Furry Faces of the T200

Most of the fun of going to the races is in seeing the sled dogs themselves. We love dogs and enjoy seeing the variety of color and temperament as they wait - patiently sometimes, not so patiently other times - to do what they were born to do: run.

This year, the weather was so cold that the transport trucks were parked close together and hard to get near due to the plowed snow berms, and the dogs were kept longer in their rigs for warmth. That made it harder to get good pictures of the teams. Once they were brought out, given a snack, bootied and harnessed, they were ready for the challenge ahead. Here's one of DeeDee Jonrowe's dogs, waiting for his booties.
And another of DeeDee's dogs. Legend has it that blue-eyed dogs can see the wind.
These dogs are certainly ready to hit the trail.... but one is readier than the others!
Such beautiful blue eyes in that serious face.
Aren't they lovely?
A handler calms and holds two lead dogs waiting in the chute.
A pair of swing dogs in the chute:
Two lead dogs in their jackets are ready to get this show on the road at last.
A pretty smile from a lead dog:
This team is being moved into the chute. The snow machine behind the sled anchors the team so that they don't have a false start. A determined team can move a parked car if they want to.
I think this dog is the most gorgeous one in the whole race. I could look at this picture for hours.
Yes, I do love the dogs. How could I not?

2012 Tustumena 200

Winter can be long and boring in Alaska, if you let it. Fortunately, Alaskans know this, and once the excitement of Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year's are behind them, the real entertainment can begin... Starting in January, with the Tustumena 200 sled dog race.

Jim and I go to the start of the T200 every year. Nothing gives us quite the same appreciation for Moya's quiet times as watching hundreds of other sprint dogs leaping in their harnesses, ready to run.

The T200 is a 200-mile race from Kasilof to Homer and back again. Mushers interested in running the Iditarod can use these 200 miles as part of their qualifying miles, so there are often big-name mushers competing. This year, we saw Iditarod favorites Jeff King:

And DeeDee Jonrowe. Here, DeeDee is booty-ing her dogs before putting them in harness.

DeeDee walks her own dogs to the starting line. Many volunteers help the mushers with the dogs, but the mushers are all very hands-on and care for their dogs themselves as much as they can.

These handlers are helping DeeDee hold her sled back so that there won't be a false start. Other handlers hold the dogs.

And away DeeDee goes! Unfortunately, this year one of DeeDee's dogs got loose and ran several miles alone, back toward the starting line, before being caught and returned to DeeDee, who scratched out of the race at that point.

We didn't catch the names of all the mushers. It was very, very cold that morning, and it was hard to hear the emcees through all our bundling, even though we were only feet away from the speakers.

Here are some of the mushers, on their sleds, headed to Homer:

Handlers hold the sled back while the guy on the right counts down until release of the dogs:

It's fun to people-watch the other die-hard fans who came out in the cold to watch the races. This woman's fur sunburst ruff is incredible!

Many volunteers who'd been at the trailhead all morning were covered in frost by start time. This guy's hat, beard and mustache are all frosty.

So are his:

And, to a lesser extent, so are we. Jim's got frost buildup on his facial hair, and I had it in my bangs and my coat collar.

In spite of the cold, we stayed to watch all sixteen mushers leave the starting line. We don't go back to see the finish, though, because it will take hours for all the teams to return the next day.

Congratulations to Cym Smith, who finished the race in 22 hours 26 minutes to take the purse, Jeff King in second place, and Dan Kaduce in third place. (Photo of Cym from the T200 Facebook album.)

Can't wait to see the race again next year!

Live Farm Animals Do Not Understand Portrait Sessions

Molly is my favorite of our three goats. I technically own two of the three, one that I bartered for for my birthday, and Molly, who was an early Christmas gift from Jim. Since Molly is nice and portable, and (as far as goats are concerned) is cuddly, I wanted my picture taken with her wearing a nice red bow for Christmas Eve. And we got two really good shots. So cute.

But in the meantime, we got these shots:

Tiny goats can be very loud when they want to be. And crying goats look really weird.

"Oh hi, Mom. Got any more animal crackers?"

"I think we're both done here. Have James hold me."

"Oh hi, James. Got any more animal crackers?"

"Is that... Is that mustache wax?"

"Okay, fine, I think I have about 5 more seconds of 'cute' left in me. Get a move on before I start squirming again."

"Hmmmmmmm.........."

"I can manage a sweet face for Dad, since he usually slips me animal crackers when Mom's not around."
"But now I'm done. Take me home."

Holiday Portrait Outtakes

It had been a couple of years since we took a photo of all three of us at Christmastime, and we decided to do that on Christmas Eve, when we would be taking photos of me with my Christmas goat anyway. It was a fairly nice day that warmed up to -2 degrees by the time we trooped out to the front yard, sans coats and hats, for our photo.

D'aaaaaawwww. How cute are we?!?!

But then... I got this great and dastardly idea. When the blinky light on the camera stops blinking, that means the photo is about to be taken. So I waited until the light stopped blinking and pushed my unsuspecting husband into the snowbank. I almost made it back into "innocent" position before the shutter released.

Then JAMES got a dastardly idea of his own. "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You pushed my father. Prepare to freeze." Okay, that's probably not how it worked out in his mind, but I got a snowball to the back of my neck.

This is something that cannot go unpunished, so I tried to push James into the snowbank, too, but alas, he was prepared for it.

Best. Holiday. Portrait. Session. EVER.

Merry Christmas to all...

For most of our friends and family, it's Christmas day already, but for us here in Alaska, we have a couple more hours to go yet on Christmas Eve. It's been a lovely day, and has been a lovely year as well.

So much has happened, and I apologize that I'm very, very far behind on the blog. But for now, let me sum up:

* James is a senior at Grove City College and he will graduate in May with a degree in Economics. We are extremely proud of him, and he deserves nothing less.

* Jim has built a two-storey garage. He had some help but he did the bulk of the work alone. The bottom floor is for the cars and woodworking tools, and the top floor is the future home of Smiling Otter Studio. He's also built a barn and yard for the goats.

* We have goats. There are three of them; a registered Alpine, a registered Nigerian dwarf, and a kiko/boer cross who, despite her mottled heritage, is most definitely the herd queen.

* As for me, I've kept busy sewing, taught a few classes, and have enjoyed many of the new changes in our lives. Which, given that I'm the most change-averse person on the planet, is saying a lot.

* We even managed to take a holiday portrait this year! Yes, we did! Here we are, out in the front yard in negative-degree temperatures without coats, hats or longies, having a good old time indeed.

And this is Molly the dwarf Nigerian goat, my (quite) early Christmas present that I've had since November. I wanted Jim to wrap her anyway. ;^)

To all of you from each of us, we wish you a sincerely merry Christmas and a splendid New Year. We wish you a personal relationship with our Savior Jesus, whether it be new or renewed. Go forth and conquer your dreams, hold fast the ones who are dear to you, and find the joy in even the small things - perhaps especially the small things.

Love,

Deanna, Jim and James

Summertime Revisit Part 1: Kenai Rotary's Soapbox Derby

We've learned that there are a lot of interesting things to do here, but it seems everybody expects everybody else to already know about them. It's not unusual for us to find out about something on the morning of the event, and have to make a snap decision about whether or not to try to go. The Kenai Rotary Club's Soapbox Derby was one of those things.

It was a lovely day waaay back on May 21. Jim and I decided to make a day of it by visiting the classic car show at Home Depot, visiting the Kenai Saturday Market, and watching the Soapbox Derby. Unfortunately for us, the car show and the derby were at the same time, but fortunately for us, the derby was getting a late start, so we saw about 1/3 of the cars that would eventually show up for the car show before coming back to watch the derby.

Most of the derby cars had professional paint jobs, and some of them included sponsor artwork, just like real race cars. Too bad I didn't get pictures of them all. There were a lot of cars; probably close to thirty. Some of them were dead serious about racing:

And some simply wanted to have fun:

Here's the launch ramp with two derby cars being loaded onto it. Throwing the switch in the middle lowers the stop between the rails and lets both cars start at the same time.

The racers are in their cars and ready to launch!

Jim and I found a nice place to sit, just past the bend in the road from the launch ramp. We were about 1/3 of the way down the road. You can just barely see the finish line in this video:

Because the derby was held on the road to a popular beach in Kenai, and the road was not closed for the derby, it took a long time to get everything set up and going. The volunteers would work a bit and racers would take a test run, then the traffic coordinators at either end of the road would clear the street and let the real cars come and go from the beach. Then they'd close the road again and the derby racers would take another turn. Due to the frequent stoppages to let real cars use the road, the race took a looong time, and we left before seeing the end. We had fun watching what we did see, though! Zoooooooooom!