here with Tinny and Egil.	'Jump' takes his Sunday nap on his favorite pillow.	My favorite rose survived the rain.
I made a Cinnamon Twist for the Farmers Market.	Have to bring in lots of flowers from my garden during the summer...	Creole fried chicken - a new favorite for us.

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Summertime and living is easy... Olivia loves visiting with us in Willow!

It’s been awhile since I updated the blog and I feel bad about it, I truly do. So from now on my promise is to update more regularly - starting right now!
Mid July and according to the calendar it’s a summer month but here in South Central Alaska it feels more like early fall. Dark clouds comes rolling in, rain hammering on the roof and temperatures in the low 50s. I have to turn on the lights in the kitchen preparing our dinner.
Will this be what we remember of the summer of 2010, the summer that started out so great in May? Warm and sunny, we sat out on the deck and had dinner in the sunset. Actually we joked and said: “this might be the summer we get”. Maybe that was the wrong thing to do… will never do that again…
In June we had family and friends visiting from Sweden, lots of fun and we get to see a lot of Alaska that we usually do not have time to visit. Guess that’s an extra bonus that comes with visitors.
Summer is also the time of year when we have new members in our kennel. So far two litters have been born – Q and R. Three pups in the Q litter, Quinoa, Quick and Quinn. The R litter was born a week ago and we have to come up with names for the little guys. There will be one Ronja and a Rip but we still need to come up with more names. Two more females will give birth this week, Velvet who is bred to Mike (insemination) and Kimo with Casper.
Starting out first Friday in July I am busy baking for the Farmers Market. I did it all summer last year and I am back again. Baking bread and cookies. Now I have added bread baked with sourdough, it’s so good. Levain, baguette, bread with figs and hazelnuts... all my favorite breads…
Tonight I prepared a new dish for us, a mustard/honey/pecan-baked chicken. Served with yellow turmeric organic basmati rice and a garden fresh salad. Bon appetite!
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Egil, Tony and Tikko checking on Ada's puppies - 8 that will have names starting on R.	Sunset and I love my garden...	Amazing colors...s	When it's raining and cloudy I love to bring flowers inside to make us happy.	During summer months we have our adult dogs free running every other day.
Time to get to know every dog...	A sunny day its just awesome to go out in the garden.	Egil has been busy splitting and stacking all the wood we will need for the cold winter.	Tony keeps an eye on everything that goes on...	Ooops bear poooop.... we have seen a lot of bear tracks and poop on the trails close to our house this summer.
Joel loved to spend time with the pups - in the doghouse...	Comfort food when it's raining - home made pizza.	Swedish visitors - Helen's cousin with his family came and we had a great time together.	Kristina wanted to try out the old snow machine in Talkeetna but it did not work out as planned...	Farmers Market in Willow and I will be there every Friday with fresh baked bread and cookies.

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Second place for Egil at the Tok Race Open class this year.

You would think that our life slows done after the racing season… but that’s not what’s happening. Days are going by so fast that its unreal. Here is a quick recap of our last race in Tok, the weekend after ONAC. To race in Tok is always fun and it’s a great finale of the racing season for us. This year Egil ran both the 8-dog class and the Open. In the 8 dog we entered with a team of yearlings plus two older leaders.
Egil has won the open class in Tok for 11 years but this year turned out to be a real exciting race. “A bit too exciting for me, I had one dog get hurt and had to be loaded 3 miles from the finish. Because she wasn’t exhausted she was hard to get in the sled bag and I had to wrestle with her to get her to stay in. While I was dealing with the load the rest of the team pulled the snow hook and I had to let go of the dog in order to catch the sled and not loose the team. I got them stopped and set both hooks, by now the dog was loose on the trail in front of the team and wasn’t too happy about coming over to me to get loaded again. After some coaxing I finally caught her and managed to get her to stay in the bag and zip it up. Lost about 1.45 in the process but it felt like an eternity. Most important though, I didn’t loose the team! “
“I had a flawless run the second day. Shaved my team down to ten dogs and started the hunt for the 1.25 minutes I was behind from the first day. I gambled a bit and poured on the speed right from start, all went smoothly and I passed team #2 at about half way, was even with leader Arleigh Reynolds at 4 miles left, but the heat (43F and sunny) took a toll on the team coming home and I faded some towards the end and lost by 20 seconds total time. Fastest day time though, and a strong final showing by the team is a great way to end the season”.
Congratulations to Arleigh and crew! We have had some good duels throughout the season and it has been exciting racing, let’s do it again next year!
 The youngsters in the 8 dog class had a faster run than the first day and got some valuable experience for what’s to come next season. Finished in 7th place.
After Tok we took two days off from kennel chores and went to Girdwood for some skiing and relaxing fun with good friends. This short vacation gave us a boost of energy and now we are back running teams with young dogs every day. Trails are in good conditions and we hope it will stay like this for a couple of weeks. Will give us time to run all the young guys and get them ready for next season. Can’t wait, this is so exciting…
Tonight for dinner I prepared a salmon baked with parmesan served with a arugula sauce. Bon appetite!
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Egil checking on his team before starting out day 1 in Tok.	Talking to his leaders Ruby and Casper before starting out day 1 in Tok.	On the top of the roof!	"You did a great job guys"! Egil gives his crew some goodies after the second day of racing in Tok finishing in second place.	The dogs give Egil kisses ...
... and hugs!	Top 3 finishers in the open class at Tok, Arleigh Reynolds #1, Egil #2 and Ken Chezik #3.	Celebrating a great season with friends at the Double Musky in Girdwood...	Egil and Greg enjoy a glass of beer at after-ski.	This is the fifth year we rap up the season with a couple of days at the Alyeska resort in Girdwood. Good food, good friends and good wine, what else do you need?
We stayed at the Hotel Alyeska on the seventh floor - look at the view... and I am afraid of heights!	Maxine's Bistro is one of our favorite dinner places - Christian, me and Jane...	At Maxine's we listened to local musicians.	Trails are the best we have had for a long time, its so much fun to run the young dogs every day. Hope the trail will hold up until end of April...

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Egil Ellis 1st, Arleigh Reynodls 2nd and Ken Chezik 3rd ONAC 2010.

10th ONAC victory and the team is back in shape. Can hardly believe it myself. This one was sweet indeed. After a shaky Rondy it was awesome to see the team back in shape and sailing through the third day like I’m used to. Had a swing dog get tired at about three miles from the finish but he hung on all the way and didn’t require a ride, besides that it was a perfect run with Our main man, “Ruby Robot”, taking charge and leading the way.
I’d like to thank all well wishers and everyone supporting us with encouragements and cheers this season. Much appreciated.
A Big Thank You to DrTim’s Dog Foods for fueling our team, two years of testing has really proved fruitful. Make sure to try out the new Momentum dog food. Bewe sleds has been under my feet since 1994 and together we have countless Victories,Thank You!
All the best to everyone and more racing next weekend in Tok.
We will enjoy lunch with friends today in Faribanks before attending the GCI open house “meet and greet” ONAC mushers! Heading home tonight. More later... Bon appetite!
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Trail sweepers ready to head out on the ONAC trail.

ONAC first day, second place, 20 seconds behind Arleigh Reynolds.
Nice, fast trail but the sunny and very warm weather took a toll on the team. Thought I was way down since my team tired at the end, but apparently most other teams did as well.
Climbing the hill towards the finish felt like syrup in the 40-50 degree temps with the sun baking. All in all a descent run with everybody staying on their feet and feeling good after. The hunt is on and look forward to another exciting day, only thing I’ll change is; I will dress cooler, phew!
Tonight we enjoyed some real tasty Thai food. Bon appetite!
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