CHAROITE SIBERIANS

Spring is here with a flowery, lamby and (today definitely) sunshiney vengeance and this feels like a good time to restart our diary !

The last update was October. Everyone hates blogs that are fevered activity one minute then word droughts the next. This has been one of those, I’m afraid. Looking at the last update, Raven’s puppies were tiny mole-like bundles. They are now spectacularly gorgeous (ok, I’m biased, bite me), seven month old rookie sled dogs so that says something ! Yup, we’ve been a bit overly busy. Don’t worry, it’s not just the website that’s neglected. My drive looks like Onslow’s front garden and the house would need the combined genius of every extreme TV makeover show to make it look remotely civilised. So what’s been keeping me from doing anything the whatever % of the population who don’t have multiple dogs would define as useful ? Aside from my fabulous job, a brief foray into the festive season and two weddings, it’s all been largely husky-related. On that note I should add that if you’ve landed on Planet Charoite through a random link and you don’t do dog, then it’s sorry, folks, there’s nothing to see here.

We’ve raced A LOT this season. The race team dogs are young, loving life and I haven’t wanted to miss a minute of getting out and exploring some fantastic trails with them. As training requires a two-and-a-half hour round trip to the forest, driving a bit (sometimes a lot) further to enjoy some where different and spend a couple of days in good company makes a lot of sense to me. So home has been somewhere for weekdays and the van has been my weekend central. Winter officially came to a halt in March when we headed over to Dyfnant in Mid Wales for the last SHCGB rally of the season having clocked up something like 14 race weekends and many (I-hate-to-think-how-many) miles on the clock.

I’ve spent the last few weeks feeling pretty drained with assorted colds, stomach bugs and a knackered knee that feels on a bad day like two pieces of leg stuck together without any cushioning between. This is probably the health overdraft to shadow the dog musher’s annual post winter financial overdraft. Still, the sun is out now and while the bank account is far from healthy, I’m starting to feel a lot better at least !

I almost felt my first hedgehog rant of the year coming on the other day. I’m sure I can use the coming summer months to bore anyone who strays onto the site nicely with the fur-strewn minutiae of life with (as my big brother puts it) a whole herd of huskies. There are also some articles that I really want to write as a few things have happened to me over the past months that might be educational to share. Or just plain therapeutic (and doG knows I need therapy).

Talk to you soon.