*Note, this post may contain some language offensive to some, nothing too out of the ordinary, maybe even mirth producing, but not fit for general consumption.
An update on the happenings of the life of a dogsledder, er… not quite a dogsledder.
For all the hype and photos I’ve gotten my four eyes on the UP surprisingly lacks snow, just some detritus being scratched out of a heavenly scalp so far. I will now stare up agape at the gray sky, in an open letter to weather deity sucking in biting cold air and cry, “a little help please”?
Aside from the lack of white stuff our training is going well, perhaps a blessing in disguise. We’ve been able to train much longer via four wheeler and now via Rhino. The Rhino, which its isn’t officially called, something about copywrite infringement, is a newly minted Chinese knock off, a two seated machine with small truck bed in back. Actually, the thing first got into Jim’s hands with “Big Muddy” emblazoned in several places across its red skin, he promptly scrubbed them off since he’s about forty years removed from being a teenage boy. Even with its identity stripped from it, the machine is still full of character, mainly by not being reliable. The list of things having gone wrong on the machine in the past six months since it was bought: four wheel drive case, the alternator, some wiring relays, and so on. A sample dialogue of Jim and I concerning the machine:
Me: I can’t get the thing started again, it was running fine, and I loaded a bedfull of wood and now it won’t start.
Jim: Hmm, well, that piece of shit, if you had seen those two hillbillies that assembled it, then you’d know what I’m talking about. I mean, it was a family outfit, ran out of a garage, or something. You wouldn’t believe it, missing teeth, beer cans, the whole nine yards. I can’t wait to haul the fucking thing back to Cincinatti and have them deal with it… have you tried hitting it?
Me: No….
Jim: Give ‘er a try
Me: (Grunting as I hit the offensive part on the machine). Presto! (it awakens from its mechanical torpor)
Jim: That’s my favorite way of fixing things (he then explains the merits hitting electrical relays. I nod because I know nothing on the subject, but enjoy learning)
Given its reputation for reliability, and the lone plastic badge still on the hood with “BM” on it, I say its name is pretty clear, to me it is simply “the BM”, or to put it more plainly, “the piece of shit”. Despite my best efforts the moniker hasn’t really caught on though, and the everpresent question spilling from Jim’s lips is, “What should we call this thing?” “Rhino…yes, Rhino, I should write it somewhere on it so I remember it” I keep expecting him to attack it, armed with a sharpie, but until he does, it’s still the BM to me.
The whole point of what I’ve written is, we’ve now started taking the Rhino/BM out on our now nightly runs. Given the extra weight, I attach 16 coworkers to the line and we thunder out of camp with decibels that compete with a preschool (plus the occasional poop, and fight). Altogether by my own eyeballing, our motley crew is nearly as long as a semi, or maybe a small moving truck. Likewise, the handling is dull and you need to be methodical when turning. Some dogs depend on the sense of touch, feeling the bank on the trail in dim light, and might turn erratically into the woods accidentally sending your outfit off the trail into a snarling mess. Thus far I have been able to avoid large canine tangles. The dogs curiously don’t enjoy doggie piles. So, many more things to worry about, and I haven’t quite got the hang of it yet. Often I work up a cooling then freezing nervous dampness despite sitting.
So until the weather (or shall I say, Lake Superior) decides its time to get it in gear we’ll continue to watch sunsets in the BM, provided it continues to run. Hopefully it starts dumping, I’m eager to switch gears and hit the sled.
Goodday.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
the upper peninsula,a dreamy place.
there are so many thoughts i've gathered up the last week or so since my adventure began, so hopefully i can remember most of them.
after driving over the bridge plus a couple of hours into the wooded womb of the UP i arrived after a six hour drive just in time for night time feeding. it was a little overwhelming being bathed in sleddogging by being roughed up by 30 dogs jumping on me as they clamored for food. perhaps this would have been a good time to tell jim, my boss i had never owned a dog in my life. i chose to hold my tongue though.
jim, is possibily one of my favorite people i've ever met. as i described him to people before meeting him as, "a gruff man with a heart of gold". and after spending several days with him i can proudly say i was spot on with my assessment. his personality is something akin to your favorite uncle, you know, the one everyone loves. he turns off the hot water when you're showering, gives you a beer before the afternoon, and liberally tosses in happy sounding cuss words as he talks to his dogs. his reputation as a well respected dog musher precedes him, and everyone i've talked to loves the guy. most often than not he finds a way to work in an iditorod or yukon quest story, which i find endlessly fascinating. most of all, though, he is one of the most patient people i've met. i was not the most qualified person for the job given. i lack most of the skills needed to make a smooth transition to the work. i hope master a whole raft of new skills after this winter, knowing how to stack bags of dog food, driving a cargo trunk laden with dogs while pulling a trailer, and making 30 little friends.
aside from running around with uncle jim things have been busy here. this weekend was the "rig session". a rig session is when numerous teams of dogs come in at the beginning of the season to practice passing other dog teams, something that will become more vital when race season comes around. each team arrives with a big truck with dog boxes to transport their team, an atv, to help run the dogs, and usually a couple of handlers to help take the dogs on and off the lines. each team runs the dogs rigged up in a similar fashion usually in teams of 11 up to 16 and the lines are attached to an atv and the dogs take off pulling the machine in a weight training fashion. another big reason for the get together is its a central place to get cheaper rabies vaccinations. which leads me one of my favorite gems so far.
a slight diversion from the rig session. i should add my first little UP lesson here. even more than lower michigan, or other rural places i've lived (tennessee for that matter) people up here enjoy drinking really cheap beer while doing manual labor.
by the time late saturday afternoon rolled around at camp ozone there where about 100 dogs and 30 people populating camp either waiting for the vet to come or were preparing to run their dogs. rick arrived about three and promptly started preparing to stick the 80 or so dogs that where up for their boosters. i have never seen someone so speedy and nimble administering shots, he seemed to have it all down to a single motion. i followed the vet as he made his rounds through our kennel noticing he was carrying something brown in his hand that he would periodically hand to a person beside him and then administer a shot before having it handed back to him. only when i came closer did i realize rick was doing all of the shots while sipping back on a michelob light!
other highlights i may write about in the future (i'm currently alone here with animals until friday include):
going to a dog mushing potluck following the rig session (savory characters)
riding shotgun with uncle jim while having a dog team pull us on an four wheeler
my apartment, attached to the barnspace
my dislike of horses, which unfortunately live next door
poop scooping: a primer on dog nutrition
wheeled machine culture
as of right now, since its only my second week of work and i'm alone, my only tasks will be daily feeding and atv exploring!
ps. jim owns two indoor house cats!
there are so many thoughts i've gathered up the last week or so since my adventure began, so hopefully i can remember most of them.
after driving over the bridge plus a couple of hours into the wooded womb of the UP i arrived after a six hour drive just in time for night time feeding. it was a little overwhelming being bathed in sleddogging by being roughed up by 30 dogs jumping on me as they clamored for food. perhaps this would have been a good time to tell jim, my boss i had never owned a dog in my life. i chose to hold my tongue though.
jim, is possibily one of my favorite people i've ever met. as i described him to people before meeting him as, "a gruff man with a heart of gold". and after spending several days with him i can proudly say i was spot on with my assessment. his personality is something akin to your favorite uncle, you know, the one everyone loves. he turns off the hot water when you're showering, gives you a beer before the afternoon, and liberally tosses in happy sounding cuss words as he talks to his dogs. his reputation as a well respected dog musher precedes him, and everyone i've talked to loves the guy. most often than not he finds a way to work in an iditorod or yukon quest story, which i find endlessly fascinating. most of all, though, he is one of the most patient people i've met. i was not the most qualified person for the job given. i lack most of the skills needed to make a smooth transition to the work. i hope master a whole raft of new skills after this winter, knowing how to stack bags of dog food, driving a cargo trunk laden with dogs while pulling a trailer, and making 30 little friends.
aside from running around with uncle jim things have been busy here. this weekend was the "rig session". a rig session is when numerous teams of dogs come in at the beginning of the season to practice passing other dog teams, something that will become more vital when race season comes around. each team arrives with a big truck with dog boxes to transport their team, an atv, to help run the dogs, and usually a couple of handlers to help take the dogs on and off the lines. each team runs the dogs rigged up in a similar fashion usually in teams of 11 up to 16 and the lines are attached to an atv and the dogs take off pulling the machine in a weight training fashion. another big reason for the get together is its a central place to get cheaper rabies vaccinations. which leads me one of my favorite gems so far.
a slight diversion from the rig session. i should add my first little UP lesson here. even more than lower michigan, or other rural places i've lived (tennessee for that matter) people up here enjoy drinking really cheap beer while doing manual labor.
by the time late saturday afternoon rolled around at camp ozone there where about 100 dogs and 30 people populating camp either waiting for the vet to come or were preparing to run their dogs. rick arrived about three and promptly started preparing to stick the 80 or so dogs that where up for their boosters. i have never seen someone so speedy and nimble administering shots, he seemed to have it all down to a single motion. i followed the vet as he made his rounds through our kennel noticing he was carrying something brown in his hand that he would periodically hand to a person beside him and then administer a shot before having it handed back to him. only when i came closer did i realize rick was doing all of the shots while sipping back on a michelob light!
other highlights i may write about in the future (i'm currently alone here with animals until friday include):
going to a dog mushing potluck following the rig session (savory characters)
riding shotgun with uncle jim while having a dog team pull us on an four wheeler
my apartment, attached to the barnspace
my dislike of horses, which unfortunately live next door
poop scooping: a primer on dog nutrition
wheeled machine culture
as of right now, since its only my second week of work and i'm alone, my only tasks will be daily feeding and atv exploring!
ps. jim owns two indoor house cats!
Thursday, June 11, 2009
the biannual move
things in my life are actually right along these days. last week i was offered and accepted a job at a place called the cottonwood gulch institute, a place in NM that does expeditions with midschool and highschool aged kids. thankfully my responsibilities will not include trekking with them, because i'm pretty sure i'd get sick of that. as the museum naturalist at the gulch i'll be preparing ecology lessons and managing the herbarium collection on the camp premises. i think the sealer for me to accept this position was the idea of spending summer in a cabin/shack without electricity.
accepting a job is good for a variety of ways. i think one of the main reasons i've been so bad at updating this thing is because there was often nothing to report these last couple of months. i basically sat in boulder waiting for something to happen, a bit too much sitting for my liking. other than this being prolly one of my dream jobs the gulch is only about half an hour from home! this means i can actually pop in on my parents, something i haven't been able to do since i haven't lived at home since the summer after my freshman year at calvin. new opportunities are abound. i'm also going to relish the idea of having a time to decompress and think about the last couple of months, which, for the majority of them, were not that fun. the renewal of purpose other than being able to have pointless conversations with those who could bear it about CSPAN is exciting.
at the same time i now realise that i'm fulfilling the product of the last yearish of my life or so: the sixth month move. i don't know why, but it always seems that i'm not able to make myself stick around for much longer than six months in a single place. i'm not exactly sure if this transient lifestyle is the best way to build longlasting relationships with other people.
on the plus side, i am getting better at moving, although part of the reason i'm updating this thing is to avoid the duldrums of sorting, but i guess it has to be done.
i may go blog crazy for the next couple of days before entering my no electricity based sabbatical.
accepting a job is good for a variety of ways. i think one of the main reasons i've been so bad at updating this thing is because there was often nothing to report these last couple of months. i basically sat in boulder waiting for something to happen, a bit too much sitting for my liking. other than this being prolly one of my dream jobs the gulch is only about half an hour from home! this means i can actually pop in on my parents, something i haven't been able to do since i haven't lived at home since the summer after my freshman year at calvin. new opportunities are abound. i'm also going to relish the idea of having a time to decompress and think about the last couple of months, which, for the majority of them, were not that fun. the renewal of purpose other than being able to have pointless conversations with those who could bear it about CSPAN is exciting.
at the same time i now realise that i'm fulfilling the product of the last yearish of my life or so: the sixth month move. i don't know why, but it always seems that i'm not able to make myself stick around for much longer than six months in a single place. i'm not exactly sure if this transient lifestyle is the best way to build longlasting relationships with other people.
on the plus side, i am getting better at moving, although part of the reason i'm updating this thing is to avoid the duldrums of sorting, but i guess it has to be done.
i may go blog crazy for the next couple of days before entering my no electricity based sabbatical.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Thursday, March 26, 2009
sleep is fleeting
i could pitter patter my way across the keyboard of the leads i'm chasing down, people i'm meeting, and sun i'm enjoying, all noted with some trepidation as i start to wonder why i moved here to colorado. unfortunately, my questions don't seem to be much different than what many are confronting these days.
living in uncertain times agitates and seemingly grants upheaval to lives in many unexpected ways. yesterday, i read an article in the ny times about the appearance of tent cities out incalifornia
not to say my situation without a job is dire, i have friends and family that have been more than accommodating towards me the last couple of months, but the article struck a chord with me. there is a messy sort of beauty when reading about people taking hold of their circumstances, not in a "bootstraps" sort of way, but rather, refusing to quit and doing it with a smile. during all of this its been hard not to get caught up in the mire, asking questions and finding little answers. i suppose this is what life is all about though, learning to live with what you have, and finding joy in the process. questions are just that, questions. some beguile away from real concerns of happiness.
i'm not sure how much content my musings actually have, and perhaps i'll add more later, but i think sleep is taking hold as i watch a fresh blanket of snow deposit the ground. wonder and comfort, just the thing needed happily drift back to dreams.
living in uncertain times agitates and seemingly grants upheaval to lives in many unexpected ways. yesterday, i read an article in the ny times about the appearance of tent cities out in
not to say my situation without a job is dire, i have friends and family that have been more than accommodating towards me the last couple of months, but the article struck a chord with me. there is a messy sort of beauty when reading about people taking hold of their circumstances, not in a "bootstraps" sort of way, but rather, refusing to quit and doing it with a smile. during all of this its been hard not to get caught up in the mire, asking questions and finding little answers. i suppose this is what life is all about though, learning to live with what you have, and finding joy in the process. questions are just that, questions. some beguile away from real concerns of happiness.
i'm not sure how much content my musings actually have, and perhaps i'll add more later, but i think sleep is taking hold as i watch a fresh blanket of snow deposit the ground. wonder and comfort, just the thing needed happily drift back to dreams.
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