November 29, 2007 

heelbarrows are impossible in the snow up here and I do not like carrying bag by bag by bag of feed through the snow up to the barns and risking a fall (which I have done once already this month and ended up under a feedbag). I don't have a tractor or anything, so my power to help me around here is the dogs. I usually hitch up 1-6 dogs to help me with what I need to do. Each of my little sled dogs can pull about 160# across flat snow all day long. This is what they have been bred to do for generations. 

Yesterday I decided to try out "Cyrus" again as he is my largest and youngest dog and I need him to learn to pull for various reasons even though he is not a sled dog. He is Great Pryenese and German Shepherd. But you can teach any dog to pull. 

Picture Above: "Cyrus" looking sad as I was telling him to "sit-stay" and he wanted to go

Yesterday on his first real pull, he took 150 pounds of grain up to the barns for me all at once. And on the way down he brought me down 2-3 days of wood for the woodstove (and we only lost 2 pieces). Then we went back up with water. I was happy and he was happy I was happy with him. Silly bouncing doggie. 

I am going to be short on wood in the woodshed by March and I know there is a whole lot already cut up in the back 40. So the next time I have a break and it is daylight, I will run a team of 3-4 out to help me bring it in. I can get about 40 pieces on my sled at a time. I may even be able to put the toboggan behind my sled and pull 2 loads in at a time. It has been averaging -11C/12.2 F at night now and the woodstove is my only heat here. 

I like working with animal power. I do have a harness for my horse, but she is unpredictable at the best of times. My calf is not large enough to work for me yet as an ox, but pound for pound, the dogs are a very good idea for alot of people who can't keep larger animals. When I run 6 dogs this winter, they can pull 960 pounds. With me, my gear, dogfood and the weight of the sled, they are actually pulling around 300 pounds only, which is about each dog only having to pull 50 pounds each. 

Cinnamon Bear Episode 4: Captured by Ruthless Ink Blotters
Judy, Jimmy, and Paddy are captured by strange creatures called Inkaboos as Crazy Quilt escapes by jumping into the Root Bear Ocean. The twins and Paddy are taken to a vat of ink and threatened with immediate execution.