Feeding the Dogs

We feed the dogs twice each day. There are 36 full-grown dogs and 12 puppies (2 litters that are about 5 months old). We usually feed them at around 8am, and around 6pm…..though if we go on runs with them sometimes the time changes.

The dogs get a mixture of Redpaw Kibble, raw beef (10lbs per feeding), fat, and a variety of powders to help them digest the raw meat and keep their bones strong. Ken is sponsored by Redpaw which means he gets all the kibble for free. You can see all the silver bags of kibble in the picture that shows the food tank. We use one bag of kibble during each feeding (40lb bag). The food tank is where we mix up the food, and store it to keep it from freezing. There is a meat saw that we use to cut up the raw meat. It’s broken at the moment so we’ve just been using an ax to chop up the meat (probably less dangerous for fingers!). It’s quite a process – a little different than what most people give there pet dogs. You get strong arms carrying around the food too.

Photos from Sheep Mountain

More Photos from the Sheep Mountain Race

Sheep Mountain Race

We went to our first race last weekend. The race was the Sheep Mountain 150. There were three legs of 50 miles. After the first 50 miles there was a 5-hour mandatory rest where the mushers could sleep and the dogs got feed and rested. Then there was another 50-mile section, followed by another 5-hour rest. The last 50 miles finished off the race. It was really fun to see how the races are run, and meet lots of different mushers. There were a lot of really cute dogs!

One evening Megan and I were playing cribbage and Jeff King came and sat down to talk with us. Jeff King is a pretty famous musher (he has won first place in 4 Iditarod races), and he was racing in Sheep Mountain. Basically the conversation consisted of him making fun of me because I was having some trouble with the simple addition required in cribbage. Pretty funny. Other than that, the race was quite uneventful…..a good thing. At one point I had to back up his huge trailer (see pictures) and I was very happy to back it up without much trouble. Driving his diesel manual truck with that trailer is a little nerve-racking.

More photos of the Kennel

On the left is a photo of the puppies out on their run. There is beautiful wilderness all around the kennel. The photo on the right is the long distance team (16 dogs) all harnessed up and ready to go out for a run. The dogs are still running in front of 4 wheelers until we have enough snow to run the sleds. This photo was taken before a 13 hour run we did a few days ago. It was 30 below, and I don't think I've ever been that cold in my life. We got back at around 2:30 am, after quite a wild ride. We pulled a sled behind the 4 wheeler so Megan and I could practice controlling the sled. While you can stop the dogs easily with a 4 wheeler, once we start using sleds there is much less control. We went about 5 hours out on the run before letting the dogs eat and rest for 2 hours. Then we came back. The last Photo is another attempt at a family portrait with the dogs that live with us in our little cabin.

Windy Creek Kennel: Fox, Alaska

I’ve been in Alaska one week today, and I’ve already been lucky enough to experience 30 below weather. Megan picked me up from the airport last week, and we’ve been working away ever since. Megan has already been here for 6 weeks, so she has been showing me the day-to-day routine and life here at Windy Creek Kennel. We’re about 30 min outside of Fairbanks.

Above is a picture of the dog yard, the main house, and our cabin (on the right). The cabin has a main floor with a small kitchen, wood stove (we have all wood heat), a table, and a couch (usually taken by 2 to 3 dogs). We have 5 dogs that live with us. most of them retired race dogs. There is a loft where we sleep. There is no running water, so we use an outhouse and the snow as a bathroom. There is a refrigerator, and a stove for cooking!

This picture shows the rest of the dog yard. The female dogs are kept in a separate yard with a fence around them. There are two litters of puppies who have their own fenced in areas. There is a litter of 7 that is 6 months old, and a litter of 5 that are 4 months old. These puppies don’t pull yet, so we just take them on walks around the area.

This is what happened when we tried to take a family portrait……we are missing two dogs in and all the dogs were very confused.

Aren't you Afraid?

Aren’t you afraid? It’s a question most all of my friends, family and new acquaintances ask when they find out I’m living in Arivaca. They ask if I’m afraid to be alone, or of migrants or drug traffickers. They ask if I’m afraid of snakes, or of being far from a city and the luxuries of city life, or of not having a TV.

No I’m not afraid of being alone in rural Arizona in the desert. Nor of migrants or drug traffickers. I don’t mind snakes or being far from the city or not having a TV.

But yes, I’m afraid.

For our country, my people, and all those who try to come here. I’m afraid for them to feel the fear I experience driving with more border patrol cars than any other vehicles on the road some evenings. Afraid for a country whose government workers (border patrol) won’t let me give food and water to migrants they are apprehending or holding on buses, but instead put their hands on their guns when I approach. So yes, to answer the question, I am afraid. Not of being alone, but rather of being all to well “protected”.

Rocky and The Grasshoppers

I had only ever seen Arivaca from a car or on foot, until Rocky came along. My neighbors Danny and Sunny let me ride their horse Rocky. Sunny taught me how to ride in their pastures, and by the end of my time in Arivaca Sunny and I went on a couple longer rides through the desert. For all the Minnesotans, I think running through sandy washes in the desert on horseback is a bit like skinny dipping in july in the boundary waters. Calming and relaxing, but also refreshing and exhilarating.

This is a picture of a sunflower with the Baboquivari peak in the background. Baboquivari is the sacred mountain of the Tohono O’odham. This is before the time of the grasshoppers. They swept in and destroyed just like was described in the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. There was no saving anything that had leaves. They even made an effort at the Jade and Aloe Vera plants with their thick leaves. -- Berit

Encounters with G4S Drivers

My encounters with two bus drivers of G4S, the private company that Border Patrol contracts to transport migrants from the desert to Tucson, to prison, and from prison to Mexico. Most every time I pass the buses I stop to offer food and water to the migrants on the bus.

Bus Driver 1:

I wonder if he believed what he said referring to the Mexican and Central American migrants that he drives as “Indians” or if he was just trying to upset me. I wonder where he got his sense of power, waving me away without looking me in the eye. I wonder where he lost his sense of compassion, saying the migrants would be so hungry that they would eat any food I gave them even if they were allergic to it. I wonder if he spoke Spanish, or even knew the reasons that people filled his bus.

Bus Driver 2:

I wonder how it felt for him to actively assist his own people being transported to prison. I wonder what it is like for him, being from Nogales Mexico, where many of those migrants who sat on his bus had crossed into the United States. There is little doubt he had experienced police stopping him on the street in Tucson when he was out of uniform to ask him for his ID. I wonder what he was thinking when he told me I could not enter the bus to give food and water to the 18 people on board. I wonder whether he regretted not allowing me to say a few simple words of encouragement, of testimony that not everyone in this country thinks it is right to detain them in prisons, and to deport them to some of the most dangerous cities in the world. I wonder what he was thinking about when he told us we would go to heaven for what we were doing -- or when we replied that we hoped we would all go to heaven. I wonder what those 18 migrants on the bus thought as they waved and smiled at us through the tinted windows. I hope they knew we considered them strong, and brave, and beautiful -- as equals, as brothers and sisters. It was hard to see them so -- through the tinted window waving and smiling. It was hard, but I also felt hope in their strength to smile and wave despite their situation, their courage, despite their coming future in prison for who knows how long. I could learn something from that.

Here is a New York Times article with more information about G4S and private prison companies in general worldwide:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/29/world/asia/getting-tough-on-immigrants-to-turn-a-profit.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha2

Here is a quote from the article about G4S: "In 2007, Western Australia’s Human Rights Commission found that G4S drivers had ignored the cries of detainees locked in a scorching van, leaving them so dehydrated that one drank his own urine. The company was ordered to pay $500,000 for inhumane treatment, but three of the five victims already had been deported. Immigration officials, relying on company misinformation, had dismissed their complaints without investigation, the commission found."

-Berit

Arivaca Community Garden

After milking the goats, Megan and I spent a few hours volunteering at the Arivaca community garden. We got free veggies and a big watermelon in exchange for harvesting tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant. I can’t say I thought this would be an event to write about, until the king showed up. Quite randomly (apparently because of security concerns about disclosing information about his visit earlier), a king from Nigeria showed up. He toured the garden, got some loving from Smatt’s dog (who had to be tied up for jumping on the kings leather shoes), and blessed the garden and all of the food. We were asked to take a picture. Megan had the honor of standing right next to him. So there we were, in our dirty garden clothes, standing with a king from Nigeria. Arivaca is a town of about 900 people, but from the stories you hear told and the people you meet on a day-to-day basis, it has the culture, and diversity of thought and experience of a large city!

Goat

One morning we got up early to go watch Smatt, our neighbor, milk goats. Megan had the lucky fortune of feeding one of them. Apparently she was a sickly goat, so she was raised inside a house as more of a pet that a farm animal. As a result, she is much more like a dog then a goat. The whole time all the other goats were being milked she was capering around as if we were fellow playmates. She has quite some strength for such a small little thing! We got some delicious goat cheese as a result of our outing.

Culture of Cruelty Report

For those of you who didn't hear about the Culture of Cruelty......

No More Deaths just released their report called, "A Culture of Cruelty." The report documents abuses suffered by migrants from U.S Border Patrol. There are more than 30,000 incidents of abuse documented in the last three years. If you have a chance, and agree that these abuses should stop, please sign the petition on the website: http://www.cultureofcruelty.org/

Once you are on the website, just click on the "take action" link and you can sign the petition.

All the abuse documentation and desert aid work I have done in Arizona through No More Deaths is represented in this report. Your signature will be sent directly to the Department of Homeland Security, with each signature putting more pressure on the Department to stop these abuses.

I've been in Arizona for less than two weeks and I've already seen a lot of the injustices represented in the report happening around me. If you have any questions about the situation, the report, or anything related to the border and southern Arizona, please be in touch.

Thanks so much,

Berit

Arivaca Lake Shrine

Megan and I hiked to the Arivaca Lake shrine. Yup, there are lakes in the Sonoran desert. Though I had been there before, with the tall grasses and lots of desert life that comes after the rains, it looked completely different than I remembered. I guess I thought of the desert as being fairly similar from one season to next compared to Minnesota. Not true. Winter and summer look entirely different out here.

The shrine we hiked to is one of the places No More Deaths leaves gallons of water, it is located on a migrant trail. The shrine has been and continues to be created by migrants as they pass through, a sacred place in the desert. It always amazes me that people bring heavy glass candles despite the rugged terrain and extremely difficult crossing conditions (people are often out for days without much food or water), and usually only bring a small backpack to transport their things.

The photographs show the shrine, water that No More Deaths has left, and a pair of pants. When hiking migrant trails there are constant reminders that people have been there in the clothing and belongings they have to leave behind (either because it becomes too much of a burden, or they leave it just before being picked up, among other reasons). There are also a couple photographs of the surrounding mountains and views we had while hiking.

Our Home in Arivaca, Arizona

First Night in the Sonoran Desert

All that needs to be said is arachnophobia. Those afraid of spiders should not reside in rural Arizona. When Megan and I arrived in our new home for the first evening, we were welcomed by two huge spiders….one of them a tarantula. It took way too many times for me to approach the small spider, but after quite a number of attempts we got it in a yogurt can with a piece of paper covering it to transport it outside. The next spider was more daunting. First of all it was huge. Definitely a tarantula. Secondly it was on the ceiling, much higher than we could reach. We came up with all kinds ideas of how to capture it. We thought of putting a sheet down on the floor and knocking it down, of leaving it, of trying to trap it with a big trash bin (credit goes to Madalyn for that one!), or standing on a chair with a broom and flinging it across the room. I think the darkness of the desert, being in a new home, as well as our tired bodies lead us to believe that the best option was to stand on a chair and hit the tarantula across the room where we could trap it. Megan was the cheering squad, which entailed her standing on a chair and screaming. I stood on a chair with a broom and flung the tarantula. I used a bit too much force and we heard a clunk. We proceeded to shuffle the chairs across the floor towards where we thought it had landed. We would move the chair a little bit and then hop back on top of it to look for the tarantula. Within a few minutes we were quite worked up, having no idea where it had landed. That’s when the miracle occurred. I saw the tarantula in an old plastic spinach container…..it had landed in the only open container, the only spot where we could easily trap it and bring it outside. Our enthusiasm was overpowering and we celebrated so much, that we almost forgot to cover the container. Luckily I think the tarantula was stunned, so we had time to cover the container with a pan and bring it outside. Of course, the lid came of when we were transporting it, so we both dropped it and ran inside. Our heart rates were up, and we were both sweating --- our exercise for the day. We slept well.

Also, for all of you that know anything about tarantulas, we found out that they are utterly harmless and need to be treated gently. I can testify to the fact that our tarantula survived a forceful fling some 15 feet, and still moved with ease. He survived and so did we. An exciting first night in the desert.