Aspen, the Mushing Team, and the Flu

OK, so I have lots to catch up on so this will be a long one. A few asked about our Wordless Wednesday photo. That's Aspen. The photo was taken several years ago when I could still drive a sled. I think few things are better than a bright winter afternoon, a dog team, a picnic lunch, good friends and a bottle of wine (there are some funny but humiliating stories about those adventures too but they are for another day...). On that particular day we were out in Northern Ontario having a great time. Aspen was slowing down though and didn't seem in the mood to run. Knowing that Aspen had seizures, I decided not to push him if he didn't seem interested in running. So, I put him in the basket and rigged his harness to it so he couldn't decide with Siberian ingenuity that it was time to take a run and leave Mom to chase. Aspen being the quiet, patient soul he was simply curled up and slept until lunch when he woke up for some foodables and then went back to sleep when we started out again. Below are some photos I took while driving the sled that day. Sadly, all of the dogs in these photos have now crossed the bridge and earned their silver harnesses. If you have never read Andre De Merchant's story of the silver harness, I would strongly encourage you to take a look - it's quite the piece.




My favourite is the one where Reilly decided to drive the sled while I had some lunch. Unfortunately, no one told her I had very firmly anchored the sled and Maverick and Gus had no intentions of going anywhere she wanted to go bol In wheel are Maverick and Aspen, centre are Reilly and Trinity, and in lead are Gus (a rescued Alaskan Husky who came to live with us after a sledding operation went under) and a friends old lead dog.

I'm behind in posting, mainly because I've been fighting the flu for several days. I admit, when I'm sick all I really want to do is lie in bed and play dead. Surprisingly the dogs, who normally cannot possibly get enough exercise and make your average tornado look lazy, invariably choose to curl up around (and on) me at such times and play dead too for hours on end. Even the younger ones will decide it is better to sleep with Mom then to wreak havoc on the house while she sleeps. Sadly, this is not the normal state of things and when mom is well, everyone is willing to wreak havoc while she tries to get anything and everything done .