About the birth of a human puppy and ice-cold intentions

January 18, 2006 - Outrageous! Shame on us for the period of time that has passed since we last updated this diary! However... we do have a satisfying explanation: on December 24, 20.50 p.m. (Christmas Eve), we have been blessed with the birth of a human puppy in our midst. Our warm pack has been expanded with Luna Francesca Schoemacher, a beautiful and very healthy baby girl.

As a result of the pregnancy Mascha understandably could not be as actively involved in the first few couple of months of the new training season as she would have wanted. That is to say, until two weeks before the delivery she did accompany the team on her bike for about 10 kilometers. Furthermore she supports Edmond as much as she can (also after Luna's birth) as a 'dog handler': putting on harnasses, getting the team ready, serving fish-flavored water after the training, etc.

Despite the mostly bad weather conditions during last autumn and the present winter time (warm, wet and muddy), Edmond has been training our - with the addition of Duchess and Dynamite - 6 Malamutes counting team with great dedication, persistence and joy. For that purpose we purchased a second-hand quad last year to be able to develop the dogs' body masses and, especially when Edmond is working the team on his own, to safely step off the vehicle for whatever reason (not having to fear the dogs take off without their musher... ;-)

The result up until now has been that the dogs have satisfactory built up their working discipline and learned to dose their strenghts: instead of galloping 25 km/h during the start after which they slowed down to not even 10 km/h during the middle part of a tour, they developed a nice trot which the team is able to keep for almost the whole stretch, with an average of somewhere between 12 and 16 km/h.

That efficiency and working attitude is crucial for the plans we have made: mid February Edmond and the Mals leave for Sweden for 6 weeks to enjoy a seemingly endless snow landscape (by the way, this will be the first holiday lasting longer than a week in over 7 years...). They can start directly from the holiday home we rented, choosing any direction and tour length they please by using the vast network of snowscooter trails.

Mascha and Luna will join them for two or three weeks (travelling by airplane and train or coach) in March and Koen, a dear friend of ours, will also come over to stay with us for a week. During that period we will watch the start of the Polardistance race (Edmond's longterm goal is to run that race himself in 2008, when Snow and Engine are old enough to participate).

Contrary to the last half year, we solemnly promiss to keep you up to date about the upcoming events in this diary and upload pictures from our time in Sweden in the gallery!