WOW. I can’t believe September has flown by so quickly! It’s been a mild month with a handful of hard frosts and mostly sunny, pleasant days. I keep putting off computer work for a rainy day, but there really haven’t been too many! (Hence the fewer blog posts).

So what is it that we do every day? Currently there are 37 dogs in harness ranging from yearlings on up to Fire, who is now ten years old. Since we’re not running particularly far, everyone has been on the same training schedule of two days on, one day off. Perm, Fish, and Boone are the only three adults not currently in training. If you recall from last season, all three of them developed back leg tendon issues. Because tendons take longer to heal, their training has been mostly free running and building up muscle. We’ll start gradually working them back into the rotation in a month or so.

Every morning, we take out two 12-dog teams, rotating between all the athletes. While two of us are running the teams, another Ryno Kennel trainer waters the yard and feeds and walks the reindeer. The morning chores last from about 7:30 until 10:00 in the morning. After running the teams, we typically sit down for coffee and breakfast, then head outside again for project work. Recently, we’ve been installing new pens, setting posts, building a yurt, hooking up our battery bank, and a long, long list of other fall projects. While we dream of cold weather and snow, we also need just a couple more weeks of warmer weather to try and crank out all the projects! Most of this work is for our new expansion of the Last Frontier Mushing Co-op. Over the summer, we were hired to design a new tourism destination just a couple miles from the kennel, so we’ve been busy planning our future summer tours! The company is called Chena Outdoor Collective- check it out! (https://www.chenaoutdoorco.com/)

Our house just two years ago on September 9th.

With all the projects on our plate, I oftentimes feel like we’re not working fast enough. The house is still a work in process. I’d like to build some big puppy pens. The driveway is an adventure all in itself. And the list goes on, and on, and on. And then, as I was scrolling through photos of the past week to include in the blog post, the adjacent photo popped up. It’s a photo of our house logs being delivered on a truck. Just two years ago, the cabin in which I currently sit (that now has off-grid electricity, running water, wood stove, kitchen, bathroom) was literally a pile of logs on a truck. There was no dog yard yet. Stormy cabin wasn’t built. Lakefront cabin was at our old house. So maybe, we are moving along at a fast enough pace.

I introduced these two cuties on social media but have failed to introduce them on the website! Meet the two newest members of Ryno Kennel- Sherlock and Watson! These two are from our friend Jen Lebar in Healy. Jen has Jana’s sister, Tucker. Tucker had a big litter of 7 this summer, and Jen generously allowed two to join RK. Watson is probably the cuddliest puppy I’ve ever met, whereas Sherlock is a hellion, but in a good way.