I am happy to report that the dogs are safely back at home now! Late Wednesday night Lance, Tonya, Newton and the dogs pulled in after a LONG day of driving. Our winding roads through the mountains are not their favorite places to drive. At least they had taken the time in  Park City to get the brakes fixed on Fat Albert, otherwise those roads would have been even worse to drive. The dogs were very excited to be home, hard to say whether the dogs returning or the dogs welcoming  them back were the louder. Good thing we don't have any close neighbors here. I of course was thrilled to see everyone and spent a good while visiting them before seeing the humans. Happy to  report that all the dogs are well. It is a great feeling to leave for a race like Jackson with healthy dogs and come home with everyone in the same shape. Thanks to Lance for taking such good care of my four legged kids! Lance was impressed with our crew. Of course it took a few days for the dogs to really pay attention to him but as you all watched on the results, each day they gelled more as a team. They totally exceeded Lance's expectations. As he said, "I didn't really have any expectations" so that made it easier; though he was optimistic for at least a finish somewhere in the top ten. We are all very proud of the dogs and Lance for for their 4th place finish. And we are thinking that Jackson will be in our future for next year. If our dogs can do this well with no real training for this race, imagine what they can do if we train for it...

 After returning the dogs to the dog yard we were all able to have a late dinner and catch up some. It was good for me to get some reports on the individual performances of the dogs from Lance. It sure feels good to have those pups we raised so lovingly here go out and perform so well and be enjoyed by so many people. Lance enjoyed them so much, he is now going to use Widgi, Brutus, and Oyster for Iditarod so no sooner did they get home and spent a night in the yard they were back onto the truck on Thursday morning. Another testament for the versatility of our dogs. Given what is next on Lance's agenda, there wasn't much time to visit as early Thursday they had to continue on back home to prepare for Iditarod. But the true champion that he is, he was generous enough to have some time and autographs for some of our local young mushers over breakfast before they departed. Then we all headed out caravan style, myself to the vets to take Kazen to be spayed, Lance and crew to continue north through the snow and Warren, Fabian, Jeff and Tyler DInsdale to go out and do some trail preparations and cache some food for the upcoming Bowron Chain expedition that Tyler, Warren and two others, Tyler and Jerry, will be doing next week. Left at home was our newest Woofer Caroline to do do dog chores until my return from town. Caroline came up to check out what we do and who we are and happily it was a good fit for her and for us so she will be returning in the spring to stay with us for a few months.

We received another dump of snow on Thursday, about 10 cm and now it is above zero and melting everywhere - this season has been strange for sure. I took a winter hazard fall yesterday outside the vet clinic and am now nursing an incredibly sore back so dogs are getting the day off today as I hobble around. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger right? I hope you all are well and avoiding icy stairs.

I expect Warren and crew home shortly from their reconnaissance mission. The rest of the team for the Bowron trip will be coming into town tomorrow. We will have a big dinner here tomorrow night and then they are off on Sunday morning. Sam's wrestling team is hosting the Zones Tournament in Quesnel tomorrow so we will all be busy with the tournament tomorrow.  I'll keep you posted on results.

Cheers,
Kate